garrygillard.net > Freud Resources > 1940a
Freud, Sigmund 1940a [1938], An Outline of Psychoanalysis, SE 23: 139-208.
In the chapter of An Outline of Psychoanalysis entitled 'Psychical qualities,' Freud wrote,
The starting-point for this investigation is provided by a fact without parallel, which defies all explanation or description—the fact of consciousness. Nevertheless, if anyone speaks of consciousness, we know immediately and from our most personal experience what is meant by it.
To this statement he appended a footnote that neither the text nor the context required:
One extreme line of thought, such as the doctrine of behaviourism which originated in America, believes it possible to construct a psychology which disregards this fundamental fact!
Freud … might have said that America was lacking in soul. Bettelheim 1985 [1983]: 79-80.
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