What Is Freudian Psychology?

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William Harvey is remembered for accurately describing the circulatory system. If his name is mentioned in a medical school or in a college classroom, I doubt that anyone snickers at his beliefs that the blood carried the soul or that the lens of the eye, rather than the retina, was where light changed to nervous impulses. Nobody questions the calculations of Newtonian physics because Newton himself believed that the design of the temple of Solomon contained secrets about the dimensions of the earth. Nobody ridicules Darwin or avoids using his name because he had no conception of DNA.

Yet if psychoanalysis is taught at all in college, it usually includes a unit on Freud’s odd beliefs. These scoff at Freudian ideas. A typical defense is to insulate science from the personality of any one person. To me, though, a better defense is to point out how only Freud’s odd ideas are currently associated with his name, and all of his good ideas are now seen as things that everybody knows.

I’m writing this on his 170th birthday. I thought I’d review some of his best ideas. You may find that you are, in fact, a Freudian.

One of Freud’s best ideas has to do with his approach to the human condition as a doctor. He championed the sensibility that many physical maladies have........

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