Bouveresse - Wittgenstein Reads Freud - Review

A debate continues to rage in French academic circles about psychoanalysis being a proper science of mind or merely a theoretical construct, a philosophical theory, another approach to viewing and interpreting the mind. 

Jacques Lacan, for example, has exalted psychoanalysis to the status of a "meta-science" affecting all of the humanities and claims that philosophy is in current need of psychoanalytic "science" to legitimize it as a relevant subject of the humanities.

Be that as it may. However, those somewhat acquainted with Wittgenstein's thought realize that he proposed that we are limited by language. Therefore, the so-called "scientist" must restrain their impulse to say more than they actually know.

Wittgenstein believed Freud to be an extraordinary individual, though, in a letter to Norman Malcolm, he wrote, "Of course, (he) is full of fishy thinking & his charm & the charm of his subject is so great that you may be easily fooled." Freud believed himself to be a biological determinist and argued that psychoanalysis was, in fact, authentic science and used persuasive and clever forms of reasoning to "prove" the existence, for example, of the unconscious. It is alleged predictable, measurable, and ultimately, mechanical processes.

Wittgenstein proposed that psychoanalysis does not have much to do with science but is another form of representation, though highly seductive.

I found this to be a well-translated and well-written essay analyzing the central issues in Freud's arguments and using Wittgenstein's scattered conversations about Freud to back the counterarguments. Bouveresse tackles the Reason and Cause arguments, the `Generalizing Impulse" in regards to justifying a theory, and Freud's method of dream interpretation, and shows it fails on many counts when analyzed against the rigors of falsification and verification.

Although Wittgenstein views the tenets of psychoanalysis as "a manner of speaking" and not good science, he maintains Freud's power of persuasion and the originality of his thought. In the end, however, psychoanalysis is about effectiveness, telling the analysand that such a thing is the "cause" of their particular malady and influencing them to accept that diagnosis. These "explanations" have a specific charm for the analysand, whether they're actually the case or not.

This exciting discussion on Freud's theories and Wittgenstein's arguments against them. As a result, I have a better understanding of Freud and Wittgenstein.