Against Wittgenstein’s Reading of Freudian Psychoanalytic Methodology

This paper is intended to examine the coherence and efficacy of Wittgenstein’s  notorious dismissal of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. It will examine what  Wittgenstein explicitly wrote (and said) about the psychoanalytic method, as well  as what he might have written if he had read Freud more carefully and utilized his  own most relevant notions from the middle and later periods of his work. It will  propose that Wittgenstein’s critique of Freud lags behind his own developing  views of hypotheses, evidence, the making of significant connections, and  obedience to rules in language games. The author concludes that Wittgenstein’s  critique of Freud is more interesting for its deficiencies than its ability to force  improvements in psychoanalysis.