Eliminating the Unconscious

Eliminating the Unconscious, A Behaviourist View of Psycho-analysis describes the concepts of psycho-analysis in terms of an appropriate understanding in defining psycho-analytic findings. This book attempts to bridge the gap separating psycho-analysis from other areas of psychology because of the presence of conflicting views of psycho-analysis and psychology. The scope is to present that, in principle, the psycho-analytic situation also allows for rational study, with the aim of reformulating some traditional psycho-analytic beliefs into behaviorist concepts. The author then proceeds to compare psycho-analysis and the scientific method, and then evaluates mental and physical illness in new terms. The author also negates the existence of the ''unconscious,'' but as something called ''facon de parler,'' which would make the study of psycho-analysis manageable. The book goes on to describe unconscious mental processes, the ego, super-ego, and id. The text discusses that unconscious mental processes, such as repression, regression, projection, identification, scapegoating, and overcompensation, are really about behavior. The author also takes to task the behaviorist account of psycho-analytic hypothesis of unconscious symbolism, asserting that if such accounts are assumed as true, it can lead to commitments of ''differential predictions.'' The author concludes that in discussing psycho-analysis, talk of traditional philosophical dualism and the like should be avoided. Psychiatrists, psycho-analysts, psychologists, behavioral scientists, and students of psychology and its related branches will find this book unique.