Why Freud was wrong : sin, science and psychoanalysis

Webster, Richard

ISBN 10: 0006384285 / ISBN 13: 9780006384281

Published by London : HarperCollins, 1995

About this Item

Good paperback copy; edges somewhat dust-dulled and nicked. Front cover is torn, somewhat detached from spine. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: xvii, 673 pages ; 20 cm. Subjects: Freud, Sigmund 1856-1939. Psychoanalysis History. Genre: Psychology. Language: English. 1 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 365766

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why Freud was wrong : sin, science and psychoanalysis
• Publisher: London : HarperCollins
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006384285
• ISBN 13: 9780006384281
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis

In a formidable critique of Freud's theories and modern psychoanalytic practice, English journalist Webster argues that Freud's mentor, French neurologist Jean Charcot, misdiagnosed as traumatic hysteria what were actually cases of injury-related brain damage and epilepsy. Misled by this error, Freud, in Webster's opinion, himself misdiagnosed many of his early cases, seeking to explain physical ailments or illnesses with recourse to patients' childhood emotional traumas.

To Webster, psychoanalysis, for all its rationalism and professed secularism, is a "crypto-theological system,'' a modernized reworking of traditional Judeo-Christian morality, sexual realism and restraint. He portrays Freud as the founder of a messianic movement that placed at its core a confessional ritual: the therapy session. Freud's hero-worship of crackpot Berlin physician Wilhelm Fliess, his demonizing of dissidents such as Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, his inflating of successful therapeutic results and his overbearing, aggressive, even prosecutorial attitude toward his patients come under scrutiny. Yet, though Webster calls psychoanalysis a pseudoscience, he contends that it nevertheless has yielded productive insights about human nature and society because of its internal logic, sophistication and emotional nuance.