In the last two issues of the New York Review of Books (available on-line to subscribers), Frederick Crews resumes his thirty-years war against psychoanalysis in general and Sigmond Freud in particular. Crews first became known as a literary critic who made much use of psychoanalysis, for example, in a study of Hawthorne. He lost his faith, however, and became increasingly critical of what he came to think was unverified, indeed unverifiable, pseudo-science. He was an eager and vigorous participant in the Freud Wars of the 1990s when the Founding Fathers person and views came under fundamental attack. Crews was also a powerful critic of recovered memory therapies. His latest essay discusses Freuds use of cocaine not only for therapeutic purposes (at times with disastrous results) but also for personal satisfaction. Crews argues that cocaine was in good part responsible for Freuds sense of himself as a heroic pioneer and perhaps even for elements of his most famous psychoanalytic theories. Crews ends the two-part essay with these comments about the Columbus of the unconscious: Freuds triumph in reaching that pinnacle without the aid of any confirmed discoveries or cures may be the most amazing chapter in the entire history of self-promotion. Neither Rousseau nor Nietzsche enjoyed such success in reconstituting the intellectual world to match his idiosyncracies. But Freuds own transformation was remarkable as well. Without cocaine, the polite and unhappy young doctor of April 1884 might never have become so reckless, so adamant, so sex preoccupied, and so convinced of his own importance that the contagion was caught by millions. Cocaine, along with nicotine, was Freuds drug of choicebut in the century to come, the opiate of the educated classes would be psychoanalysis. I must say that I am very sympathetic to Crewss critiques. I had always wondered whether Freuds theory, particularly his trinity of Id, Ego, and Super-Ego, were reifications, and how it could ever be verified. I think that one of the great puzzles of twentieth-century intellectual history is how Freuds reputation survived his Moses and Monotheism. In the last two issues of the New York Review of Books (available on-line to subscribers), Frederick Crews resumes his thirty-years war against psychoanalysis in general and Sigmond Freud in particular. Crews first became known as a literary critic who made much use of psychoanalysis, for example, in a study of Hawthorne. He lost his faith, however, and became increasingly critical of what he came to think was unverified, indeed unverifiable, pseudo-science. He was an eager and vigorous participant in the Freud Wars of the 1990s when the Founding Fathers person and views came under fundamental attack. Crews was also a powerful critic of recovered memory therapies. His latest essay discusses Freuds use of cocaine not only for therapeutic purposes (at times with disastrous results) but also for personal satisfaction. Crews argues that cocaine was in good part responsible for Freuds sense of himself as a heroic pioneer and perhaps even for elements of his most famous psychoanalytic theories. Crews ends the two-part essay with these comments about the Columbus of the unconscious:

Freuds triumph in reaching that pinnacle without the aid of any confirmed discoveries or cures may be the most amazing chapter in the entire history of self-promotion. Neither Rousseau nor Nietzsche enjoyed such success in reconstituting the intellectual world to match his idiosyncracies. But Freuds own transformation was remarkable as well. Without cocaine, the polite and unhappy young doctor of April 1884 might never have become so reckless, so adamant, so sex preoccupied, and so convinced of his own importance that the contagion was caught by millions. Cocaine, along with nicotine, was Freuds drug of choicebut in the century to come, the opiate of the educated classes would be psychoanalysis.

I must say that I am very sympathetic to Crewss critiques. I had always wondered whether Freuds theory, particularly his trinity of Id, Ego, and Super-Ego, were reifications, and how it could ever be verified. I think that one of the great puzzles of twentieth-century intellectual history is how Freuds reputation survived his Moses and Monotheism.

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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