Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-fg9bn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-28T23:40:02.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Physical and Psychic Energy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Robert K. Shope
Robert K. Shope*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Information

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

[1] Arlow, J. A., “The Theory of Drives,” in Readings in Psychoanalytic Psychology (ed. Levitt, M.), Appleton-Centry-Crofts, New York, 1959, pp. 197–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Brenner, C., An Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis, Doubleday, New York, 1957.Google Scholar
[3] Colby, K., Energy and Structure in Psychoanalysis, Ronald, New York, 1955.Google Scholar
[4] Dahl, H., reporting panel on “Psychoanalytic Theory of the Instinctual Drives in Relation to Recent Developments,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. XVI, 1968, pp. 613–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Faraday, M., “On the Conservation of Force,” in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics, R. Taylor and W. Francis, London, 1859. Cited in Turner, J., The Methodology of James Clerk Maxwell. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 1953, pp. 158 ff.Google Scholar
[6] Freud, S., The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Hogarth and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London, 1954.Google Scholar
[7] Glover, E., Psycho-analysis, Staples, London, 1949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Holt, R. R., “Beyond Vitalism and Mechanism: Freud's Concept of Psychic Energy,” in Historical Roots of Contemporary Psychology (ed. Wolman, B. B.), Harper and Row, New York, 1968, pp. 196–226.Google Scholar
[9] Kardiner, A., Karush, A., and Ovesey, L., “A Methodological Study of Freudian Theory,”. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, vol. CXXIX, 1959, pp. 1–10, 133-143, 207-221.Google Scholar
[10] Kubie, L., “The Fallacious Use of Quantitative Concepts in Dynamic Psychology,” Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. XVI, 1947, pp. 507–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11] Kubie, L., “The Fundamental Nature of the Distinction between Normality and Neurosis,” Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. XXIII, 1954, pp. 167–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Malmquist, C. P., “Problems of Methodology and Theory Construction in Psychoanalysis,” Psychoanalytic Review, vol. L, 1963, pp. 3–23.Google Scholar
[13] Maxwell, J. C., An Elementary Treatise on Electricity, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1881.Google Scholar
[14] Maxwell, J. C., Scientific Papers, vols. I, II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1890.Google Scholar
[15] Maxwell, J. C., A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, vols., I, II, Dover, New York, 1954.Google Scholar
[16] Modell, A. H., reporting panel on “The Concept of Psychic Energy,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. XI, 1963, pp. 605–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[17] Nagel, E. The Structure of Science, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[18] Ostow, M., “The Clinical Estimation of Ego Libido Content,” International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, vol. XLII, 1961, pp. 486–496.Google Scholar
[19] Ostow, M. Drugs in Psychotherapy, Basic Books, New York, 1962.Google Scholar
[20] Peterfreund, E., in collaboration with Schwartz, J. T., Information, Systems and Psychoanalysis. (forthcoming in Psychological Issues).Google Scholar
[21] Rapaport, D., “On the Psychoanalytic Theory of Motivation,” in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation I960 (ed. Jones, M. R.), University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1960, pp. 173–247.Google Scholar
[22] Rapaport, D., The Structure of Psychoanalytic Theory; a Systematizing Attempt, International Universities, New York, 1960 (Psychological Issues, #6).Google Scholar
[23] Rubinstein, B. B., “Explanation and Mere Description: A Metascientific Examination of Certain Aspects of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Motivation,” in Motives and Thought: Psychoanalytic Essays in Memory of David Rapaport (ed. Holt, R. R.), International Universities, New York, 1967 (Psychological Issues, #18/19), pp. 18–77.Google Scholar
[24] Shope, R., “Dispositional Treatment of Psychoanalytic Motivational Terms,” Journal of Philosophy, vol. LXVII, 1970, pp. 195–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[25] Shope, R., “The Psychoanalytic Theories of Wish-Fulfilment and Meaning,” Inquiry, vol. X, 1967, pp. 421–438.Google Scholar
[26] Theobald, D. W., The Concept of Energy, E. and F. N. Spon, London, 1966.Google Scholar