The Eternal Dr. Freud
Sigmund Freud, though long passed away, is very much a marked man these days. He is credited as being the father of psychoanalysis and much of what is modern day psychology. Lately, he has been under attack. With many of this theories falling through, critics are looking to bury him completely. However, I believe that it is a great tragedy to write off psychoanalysis and talk therapy merely because of a lack of scientific evidence to back them. After all, if the desired affect is achieved, success has been experienced. Freud was born in 1856 in what is now Czechoslovakia (Brill, 1995). After attending medical school for a number of years, he became a neurologist at a local hospital. His interest in neurology gradually gave way to psychopathology. It was from that point on he began formulating many common day theories and writing books. His core of beliefs involved that human behavior, thoughts and emotions stem from unconscious fears and desires, of which are often rooted in childhood development (Horgan, 1996). From this, psychoanalysis was born. Psychoanalysis is the use of talk therapy to locate and identify a person’s problem, which is most likely to be found in a childhood experience. Freud also went on to define and lab
el different parts of conscious and subconscious thought. He was the first person to ever take psychology so far, and is still highly regarded in historical context. Throughout about the past decade, a number of his theories have been proven to be incorrect, such as the Oedipal complex and female penis-envy, to name a few (Horgan, 1996). This has come to further fuel momentum of a revolution to completely overthrow Freudian thought. Many critics point to the strong lack of scientific evidence to validate psychoanalysis (Horgan, 1996). Perhaps the biggest reason support of Freud has tapered off is due to the American way: finding a faster and cheaper solution to life’s problems. In this instance, the solution is a drug. Modern science has revealed that by increasing a certain fluid or hormone in the brain, a desired effect can be achieved. For example, by increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain, feelings of depression can be turned away (Myers, 2001). With insurance companies increasingly not covering expensive and lengthy therapy sessions, support for Freud has shrunk, while drug therapy has grown. Sigmund Freud has undoubtedly done more for the psychological community than any one person
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