On 22 November Annette Taylor wrote: >So I do cover most of the historical topics, if for no other >reason than to challenge the students to think them through >sometimes. And, of course, I often make the point that when >you are the first big name in your field, i.e., Freud, Piaget, >then of course you are bound to have some errors and >others will come along and point them out :-)
The situations in relation to Freud and Piaget are not comparable, as Annette�s words would seem to imply. As far as I�m aware, Piaget did not misrepresent his research. On the other hand, Freud made several claims about his experiences (clinical and otherwise) that have now been documented to be false, and repeatedly affirmed that he had made numerous clinical �observations� that had proved beyond all doubt that his specific theories were true (e.g. his theory of childhood psychosexual development). Among the first type of misdemeanour, one of the most critical is his retrospective assertion that most of his patients in the mid-1890s told him that they had been sexually abused in early childhood. Examination of the relevant documents of the period (including his letters to Wilhelm Fliess) demonstrates that this story is false. (See, e.g, Cioffi 1998 [1974]; Schimek 1987; Esterson 1998, 2001) For most of the twentieth century Freud�s story has been recycled as historical fact, and is still widely regarded as such. Almost all College texts that allude to the seduction theory still routinely repeat this story, regardless of the way that they interpret the alleged events. On the psychosexual theories, Alan A. Stone, veteran psychoanalyst and former president of the American Psychiatric Association, stated in 1995 that Freud�s �Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality� (1905) �provided the twentieth century with a revolutionary reconception of the human condition: Psychosexual development and the Oedipus complex�. However, he went on, �The work is in some sense empirical and yet Freud provides almost no evidence and no direct observational data for his sweeping conclusions.� (Stone 1995) On the basis of the Freud scholarship of recent decades, Frank Sulloway has stated the following in relation to Freud�s case histories that for so long were claimed to have provided validation for Freud�s psychosexual theories: �Freud's case histories are rampant with distortions, highly dubious �reconstructions,� and exaggerated claims� (Sulloway 1992a). Yet Freud maintained to the end of his life that �psychoanalytic experience has put these matters [the Oedipus and castration complexes] beyond the reach of doubt and has taught us to recognize in them the key to every neurosis� (Freud 1928, SE 21, p. 184). Clearly in the case of Freud we are not talking about someone who �merely� made errors that vitiated his theories. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html References Cioffi, F. (1998 [1974]). �Was Freud a Liar?� In Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience. Chicago: Open Court, pp. 199-204. Crews, F. (ed.) (1998). Unauthorized Freud: Doubters Confront a Legend. New York and London: Viking. Esterson A. (1993). Seductive Mirage: An Exploration of the Work of Sigmund Freud. Chicago: Open Court. Esterson A. (1998). �Jeffrey Masson and Freud�s Seduction Theory: A New Fable Based on Old Myths�, History of the Human Sciences, 11 (1), pp. 1-21. Esterson A. (2001). �Deception and Self-deception in Freud�s Accounts of the Seduction Theory Episode�, History of Psychiatry, xii, pp. 329-352. Esterson, A. (2002). �The Myth of Freud�s Ostracism by the Medical Community in 1896-1905: Jeffrey Masson�s Assault on Truth�, History of Psychology, 5 (2), pp. 115-134. Freud, S. (1905). �Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.� In vol. 7, The Standard Edition of the Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, trans. and ed. J Strachey et al, London: Hogarth Press, pp. 123-245. Freud, S. (1928). �Dostoevsky and Parricide.� In vol. 21, Standard Edition, pp. 175-194. Macmillan, M. (1997). Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Schimek, J. G. (1987). �Fact and Fantasy in the Seduction Theory: A Historical Review�, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 35 (4), pp. 937-965. Stone, A. A. (1995). "Where Will Psychoanalysis Survive?" Keynote Address to the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, December 9, 1995. http://www.harvard-magazine.com/issues/jf97/original.html Sulloway, F. (1992a). Quoted in �The Faults and Frauds of Freud�, MIT News: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1991/mar06/24360.html Sulloway, F. (1992b). �Reassessing Freud�s Case Histories.� In Freud and the History of Psychoanalysis, eds. T. Gelfand and J. Kerr, Hillsdale, N.J.: Analytic Press. Webster, R. (1995). Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis. London: HarperCollins. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
