Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 26, 2026

Perspectives on Neuroscience
Published on: July 31, 2007
The meaning of a metapsychology as an instrument for "explaining"
1University of Brescia. antonio@imbasciati.it
Abstract:
The author points out how some psychoanalytical concepts that were considered as fundamental and unchangeable are actually changing. Child Psychoanalysis with its "infant psychoanalysis" (babies and parents) and other psychological sciences have contributed to this development. Nevertheless, many psychoanalysts have not taken this new knowledge into account. The author ascribes it to the lack of an epistemological distinction between "describing" (facts) and "explaining" (hypotheses), that is, between what are known as discoveries in psychoanalysis and what are theories instead. No theory can be a discovery but rather a hypothetical conceptual instrument trying to explain discoveries. Freud's Metapsychology is a hypothetical instrument which needs to be changed today, since the progress of psychoanalysis and other sciences allows for better instruments. The author wishes for studies which may outline other explicit metapsychologies that may better explicate what is being observed.
Related Concept Videos
Defining Psychology
Psychology as a Science
The scientific method in psychology involves six critical steps: making observations, formulating hypotheses, conducting tests, analyzing...
Metacognition
The Scientific Method
The Scientific Method
Generally, predictions are tested using carefully-designed experiments. Based on the outcome of these...
Structuralism
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He employed introspection, a method...
