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The denouement of metapsychology

The denouement of metapsychology Gordon E. Warme I once had a philosophy professor named Anderson who said everything twice, so we called him "Anderson-Anderson." We used to think of him as just a funny character, but I realize now that he said everything twice-twice because he was trying to drum some very important ideas into us. I remember particularly the day he lit into a student who was trying to prove that the world could be reduced to mathematical formulae. 'q-hose aren't numbers- numbers out there," Professor Anderson rumbled. 'q'hose are people-people. Those are people out there!" John David Stein 9 Such humanistic ideas remind me of my own concerns when I hear reference to disembodied egos, cathexes, objects, and other of our psycho- analytic theoretical terms. But humanistic concerns are not enough, and it now seems true that there is an intellectual tiger loose in our midst-a tiger that seems sure to disarrange our tidy metapsychology. In recent years there has been a rising chorus of voices arguing that our psychoanalytic metapsychology suffers from irremedial factual and logical defects and that it should now be dispensed with. 1,3,6,8 Although there has been protest against these critiques, the bulk of psychoanalytic writings has http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

The denouement of metapsychology

Warme, Gordon E.
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 41 (3): 11 – Sep 1, 1981
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References (14)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1981 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1007/BF01254713
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Gordon E. Warme I once had a philosophy professor named Anderson who said everything twice, so we called him "Anderson-Anderson." We used to think of him as just a funny character, but I realize now that he said everything twice-twice because he was trying to drum some very important ideas into us. I remember particularly the day he lit into a student who was trying to prove that the world could be reduced to mathematical formulae. 'q-hose aren't numbers- numbers out there," Professor Anderson rumbled. 'q'hose are people-people. Those are people out there!" John David Stein 9 Such humanistic ideas remind me of my own concerns when I hear reference to disembodied egos, cathexes, objects, and other of our psycho- analytic theoretical terms. But humanistic concerns are not enough, and it now seems true that there is an intellectual tiger loose in our midst-a tiger that seems sure to disarrange our tidy metapsychology. In recent years there has been a rising chorus of voices arguing that our psychoanalytic metapsychology suffers from irremedial factual and logical defects and that it should now be dispensed with. 1,3,6,8 Although there has been protest against these critiques, the bulk of psychoanalytic writings has

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Sep 1, 1981

Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis

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