Psychoanalysis and Humanism

Early discussions of the relationship between theology and psychoanalysis tended to pose the issue as an encounter between two world views or metaphysics. More recently the discussion has been couched in hermeneutical terms, as a “conflict of interpretations. ” I propose to argue that the shift toward hermeneutics invites a further shift, a viewing of the discussion against the background of transcendental philosophy. To prepare the grounds for this arguement, a first section proposes a heuristic typology. The conventional stand-off between Freudian psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology may be illumined by inserting a third type, existential psychology. Examination of this mediating type brings to light a tension which informs the entire range of options: the tension between a phenomenological concern and a critical concern. These concerns must be contrasted, in turn, with a strict phenomenological method and with a postulated critical method. It is in order to interpret the issues generated by these contrasting concerns and by the contrast between the concerns and the method, that recourse is made in a second section to the transcendental background. Five options within the general psychological field are examined seriatim. The difference between humanistic psychology and phenomenology may be interpreted as a debate over how to appropriate Kant's Copernican revolution. Phenomenology and existentialism differ on the Hegelian issue of truth and mediation. The Frankfurt School of critical theory extends this latter debate and thus it too places itself within the common realm of transcendental discourse. Finally, Freudian psychoanalysis, which clearly stands outside the transcendental realm, nevertheless replicates an analogous debate within itself, in its own distinctive terms. Thus a recognition of the abiding issues inherited from transcendental philosophy is important for any theology which would assess the limitations and the interdependences of the various psychological options. The discussion further suggests that the transcendental context is finally more comprehensive than the present hermeneutical context in that the transcendental setting more adequately grounds that aspect of matters which is most commonly obscured, namely the critical moment Particular reference is made to the thought of Paul Ricoeur.

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