Ernest Gellner stigmatizes Freudianism as a secular religion, where the Unconscious (a new version of the Original Sin) is treated as a Revelation, with a sharp distinction between the sacred (those under analysis) and the profane, between the good (the true believers) and the bad, and where reason must be suspended. Freud's concepts are untestable (the experience - transfer - between analysand and analyst is unique) and nebulous (reality can always be made conform to the system). His basic technique is free association which should lead to the uncovering of repressed mental contents and correspondent therapeutic consequences for the patient. The only testable component of the theory are its therapeutic claims, but the effectiveness of the therapy is extremely dubious and unproven. For the author, Freudianism is a self-perpetuating, falsification-evading, closed system, which controls its own database. In one word, it is a pseudo-science. Its enormous vested interests (also financial) are cultivated and protected by a guild: UNATO (United Nations Analysis and Therapy Organization). This brilliantly written, corrosive text contains excellent short evaluations of Nietzsche, Marx, Berkeley, Plato and Stoicism. A must read for all guild-members and outsiders
Ernest Gellner stigmatizes Freudianism as a secular religion, where the Unconscious (a new version of the Original Sin) is treated as a Revelation, with a sharp distinction between the sacred (those under analysis) and the profane, between the good (the true believers) and the bad, and where reason must be suspended