Psychanalyse et science : (re)faire dialoguer les sœurs ennemies. Objets et méthodes différents, démarches analogues et complémentaires

We question here the objects and methodologies used in science and in psychoanalysis to show that beyond visible big differences, one can find a denominator common to these two “elder and younger sisters”. Their approaches appear to us historically and epistemologically similar: in their beginnings, they both at first analyse metaphors, one in order to substitute a more effective formalism, the other to undo the effects these metaphors produce in the body (hysterical conversion); as they both develop further, they then both deconstruct (unlike philosophy) the fiction of 'being': one substitutes the delusion of substance with relations between parameters, the other does away with the fantasy of a unified psyche (“person”, “individual”) to give way to a “divided subject” (already found in Freud). A misunderstanding about criteria of scientific legitimacy holds them in a reciprocal mistrust, despite the fact that they already share several criteria, and even though 'extended galileanism' (J.-C. Milner) would permit their collaboration through complementarity. What we will define then as “analysciences” can be a bridge between science and psychoanalysis. After a brief look at the neurosciences/psychoanalysis complementary relations, we will introduce an example of these analysciences: Analysis of Subjective Logics (ALS) uses linguistic tools to test psychoanalytic hypotheses applied to a material collected from common speech, therefore accessible to everyone. The validation of its results (at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Marseilles), their reproducibility, their predictability set it thus in the realm of testable scientific conjectures. We will conclude with the theoretical and practical implications of this possibility of a dialogue between psychoanalysis and science i.e. a deepening of each one's own methodology, without submission nor condescension, coupled to an agreement on compatible criteria of scientificity will lead to the mutual enrichment and enhancement of each one's methods, issues and topics, and results…