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Physical and Psychic Energy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Robert K. Shope
Robert K. Shope*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

In order to assess the tenacity of psychoanalysts in continuing to use a concept of psychic energy, it is advisable to consider whether, as they sometimes claim, the concepts of energy, force, and work in psychoanalysis are akin to those in the natural sciences. Strong disanalogies suggest that the psychoanalytic concepts are quite different and used equivocally even within psychoanalysis. However, they may not be subject to the objections which certain critical psychoanalysts have raised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 1971 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

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