CONNECTIONIST FOUNDATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALY SIS

It has been claimed that psychoanalysis cannot be given a scientific f oundation and that psychoanalysis is therefore untenable. One response that has been given to this claim is that psychoanalysis does not req uire a scientific foundation, that it is an autonomous enterprise from the enterprise of science. In this paper, I argue that psychoanalysis indeed requires a scientific foundation, and I offer a sketch of how connectionism might hold promise of yielding a new ,,metapsychological '' theory that could vindicate psychoanalytic clinical theory.