The science of intentions and the intentions of science

Abstract

Psychoanalysis is a special kind of science that needs to discover its systematic and scientific foundations on the grounds of its own being – the study of subjective life. In this essay, I describe how psychoanalysis is a ‘science of intentions’ and show how it can help us clarify the ‘intentions of science’ as we face a massive contemporary illusion: that we can understand our suffering through some version of biological determinism. Our methods of inquiry and our concerns and goals in psychoanalysis explicitly contrast with the assumptions and forms of investigation in biology, neuroscience, and physics. We cannot ground our work in studies of organic processes because we cannot ask or answer our questions through them.