| Freudian theory indeed took western
20th-century civilization by storm. How so? The answer lies in four
factors. Of Freud's powers as a writer and advocate of ideas, and as a possessor of an extraordinary ability to weave together medical knowledge, some genuine insights into the human condition and a powerful imagination, there can be no question. He has the narrative skills of a first-rate novelist, and a knack for devising striking ways to describe the psychological phenomena he studies. His marvelous powers of imagination fed on analogy and metaphor, and annexed the austere terminologies of scientific medicine and psychology to them. This gave them authority. His case studies are highly organized narratives constructed from true-life gossip based on voyeurism—irresistible to human curiosity. The second attraction—that Freud offers each individual a revelation of secrets about himself that he does not himself know—is equally irresistible. The same compound of insecurity and curiosity, anxiety and desire that makes so many resort against their better judgment to fortune-tellers, is at work here; except that here the imprimatur of science makes the proceeding respectable, which is why people will spend far more on their analysts than on their astrologers. The third attraction is the promised theory of human nature. Religious accounts of fallen man, of humanity as midway between beast and angel, of imperishable souls trapped in disgusting matter and therefore sinful from birth, had lost their grip with many, while at the same time Darwinian views offered no account of why evolution had made man as he is. In identifying sexual and aggressive impulses as the fundamental human drives, and in specifying their causes, Freud offered an inclusive philosophical psychology. Humans struggle with conceptual bewilderments about themselves and their complex natures; one can see why the appearance of Freud's magisterial new insights seemed as welcome as rain in drought. And finally there is the fact that sex lies at. the core of the stow. Freud performed a great service by liberating debate on the matter, but it is questionable whether the importance he assigns it is correct. The hungry always think of food; the fed put eating in its proper place. The accidents of social history are easily mistaken for the essentials of human nature. The surprise is that people do not see how, at most, sex can only be part of a far more complicated story. From Animism to Zoroastrianism, every view known to man retains at least a few devotees. There might always be Freudians, and there will always be admirers of Freud's great imaginative and literary powers; these two, as the foregoing remarks suggest, are intimately linked. But as to Freud's claims upon troth, the judgment of time seems to be running against him. |