If Dean was dead and in heaven, why would Sam want to bring him back?

Because they've been to heaven, and Dean didn't like it?

However, without any research (which it currently seems he didn't do) how was he to have any idea where Dean was? It's odd for a Winchester to not even try find out, though. It's not like every psychic up and died, or anything, did they?

Unfortunate that they didn't do so, since given that both angels and demons seemed entirely ignorant of the location and current state of Purgatory, I doubt human psychics would have been able to find anything out about Dean aside from "nope, can't feel him at all." An answer like that might have at least justified Sam blowing off any impulse to search further.

I doubt human psychics would have been able to find anything out about Dean aside from "nope, can't feel him at all."

I don't think it would require any huge bending of their reality to take something personal of Dean's or Sam's (up to and including blood) and dowsing across dimensions for him.

I don't know, the only psychic connection we've seen that for sure bridged that gap was between Mother of All and her progeny.

How many times have we seen them fail? Who has said "My brother is in purgatory, but I couldn't find a single psychic that could locate him, dammit!"

Of all the things they've extracted from their rectums...this one would need by far the least lube.

This is too soon off of Sam in his own split-personality hell saying that he wouldn't leave Dean "because he's my brother" for me to easily write off Sam saying "eh, I'm done. I've learned from our collective resurrection mistakes and decided to forgo the whole mess and just move on without him, he's probably in a better place for all I know".

I have a horrible feeling that this misstep will haunt us forever.

Until I see evidence that Sam did some due diligence, I will maintain that the writers don't know who the frell they are writing anymore.

I will maintain that the writers don't know who the frell they are writing anymore.

I would never say that, since they're by definition writing Sam and Dean. They're just not writing ones that we can trace the path from here to there on, and maybe not ones we like. But "who" is what flows from their pens.

However, ficwriters, sometimes they don't know. Dean who falls for Cas because he makes amazing pumpkin spice lattes? Yeah--if the writers suddenly make Dean like frouffy drinks and calling himself Francis, then that's the shift Dean makes. But if you're not the writers, you're OOC.

(Just an aside... why have people been praying to angels on Supernatural? I don't remember ever being taught to pray to angels.

Well, Dean calls Cas and past experience tells him that Cas responds.

Maybe it's a semantic issue? I just looked through most of the first page of dictionaries that come up on google, and "prayer" refers to a 'petition directed to God or an object of worship,' which isn't quite the role Castiel has been fulfilling, although that's the way they've been using the term on Show.