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The Scientific Credibility of Freud's Theories and Therapy
. with dustjacket, 1977 clean bright copy
502 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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August 31, 2024
TWO PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSORS SUMMARIZE (circa 1977) EVIDENCE FOR/AGAINST FREUD
The authors (both psychology professors at the time this book was written in 1977) wrote in the Preface, "We think the time has come for a calm, dispassionate look at the validity of Freud's theories. We have written this book in order to evaluate how well these theories stand up to the test of the available scientific literature... it became apparent to us that a large mass of facts that relate to Freud's perspectives was accumulating.
"We set ourselves the task of gathering these facts and classifying and weighing them. Finally, we tried to integrate them and assess what they had to say about the soundness of various Freudian structures... We chose to focus on Freud's major propositions and theories... This book... is directed primarily at the scientific community concerned with psychoanalytic concepts and related personality phenomena." (Pg. ix-x)
They suggest, "the time has come to face up squarely to the scientific sparseness of what has generally been offered as support for Freudian formulations. For a half century the official psychoanalytic establishment has been trying to make its way in the world without openly recognizing its scientific weaknesses. It has boldly taken the position that what it chooses to transmit to outsiders about the events in psychoanalytic therapy transactions is sufficient evidence for believing psychoanalytic propositions." (Pg. 6)
They observe, "studies that involve young children have not delineated the kinds of shifts in attitude toward same-versus opposite-sex parents that Freud suggested would occur in the vicinity of the Oedipal period. However, other studies, primarily involving adults, have shown a trend for persons to entertain more positive feelings for the opposite-sex then the same-sex parent. Still other studies have presented suggestive evidence that Oedipal parameters do logically predict selective feelings of anxiety of disturbance about one's parents. The studies involving adults have produced results that seem to make sense within Freud's Oedipal frame of reference." (Pg. 182)
They argue, "While we cannot conclude that the studies offer unequivocal evidence that analysis is more effective than no-treatment, they do indicate with consistency that this seems probable with regard to a number of analysts and their nonpsychotic, chronic patients. Interestingly... Freud convinced himself of the efficacy of analytic therapy largely on the basis of his experiences with very disturbed, chronic cases." (Pg. 322)
More controversially, they suggest, "The etiology of homosexuality, phrased by Freud largely in developmental terms, has also stood up well to the known facts. Convincing material can be cited which portrays the male homosexual's father as playing the hostile, rejecting role Freud assigned to him. To a lesser but still significant extent, there has been verification that the male homosexual's mother is 'close' and 'binding.' This gives credence to Freud's view that male homosexuality arises in a context where the behavior of mother and father... inhibits the taking of heterosexual love objects and presumably encourages a ... regressive pattern of modeling self after mother." (Pg. 393) [But note that they provide little in the way of "supporting references" for these statements, however.]
They conclude, "[we suggest] A need to maintain a conservative and fundamentally questioning position concerning the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy and even whether the therapy exists as a clearly definable set of operations. On the positive side, we have affirmed the basic soundness of Freud's thinking about... The oral and anal character concepts... The Oedipal and castration factors in male personality development... the possible venting function of the dream." (Pg. 414)
Freudian theory has undergone serious critical evaluation in the more than 45 years since this book was written, but it still has value for anyone studying Freudian theory.
The authors (both psychology professors at the time this book was written in 1977) wrote in the Preface, "We think the time has come for a calm, dispassionate look at the validity of Freud's theories. We have written this book in order to evaluate how well these theories stand up to the test of the available scientific literature... it became apparent to us that a large mass of facts that relate to Freud's perspectives was accumulating.
"We set ourselves the task of gathering these facts and classifying and weighing them. Finally, we tried to integrate them and assess what they had to say about the soundness of various Freudian structures... We chose to focus on Freud's major propositions and theories... This book... is directed primarily at the scientific community concerned with psychoanalytic concepts and related personality phenomena." (Pg. ix-x)
They suggest, "the time has come to face up squarely to the scientific sparseness of what has generally been offered as support for Freudian formulations. For a half century the official psychoanalytic establishment has been trying to make its way in the world without openly recognizing its scientific weaknesses. It has boldly taken the position that what it chooses to transmit to outsiders about the events in psychoanalytic therapy transactions is sufficient evidence for believing psychoanalytic propositions." (Pg. 6)
They observe, "studies that involve young children have not delineated the kinds of shifts in attitude toward same-versus opposite-sex parents that Freud suggested would occur in the vicinity of the Oedipal period. However, other studies, primarily involving adults, have shown a trend for persons to entertain more positive feelings for the opposite-sex then the same-sex parent. Still other studies have presented suggestive evidence that Oedipal parameters do logically predict selective feelings of anxiety of disturbance about one's parents. The studies involving adults have produced results that seem to make sense within Freud's Oedipal frame of reference." (Pg. 182)
They argue, "While we cannot conclude that the studies offer unequivocal evidence that analysis is more effective than no-treatment, they do indicate with consistency that this seems probable with regard to a number of analysts and their nonpsychotic, chronic patients. Interestingly... Freud convinced himself of the efficacy of analytic therapy largely on the basis of his experiences with very disturbed, chronic cases." (Pg. 322)
More controversially, they suggest, "The etiology of homosexuality, phrased by Freud largely in developmental terms, has also stood up well to the known facts. Convincing material can be cited which portrays the male homosexual's father as playing the hostile, rejecting role Freud assigned to him. To a lesser but still significant extent, there has been verification that the male homosexual's mother is 'close' and 'binding.' This gives credence to Freud's view that male homosexuality arises in a context where the behavior of mother and father... inhibits the taking of heterosexual love objects and presumably encourages a ... regressive pattern of modeling self after mother." (Pg. 393) [But note that they provide little in the way of "supporting references" for these statements, however.]
They conclude, "[we suggest] A need to maintain a conservative and fundamentally questioning position concerning the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy and even whether the therapy exists as a clearly definable set of operations. On the positive side, we have affirmed the basic soundness of Freud's thinking about... The oral and anal character concepts... The Oedipal and castration factors in male personality development... the possible venting function of the dream." (Pg. 414)
Freudian theory has undergone serious critical evaluation in the more than 45 years since this book was written, but it still has value for anyone studying Freudian theory.
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