The author offers a methodological reflection on the issues at stake in research into psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, by drawing in particular on the contributions of G. Devereux. Two aspects are developed in succession: first of all, it is a matter of looking at works from the literature in order to situate the perspectives that are specific to research in psychopathology and psychoanalysis by examining the necessary place of method in the research approach. Secondly, the text focuses on the paradigmatic place that the clinical case occupies in the approach to research in psychopathology and psychoanalysis.