EC Psychology And Psychiatry

The article presents the main ideas of the book by the famous psychologist David Rapaport, which has not been published in Russia, and the author’s comments on them. In this work, Rapaport acts simultaneously in three roles: as a psychoanalytic theorist, a historian of psychoanalysis, and a methodologist. Following Sigmund Freud, he considers psychoanalytic theory as a natural science, but, as the author shows, very inconsistently. Although Rapaport puts forward the implementation of the principles of mathematization, comprehensive determinism, and empirical verification as necessary conditions for constructing such a theory, he demonstrates that putting them into practice is very difficult, if not impossible. The behavioristic interpretation of psychoanalysis also encounters difficulties. Here, Freud’s division of mental processes into primary and secondary processes is an obstacle. While the former (drive/desire → satisfaction of desire) can still be interpreted closely to the behaviorist “stimulus → reaction” scheme, the latter (drive/desire → mediation → satisfaction of desire) have nothing in common with this scheme. The fact is that mediation, according to Freud, represents a search for the object of the drive and adherence to the reality principle, which presuppose the work of thinking, cognition, and personality; the latter are practically impossible to conceive within the logic of behaviorism. The author compares Rapaport’s work on constructing the theory of psychoanalysis with Freud’s understanding of theory, showing that these psychologists had different ideas about theory. Freud understood theory more as a set of concepts that serve practice; furthermore, these concepts were based on “psychotechnical schemes”. The latter defined the reality of the psyche as Freud understood it and made it possible to help patients, but they had nothing in common with natural scientific theory. In the final part of the article, the author outlines the structure of Freud’s discourse, which Rapaport partly follows. Working with the schematic constructions of the primary and secondary processes, Freud unfolds them into narratives and builds complex humanitarian and philosophical reasoning, obtaining new distinctions, which he then condenses into new theoretical constructions.

 Keywords: Psychoanalysis; Theory; Methodology; Reality; Psyche; Consciousness; Unconscious; Thinking; Practice; Resistance

1. David Rapaport. “The structure of psychoanalytic theory: A systematizing attempt: by David Rapaport”. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., (1960): 158.
2. Tyson F and Tyson R. “Psychoanalytic theories of development”. Yekaterinburg (1998).
3. Rozin VM. “Psychology of personality. history, methodological problems”. 2^nd Moscow: Yurayt (2018): 239.
4. Vygotsky LS. “The historical meaning of the crisis in psychology”. Collected Works: in 6 volumes. Moscow. Volume 1 (1982): 292-436.
5. Rozin VM. “Methodological problems of psychology”. 2^nd Moscow: Yurayt (2019): 358.
6. Jung C. “Memories, dreams, reflections”. Kiev: AirLand (1994): 405.
7. Rozin VM. “Introduction to schematology: schemes in philosophy, culture, science, design”. Moscow: LIBROKOM (2011): 256.
8. Freud Z. “Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis”. Moscow. Volumes 1, 2 (1923).
9. Hjelle L and Ziegler D. “Personality theories: basic assumptions, research, and applications”. Moscow - Kharkov - Minsk (1997): 608.
10. Freud Z. “The case history of Fraulein Elisabeth von R”. MPZh, No. 1 (1992).
11. Freud Z. “The Case History...”. MPZh, No. 2 (1992a).
12. Rozin VM. “The formation of psychoanalysis in the works of Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud”. Filosofskiye Nauki 12 (2006): 13-32.
13. Rozin VM. “One of the points of "outsidedness" in relation to modern psychology (Notes of a Methodologist)”. Mir Psikhologii 4 (2016): 42-54.