From Allen Esterson
John Horgan says Freud’s theories persist because no one else has produced a
more powerful paradigm
(18 September, p 48).
This argument rests on the fallacy
that there should be some conceptual scheme that embraces the full complexity of
the mind.
As for neuroscientist Eric Kandel having a “liking for Freud”, in a recent
article he wrote that “we have, for the first time, the neural basis for a set
of unconscious mental processes. Yet this unconscious bears no resemblance to
Freud’s unconscious”. Susan Greenfield may find Freud “inspirational”, but her
contribution to Melvin Bragg’s recent On Giants’ Shoulders reveals that
she has little knowledge of the new wave of critical literature on Freud.
Horgan’s article also failed to address these critiques.
London
