Woops...I used ambiguous phrasing

Jane, since you concluded that I believe psychoanalysis to be incorrect, I went back to see what I had written that could have led you to that conclusion. I found it.

I wrote:

"So, the most succinct thing I can say is that I do not consider "psychoanalyis" to be correct as you summarily put it."

My statement could mean two different things:

1. My statement could mean that I believe psychoanalysis to be incorrect (which it the meaning you read). This is not, however, the meaning I intended even though it is a perfectly correct meaning for you to have derived from what I wrote.

2. My statement could also mean that I have no belief about the correctness of psychoanalysis (i.e., I do not consider the matter of the correctness of psychoanalysis). This second meaning is the one I intended, but my intentied meaning was certainly not presented unambiguously--until now.

I suspect that some parts of some psychoanaytic theories may be correct, but I am ultimately agnostic in the matter. I do believe, however, that some parts of some psychoanalytic theories and techniques are useful, as I think I made clear in the above posting.

Sorry about my ambiguous statement.

As to belief in the unconscious mind and unconscious thinking, I am actually an insistent believer. In fact I consider unconscious mental activity to be virutually self-evident. However, I don't think that psychoanalytic theories have the most accurate interpreations of the mechanisms of unconscious mental processes.

Replies:

There are no replies to this message.

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.