The enduring legacy of Sigmund Freud, radical | Letters

Psychiatry professorBrendan Kelly,Peter Wilson,Richard Wilkinsonand Kate Pickett, andDr Ian Flintoff debate Suzanne Moore ’s enthusiasm for the ideas of the father of psychoanalysisSuzanne Moore describes Sigmund Freud as “revolutionary” and says that he is now more relevant than Marx (Forget Marx. Freud is the radical we need, 26 December). Moore is right: Freud was right and so, for that matter, was Marx, at least on certain points. But Freud really was “properly radical”, not only reclaiming dreams as “psychical phenomena of complete validity” but also, as Moore points out, hearing the voice of Dora, a patient who “refused to be an object of exchange between powerful men” (most notably, perhaps, by terminating her treatment with Freud after just 11 weeks).Freud also decoded “the psychopathology of everyday life”, illuminating the meaning beneath apparent errors and describing such essential human habits as “motivated forgetting”. Today, when public life can seem like an infinite vortex of collective pathology and endless dysfunction, Freud is, perhaps, our sure st guide, reassuring us that – at some deeper level – all of this makes sense. Here’s hoping he is right.Brendan KellyProfessor of psychiatry, Trinity College DublinContinue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - December 27, 2018 Category: Science Authors: Letters Tags: Sigmund Freud Psychology Psychiatry Karl Marx Philosophy Society Science World news Politics Source Type: news