ABSTRACT
Compared with the richness of the clinical experience of psychoanalysis, the findings of researchers look very meagre. As some of the results of the requirements to make research possible end with an oversimplification of psychoanalytic knowledge, defended as a precondition of the path that would lead psychoanalysis to a science of proven facts, it is essential to preserve what is specific to the psychoanalytic endeavour. Research in psychoanalysis has formed part of the programme of scientific meetings. Many psychoanalysts, mainly in the United States, strongly adhere to the idea that psychoanalysis is a science. A vast inquiry on clinical facts and their conceptualization in psychoanalysis has offered the opportunity to become aware of the absence of agreement on some basic notions on which the major part of work stands. It seems unquestionable that psychoanalysis can benefit from research, as can any other discipline whose aim is to increase our knowledge.
