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Abstract
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A jury of experimental psychologists held trial over psychoanalysis and acquitted the defendant by a majority. The different members of the majority and of the minority who voted guilty had different reasons for their opinion. Most of the personal testimonies were not mere unemotional, intellectual evaluations because subjective reactions to experiences with psychoanalysis were requested. Scientific conscience and intellectual integrity won over emotional bias. The primary significance of psychoanalysis, apart from its therapeutic aspect, is that it has developed a method which is adjusted to the nature of the field of investigation, the human personality. The recognition of the basic mechanisms of repression, rationalization, projection, identification, displacement, the turning of psychic tendencies against one's self, fixation, and regression form the solid basis of a new dynamic psychology which offers an amazingly consistent causal understanding of normal and morbid behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
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