ABSTRACT
A title concerning the experimental study of Freudian concepts immediately raises certain questions in the minds of most readers, which require an answer. Is the nature of Freudian theories such that they can with advantage be considered scientific? Are they sufficiently clear-cut to permit testable deductions? Even if deductions can be made from Freudian theories, is it in fact possible to falsify these deductions? Granting the possibility of such falsification, can this be done by means of experimental studies properly so called, or are we reduced to observational studies and single case histories? What in fact is the scientific status of Freudian theories, and of psychoanalysis in general? These are some of the questions which have in the past been raised by many people, psychologists, philosophers, medical men, psychiatrists, and not least psychoanalysts themselves. We cannot pretend to know the answers to all of these questions, but we can at least suggest certain approaches which may turn out to be useful, and we can quote and discuss what others, possibly better equipped than ourselves, have had to say in this connection.
