Abstract

ROTSTEIN, Eduardo. The Role of Metapsychology in Psychoanalysis. Psicol. pesq. [online]. 2012, vol.6, n.1, pp. 29-39. ISSN 1982-1247.

On one hand, Freud holds that Psychoanalysis proceeds exclusively from empirical experience. On the other hand, he recognizes that Psychoanalysis contains some degree of speculation. This apparent contradiction evokes the main question of this paper: what is the role of Metapsychology - Freud s speculative theory - in Psychoanalysis? The claim of Psychoanalysis empirical provenance loses its strength mainly in regards to the influence that the hegemonic thinking at Freud s time had over its epistemological discourse. Conversely, the examination of Metapsychology and its relation to Metaphysics reinforces the hypothesis that Metapsychology is indispensable to the practice of Psychoanalysis. Indeed, it seems that the metapsychological theory is based on the assumption of the existence of the unconscious, which is empirically unverifiable and precisely the subject of analytical investigation and practice. However, the speculative character of the unconscious doesn t deny the linkage of psychoanalysis to experience, since it is the assumption of the unconscious that forms the guiding principle and enables the phenomena verified in the course of analytic practice.

Keywords : Psychoanalysis; metapsychology; unconscious; speculation.

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