Critical evaluation of Freud’s theory

Critical evaluation of Freud’s theory

Status of Freud’s theory as a scientific one

·        Question of reliability and validity

·        Question of generaliability and representativeness

·        Quantifiability

Status of coherence of Freud’s theory

·        System of interpretation

·        Delineation of cause and effect relationship

·        Deemphasizing important influence on personality

Freudian psychotherapy

Strength of Freud work

Status of Freud’s theory as a scientific one

 ·        Question of reliability and validity

 An often made criticism of Freudian theory is that, many of the Freudian hypotheses are not testable, since one criterion for valuable scientific theory is its ability to generate testable hypothesis.

eg, if Freudian theorist conclude that , patient has a strong unconscious hatred  for  his sister what sort of evidence would demonstrate that  the conclusion is correct or incorrect.

If the patient says she cannot remember any negative feeling towards sister –according to Freud she is repressing them.

            

If the patient describes how much she loves her sister. Freud would infer it as reaction formation and if the patient she harbor some negative feeling towards her sister Freud would argue that the therapy has been successful in bringing the material into consciousness. Thus if the hypothesis generated by the theory cannot be unsupported them neither can it be truly supported. This makes the theory less scientific. Moreover, the theory does not lend itself for empirical validation for e.g. it is impossible to derive any empirical proposition from the postulation of death wishes.

Freud has also been criticized for accepting at face value whatever   a patient said, without attempting to corroborate it by some external evidence.

 ·        Question of generaliability and representativeness

 Freud based his theory on a very small number of observations.

E.g., question are being raised as to, in how many cases did he find an association between paranoid and homosexuality, hysteria and oral fixation etc.

Also Freud’s patients hardly representated typical adults. Not only did they come from relatively wealthy and educated European families they also were suffering from psychological disorders.  Thus it will be an illogical assumption to expect that the minds of the patients function the same as the mind of average psychological healthy adult. Thus, Freud’s  theory lacks the capacity to generalize its concepts to diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

 ·        Quantifiability

 Thirdly the theory stands silent on the problem of how to quantitatively measure certain concept for e.g. cathexis and anticathexis.

 Status of coherence of Freud’s theory

·        System of interpretation

Freud has never given any systematic account of his method of analysis and his inductive and deductive operations.

Consequently it is practically impossible to repeat any of the Freudian investigation in accordance with original design. Thus other investigators have often reached at different conclusion and interpretation of ostensibly by the same phenomena.

Moreover he is accused of drawing inference and reaching conclusion by a line of reasoning that was rarely made explicit.

 ·        Delineation of cause and effect relationship

 Secondly Freudian theory is markedly deficit in providing set of relational rules by which one can arrive at precise cause and effect relationship between traumatic experience, dreaming  , repression etc. what concepts the formation of superego with Oedipus complex?

 ·        Deemphasizing important influence on personality

 Freud Theory has also been attacked on the grounds that he ignored or deemphasized important influences on personality other than childhood. E.g. Freud failed to recognize how experiences beyond the first five years of life could affect the personality. Freud has also been criticized for over emphasis on an instinctual basis of personality at the expense of important social and cultural influences. Still other look issue with Freud’s tendency to concentrate on psychological disorders rather than on daily functioning and positive aspects of personality.

 Freudian psychotherapy

 Freud’s therapy has been criticized for being an extremely time consuming and costly process. Freud has also been unsystematic regarding the structure, frequency and duration of the therapy necessary to bring about change.

One of the most serious limitations of psychoanalytic therapy is that its use is restricted for a narrow section of the population educated, intelligent, and resourceful with good capacity for verbal expression. 

 Strength of Freud work

 Freud’s theory is said to be first comprehensive theory of human behavior and personality. The shape of more recent approaches to personality, even though far removed from Freud’s theory has probably been influenced by Freud.

Freud is also the pioneer who popularized and promoted psychological principles and their role in the development of personality as well pathology. Freud can be credited with developing the fist system of psychotherapy.