Exemption of science, neutrality of psychoanalysis

Abstract

This article discusses the relations between psychoanalysis and science, with special attention on their investigation and working methods. For that, we take as object the notion of neutrality, as we can apprehend on the psychoanalytical clinics, to confront it with what we’ll call exemption on science’s field, that doesn’t mean other than the neutrality proposed there. We’ll see that, despite the clear heritage of the psychoanalytical notion to the one from science, the clinical neutrality of psychoanalysis takes another route, one that can be even opposed to the sense of the term in science. While in science the term means a process of purification and selection, in psychoanalysis it arises as a requirement of nothing select.

Psychoanalysis; Science; Neutrality; Method