Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939, Psychoanalysis--Philosophy, Psychoanalytic Theory 

This study is a philosophical critique of the foundations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. As such, it also takes cognizance of his claim that psychoanalysis has the credentials of a natural science. It shows that the reasoning on which Freud rested the major hypotheses of his edifice was fundamentally flawed, even if the probity of the clinical observations he adduced were not in question. Moreover, far from deserving to be taken at face value, clinical data from the psychoanalytic treatment setting are themselves epistemically quite suspect. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Editorial Reviews From the Inside Flap "With this book Adolf Grunbaum has established himself as the most important philosophical critic of the hermeneutic conception not only of psychoanalysis but also of the social sciences, most especially sociology and anthropology. His criticism of the logical and methodological foundations of this style of research and theorizing is masterful and, in my view, definitive." About the Author Adolf Grünbaum (born May 15, 1923, Cologne, Germany) is a philosopher of science and a critic of psychoanalysis. He is also well known as a critic of Karl Popper's philosophy of science.