Sigmund Freud Psychological Theories

In the history of science, especially psychology, there have been many great minds that have shaped the theories we still use today; These people’s theories are usually still taught in classrooms around the world. However, it is not to often that you come across someone who can be extremely controversial, and still be regarded as noteworthy. Sigmund Freud, while in recent years has come to be somewhat infamous in psychological circles, was and still is, regarded as one of the first real psychologists. While, at the time of his work, he was met with little resistance, in more recent years, Freud’s works have come under intense scrutiny for the theories he held about women, religion, and the methods that he used in his psychoanalysis. Many …show more content…
However, to see just how controversial he is, all one needs to do is pick up a psychology textbook, or sit in on a lecture about Freud by a modern psychology professor. He is the man whom seemingly every student, professor and literature reviewer loves to hate. One could make a very convincing argument that Freud set the women’s movement back many years, simply because his theories and views were taken as fact by many of the general non-scholar populace. Many have argued that Freud’s theories were an outcome of his cocaine use, and thus can be explained as the delusions of an addicted madman (Robinson, 1993). However, others argue that Freud is so controversial, because of his intellectual success, and the charisma of his work. If he had been a lesser-known figure in psychology and academia, would there be quite as many people try to poke holes in his arguments, and theories? If you go looking for holes, and problems in anything, you will find them eventually. So maybe it is not a question of whether Freud was controversial or not, but rather why it is so easy to find controversy in his