'Heads, I show we should be more skeptical of psychoanalytic theory, it’s all unempirical

tails, I show the work of those who address these fundamental questions is just confirmation bias”

People in psychotherapy often quote (glibly?) Winnicott’s claim “It’s a joy to be hidden and a disaster not be found” to try to make the point that being in hiding, not having your emotions seen, is a tragedy. And although that is a tragedy, it is very much the opposite of

in confirmation bias such that they couldn’t or wouldn’t show the most basic assumptions, without which there would be no validity to psychoanalysis of any sort, to be wrong?

so. Of course, there is some obvious evidence here, eg the ACES study. But there is no one piece of evidence but many studies. Again, the question is why are we assuming that those who look at the evidence in psychoanalysis, but not social psych or physics, are MORE caught up

In psychoanalysis, I would say Jonathan Shedler and Mark Solms others have looked at some of these fundamental questions. And had there been no reason to believe that childhood development effected psychological problems or that talking could help problems, they would have said

Gratification v frustration is an important topic in therapy. I could speak at (extremely) great length on this topic, but one analogy I sometimes use is helping a young child who is learning to tie their shoelaces. If one immediately swoops in to tie a child's shoes, they do

Notable Links & Miscellanea - April 20, 2024

Conceptual competence, psychoanalysis, origins of neurodiversity, and more

psychiatrymargins.com/p/notable-link…