Science, Systems and Psychoanalysis

291 Pages·1992·7.424 MB·English

by  Robert Langs

ROBERT L A N GS

SCIENCE, SYSTEMS,

AND

PSYCHOANALYSIS

KARNAC BOOKS
SCIENCE, SYSTEMS,

AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
Robert Langs
SCIENCE, SYSTEMS,

AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

Robert Langs
Foreword by
W. W. Meissner
Introduction by
Karl H. Pribram
Karnac Books

1992
London New York
First published in 1992 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118 Finchley Road,
London NW3 5HT
Distributed in the United States of America by
Brunner/Mazel, Inc.
19 Union Square West
New York, NY 10003
Copyright © 1992 by Robert Langs
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
in any form, by any process or technique,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
Langs, Robert
Science, Systems, and Psychoanalysis
I. Title
150.19
ISBN 978 1 85575 036 4
Printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
To Anthony Badalamenti PhJD.,
f
whose creative devotion to the research
on which this book isfowided
has inspired and shaped the struggles and thinking
that have given this work its ultimateform.
ROBERT LANGS, M.D. is a classically trained psychoanalyst, en­
gaged once again in clinical practice, and in teaching and
psychotherapy research. He is the author of 30 books and 70
papers on the nature of unconscious communication and the
psychotherapeutic process—and related topics. He is the Execu­
tive Director of the Psychoanalytic Center for Communicative
Education in New York City, and Visiting Clinical Investigator
at The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in
Orangeburg, New York. He is also Visiting Clinical Professor of
Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York
City.
CONTENTS

PREFACE
FOREWORD W. W. Meissner
INTRODUCTION Karl H. Pribram
PART ONE
Observation, theory, and practice
in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
1. The call for a science of psychoanalysis
2. Two psychoscopes
PART TWO
Systems and subsystems in psychoanalysis
3. A systems theory for psychoanalysis
Viii CONTENTS
4. The systems of the mind 123
5. System overload 153
PART THREE
Psychoanalysis and science
6. Psychoanalysis as an Aristotelian science 171
7 . Clinical implications of an interactional science
of psychoanalysis 207
THE WORKS OF ROBERT LANGS 243
REFERENCES 246
INDEX 255
PREFACE
T
his book has been written for a broad audience. It is
addressed to anyone who is at all concerned with a sci­
entific grounding for the art of psychotherapy and psy­
choanalysis, and for the understanding of the human mind and
its outputs via emotionally charged communication. These com­
pelling issues deserve the serious attention of mental health
professionals of all persuasions, as well as a wide range of non­
professionals—anyone who gives thought to the intricacies of
the human condition.
Our grasp of the nature of emotional life and of the workings
of the many forms of psychotherapy designed to ameliorate
emotional dysfunctions has blossomed yet languished during
the hundred years since Sigmund Freud established the mental
domain as a subject for scientific investigation. With this as its
heritage, psychoanalysis, broadly defined, has been the form of
therapy that has served as the main arena for the struggle to
achieve a science for the full spectrum of treatment modalities
and their theories. It is for this reason that this book unfolds
around issues related to psychoanalysis, even though its sub­
ix