[Experiment in sense and behavior therapy. Critique of J. Wolpe and St. Rachman on S. Freud's study]

Abstract

In 1960 Wolpe and Rachman published a critique of psychoanalytic evidence based on Freud's case of Little Hans. No one has yet attempted to contest their argument. In a review of this classic critique it is shown that Wolpe and Rachman misrepresent and misunderstand central points of Freud's study. The alternative view of Hans' phobia which Wolpe and Rachman put up was already considered by Freud himself and rejected for good reasons. Some fundamental assumptions of behavior therapy and psychoanalysis are contrasted. The authors point out that psychologists have to develop their own philosophy of science.