When Therapy Misreads Neurodivergent Clients

Many psychodynamic theories were developed without neurodivergent minds in view, yet they are often applied to neurodivergent people. Karl Popper criticized psychoanalysis for resembling astrology rather than astronomy because it cannot be tested in a way that would rule it out. A meaningful theory should specify what evidence would prove it wrong, but Freud’s theory can fit any behavior and its opposite. As a result, nothing a client does counts against the theory. Therapist readings and client self-reports should not be treated as hard fact. Interpretations are most useful when offered as possibilities rather than certainties, so alternative explanations remain open.

"When he looked at psychoanalysts' work, he found that he was looking at something resembling "astrology rather than astronomy" (Popper, 1963). Studying these theories, he wrote, had the effect of an "intellectual conversion or revelation": once your eyes were opened, you saw confirming instances everywhere, and the world seemed full of verifications. Anyone who failed to see what you saw was either blinded by class interest or suffering from repressions that had not yet been analysed (Popper, 1963)."

"His main point is that Freud had built a theory that could not really be tested. A theory is meaningful, Popper argued, only if it tells you what would prove it wrong. Freud's theory, on Popper's account, cannot be falsified, and rules nothing out. For any behaviour a patient might present, and for its opposite just as readily, an interpretation is already waiting, so nothing the patient does could ever count against the theory. A theory that sets out to explain everything ends up, on Popper's view, explaining nothing."

"Neither the therapist's reading nor the client's self-report should be taken as hard fact. An interpretation offered as a possibility, not as certainty, can be useful. Say you come in and say you feel sad about a friend who has pulled away. The therapist wonders aloud whether the sadness is covering anger, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder. You consider it and say no, you really are sad, you know the difference."

"A good therapist holds the anger reading as one possibility among others. The difficulty comes only if the reading becomes the only one possible. Then your 'no' can be heard as confirmation: of"

Read at Psychology Today