Psychology Today | 25.05.2026 00:01
One of the most pointed critiques of psychoanalysis came from Karl Popper, writing in Conjectures and Refutations(1963). When he looked at psychoanalysts' work, he found that he was looking at something resembling "astrology rather than astronomy" (Popper, 1963). Studying these theories, he wrote, had the effect of an "intellectual conversion or revelation": once your eyes were opened, you saw confirming instances everywhere, and the world seemed full of verifications. Anyone who failed to see what you saw was either blinded by class interest or suffering from repressions that had not yet been analysed (Popper, 1963).
