Freud and His Critics

Wars against Freud have been waged along virtually every front during the past decade. Now Paul Robinson takes on three of Freud's most formidable critics, mounting a thoughtful, witty, and ultimately devastating critique of the historian of science Frank Sulloway, the psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, and the philosopher Adolf Grnbaum. Frank Sulloway contends that Freud took most of his ideas from Darwin and other contemporary thinkersthat he was something of a closet biologist. Jeffrey Masson charges that Freud caved in to peer pressure when he abandoned his early seduction theory (which Masson believes was correct) in favor of the theory of infantile sexuality. Adolf Grnbaum impugns Freud's claim to have grounded his ideasespecially the idea of the unconsciouson solid empirical foundations. Under Robinson's rigorous cross-examination, the evidence of these three accusers proves ambiguous and their arguments biased by underlying assumptions and ideological commitments. Robinson concludes that the anti-Freudian writings of Sulloway, Masson, and Grnbaum reveal more about their authors' prejudicesand about the Zeitgeist of the past decadethan they do about Freud. Beautifully crafted and full of surprises, Robinson's work is a compelling defense of one of history's most original and powerful minds. Freud and His Critics will earn an enduring place in the raging Freudian debate.

Wars against Freud have been waged along virtually every front during the past decade. Now Paul Robinson takes on three of Freud's most formidable critics, mounting a thoughtful, witty, and ultimately devastating critique of the historian of science Frank Sulloway, the psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, and the philosopher Adolf Grünbaum.
Frank Sulloway contends that Freud took most of his ideas from Darwin and other contemporary thinkers—that he was something of a closet biologist. Jeffrey Masson charges that Freud caved in to peer pressure when he abandoned his early seduction theory (which Masson believes was correct) in favor of the theory of infantile sexuality. Adolf Grünbaum impugns Freud's claim to have grounded his ideas—especially the idea of the unconscious—on solid empirical foundations.
Under Robinson's rigorous cross-examination, the evidence of these three accusers proves ambiguous and their arguments biased by underlying assumptions and ideological commitments. Robinson concludes that the anti-Freudian writings of Sulloway, Masson, and Grünbaum reveal more about their authors' prejudices—and about the Zeitgeist of the past decade—than they do about Freud.
Beautifully crafted and full of surprises, Robinson's work is a compelling defense of one of history's most original and powerful minds. Freud and His Critics will earn an enduring place in the raging Freudian debate.

Introduction: The Anti-Freudian Mood......Page 2 1. Frank Sulloway: Freud as Closet Sociobiologist......Page 8 Ernst Brücke, Jean Martin Charcot, and Josef Breuer......Page 11 Wilhelm Fliess......Page 14 (1) Mapping Out “Critical Stages” in Psychosexual Development.......Page 19 (2) “Organic” Repression and the Sense of Smell.......Page 20 (3) The Fantasy Life of Neurotics.......Page 21 The Project, the Seduction Theory, and the Self-Analysis......Page 23 Darwin and the Sexologists......Page 26 Dreams......Page 29 The Primal Crime and the Death Instinct......Page 31 Psychoanalytic Politics......Page 34 Notes......Page 38 2. Jeffrey Masson: Freud, Seduction, and the New Puritanism......Page 39 The Abandoned Seduction Theory......Page 40 Emma Eckstein......Page 46 Sandor Ferenczi......Page 50 Against Therapy......Page 52 Marianne Krüll and Marie Balmary......Page 55 The Seduction Theory as Historical Construct......Page 59 The New Puritanism......Page 65 Notes......Page 66 3. Adolf Grünbaum: The Philosophical Critique of Freud......Page 69 The Hermeneutic Freud......Page 71 Karl Popper and the Question of Falsifiability......Page 76 The Tally Argument......Page 80 Dreams and Slips......Page 87 Grünbaum’s Critics......Page 91 Freud and the Empiricist Tradition......Page 97 Notes......Page 100 Conclusion: Freud and Intellectual History......Page 103 Notes......Page 104 "With admirable clarity, Paul Robinson painstakingly reconstructs and then relentlessly dismantles the arguments of Freud's most tenacious and recent debunkers. The results stunningly vindicate the abiding power of psychoanalysis as a master discourse of our age."--Martin Jay, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley Mounting an attack on Freud's most formidable critics, this study argues that the evidence of his main accusers is biased by underlying assumptions and ideological commitments. It concludes that anti-Freud writings reveal more about the authors' prejudices than they do about Freud.