On understanding understanding: how we understand the meaning of the word "understanding"

Abstract

Psychoanalytic understanding in its status as a hermeneutic activity is different from other forms of understanding. It is distinct, for instance, from psychodynamic psychotherapy, which may be able to establish itself as an empirical science. Empirical science deals with rules and establishes facts, while hermeneutic science deals with meanings, which cover a wider area than facts. Meanings offer a different kind of explanation than facts offer. Psychodynamic psychotherapy can be differentiated from psychoanalysis on the basis of their being different forms of scientific activity. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is not a diminished or lesser form of psychoanalysis, inasmuch as it employs both interpretation and other therapeutic activities, while psychoanalysis is best seen as restricted to interpretation. The understanding that results from psychoanalysis is unique to psychoanalysis.

Keywords: empirical science; facts; hermeneutics; meaning; truth.