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Psychoanalysis--A Theory in Crisis

Marshall Edelson identifies the core theory of psychoanalysis and shows how free association and the case study method can provide rational grounds for believing its clinical inferences about the causal role of unconscious sexual fantasies. "Dr. Edelson has committed himself with gusto, persistence and intelligence [to] a spirited defense of psychoanalysis as science—not necessarily as it is, but as it can be in the best of hands as it should be. . . . It is a defense that I hope can resonate strongly in psychoanalytic ranks. It is also a message that I hope would receive a warm reception in that wider intellectual world where ideas matter and where enlightened social policy and cultural cachet are fostered."—Robert Wallerstein, New York Times Book Review

428 pages | 6.00 x 9.00 | © 1988

Philosophy of Science

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Core Theory and Case Study in Psychoanalysis
Part 1 - The Core Theory of Psychoanalysis
1. Psychic Reality
2. Language and Dreams
3. Psychoanalysis and Other Scientific Disciplines
4. Psychoanalytic Interpretation
5. Anxiety
6. Psychoanalytic Theory
7. Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience
8. Applied Psychoanalysis
9. Imagination, Fantasy, and Defense
10. Psychoanalytic Contributions to a Theory of Sexuality
Part 2 - The Case Study Method in Psychoanalysis
11. The Hermeneutic Turn and the Single Case Study in Psychoanalysis
12. The Evidential Value of the Psychoanalyst’s Clinical Data
13. Causal Explanation in Science and in Psychoanalysis: Implications for Writing a Case Study
14. Some Reflections on Responses to Adolf Grunbaum’s Critique of the Empirical Foundations of Psychoanalysis
15. Rational Grounds for Believing Clinical Inferences in Psychoanalysis
Bibliography
Index

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