A Critical Notice Of The Foundations Of Psychoanalysis By Adolf Griinbaum.pdf

panions Online ? Cambridge University Press, 2006DAVID SACHS13 In fairness to Freud: A criticalnotice of The Foundations ofPsychoanalysis, byAdolf GriinbaumAdolf Griinbaum's provocative book, The Foundations of Psycho-analysis,1 was quickly accorded an impressive reception. His earliercritical pieces on the subject caused a stir among their audiences,audiences that included philosophers, psychoanalysts, and otherinterested persons. As was expected, some of the pieces were incor-porated in the book; indeed, because of them, its appearance hadbeen anticipated with feelings that ranged from glee to of those extreme feelings, however, has obtruded on therespectful tone of most of the book's wide notice. There are severalreasons for that tone. Among them is Griinbaum's familiarity withimportant phases of Freud's work, especially those leading up tothe public inception of psychoanalysis at the beginning of the cen-tury. Griinbaum's book also displays an acquaintance with a vari-ety of Freud's later writings and with post-Freudian psychoanalyticdevelopments. In addition it furnishes pendium of the criti-cisms Freud's thought has evoked. Also, for interesting but dispro-portionate measure, a third of the book indicts hermeneutic con-struals of Freud, notably those of Habermas and Ricoeur. Finally,but surely not least, Griinbaum brings to those topics and relatedones a rare discursive and polemical visible signs of the impact of Griinbaum's writings aboutpsychoanalysis include the following. In 1984, when his book ap-peared, there also came out, as if to pany it, a volume by awell-known psychiatrist (see note 12 of this essay) that answerssome of the charges against analytic therapy that Griinbaum statedEditors of The Philosophical Review and my colleague, Jerome Schneewind, madesalutary suggestions. I am grateful to them and to William Taschek for his encourage-ment and Online ? Cambridge University Press, panions Online ? Ca