Torrey begins by discussing Freud's practice as a psychoanalyst. Freud was very influenced by occult ideas, including numerology as well as the idea of his fellow physician Wilhelm Fliess that the nose is linked to human sexuality. This led Freud to operate on the nose of many patients, leading often to permanent disfiguration.
In addition, Freud advocated the use of cocaine as a panacea for all physical and mental ills and took the drug heavily himself. Freud's system also was very denigrating towards women viewing the mother as the source of all mental problems and personal unhappiness. Nevertheless, because Freud openly discussed sex as the source of mental problems he became a favorite among those who advocated sexual liberation during the Victorian era. Prime among these figures was the anarchist Emma Goldman who became enthralled by Freudianism and advocated for birth control and sexual freedom. In America, Freud's ideas became linked to leftist political thought after the emigration to this country of anthropologist Franz Boas. Torrey contrasts nature and nurture showing how at the beginning of the Twentieth century rightists were associated with the nature side of the spectrum, often advocating eugenics and biological determinism as well as racialism. In contrast, leftists were associated with the nurture side of the spectrum, often appealing directly to Freud to show that social problems were rooted in child rearing methods.
Cultural relativists like Franz Boas came to advocate leftist politics while appealing to both Freud and Marx against rightists such as the racialist Madison Grant. Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, two of the students of Boas, became very famous with their anthropological work supposedly showing that in more "liberated" cultures adolescence was less stressful.
Nevertheless, as Torrey shows the work of Mead in particular was
heavily biased by faulty methods, she came to see in the cultures she examined exactly what she expected to see because her methods of questioning influenced her informers.
Mead was a bisexual and this may have led to her adoption of Freudian theory. With the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, the nature/nurture question became settled, making it in bad taste to argue that behaviors could be genetically determined. Torrey next devotes a chapter to the influence of Freud among various political radicals and social elites, particularly among a group of leftists in New York City who openly advocated for Trotsky.
Torrey also shows how Freudian ideas became influential in both the nursery and the prison system. In the nursery, the ideas of Benjamin Spock, based on Freudian concepts, came to prevail for an entire generation. It should be remembered that before Spock mankind had been successfully raising children since time immemorial. Nevertheless, Spock would come to take a prime place among a generation of individuals. In the prison system, Freudian ideas were used often to argue that criminals were products of a dysfunctional childhood. This frequently allowed criminals such as Leopold and Loeb to be given lighter sentences and led to an abuse of the insanity defense. Indeed, the notion of personal responsibility became untenable in the light of Freudian theory. Torrey next turns his attention to the intellectual elite, including individuals like Marcuse, Goodman, and Brown who often advocated a combined Freudianism and Marxism as part of the New Left. It should be noted that although Freudianism was frequently linked to radical politics in America, that Freud himself was an elitist. Freud looked down upon lower members of society and his services were pretty much uniformly offered to only the wealthy class. Indeed, Freud refused to treat the severely mentally ill. Torrey suggests that Freudianism has led to a massive misallocation of resources, in which the most severely ill are never treated or treated with Freudian nonsense, while those who have only life complaints are given full Freudian analyses. Nevertheless, Freud must be credited for his promotion of the idea of the unconscious. Torrey also notes the similiarity of Freudian analysis to a religion, emphasizing its Jewish influence, something that cannot be overstated. Torrey concludes with two appendices in which he discusses the influence of Freud on intellectuals (...)
After reading this book, I became more convinced than ever that Freudian ideas have been highly harmful to the psychic well-being of many Americans. In addition, the linkage between Freudian ideas and elitist leftist politics has proven disastrous for this country and for man's freedom.
Psychiatry is a subversive fake? The Thud Experiment
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Originally Posted by Mig el Pig
