Not to drive the point into the ground, as I haven't
taken advance courses in the field as I'm not a
psychology major, but over a period of about a month
last year I was exposed to the phlogiston analogy by a
psych major on the circuit, told that we wouldn't be
covering Freud at all in an intro psych class because
he's not accepted by current scientific psychologists,
and given Freud as an example of once widely-accepted
pseudoscience in a class on scientific philosophy. The
last is the main point: Freud didn't collect data, or
attempt to falsify hypotheses, or even observe any
meaningful sample of the population. He made wild
conjectures and then forced them upon an
insignificantly small group of patients. I think he
should be relegated to GK or philosophy in order to
avoid sullying the good name of the now very
scientific discipline of psychology. But if he's not,
that's okay; there are more important concerns when
writing questions, and I'll take a solidly written
packet with a Freud question over a badly written
packet with a concept question anytime.
--M.W.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com