02334cam a2200265 a 4500 000011706029 AuCNLKIN 20130116141048.0 950519s1995 nyu b 001 0deng 95022640 0465095798 0006384285 DLC eng DLC DLC BF109.F74 W33 1995 150.19/52/092 20 Webster, Richard, 1950- Why Freud was wrong : sin, science, and psychoanalysis / Richard Webster. New York, NY : BasicBooks, c1995. x, 673 p. ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 553-646) and index. The importance of Sigmund Freud to the history of the twentieth century needs no demonstration. Yet, as criticism of Freud has mounted, all the major biographies of this central figure in our culture have been written either by admirers or by authors who are themselves psychoanalysts. Why Freud Was Wrong sets out to redress the imbalance and to offer a definitive answer to controversies that have raged with increasing bitterness in recent years. It is the first complete and coherent account of Freud's life and work to be written from a consistently skeptical point of view. It is also an unusual and successful exercise in intellectual archaelogy. In a new analysis of the origins of psychoanalysis, Richard Webster traces Freud's essentially religious personality to his childhood and shows how the founder of psychoanalysis, burdened by his parents' reverence and expectations, allowed his messianic dreams to shape the "science" he created. He examines the manner in which Freud - far from being the fearless and independent thinker of psychoanalytic legend - repeatedly fell under the spell of charismatic theorists who were mistaken or deluded. Having shown how Freud again and again misdiagnosed his patients and failed to work the cures he claimed, Webster goes on to question his most important theoretical formulations. Through a careful analysis of cultural history, he shows that Freud's sexual theories were in reality religious doctrines in disguise, safe from the attacks of science precisely because they were presented as science. Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939. Psychoanalysis History. 32267 32267 0 0 ddc 0 0 Psychology MAIN MAIN OS 2013-01-16 GIFT ALLAN SHOOTER 15.00 0 150.1952092 FRE 17233 2013-01-16 00:00:00 15.00 2013-01-16 AM