Sigmund Freud, with more enemies than friends, was a man whose ideas have "disturbed the sleep of mankind." Though dead now for over 50 years, he is alive and well in the hearts and minds of thousands who never knew him, a true test of immortality.
What was Freud's science? Psychoanalytic concepts such as infant sexuality, instincts and their vicissitudes, narcissism, melancholia and mourning, symptoms, inhibitions and anxiety, repetition compulsion, the unconscious, repression, regression, the ego, and id, became the building blocks of current psychoanalytic theory. These concepts shape our understanding of neurotic conflict, the Oedipus complex, transference, disorders of the self, psychic determinism, and analytic cure. Psychoanalysis, the “talking cure,” is a powerful tool for treating not just the walking wounded and the worried well, but those of us with problems in living, troubled or shallow relationships, and blocks to creativity. Brief clinical illustrations will be provided.
Is Freudian theory science or sci-fi? It is up to you to decide.
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