A Forlorn Hope: Psychoanalysis in Search of Scientific Respectability Review of The Evolution of the Emotion Processing

1. The Future of Psychoanalysis Robert Langs sets himself a difficult task in attempting "a hierarchical theory of psychoanalysis to render it as complete a theory of the emotional domain as presently possible " (p. 47). He knows the criticisms that have been leveled at psychoanalysis, and he separates himself from other apologists for the theory. He is forthright in acknowledging that psychoanalysis up to now has been unfalsifiable and is sharply critical of Freud and subsequent psychoanalytic theorists in failing to take seriously the lessons of evolutionary science. Langs stays true to Freud's view of his theory as a scientific one and does not embrace the move towards hermeneutics taken by many other contemporary psychoanalytic theorists. The task before him is to reform psychoanalysis into a scientifically respectable theory by incorporating the viewpoints of "formal science, systems theory, and psychoanatomy " as it says on the book jacket. The fundamental methodological point that drives this book is that "psychoanalysis cannot advance hypotheses inconsistent with the fundamentals of evolutionary theory." For many philosophers and psychologists the first question that may come to mind whe