Submitted by Fred Sander, Nov 29, 2006 20:28

To dismiss Freud on the basis of a childhood fantasy or his early seduction theory which he abandoned in 1897 seems ludicrous. The review also made it impossible to decipher where Peter Kramer left off and Dworkin began. At the risk of being too Freudian I would see the reviewer as suffering from envy of a thinker who redefined, or rediscovered the underbelly of human nature, an insight lost on the 21st century. Freud also gave full credit to philosophers and artists who had insights which he systemetized over a lifetime. The criticism I would have is not of Freud, but of his followers who have treated his word as gospel and failed to apply his theory to such areas as family life. The number of american psychoanalysts have remained relatively constant at about 3000 while the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy has risen to perhaps 30,000 in the past half century, correlated with the explosion of the divorce rate over the same period of time. Why have the followers of Freud who began with an understanding of 19th century manifestation of unconscious mental life, that is, hysteria, and not examined the manifestation of unconscious mental life in everyday family life?

Fred Sander

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