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Hospers on Psychoanalysis: A Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Myron Brender
Myron Brender*
Affiliation:
V. A. Outpatient Clinic, Brooklyn, New York
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Abstract

At the Second Annual Meeting of the New York University Institute of Philosophy convened to consider the scientific status of psychoanalysis, Professor John Hospers was one of the few participating philosophers who undertook to defend the scientific status of psychoanalysis against the cogent criticisms of his fellow philosophers. In this paper I shall examine Hospers’ defense, “Philosophy and Psychoanalysis”, as it appears in the published proceedings of the meeting [12] and in the process of so doing I shall attempt to demonstrate that Hospers (a) misunderstood the critique of his opponents, (b) argued invalidly on several crucial issues and (c) neglected to take into account the possibility of alternative explanations.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1965 , pp. 73 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1965

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