Psychoanalytic Research: Personal Reflections

In this paper I reflect on and argue for the importance for our profession of the issues I address in the book I wrote on clinical research, Research on the Couch: Subjectivity, Single Case Studies and Psychoanalytic Knowledge. Psychoanalytic theories, often dismissed when first proposed, have been subjected to more serious critical attack for several decades, and thoughtful responses need to be given. This paper summarizes some of my thinking (and that of others) around two issues which constrain the parameters of psychoanalytic research and on which some believe psychoanalytic research has foundered. The first is the problem of subjectivity in contrast to the bedrock of objectivity in the natural sciences; and the second is the inappropriateness of large sample research (as used by many experimental psychologists) for the task of investigating the nature and effectiveness of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysts have to rely instead on single cases. Brief accounts are given here of research paradigms appropriate to the investigation and validation of psychoanalytic theory and practice.