title: What kind of discipline is psychoanalysis?
abstract: Current controversies involving clinical, conceptual and empirical research shed light on how psychoanalysis confronts its nature and its future. Some relevant debates in which Wallerstein, Green, Hoffman, Eagle and Wolitzky, Safran, Stern, Blass and Carmeli, and Panksepp have participated are examined regarding the characteristics of their argumentation. Agreements and disagreements are explored to find ways that could have allowed the discussion to progress. Two foci are highlighted in these debates: (a) whether a clinical common ground exists in psychoanalysis and what kind of procedure could contribute to further clarification; (b) complementation of in-clinical and extra-clinical evidence. Both aspects are scrutinized: the possibility of complementing diverse methodologies, and the nature of the shared clinical evidence examined in clinical discussion groups such as those promoted by the IPA Clinical Observation Committee. The importance of triangulation and consilience is brought to bear regarding their contribution to the robustness of psychoanalysis. So as to strengthen a critical perspective that enhances the discipline's argumentative field, psychoanalysis should take into account arguments from different sources according to their specific merits. By doing this, psychoanalysis increases its relevance within the current interdisciplinary dialogue.
authors.affiliation: Asociación Psicoanalítica del Uruguay (APU), Canelones 1571, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay. ric.e.bernardi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernardi
mesh_terms: D036262:Empirical Research; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory
keywords: comparative psychoanalysis; conceptual research; empirical research; epistemology; neuroscience