Was Freud a fraud?

A lot of social psychologist attitude about Freud is like they’re a pharmaceutical company that got its start by selling meth. Freud is considered this incredibly embarrassing figure. I think the verdict on Freud is complicated. I think Freud was wrong in just about all of his specific claims, but I think I think Freud got the big things right. The idea of an unconscious long preceded Freud, but Freud gave us an example of what a science of the

Unconscious might look like. If you go up to a political scientist, you you say, “What do you think of Freud?” They say Freud’s But if you say, “If you want to know why people vote for voted for Trump or voted for Harris, can you just ask them, wouldn’t that solve all your problems?” They would say, “No, because people might be motivated by forces that they are not aware of.” You might think you voted for Harris for

This, that, and other reason, but you really voted for her for for a different reason. And we accept that as psychologists. I accept. I think it’s true. I think the sort of Freudian strategy of saying that there’s unconscious mechanisms at work that are subterranean is right and that’s where I put his primary contribution.