ABSTRACT
The Propositional Method to be described in this chapter is being presented as a way of generating another kind of evidence for the study of psychoanalytic concepts. The Method to be described is a procedure to highlight the key features of psychoanalytic concepts, through a reliance on clinical observations and clinical generalizations, and an effort to decrease metapsychological language and formulations. Psychoanalytic concepts, while they represent the core of the psychoanalytic method, nonetheless in their actual use are prone to a number of inherent vulnerabilities that ultimately interfere with and undermine the accrual of psychoanalytic knowledge. In the history of psychoanalysis and also in its usage psychoanalytic concepts have been inherently elastic. The Propositional Method, as pursued in this project, holds as a key tenet that psychoanalytic concepts be defined through the language of clinical propositions, as already stated, specifically, relying on descriptions of clinical observations and clinical generalizations.
