title: Psychoanalysis and empirical research.
abstract: At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the idea of reason began to lose its universal and absolute value, undermining the view of science as a form of objective knowledge that reveals a fundamental reality. These changes have also had an impact on psychoanalysis, leading to a proliferation of theories and the end of a positivistic approach, epitomized by a 'neutral' analyst who knows the contents of the patient's mind. Hermeneutic philosophy provides a tool with which to explore both theoretical multiplicity and the contribution of the analyst's subjectivity to the analytic process. Furthermore, a hermeneutic approach does not have to be hostile to empirical science, but can be integrated with it in a 'scientific-hermeneutic model' in which historical and biological principles are given equal value.
authors.affiliation: CIPA (Italian Centre of Analytical Psychology), Rome, Italy. Masgiannoni@tin.it
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giannoni
mesh_terms: D019348:Empiricism; D006801:Humans; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*