Freud on the value of verification experiments

In a letter written in 1934 to the American psychologist Saul Rosenzweig Freud reacts to the suggestion to perform experimental test of psychoanalytic assertions with some polite words but then continues:

"The wealth of dependable observations on which these assertions rest make them independent of experimental verification. Still, they can do no harm"

The "wealth of dependable observations" refers to the large amount of clinical data assembled during Freud's career as a practicing psycho-analyst. Most of these data suffer from the fact that the patients were exposed to the whole range of environmental stimulants, which makes it very difficult to isolate basic processes.

From the point of view of psycho-analytical practice there is of course no other way to treat patients but to take them as they present themselves. From the point of view of science Freud's "dependable observations" run counter to the scientific principle to start from the simple situation and move to more complicated cases once the simpler ones are understood.

Reference

The letter has been quoted frequently in the literature, for example in Gay, P. (19485) Freud for Historians. Oxford University Press, New York.

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