The Freud Encyclopedia: Theory, Therapy and Culture

On Freud’s 80th birthday Einstein wrote to him to congratulate him on his brilliant achievement but, to Freud’s annoyance, very markedly refused to say whether he thought Freud’s theories were true or not. In fact many of Freud’s theories have been shown to be untrue, pseudo‐scientific or unprovable. There is no serious clinical evidence to prove that the therapy he developed makes unwell people into well people (as there is, for example, with the cognitive behaviour therapies). He himself, in late life, once said that he thought that Lourdes was about as effective. It has been clearly shown that he...