Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T19:48:49.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Freud's ‘Tally’ Argument, Placebo Control Treatments, and the Evaluation of Psychotherapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John D. Greenwood
John D. Greenwood*
Affiliation:
Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, City University of New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper it is suggested that Freud's ‘tally argument’ (Grünbaum 1984) is not best interpreted as a risky claim concerning the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy, but as a risky claim concerning the implications of theoretical psychoanalytic explanations of the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy. Despite the fact that Freud never empirically established that these implications hold, the ‘tally argument’ does draw attention to a critical distinction that is too often neglected in contemporary empirical studies of psychoanalysis and other forms of psychotherapy: between empirical evaluations of the efficacy of psychotherapy and empirical evaluations of theoretical explanations of the efficacy of psychotherapy, and the different forms of comparative enquiry relevant to each. It is argued that the contemporary neglect of this critical distinction, in conjunction with the common negative conception of placebo control treatments in psychotherapy research, has led to the epistemic impoverishment of experimental studies of the various professional psychotherapies. In consequence, although there is good empirical evidence for the efficacy of psychoanalysis and other forms of professional psychotherapy, there is no good empirical evidence for theoretical psychoanalytic explanations of the efficacy of psychoanalysis, or for traditional theoretical explanations of the efficacy of other forms of professional psychotherapy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 605 - 621
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Thanks to Larry Laudan and the other participants in the 1995 NEH Summer Seminar on ‘The Concept of Evidence’ at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who contributed significantly to the development of the argument of this paper.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, CUNY, 138th Street and Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031.

References

Bergin, A. E. and Lambert, M. J. (1984), “The Evaluation of Therapeutic Outcomes”, in Garfield, S. L. and Bergin, A. E. (ed.), Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. 3rd edition. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bernstein, D. A. and Nietzel, M. T. (1977), “Demand Characteristics in Behavior Modification: The History of a ‘Nuisance’ “, in M. Hersen, R. M. Eisler, and P. M. Miller (ed.) Progress in Behavior Modification. vol. 4. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Borkovec, T. D. and Neu, S. D. (1977), “Credibility of Analog Therapy Rationales”, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 3: 257–260.10.1016/0005-7916(72)90045-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binns, P. (1990), “Experimental Evidence and Psychotherapy”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41: 531–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Critelli, J. W. and Neumann, K. F. (1984), “The Placebo: Conceptual Analysis of a Construct in Transition”, American Psychologist 39: 32–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denker, P. G. (1947), “Results of Treatment of Psychoneuroses by the General Practitioner: A Follow-up of 500 Cases”, Archives of Neurophysiology and Psychiatry 57: 504–505.Google Scholar
Erwin, E. (1993), “Philosophers on Freudianism”, in Earman, J. et al. (ed.) Philosophical Problems of the Internal and External Worlds: Essays on the Philosophy of Adolf Grünbaum. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. (1952), “The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation”, Journal of Consulting Psychology 16: 319–324.10.1037/h0063633CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, H. (1959) Uses and Abuses of Psychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. (1965) “The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation”, International Journal of Psychiatry 1: 99–142.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. (1984) “The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy: The Specter at the Feast”, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6: 290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenichel, O. (1930), Ten Years of the Berlin Psychoanalysis Institute, 1920–30.Google Scholar
Fenichel, O. (1945), The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Fisher, S. and Greenberg, R. P. (1977), The Scientific Credibility of Freud's Theory and Therapy. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Frank, J. D. (1974), “Psychotherapy: The Restoration of Moral”, American Journal of Psychotherapy 131: 271–274.Google Scholar
Frank, J. D. (1983), “The Placebo is Psychotherapy”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6: 291–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1909), “Analysis of a Phobia in a Nine-Year-Old Boy”, The Standard Edition [S.E.] of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, (1953–1974), Vol. 10. Edited by Strachey, J. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1915), “A Case of Paranoia Running Counter to the Psychoanalytic Theory of the Disease” S.E., Vol. 14.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1917), Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. S.E., Vol. 16.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1926), “Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety”, S.E., Vol. 20.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1933), “Revision of the Theory of Dreams”, S.E., Vol. 22.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1937), “Analysis Terminable and Interminable”, S.E., Vol. 23.Google Scholar
Glymour, C. (1980), Theory and Evidence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Grünbaum, A. (1983), “Retrospective versus Prospective Testing of Aetiological Hypotheses in Freudian Theory”, in J. Earman (ed.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol 10: Testing Scientific Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Grünbaum, A. (1984), The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Grünbaum, A. (1993), Validation in the Clinical Theory of Psychoanalysis. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Karlsruher, A. E. (1974), “The Non-professional as a Psychotherapeutic Agent”, American Journal of Community Psychology 2: 61–77.10.1007/BF00894155CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazdin, A. E. and Wilcoxon, L. A. (1976), “Systematic Desensitization and Non-specific Treatment Effects: A Methodological Evaluation”, Psychological Bulletin 5: 729–758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landis, C. A. (1937), “Statistical Evaluation of Therapeutic Methods”, in L. E. Hinnie(ed.), Concepts and Problems of Psychotherapy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Luborsky, L., Singer, R., and Luborsky, L. (1975), “Comparative Studies of Psychotherapies”, Archives of General Psychiatry 32: 995–1008.10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760260059004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGlynn, F. T. (1972), “Systematic Desensitization Under Two Conditions of Induced Expectancy”, Behavior Research and Therapy 10: 229–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGlynn, F. T. and McDonnell, R. M. (1974), “Subjective Ratings of Credibility Following Brief Exposure to Desensitization and Pseudotherapy “, Behavior Research and Therapy 12: 141–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malan, D. H. (1975), “Psychodynamic Changes in Untreated Neurotic Patients”, Archives of General Psychiatry 32: 110–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masson, J. M. (1984), The Assault On Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Mayo, D. G. (1991), “Novel Evidence and Severe Tests”, Philosophy of Science 58: 523–552.10.1086/289639CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orne, M. T. (1962), “On the Social Psychology of the Psychology Experiment: with Particular Reference to Demand Characteristics and their Implications”, American Psychologist 17: 776–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, K. (1963), Conjectures and Refutations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Prioleau, L., Murdock, M., and Brody, N. (1983), “An Analysis of Psychotherapy versus Placebo Studies”, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6: 275–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rachman, S. and Wilson, G. T. (1980), The Effects of Psychological Therapy. 2nd edition. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Richardson, R. (1990), “The ‘Tally Argument’ and the Validation of Psychoanalysis”, Philosophy of Science 57: 668–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, R. (1966), Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Rozenzweig, X. X. (1985) “Freud and Experimental Psychology: The Emergence of Idiodynamics”, in Koch, S. and Leary, D. (ed.) A Century of Psychology as Science. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Sachs, D, (1989), “In Fairness to Freud: A Critical Notice of the Foundations of Psychoanalysis by Adolf Grünbaum”, The Philosophical Review 98: 347–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, A. K. and Morris, L. A. (1984), “Placebo Effects in Medical and Psychological Therapies”, in Garfield, S. L. and Bergin, A. E. (ed.), Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. 3rd edition. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sloane, R. B., Cristol, A. H., Pepernik, M. C., and Staples, F. R. (1970), “Role Preparation and Expectation of Improvement in Therapy”, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 150: 18–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. L. and Glass, C. V. (1977), “Meta-analysis of Psychotherapy Outcome Studies”, American Psychologist 32: 752–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, M. L., Glass, C. V., and Miller, T. I. (1980), The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Storr, A. (1966) “The Concept of a Cure”, in Rycroft, C. (ed.), Psychoanalysis Observed. London: Constable Publications.Google Scholar
Vanden Bos, G., and Pino, C. (1980), “Research on the Outcome of Psychotherapy”, in Bos, G. Vanden. (ed.), Psychotherapy: Practice, Research, Policy. London: Sage.Google Scholar