title: Can clinical psychoanalysis be scientific?
abstract: Criticism of psychoanalysis as a scientific discipline has increased recently. Even though psychoanalytic theory deserves ample criticism by the scientific community for its ambiguous definitions, deficient construct validity and precarious operationalization of its procedures, as long as there are clinical observables susceptible of recording, psychoanalysis remains in the realm of science. The scientific merit is reviewed of some psychoanalytic concepts such as repression, the unconscious, psychic structures, and intrapsychic conflict. The possibility of objectivity, prediction, and confirmation of hypotheses is discussed.
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012586:Science; D014167:Transference, Psychology; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology