andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2017-09-17 12:00 pm
jack: (Default)

Untangling the Controversial Legacy of Sigmund Freud

[personal profile] jack 2017-09-17 01:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I used to say, it was possible Freud popularised the *idea* of understanding the brain, of forming hypotheses and confirming them with evidence, even though almost all of his specific ideas were wrong.

But then someone on tumblr had an impassioned rant about how many of Freud's specifics were inevitably diagnosing comparatively vulnerable people (ie. people who needed psychiatric help, but often imposed on them) with basically "it's all your fault" which was helpful to their more powerful relatives who were often paying for it. And he was an outsider so he may not have had much choice if he was to practice at all, but that was not good. I can't vouch for the details but they sounded to mostly know what they were talking about.