Psychology and Metaphysics On the Logical Status of Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority

In the diversified field of contemporary trends of depth psychology, the kinship between psychology and metaphysics has been openly acknowledged in the psychological thought of Wolfgang Giegerich. Having Jung's analytical psychology as his background, Giegerich defines psychology as the discipline of interiority, and conceives it as sublated metaphysics. In this essay, Marco Barreto brings to light an unexpected contradiction in Giegerich's conception of the psychological form of knowing, derived precisely from its kinship to metaphysics. Assuming that modernity is essentially post-metaphysical, Giegerich is forced to attribute to psychology the logical status of a pastime. However, as long as psychology as the discipline of interiority accepts such status, it has not truly come of age, as it does not seriously assume its mature epistemological responsibilities in the broader modern forum of legitimate and valid forms of knowledge. Reflecting on the roots of this contradiction, Barreto shows how to overcome it through an alternative assessment of the ultimate metaphysical dimension of modernity, essentially expressed in the logic of nihilism. This allows him to keep Giegerich's conception of psychology as sublated metaphysics and to release psychology as the discipline of interiority from its having retreated from its own truth.