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ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure of explanation in Freudian psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis contains some fundamental psychoanalytic and philosophical principles – for example, determinism, the laws governing psychic energy, and the differentiation of the mind into id, ego, and super-ego – that are involved in explanations of psychoanalytic phenomena. However, psychoanalysis also explains phenomena by demonstrating how they are generated by underlying psychodynamic mechanisms. For example, repression is an explanatory model that describes the psychodynamic mechanism whereby unpleasant memories and thoughts are blocked from entering consciousness. It is not clear what is the relation between the fundamental principles and the mechanistic models. It is argued that in Freudian psychoanalysis the fundamental principles are used as tools and guidelines to construct explanatory mechanistic models of psychoanalytic phenomena. This account of Freudian psychoanalysis’ explanatory structure is based on theories of scientific models and explanation that are currently being discussed in philosophy of science.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Freud gave a succinct and sophisticated argument for the existence of unconscious mental states in his article The Unconscious (Freud, Citation1915).
2. The explanandum phenomenon is the phenomenon we intend to explain.
3. Giere’s account of models is akin to Nancy Cartwright (Citation1999) and Margaret Morrison (Citation1999).
4. Cf. Glennan (Citation2010) and Currie (Citation2014) for two different accounts regarding narrative explanations and mechanisms.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ståle Gundersen
Ståle Gundersen is associate professor in philosophy at The University of stavanger and has published articles on philosophy of science and philosophy of mind.