This article exposes Sigmund Freud's ideas about themes which are fundamental to the comprehension of the contemporary man: the psychic constitution; the formation and resolution of mental pathologies; the broad meaning of culture and the education as a mediating element between individual and society. This paper aims to present and compare the analysis made by John Dewey regarding these same themes based on the book Human nature and conduct. The comparisons between Freudian and Deweyan discourses are made through the methodology proposed by Chaïm Perelman in the book Treatise on argumentation (co-authored by Olbrechts-Tyteca), which aims to clarify the argumentative strategies used by an author to obtain or increase adhesion to the proposed theses and, with that, to awaken concrete actions. The conclusions suggest that although Dewey disagrees with Freud, they agree on certain issues, especially regarding the meaning of impulses and sublimation and regarding the conception that knowledge is changeable and imprecise, what rejects the belief in absolute certainties and inserts human actions and decisions in the sphere of probability.
John Dewey; Sigmund Freud; psychological discourse; education; rhetoric
