Talk:Psychoanalysis

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Questionable science: Theories which have a substantial following, such as psychoanalysis, but which some critics allege to be pseudoscience, may contain information to that effect, but generally should not be so characterized.

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Wiki Education assignment: Psychology Capstone

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2024 and 6 December 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kpatel0820 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Meghantranqui, Bells7, Evynnh76, Kayedwards0, Carlysoenksen.

— Assignment last updated by Rahneli (talk) 23:42, 28 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Lede Paragraph

It looks like the lede paragraph was cut down to a fraction of its original length a few months ago in this edit by Psychology-Interesst. I know I am a bit late here, but I thought the previous version of the lede was really excellent and am not sure what the rationale was for this change. ⇌ Jake Wartenberg 14:59, 30 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've restored the lede to the version from the linked revision. ⇌ Jake Wartenberg 16:04, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think this lead is far too long. The lead should briefly summarise key points of the rest of the article, but this lead is more than 100 words longer than the lead of the article for humans, one of the broadest and most important topics there is; this article's lead is not sufficiently brief at all.

A lot of this information seems quite unnecessary to talk about with this level of specificity in the lead - e.g. Jacques Lacan and his ideas (especially in the first paragraph), the entire second half of the third paragraph (everything past the mention of transference), or the entire bracketed section of the fourth paragraph.

It feels like the text has some flourishes that are either unnecessary or un-encyclopaedic in tone, like "all his thoughts, all secrets and dreams", or "This includes not least the fact that".

I also don't particularly like how the tone of the text seems to accept everything in the theory as flatly true and factual, when psychoanalysis' factuality is very much questionable. Drywalling (talk) 11:57, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The fact that this article - which is literally used as an example of something that constitutes 'questionable science' - has only half of a sentence in its lead dedicated to criticism of its ideas is very bad, I feel. It's not at all presenting a balanced view on the subject, especially with how vague the criticisms are presented, and how the sentence immediately backpedals by presenting the reader with a positive of the theory (that it was influential). Drywalling (talk) 12:08, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with removing the bracketed section of the fourth paragraph, but not the stuff about Lacan or transference. It's important to discuss how these ideas have evolved and to give an overview of the entire field/theory. Let's think about ways that this can be trimmed down while still summarizing the whole article.

I added back your sentence discussing Popper's criticism. I agree that the lede should include specific criticisms of psychoanalysis, and that it is too vague as currently written. But, it also needs to reflect that these criticisms are controversial. There's a link to a relevant arbitration committee ruling at the top of this page. ⇌ Jake Wartenberg 15:28, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]