| Description | This century has been called the century of Sigmund Freud. His theories have had a profound effect upon contemporary thought and social mores, and they have influenced entire generations of psychological investigations. Yet this book makes the heretical claims that Freud's central postulate, the unconscious mind, does not exist; that his theories were based on pathological phenomena; and that Freud himself, when formulating these theories, was under the influence of a highly toxic drug.
Written for the general reader, THE FREUDIAN FALLACY fully substantiates these bold claims with the use of case histories, current medical knowledge, and, most important of all, letters written by Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, his closest friend during the last decade of the nineteenth century-the period of time when he was formulating the ideas that are the basis of psychoanalysis. Gleaned from this correspondence - which has been impounded by the Freud family -is evidence of the influence of cocaine upon Freud's personality and theories. Wilhelm Fliess, whose own theories have
long been relegated to the realm of psychopathology, is also shown to have influenced Freud's work. The author provides further documentation by drawing on the standard biographies of Freud, written by Ernest Jones and Max Schur
Through the examination of the cases upon which Freud based his work, we see that his fundamental assumptions were grounded in fallacies. For example, favorable results achieved in the treatment of hysterics through hypnosis (based on the work of Charcot, the French neurologist) are invalidated by the author's proof that these patients were actually suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy, a condition only delineated in the last few decades.
Assuming little previous knowledge on the part of the reader, THE FREUDIAN FALLACY delves into the annals of medicine from its beginnings to our own time and places Freud in the proper historical context. This book will intrigue, challenge-and perhaps outrage. It makes an, important contribution to the current reexamination of Freud. |
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