EMPIRICAL EVALUATIONS OF THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS OF PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC EFFICACY - A REPLY TO GREENWOOD,JOHN,D

Using Grunbaum 1984 and 1993 as a springboard, Greenwood (this issue) claims to have offered several methodologically salubrious and exegeti cally illuminating theses on empirical evaluations of theoretical expl anations of psychotherapeutic efficacy. According to his exegesis of G runbaum's construction (1984, Ch. 2, Section C; 1993, 184-204) of Freu d's ''Tally Argument,'' that argument bespeaks a rife neglect of the e pistemologically-significant distinction between empirical evaluations of the efficacy of psychotherapy and evaluations of theoretical expla nations of that efficacy. Greenwood presents a defense of a qualified version of Popper's critique of psychoanalysis against Grunbaum's obje ctions to it (1984, Ch. 1B). Finally, Greenwood offers a clarification of the concept of a ''placebo control'' investigation, taking issue w ith Grunbaum's 1993 (84-87, 91-93). In the present paper, it is argued contra Greenwood that: (1) his purportedly ''best'' reading of Freud' s Tally Argument and of its import founders, (2) the distinction that Greenwood bemoans as being neglected by mental health researchers actu ally is a commonplace in the literature on treatment-process and thera peutic outcome, (3) Greenwood's defense of Popper's critique of psycho analysis is an anachronism, and (4) Greenwood's conceptual analysis of placebo controls is nebulous and misconceived.