Explananda Re: Psycho-sexual explanation

[Carrol Cox]

As I suggested (predicted) in my opening post in this thread, those who
claim the usefulness of psycho-sexual explanations (=psychoanalysis?)
have devoted their posts to claiming that such explanations _could be_
useful. No one that I know of has _ever_ actually defended a political
proposition with psychological evidence -- I exclude those cases where
the proposition can be defended _without_ appeal to such evidence.

If our interest is understanding social phenomena, we will find that
psychological theories are _either_ tautological _or_ fail to tell us
anything that we do not already know.

That is a generalization based on my own remembered experience of
reading such attempts at analysis. The refutation of it can't consist of
claims that this or that psychological theory _could_ explain this or
that. Rather it must consist of defending an actual political
proposition with such evidence PLUS a demonstration that that
proposition cannot be arrived at by other routes.

I don't think any such non-trivial proposition exists.

Carrol