Sigmund Freud and the Origins of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

It has become fashionable in recent years to describe Freud’s psychoanalytic theory as outmoded, elitist and sexist, and based on work with abnormal patients whose neuroses reveal little about normal behavior. Such criticism overlooks the fact that Freud arrived at his theories, often with great reluctance and resistance, only after years of being confronted with the compelling evidence offered to him both by the patients he treated and by his daily observations and reflections on the human condition.