[Psychoanalytic data collection and the problem of dates--a contribution to the basic problem in psychoanalysis].
My thesis is that the specifically psychoanalytic form of data collection is unsuitable for checking at least two groups of hypotheses in psychoanalysis, namely neurosis aetiology and developmental psychology. The reason lies in the problem of reconstructing dates. In the psychoanalytic literature there are a number of arguments for the reconstruction of dates ( retrodating ). These arguments are critically examined and rejected. In the final part, I discuss an alternative approach, psychoanalytic child observation, and its advantages and problems.
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