Can we treat Psychoanalysis as a Science? and Red 259

On Monday we had a further session around Philosophy and Psychoanalysis - and the theme that was under the microscope was (I believe) Can Psychoanalysis be treated as a science?

Following on from Garfinkel's experiment  (that could be considered an attack on some potential Charlatans) we looked at how  much the subject of analysis brings to the party.

Pigeons -what do they know?

 What I liked was that we were at least asking the question in my mind those who practice Psychoanalysis do treat it as a science but many of those who are in what we could label traditional science  are far more sceptical.

it was good to hear of some associated literature and figures yesterday- these included Chalmers (AJ) and his book What is this thing called science  along with Peter Winch's 1958  work The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy.

Mention was also made of Karl Popper (he popularised the idea about Black Swans)  - one of Popper's quotable statements was that In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality - which seemed to hit the nail on the head for yesterday's discussion.

With limits on what has to now been used to build up the cannon of the subject there is a rich thread of individualism to many practices and there has been at times something close to idolatry around Freud (we're due to look at Jung who offers a somewhat different approach soon) - Freud's goal to make the unconscious conscious can sound dangerously simplistic and my personal view would be that the last 100 years of discovery may mean that some of the skills practiced might now look a little like Shamanism - but I'm sure I've much to be introduced too in the remaining weeks.

[I have some separate issues about the human need to provide categorisation and narration where sometimes that which is on offer is something of a poor fit and the fit is only made in hindsight .]

Red 259

Another woman in predominantly red

A visitor to the Whitechapel Gallery

Back at the coal face of Psychoanalysis and Red 273

Last week circumstances meant that there was no Philosophy and Psychoanalysis class for me  but yesterday the congregation assembled in Room 115 at CityLit once more to continue the project.

A Profession yes, but a Science?

Numbers on the course are holding up well we still have more than 20 participants as result of a late night duty on Sunday my concentration did slip but it's notable that particular dynamics of previous coursers are appearing - Scott as always manages the 'learning' with aplomb.

I'm undecided on how much investment I should make into the  credence  of the subject as a satisfactory science and wonder if there is an element of snake oil salesmanship about Freud but he's undoubtedly a major figure in removing some of the taboos associated with sex and the 19th century.

All will become clear?

I will say that the reading provided around Freud (and by him) is far more accessible than the previous materials from the philosophy side , what I  have taken from the materials so far is that the idea of infant sexuality can be used to explain some developmental issues and that I need to look at my dreams (although I do not need to inflict them on others).

Yesterday we took a brief look at Dreams and this from Psychology Today gives an idea on how Psychology views dreams but  a far wider  and more catholic (but still brief) trawl of the subject is available at Wikipedia (where else?)

The person who was sufficiently fascinating to open up the idea of finding out more on the subject for me, Melanie Klein  still is hovering in the distance to be looked at in later sessions.

As with previous investigations the significance of the players and their own particular histories is I'm sure significant as was the environment of turn of the century Vienna and the events following the World Wars. Analysis of the players could be illuminating - Klein for example had issues with her own parenting and clearly wished to shine in her fathers eyes.

Hovering over the group (or me anyway) is how deeply we/I might wish to go in discovering more of what we repress and avoid by the techniques that are being revealed.

Another issue that intrigues is how much we need to revisit the 'discoveries' made  in light of modern science I hope we shall discover.

Red 273

local greengrocer showing these, not sure if they're as hot as they look

Are they fiery?