10.13125/CH/5922
application/pdf
2533-1825
5922
1
en
urn:nbn:it:unica-29659
Weiny César Freitas Pinto
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Critical Hermeneutics
PhilPsyCh - Research Network in the History and Philosophy of Psy Knowledge and Human Sciences
Text.Serial.Journal
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/ecch
7
Articles
2023-11-04
2023-10-13
2023-11-06
2023-11-06
19-28
1
Weiny César Freitas Pinto
2023/11/04
10.13125/CH/5922
19
Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul
2533-1825
1
28
urn:nbn:it:unica-29659
PhilPsyCh - Research Network in the History and Philosophy of Psy Knowledge and Human Sciences
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/ecch/article/download/5922/5705
7
Critical Hermeneutics, 7(1), 2023                                 Received: 13/10/2023
Biannual International Journal of Philosophy                      Accepted: 28/10/2023
http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/ecch/index                         Published: 06/11/2023
ISSN 2533-1825 (on line); DOI 10.13125/CH/5922




     PhilPsyCh - Research Network in the History and
    Philosophy of Psy Knowledge and Human Sciences:
            Presentation, Activity, and Perspectives


                           Weiny César Freitas Pinto
                   Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul - BR




Abstract
This scientific news presents PhilPsyCh - Research network in the
history and philosophy of psy knowledge and human sciences, its
activities and perspectives. PhilPsyCh is a Brazilian interinstitutional
research laboratory, whose activities are based on interdisciplinary
investigations,       which      seek,     through   the   articulation   between
philosophy, psy knowledge, and the human sciences, to promote and
advance the field of the Brazilian Philosophy of psychoanalysis and the
epistemology of the human sciences in general.
Keywords: PhilPsyCh, network, research, philosophy, psy knowledge,
human sciences


1. Presentation
PhilPsyCh1 began its activities in 2022, bringing together, monthly, in
an online format, researchers from three Brazilian Universities: Federal
University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Federal University of Juiz de
Fora (UFJF), and Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR). It is
an interinstitutional research network composed of three research
laboratories: Subjectivity, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis Research


1
  Throughout the text, it will be used the acronym PhilPsyCh in Portuguese, as it is
the identity of such network in Brazil.
Weiny César Freitas Pinto, PhilPsyCh - Research network…




Group (UFMS), Center for Studies in History and Philosophy of Human
Sciences (UFJF), and Research Group on Philosophy of Psychoanalysis
(PUCPR). These three laboratories are linked to research professors
and    undergraduate         and     postgraduate          students    (master’s    and
doctorate) in Philosophy and Psychology. Precisely, PhilPsyCh brings
together     researchers       and    students      from      five    degree    courses
(Philosophy and Psychology, from UFMS; Philosophy and Psychology,
from UFJF; and Philosophy, from PUCPR), and from four postgraduate
programs (master’s degree in Psychology, from UFMS; master’s
degrees and doctorates in Psychology and Philosophy, from UFJF; and
master’s and doctorate in Philosophy, from PUCPR).
      Although its formal beginning was in 2022, the PhilPsyCh Network
represents the consolidation of a process of theoretical approximation
and scientific collaboration that has taken place, at least since 2016,
through events, scientific meetings, panels, and other academic
activities, in which the three research laboratories mentioned above
began to participate jointly, and with increasing frequency. Firstly, what
brought these researchers together was, notably, the theoretical
interest in the philosophical field of research on psychoanalysis (a field
that in Brazil has a certain tradition of studies, and which is very
particularly called Philosophy of psychoanalysis). Secondly, the broad
methodological       convergence        that    accompanied           the   researchers’
theoretical interest soon was established as a fundamental link of
rapprochement.
      In fact, in different and sometimes adverse ways – given the
diversity of theoretical and thematic references of the researchers –,
the common interest in the same set of questions – whose centrality
can be summarily related to the old “matter of method” – became
clearer. That is, the enormous variety of themes and problems present
in the theoretical interest of these researchers in the Philosophy of
psychoanalysis found a significant and central convergence in certain



20
                                                      Critical Hermeneutics, 7(1), (2023)




common concerns of an essentially methodological nature.
    These      concerns      are    expressed    explicitly       in       the   PhilPsyCh
formulation.     Phil   evokes       the     interdisciplinary             methodological
articulation between history and philosophy, whose application is
oriented towards the double object of research: psy knowledge (Psy)
and human sciences (Ch – in Portuguese, ciências humanas). In other
words, it is a research network that seeks to interrogate, from a
methodological, historical, and philosophical point of view, the
particular field of psy knowledge and the general field of human
sciences.
    If these are the general lines that constitute the PhilPsyCh
Network, what are, in precise terms, the theoretical circumscriptions
that delimit its research activity? That is, what does it represent and
what is the methodological point of view from which it starts? Which
theoretical      references          guide      the       historical-philosophical
interdisciplinary articulation? And, finally, which psy knowledge and
human sciences are dealt with?
    The methodological point of view represents not only 1) the
mutual theoretical concerns of researchers: core of convergence, but
mainly 2) the nature of the Network’s methodological approach:
epistemological approach, and 3) the shared identification of a
fundamental problem: how to understand the psy knowledge and the
human       sciences,   in    the    precise    context      of        a    methodology
epistemologically informed by the relationship between history and
philosophy, without falling, at the same time, into the traps of
historicism (relativism) and idealism (dogmatism)? It is in this sense
that the PhilPsyCh Network             sees in the “matter of method”
(methodological point of view) the precise core of its problem: thinking,
through an epistemological analysis, of a historical-philosophical type,
the epistemology of psy knowledge and human sciences.
    The theoretical references that guide this historical-philosophical



                                                                                        21
Weiny César Freitas Pinto, PhilPsyCh - Research network…




epistemological analysis inhabit the broad scope of the history of
philosophy and human sciences, notably using modern thought and,
with greater emphasis, contemporary thought. The list of authors and
traditions is as long and diverse as that of researchers linked to the
Network: it goes from Descartes, Sade, and the French materialists,
through Kant, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud, reaching
Heidegger, Ricœur, Merleau-Ponty, Lacan, Canguilhem, Habermas and
Bauman, among others. There is also a notable effort to increasingly
include Anglo-Saxon and Brazilian traditions in this list of references.
In this context, it is easy to imagine, based on the authors and
traditions mentioned, the enormous number and variety of research
themes/problems that arise from this. Such an epistemological
diversity of references, themes, and problems does not represent a
scientific difficulty because it finds in the specific scope of the Network
the appropriate theoretical and methodological circumscriptions –
investigative lines – that order and direct it, namely: a) the theme of
the philosophical reception of psychoanalysis (history and method); b)
the theme of the history of psychoanalysis (historical context and
scientific references, especially medicine and biology); c) the question
of the historiographical methodology applied to the context of texts,
concepts, and institutions (textual, conceptual, and institutional
history), and d) the general problem of the epistemology of the human
sciences (from the angle of the history of ideas, structuralism,
hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, historical epistemology, and recent
contributions from the philosophy of science).
      As for psy knowledge and human sciences that are objects of the
PhilPsyCh Network, there is an evident predominance of philosophy, on
the one hand, and psychoanalysis, on the other. This is because the
Network originated from the common philosophical interest of its
researchers, firstly in psychoanalysis, and from there, in the sciences
that surround it, mainly, but not exclusively, the human sciences. There



22
                                               Critical Hermeneutics, 7(1), (2023)




is naturally an interest in expanding the set of these two areas, that is,
bringing to the field of psy knowledge other references from
psychology, in addition to psychiatry and the contributions of
neurosciences, for example; and for the field of human sciences,
anthropology, archeology, the contributions of the new social sciences,
among others.


2. Activity
The PhilPsyCh Network, although recent in its institutional organization,
has acted very actively and productively. If we take into account the
series of activities and publications that, intensified since 2016, led to
its constitution in 2022, it is possible to see the Network’s issues
gradually imposing themselves as themes of greater relevance and
vigor, and being articulated in an increasingly systematized way.
     In fact, the themes turned into research problems and gradually
became prominent objects of specific analyses and debates within the
Brazilian field of Philosophy of psychoanalysis: events, interinstitutional
research projects, and scientific publications – thematic dossiers and
scientific articles –, including international ones, are the most evident
expressions of the strong vitality and level of systematization from
which the PhilPsyCh Network originated.
     Regarding the events, the following stand out: i) the annual
Seminars of the Subjectivity, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis Research
Group (UFMS), which, especially since its second edition in 2016, has
uninterruptedly dedicated its programming to the topic; ii) the two
activities held in 2017 at the Université Paris Diderot (Paris VII): Atelier
Contributions de la philosophie brésilienne de la psychanalyse and the
Journée Philosophie et psychanalyse: interlocutions franco-brésiliennes;
iii) the Jornadas de história da psicanálise (in English, Journeys of the
history of psychoanalysis) (PUCPR), an event that began in 2019, and
will hold its fifth edition in 2023, which is also committed to the topic;



                                                                               23
Weiny César Freitas Pinto, PhilPsyCh - Research network…




and iv) the two PhilPsyCh International Congresses, held in 2022 and
2023.
      Equally important was the interinstitutional research project, A
recepção filosófica da psicanálise: história, tradições e doutrinas (in
English, The Philosophical Reception of Psychoanalysis: history,
traditions, and doctrines) (2019-2023). This project, created by
Richard Simanke, in 2018, was the prototype of the PhilPsyCh Network
as, from a formal point of view, it brought together for the first time
around a research program the same researchers and institutions
(UFMS, UFJF, PUCPR) that would form the Network four years later.
      Regarding scientific publications, the following contributions are
especially significant: Bocca (2018), A recepção filosófica brasileira da
psicanálise: um caso de descolonização (in English, The Brazilian
philosophical reception of psychoanalysis: a case of decolonization);
Padovan (2020), Introdução à análise empírico-conceitual como
método de investigação em história da psicanálise (in English,
Introduction to the empirical-conceptual analysis as a research method
in the history of psychoanalysis); Simanke (2020), Considérations
préliminaires à propos d’une méthode historico-philosophique pour la
recherche conceptualuelle en psychanalyse: une réflexion à partir de
l’expérience brésilienne (in English, Preliminary considerations about a
historical-philosophical         method        for    conceptual   research   in
psychoanalysis: a reflection based on the Brazilian experience). Freitas
Pinto (2021), Por uma história e método da recepção filosófica da
psicanálise: esboço de um programa de pesquisa (in English, For a
history and method of the philosophical reception of psychoanalysis:
outline of a research program). Also, the double edition of the thematic
dossier, História e método da recepção filosófica da psicanálise (in
English, History and method of the philosophical reception of
psychoanalysis), organized by the same researchers from the
PhilPsyCh Network, published in 2021 by Eleuthería – Revista do Curso



24
                                                    Critical Hermeneutics, 7(1), (2023)




de Filosofia da UFMS, and, finally, the two publications related to the
activities of the PhilPsyCh Network in the year 2022 – the book Estudos
de história e filosofia dos saberes psi e das ciências humanas (in
English, Studies of history and philosophy of psy knowledge and human
sciences) (Freitas Pinto, Germer, Padovan 2023), which partially brings
together content from the scientific meetings, and the thematic dossier,
result of the I PhilPsyCh International Congress, in the preparation
phase, to be published soon.
     Finally, in addition to the events, the interinstitutional project, and
the publications, another important characteristic of the Network’s
activities concerns its fruitful and productive institutional relationship
with other researchers and research laboratories. Since the beginning
of its activities, in 2022, PhilPsyCh has expanded and consolidated
international scientific collaborations, notably with researchers from
Argentina and Italy.
     The collaboration between the PhilPsyCh Network and LAPEF –
Laboratorio di Psicoanalisi, Ermeneutica, Fenomenologia (UniCA) is
especially significant. The increasingly frequent mutual participation of
members of the two laboratories in their respective events and
publications – for example, the 2022 events, Seminario LAPEF:
Interpretazione      tra   coscienza,     storia,   saperi    and     I   PhilPsyCh
International Congress, and the publications (Simanke 2020; Busacchi,
Martini 2021; Busacchi 2022) –, and finally, the project, in full
discussion, for institutional deepening and formalization between both.
All of this demonstrates a very fruitful and productive theoretical and
scientific collaboration between PhilPsyCh and LAPEF2.
     Thus, through events, projects, publications, and international


2
  About the collaboration between PhilPsyCh and LAPEF, besides this Scientific News,
the following works should be added: Simanke; Caropreso and Padovan; Cabanat in
this Critical Hermeneutics dossier, and also the publications by Busacchi and Martini
in the dossier relating to the I PhilPsyCh International Congress, in the preparation
phase, to be published soon.



                                                                                    25
Weiny César Freitas Pinto, PhilPsyCh - Research network…




exchanges, the PhilPsyCh Network has been actively working to
maintain, expand, and deepen its field of activity.


3. Perspectives
From the point of view of future perspectives, the PhilPsyCh Network
hopes, firstly, to consolidate the work it has already been carrying out,
without losing sight of its greatest quality: the epistemological diversity.
In fact, its greatest quality is also its greatest challenge, since relating
the diversity of an epistemological program that aims to investigate the
history and philosophy of psy knowledge and human sciences in a
single and large research agenda is, at the same time, a triumph and
a risk. A triumph because it involves the radical assumption that only
epistemological plurality can advance human knowledge, be it scientific,
philosophical, etc., and a risk because this assumption cannot serve as
a subterfuge to justify any kind of epistemological relativism, which
would put in check the very idea of “knowledge”, “science”, etc.
      Hence the reason why it will be necessary, secondly, to deepen the
understanding of this epistemological diversity to delimit more clearly
the methodological point of view that constitutes it and the use of the
theoretical references that guide it, so that both – the method and the
diverse theories – converge not only towards the mere expansion of
the list of psy knowledge and human sciences that make up the
Network, but mainly towards a new understanding of this knowledge
and these sciences.
      It is for this purpose that, increasingly, epistemological diversity
must correspond to institutional diversity, that is, the PhilPsyCh
Network must, thirdly, continue and intensify its national and
international scientific collaboration efforts, notably by linking up with
laboratories of research from other countries in South and North
America and Europe, seeking to always remain open to new references,
to the process of external submission of the results of their work and



26
                                              Critical Hermeneutics, 7(1), (2023)




to the constant critical review of their theoretical positions.
      If research in human sciences, in the area of psy knowledge and
particularly philosophical research, finds itself worldwide at a time of
enormous challenges – theoretical, methodological, and institutional –,
PhilPsyCh wishes to be a research network that can contribute to a
better understanding of these challenges, and perhaps even solving
some of them.




References
Bocca, F. V. (2018). A recepção filosófica brasileira da psicanálise: um
caso de descolonização. In: ANPOF. Gênero, psicanálise, filosofia na
América Latina, filosofia da libertação e pensamento descolonial, 1:
83–91.
Busacchi, V. (2022). Sobre a “matéria afetiva”. Eleuthería - Revista do
curso de Filosofia da UFMS, 7(13): 62–73.
Busacchi, V., Martini, G. (2021). A proposito dell’identità in psicoana-
lisi. Eleuthería - Revista do curso de Filosofia da UFMS, 6 (Especial):
224–243.
Freitas Pinto, W. C. (2021). Por uma história e método da recepção
filosófica da psicanálise: esboço de um programa de pesquisa. Aurora,
33(58), 145–168.
Freitas Pinto, W. C., Germer, G., Padovan C. (orgs.). (2023). Estudos
de história e filosofia dos saberes psi e das ciências humanas. Curitiba:
CRV
História e Método da recepção filosófica da Psicanálise – II. (2021).
Eleuthería - Revista do curso de Filosofia da UFMS, 6 (Especial).
História e Método da recepção filosófica da Psicanálise – I. (2021).
Eleuthería. Revista do curso de Filosofia da UFMS, 6(10).




                                                                              27
Weiny César Freitas Pinto, PhilPsyCh - Research network…




Padovan, C. (2020). Introdução à análise empírico-conceitual como
método de investigação em história da psicanálise. Lacuna - uma re-
vista de psicanálise, 9.
Simanke, R. (2020). Considérations              préliminaires   à   propos   d’une
méthode       historico-philosophique pour la recherche conceptuelle
en   psychanalyse:         une réflexion à partir de l’expérience brésilienne.
Critical Hermeneutics. Biannual International Journal of Philosophy,
4(2): 59–78.




28
