Wittgenstein and Freud

Wittgenstein says, Freudian psychoanalysis is based in myth, its application to actual psychological problems does not, indeed cannot, resolve them. Instead, all it can do is clarify them or present them in a different light. Implicit in my argument is that this is how Wittgenstein thought of the results of psychoanalysis, much like he thought of the application of his philosophical technique to philosophical problems, especially those of metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. As such, Wittgenstein is also subverting a larger myth: that the insights gained in psychoanalysis lead to the scientific resolution of psychological problems.

Freud considered his approach to be scientific. Wittgenstein considered both his and Freud's approach to be philosophical, not scientific.

Weltanschauung. Freud's agenda, Bouveresse says, was "to eliminate metaphysics in favor of the 'scientific' conception of the world." Wittgenstein thought such agendas naive.

Theory. Freud attempted to construct a theory that explained the range of psychological behavior. Wittgenstein thought misguided the construction of a single philosophical theory, and he may have thought that psychoanalysis lacked the power to explain the range of psychic behavior.