The Discredited Sigmund Freud on This Day in History

This Day in History: Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud was born on this day in 1856. While having a very recognizable name and a far reaching influence, his ideas have not stood the test of time, "Freud has, for the most part, fallen completely out of favor in academia. Virtually no institution in any discipline would dare use him as a credible source. In 1996, Psychological Science reached the conclusion that '[T]here is literally nothing to be said, scientifically or therapeutically, to the advantage of the entire Freudian system or any of its component dogmas.' As a research paradigm, it’s pretty much dead." https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-freud-still-matters-when-he-was-wrong-about-almost-1055800815

Todd Dufresne writes: “Freud is truly in a class of his own...Arguably no other notable figure in history was so fantastically wrong about nearly every important thing he had to say. But, luckily for him, academics have been — and still are — infinitely creative in their efforts to whitewash his errors, even as lay readers grow increasingly dumbfounded by the entire mess.”

The book "Freud: The Making of an Illusion" tells of a young Freud desperate for fame and riches, which he relentlessly pursued by championing one faddish quack remedy after another, backing away when justified criticism made his position untenable, covering his tracks with misleading or even completely false claims about what he’d been up to, then bustling on to the next gold mine.

To add to this, Freud was no stranger to cocaine. According to "Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography" by Dominic Streatfeild, "If there is one person who can be held responsible for the emergence of cocaine as a recreational pharmaceutical, it was Freud." He also got his friends on cocaine as he thought of coke as a miracle drug. He would send them samples to them touting cocaine's potential application as a mental stimulant, a treatment for asthma, eating disorders, an aphrodisiac and as a cure for morphine and alcohol addiction. 

Freud was also a chain-smoker, and as a result, he underwent more than 30 cancer surgeries.

However, there is a great story about Freud and the Gestapo that is worth relating. To be allowed to leave Vienna in 1938, the Nazi Secret Police made Freud write a statement saying that he had been treated fairly. Freud wrote "I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone."

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