Reconsidering Freud
Questioning the Foundations of Psychoanalysis with the Help of ‘Anna O’
The thinking of Sigmund Freud has been the subject of much controversy over the past century but psychoanalysis is still going strong, both as a therapeutic practice and as a tool for cultural and social analysis.
Critics of psychoanalysis have accused it of emotional exploitation, of exerting an unhealthy power over patients,
and of being unscientific, ineffective and obsessed with sexual matters.
In Reconsidering Freud Hilda examines the ‘founding case’ of psychoanalysis – that of Anna O – in terms of the light that this case can throw on the genesis of Freudian thought. She highlights inconsistencies, improbabilities and contradictions in the case reports and in Freud’s other writings; she draws attention to the primitive state of neurological knowledge at the time which allowed mistaken diagnoses to flourish; and finally, she discusses aspects of Freud’s character and professional approach which resulted in the psychoanalytic movement developing more as a religious cult than as either a science or a psychological treatment.
Hilda is the author of Guises of Desire, a biographical novel based on the life of Bertha Pappenheim (Anna O).
The next talk scheduled will be hosted by Liverpool Cafe Scientifique on
Wednesday 2 July 2014 at 7.30pm
Venue:
The Old Conference Room
Hope Street Hotel
Liverpool L1
Questioning the Foundations of Psychoanalysis with the Help of ‘Anna O’
The thinking of Sigmund Freud has been the subject of much controversy over the past century but psychoanalysis is still going strong, both as a therapeutic practice and as a tool for cultural and social analysis.
Critics of psychoanalysis have accused it of emotional exploitation, of exerting an unhealthy power over patients,
and of being unscientific, ineffective and obsessed with sexual matters.
In Reconsidering Freud Hilda examines the ‘founding case’ of psychoanalysis – that of Anna O – in terms of the light that this case can throw on the genesis of Freudian thought. She highlights inconsistencies, improbabilities and contradictions in the case reports and in Freud’s other writings; she draws attention to the primitive state of neurological knowledge at the time which allowed mistaken diagnoses to flourish; and finally, she discusses aspects of Freud’s character and professional approach which resulted in the psychoanalytic movement developing more as a religious cult than as either a science or a psychological treatment.
Hilda is the author of Guises of Desire, a biographical novel based on the life of Bertha Pappenheim (Anna O).
The next talk scheduled will be hosted by Liverpool Cafe Scientifique on
Wednesday 2 July 2014 at 7.30pm
Venue:
The Old Conference Room
Hope Street Hotel
Liverpool L1
