Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie 28 (1986) 3
New research
The history of psychoanalysis in Holland: a hermeneutical and a rhetorical reading
Referring to two volumes concerning the history of psychoanalysis in Holland published recently the relation is being described between the history and the sociology of science within a framework of hermeneutics. Through his hermeneutical focus on interpretive moments the historian elucidates the reception-history of the discipline in question. On the other hand the sociological focus on social, political and cultural data reveals a more hidden rhetorical side of history. Both are complementary variations of the same model, namely a historical-hermeneutical resp. a sociological-rhetorical reading. In view of the heterogeneity of possible readings and interpretations one should keep at the back of one's mind the epistemological question about the rightness of an interpretation.