Let's not. 
Posted on 05/08/2006 3:01:15 AM PDT by gobucks
It is time to rescue Freud from his detractors. He deserves a place alongside Einstein, Newton, Darwin and Kant as one of the authors of modernity and one of the greatest intellectuals of all time. (snip)
There would have been no sexual revolution without his insistence that the repression of our deepest primal sexual urges can be profoundly costly. Without his introducing us to the world of the subconscious and how it responds to our deep twin urges, we would have understood ourselves immeasurably less well, even if some of his secondary theories have not stood the test of time. And although contemporary society has its psychoses, they are nothing besides the way earlier civilisations created mental demons that twisted peoples' minds and crushed their chance of happiness. Freud permitted a collective escape. We are incomparably more happy and more peaceful as a result.(snip)
Yet, for decades, he has been derided and scorned. He is one of the American right's deadliest iconic enemies and the more American conservatism grows in influence, the more Freud is taking cultural and intellectual hits. In its lexicon, he, above any other, undermined morality. He is the author of cultural relativism because his preoccupation is not with facts and reason, but the psychological drivers of why anybody takes the position they do.
Freud, for example, would be less interested in debating the rights and wrongs of the death penalty than why so many people on the American religious right feel the need for capital punishment. In its terms, it is a pernicious transformation of the terms of debate. Worst of all, Freud did not believe in God.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
"American conservativism"
"American religious right"
Wow ... we are so mean and unfair to the good doctor. And he wasn't even a Brit! But it seems clear; if you love reason, you should love Darwin, Kant, etc...; and if you love them, for the same reasons, you should defend Freud.
If the defense of rationalistic thought involves these kinds of calls to defend this scoundrel, then the "American right" must be doing something, heh heh, right.
Can't denigrate Freud enough, IMHO. Harold Bloom had a good article about him in the WSJ last week, where he said that Freud was essentially a fiction writer who came up with his theories and bizarre invented terminology (libido, for example) the way any fiction writer does, to explain himself to himself in a quasi-poetic way but without using the prior terminology. Freud was somewhat of a megalomaniac, like the Unibomber, and was simply producing a manifesto. (Bloom liked his style, although I'm not sure exactly why.)
For various historical reasons,including the desire of late 19th-early 20th century writers to believe that they were "scientizing" human life, the terms caught on, particularly since they essentially rejected the Christian view of human nature. Nowadays, Bloom pointed out, Freud's terms look pathetically dated and silly, and in fact, psychology has abandoned him. But he did incalculable damage to society and our vision of what it means to be a human being, and I wonder if we can imagine what it was like to live before Freudian theory undermined us, that is, how it was to simply act without believing that everything one did was motivated by hidden and rather grubby forces.
Most of his theories were already considered outdated by the mid 1970s. But he got one thing right, that could be paraphrased as "The more civilized humans are, the easier they will get mental illnesses."
Well, that's true - one has to have a bit of leisure to develop a "mental illness," particularly the Freudian style "neurosis." Plus you have to have lots of money to pay for your bi-weekly visits to the analyst...
Let's not.
Hmmm .. L Ron Hubbard ... Tom Cruise ...
The science fiction writers out there have certainly given the world untold numbers of headaches. Marx probably is the king of them all, with Darwin and Freud tying for second place.
I think I know of a way to begin the process of relearning how to live the way you refer to: grow things. Flowers, corn, whatever. But actually in the spring, plant it, ideally from seeds, cultivate, weed it, water etc...
I have several rose bushes I planted a few years ago. It has been a re-education to say the least trying to keep them alive, much less keep them blooming properly.
Golf too, is an activity that can help w/ de-Freuding the mind, I must confess.
I found Freud to be fairly conservative FWIW.
My psychodynamic year's term paper was titled:
FRODO AND DR FRUD
It was a stinging satire on Freud. I'd put it here, if I could find a copy. Alas it seems to have been lost. It was very funny. The prof initially threatened to flunk the paper. I asked him to read it again and he agreed I'd included all the points he required for an A--which he gave me, as I recall.
Freud was a perceptive observer of human behavior. I think he was also an arrogant, hypocritical, dirty old man who has unwittingly ended up fostering a lot of socially and culturally destroying nonsense.
If Freud had never come along, no one would have missed him or his sham works.
A plagiarist, coke addict obsessed his whole life with scr***ng his own mother. He'll get my vote!
"But he did incalculable damage to society and our vision of what it means to be a human being, and I wonder if we can imagine what it was like to live before Freudian theory undermined us, that is, how it was to simply act without believing that everything one did was motivated by hidden and rather grubby forces."
Well stated. I never thought Freud was anything more than a drug addicted sexual deviant who self-analyzed and reported his conclusions as human nature.
Of course, the author assumes that the sexual revolution has been a Good Thing.
"Of course, the author assumes that the sexual revolution has been a Good Thing."
Years from now some historians will look back and see that the downfall of the United States began with the hippie movement and the "sexual revoloution". A total abandonment of morality.
Very true. The only thing that amazes me is that people still fall for them, especially since Marxism has never led to a single successful society, Freudianism has never led to a single happy life, etc...I suppose it is because they are a kind of science fiction that is like Scientology, that is, an alternative belief system and a religion, essentially,
A nutshell biography!
Me thinks the Femlin has taken the European look too far!
Poppycock. Nietzsche was one of the greatest defenders that Western culture ever had.
The irony of this essay is that Freuds "greatest hits" came not from "American Conservatives", but from radical feminists, homosexuals and the "I'm okay, you're okay" hippy dippie crowd. When "we were all Freudians", some good was done in that we recognized the paranoiac, the psychopath, the sociopath and the well-adjusted personalities in others (and sometimes even in ourselves). Today such traits are either pass unnoticed, or they are actually celebrated.
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