On applying psychoanalytic explanation in phenomenological research

Abstract

In this paper I propose to examine the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenological research which is plagued with the same methodological problems that confronted psychoanalysis at the turn of the century. Some general criticisms levelled at both phenomenological and psychoanalytic research, by philosophers of science, point to: the absence of falsifiable hypotheses; the absence of measurable and observable data; and the absence of an explanatory general theory upon which the study of consciousness may be grounded. The primary task of the present analysis is to articulate the structural similarities that obtain between psychoanalysis and phenomenology in the expectation that the rules of evidence governing psychoanalytic research may also apply in the government of phenomenological research. Finally, I shall offer some procedural suggestions phenomenologists might care to consider. © 1991.