Saturday, July 9, 2011

Objectivity and Truth


"Very often, instructive data ... have been found in creative literature, which is less objective than clinical observation but all the more true because more inspired. After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth."

~ Helen Deutsche, The Psychology of Women: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation, Vol. 1. 
(New York: Grune & Stratton, 1950), page xii


The psychoanalyst Helene Deustche (1884-1982), a colleague of Sigmund Freud, was writing about research in psychology when she wrote these words. But the point she makes seems to have much broader applications. What is the relation ship between truth and objectivity? How do the arts contribute to our understanding of either? Or both? 

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