Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Problems in Dynamic Psychology: A Critique of Psychoanalysis, and Suggested Formulations
The question as to what this system really is has become each year more pressing, while a number of factors have contributed to obscure the problem. Four of them are important. The first is that psy choanalysis has never been formally taught but has been learned in the main by independent observa tions of men originally inspired by the scattered and unconnected writings of Freud and his immediate followers. Each of these workers has tended to give his own meaning to the terms in common use and often to invent new ones. The second factor is of still greater importance from a scientific standpoint. In any single analysis observation is not made of mental reactions occurring with complete spontane ity in the patient examined but is most often of reactions definitely stimulated by the observer him self. The subjective factor - the personal equation -has, therefore, to be considered as an element in the results obtained to a degree that is not met in other kinds of scientific enquiry. The third difiiculty belongs more properly to the material than to the method. Theoretically, psychoanalysis aims at an investigation of the patient's entire life, a task which is practically impossible of completion. Con sequently the analyst must make a selection, and this is apt to be made on a basis of personal bias.
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