Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture

by E. Fuller Torrey

Book Overview

During a period of prolonged cocaine usage in the 1890s, Sigmund Freud developed a theory of human behavior which asserted that early childhood experiences, especially those of a sexual nature, are... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060168129
• ISBN13: 9780060168124
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Freud's theories are finally, definitively disproven: An important book

The Freudian Fraud is the book a lot of psychologists, family therapists, marriage counselors, and others don't want you to read. Freud's theories about dream analysis, repression, and others are debunked. And with the debunking of these theories, so are the pseudo-therapies that rely on it. Does talking help? Yup. Do you need an expert who is trained in Freudian Theory? Nope. In fact, it could be dangerous to your health. Instead Dr. Torrey shows how the modern brain scanning techniques, neurobiology investigations, and scientific research is creating much more effective treatments than couch therapy. Everyone should read this book and other books by Dr. Torrey (who is head of Stanley Medical REsearch Institute and on board of the Treatment Advocacy Center.

A bath of critical acid

Following in the capable footsteps of Frederick Crews ("Skeptical Engagements"), Richard Webster ("Why Freud Was Wrong"), Adolph Grunbaum ("The Foundations of Psychoanalysis"), Frank Cioffi, Frank Sulloway, Elizabeth Thornton and many others - Fuller Torrey chips away at Freud's waning reputation and subjects the "heroic" Freud of myth and legend to another bath of critical acid. It seems more and more plain that Freud was not a bona fide scientist and that his real genius was for self-promotion. As Nobelist, Peter Medawar, has said, psychoanalysis is a "dinosaur or zeppelin in the history of ideas, a vast structure of radically unsound design and with no posterity." In time, Freudism seems fated to go the way of phrenology.

The Freudian Fraud.

If I had to live over again I should devote myself to psychical research rather than psychoanalysis. -Sigmund Freud _Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture_ by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey traces the role of Freudian theory (particularly that concerning the role of sex in childhood development) in American culture and thought. Freud postulated that the behavior of children was sexual in nature and maintained a highly dogmatic position about such notions as the Oedipus complex throughout his life. This book examines the harmful role of Freudian theory in American culture. Torrey argues that Freudian theory is not only unscientific but has been harmful leading to a culture of narcissism and irresponsibility. Torrey begins by discussing Freud's practice as a psychoanalyst. Freud was very influenced by occult ideas, including numerology as well as the idea of his fellow physician Wilhelm Fliess that the nose is linked to human sexuality. This led Freud to operate on the nose of many patients, leading often to permanent disfiguration. In addition, Freud advocated the use of cocaine as a panacea for all physical and mental ills and took the drug heavily himself. Freud's system also was very denigrating towards women viewing the mother as the source of all mental problems and personal unhappiness. Nevertheless, because Freud openly discussed sex as the source of mental problems he became a favorite among those who advocated sexual liberation during the Victorian era. Prime among these figures was the anarchist Emma Goldman who became enthralled by Freudianism and advocated for birth control and sexual freedom. In America, Freud's ideas became linked to leftist political thought after the emigration to this country of anthropologist Franz Boas. Torrey contrasts nature and nurture showing how at the beginning of the Twentieth century rightists were associated with the nature side of the spectrum, often advocating eugenics and biological determinism as well as racialism. In contrast, leftists were associated with the nurture side of the spectrum, often appealing directly to Freud to show that social problems were rooted in child rearing methods. Cultural relativists like Franz Boas came to advocate leftist politics while appealing to both Freud and Marx against rightists such as the racialist Madison Grant. Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, two of the students of Boas, became very famous with their anthropological work supposedly showing that in more "liberated" cultures adolescence was less stressful. Nevertheless, as Torrey shows the work of Mead in particular was heavily biased by faulty methods, she came to see in the cultures she examined exactly what she expected to see because her methods of questioning influenced her informers. Mead was a bisexual and this may have led to her adoption of Freudian theory. With the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, the nature/nurture question became se

A paradigm change

This book advances science over theory. Torrey debunks the ideas of American freudism which has slanders parenting for nearly 100 years now. It is intellectually sound and historically correct, a rarity in literature dealing with Father Freud.

A Look Into the Changing American Culture

This magnificent work takes a look into the ways in which the works of Freud have affected the way American society has come to view itself over the past century. It deals with the shift in thought in sociology and anthropology and how that has affected American culture and the world as a whole. Good for anyone who hates political correctness