The cornerstone of psychoanalysis: Case studies as critical knowledge production in transdisciplinary context.

The Case for Case Studies In the hierarchies of evidence that dominate contemporary psychological research, case studies often occupy the lowest rung, dismissed as anecdotal, subjective, and lacking in generalizability. Yet within psychoanalysis, the detailed examination of individual patients has provided the foundation upon which theoretical understanding has been built, tested, and refined. From Freud’s groundbreaking explorations to contemporary relational approaches, case studies have remained the “bread and butter” of psychoanalytic knowledge production. This article reconsiders the epistemological status of case studies within psychoanalysis and argues that their marginalization represents not a scientific advance but a constriction of what counts