Frame all their “psychoanalysis wrong” answers through the lens of clinical efficacy – If psychoanalysis was incorrect, it wouldn’t work. Recent meta-analyses confirm its superior to other models of the mind. No matter what theoretical problems they find with its logic, it’s clinical success demonstrates the veracity of the concepts. Takes out realism.

In the past two decades, an increasing number of high-quality individual randomised controlled trials, meta-analyses, and systemic reviews assessing the efficacy of short-term and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy have been done in a range of mental disorders and have reported effect sizes as large as other evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).45–48 These findings contradict the widespread belief that psychodynamic approaches are short on empirical support, a myth that could reflectthe selective dissemination of robust research findings.49 Corroborated by several meta-analyses, a systemic review50 of psychodynamic therapy for specific mental disorders identified 64 randomised controlled trials that provide evidence for the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy in common mental health disorders, including depressive and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, complicated grief, somatoform disorders, personality disorders, substance-related disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder