FREUD – The Psychoanalysis of Knowledge and the Unease of Science

• Autor(a) principal: Covarrubias Cárdenas, Juan
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Comunicações
• Texto Completo: https://www.metodista.br/revistas/revistas-unimep/index.php/comunicacoes/article/view/241
• topic: Epistemología1; psicoanálisis2; cultura3; ciencia4; bipolaridad del sujeto5; epistemology, psychoanalysis, culture, science, bipolarity of the individual subject

Not few philosophers of science have questioned the scientific status of psychoanalysis. In this paper I’m going to do an inverse process, which means I am going to scrutinize science from the perspective of psychoanalysis. My main source of information is an essay written by Sigmund Freud called Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood. Due to the analogy between the evolution of the individual psyche (ontogeny) and the history of human culture (phylogeny), it is methodologically possible to extend Freud’s conclusions on Da Vinci’s childhood history not only to the relationship between the subconscious and the conscious but also to the relationship between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. This bipolarity of the individual subject and the culture limits the validity of knowledge and reason. Reason is invaded by the subconscious’s non-reason. As a consequence, modern science – being the most genuine expression of reason – cannot elude the instinctive dimension of the individual subject and culture. Given the fact that it is operated by the principle of reality, science is a vector of the cultural neurosis diagnosed by Freud. It produces a growing tension between life and the purposes of civilization.