Against Wittgenstein’s Reading of Freudian Psychoanalytic Methodology

Year 2011, Issue: 16, 11 - 23, 15.04.2011

Benjamin Hutchens

Abstract

This paper is intended to examine the coherence and efficacy of Wittgenstein’s notorious dismissal of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. It will examine what Wittgenstein explicitly wrote (and said) about the psychoanalytic method, as well as what he might have written if he had read Freud more carefully and utilized his own most relevant notions from the middle and later periods of his work. It will propose that Wittgenstein’s critique of Freud lags behind his own developing views of hypotheses, evidence, the making of significant connections, and obedience to rules in language games. The author concludes that Wittgenstein’s critique of Freud is more interesting for its deficiencies than its ability to force improvements in psychoanalysis.

Keywords

Psychoanalytic Method, Hypothesis, Evidence, Obeying Rules, Significant Connections

References

• Freud, Sigmund. (1995) The Freud Reader. (Peter Gay, editor). New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1956) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. (G.H. von Wright et al., editors and G.E.M. Anscombe, trans.) New York: Macmillan.