Injections of this sort ought not to be given so thoughtlessly …. and probably the syringe had not been clean.
There is no argument that Sigmund Freud was an odd duck.*
* See also: quack
Dominic Streatfeild writes of Freud’s passion for medicine in Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography – the father of psychoanalysis was a driving force behind the introduction of cocaine as local anesthesia (for treatment of “nasal reflex neurosis”) and an antidepressant in European medicine. Freud was also a regular user.
The pernicious roots of Freud’s theories have been intrinsic to psychoanalysis from its very origin – from the infantile incest fantasies and bowel-related neurosis to disjointed psychic apparatchik and the interplay of Eros and Thanatos.
William James, pragmatist and author of Principles of Psychology described the psychologist’s fallacy thusly: “The great snare of the psychologist is the confusion of his own standpoint with that of the mental fact about which he is making his report. I shall hereafter call this the ‘psychologist’s fallacy’ par excellence” (p. 196)
Do Freud’s theories apply? Should they apply to anyone, that person would be Freud.
If you abused cocaine for twelve years you would probably have some crackpot theories, too.
Freud’s pseudoscience (and countless watered-down but no less incorrect derivatives) remain en vogue with some mental health practitioners to this day, despite ample evidence that the theories are bunk. It helps that the theories and attendant therapies do not resolve problems: a lifelong prescription of psychoanalysis for every patient ensures that Freud’s followers will be billing at $75.00 an hour well nigh to eternity.
Against all odds, some followers of Freud’s cocaine-fueled fallacy are starting to see the light:
But that course is now extinct, and readers of my latest book, The Imprinted Brain; how genes set the balance between autism and psychosis (Jessica Kingsley May 2009) will find that a part of the last chapter reads a bit like those product-withdrawal notices you see in your supermarket. Certainly, this was an important aspect of the book for me: it gave me a chance to recant my Freudian faith and confess to the egregious errors I had made.
What had happened? You need to read the whole book to understand that, but a short answer is: I discovered autism, and more important still, I began to see that, far from being a cure for mental problems, psychoanalysis was a cultural embodiment of what I would now call hyper-mentalism.
- Product-withdrawal Notice: I was wrong about Freud
by Christopher Badcock, Ph.D.
While it is admirable that Dr. Badcock would retract his support for Freud’s work, the “product withdrawal” metaphor is patently disingenuous … generally when an actual product recall occurs the consumers who’ve purchased the product receive a replacement or refund.
Do you plan to refund those who bought your prior books, Dr. Badcock?
