Freud revolutionized how we think about and treat mental health conditions. Freud founded psychoanalysis as a way of listening to patients and better understanding how their minds work. Psychoanalysis continues to have an enormous influence on modern psychology and psychiatry.
Freud is Still Relevant, But Only as a Reference Point
Freud’s legacy has transcended science, with his ideas permeating deep into Western culture. As psychologist and Freud critic John Kihlstrom himself admits, “More than Einstein or Watson and Crick, more than Hitler or Lenin, Roosevelt or Kennedy, more than Picasso, Eliot, or Stravinsky, more than the Beatles or Bob Dylan, Freud's influence on modern culture has been profound and long-lasting.”
But, Freud has, for the most part, fallen completely out of favor in academics. Simply put, no one taking psychology seriously would use him as a credible source. In 1996, Psychological Science reached the conclusion that, “There is literally nothing to be said, scientifically or therapeutically, to the advantage of the entire Freudian system or any of its component dogmas." As a research paradigm, it’s pretty much dead.
But wait, how does that mean he’s still relevant? Well…
Freud was absolutely correct in his assertion that we are not masters of our own mind. He showed that human experience, thought, and deeds are not exclusively driven by our conscious mind, but by forces outside our conscious awareness and control—ones that we could eventually understand through the therapeutic process he called, “psychoanalysis.” Today, very few would argue against the idea of the unconscious mind, and Freud’s claim for the central role of the unconscious mind in human actions is as relevant to psychology today as it was then (see the following collection of essays called Frontiers of Consciousness).
Freud also argued for the idea that the brain can be compartmentalized, that brain function can be broken down into individual parts. His take on this, of course, was incredibly primitive, as Freud mostly spoke of the ego, id, and superego—ideas we don’t really accept any more, as mentioned above. But, his larger thesis of psychic compartmentalization has gone to influence such thinkers as the cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, who talks about the society of mind.
