IS PSYCHOLOGY A SCIENCE?

Sumi:
Elmarie, in today’s brief conversation I would like to gain some clarity on the question as to whether psychology is a science?  The great American philosopher and psychologist William James viewed psychology in 1893 as not being a science but only as the hope of a science.  What do you make of this?              

Elmarie:
James simply stated a truth about the scientific status of psychology in his time.  He thereby acknowledged that he himself was unsuccessful in developing a scientific approach for the investigation of the psyche’s complex phenomena.  James was the first to have foreseen the Galileo and the Lavoisier of psychology, the famous men of psychology that surely would come after him.  Unfortunately, he died before Carl Jung founded his Analytical Psychology.        

Sumi:
What would you say is the core requirement for psychology to be scientific?    

Elmarie:
The scientific requirement for a scientific psychology is a scientific method.  Jung says that if we do not acknowledge the scientific character of the method, we cannot acknowledge the scientific character of its results.    

Sumi:
Is Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology scientific? 

Elmarie:
Yes.  He was the first and still is the only psychologist who succeeded in developing a unique scientific approach to investigate even extremely complex psychic phenomena.       

Sumi:
What makes Jung’s scientific method unique?

Elmarie:
It is a purely psychological approach aimed at discovering facts that conform to law.      

Sumi:
Can you give us a reference where to find Jung’s scientific method?

Elmarie:
I can do better.  I can give you a link to an article on Jung’s empirical method, downloadable in pdf format. 

Sumi:
Thank you Elmarie.