Freud And Darwinism - Creation
PapersFreud and DarwinismJerry BergmanDarwin had a major influence on Sigmund Freud and the development of his human behavior theory. Freud, inturn, has profoundly influenced much of the field of psychology. Classical Freudian psychology has now beenwidely discredited, and research has shown much of the theory behind psychoanalysis to be erroneous.The branch of psychology that focuses on helpingpeople, called counseling psychology, has only beenin existence for a little over a century. One of the earliestbranches of psychology was psychoanalysis, a theory ofpersonality and treatment founded by Sigmund Freud, aphysician. Often called Freudian psychology, it influencedthe therapy world, especially the field of psychiatry, foralmost a century, but today has largely been discredited.Darwinian roots of the modernpsychotherapy movementDarwin’s writings, and those of his disciples, had amajor influence on the whole field of psychology.1 Freudwrote that “the theories of Darwin . strongly attractedme, for they held out hopes of extraordinary advance inour understanding of the world.”2 As a result “Freud tookDarwinian biology as his foundation.”3 One can easilyaccess the enormous influence of Darwin on psychologyas a whole by reviewing the writings of the founders of themodern field of psychology such as Wilhelm Wundt andWilliam James. One of the most important leaders,Sigmund Freud, called his method of therapy psychoanalysis,meaning to analyze the psyche or mind. His system gavebirth to, or highly influenced, nearly all counselling theories,including various psychotherapies, in existence today.This includes rational approaches as well as traditionalpsychotherapy approaches, not only Freudian, but otherpsychotherapies. 4 The major exception includes thebehaviorists. Freud had little or no effect upon behaviorism,but Darwin had an enormous influence as is very apparentin B.F. Skinner’s works.5Freud made it clear that “the study of evolution” wasan essential part of the training to be a psychoanalystand Darwinian theory was “essential to psychoanalysis”and “has always been present in Freud’s writings, albeitnever explicitly.”6 Thus, all of those Freudian supporterswho studied Freud’s works were also at least indirectlyinfluenced by Darwinism. It was “Darwin who pointedthe way, and the excitement caused by Darwin’s work wasat its height in the [eighteen] seventies in every countryin Europe.”7Freud’s theory was also based on the ideas of hisprofessional contemporaries, many of whom, such asIvan Pavlov and Edward Titchener, were also influencedby Darwin’s evolutionary theory.8,9 Vitz concludes thatJOURNAL OF CREATION 24(2) 2010“We should never lose sight of the fact that Freud wasoperating in a medical environment, where . Darwiniantheory” was the common model “from which oneapproached an understanding of the mental life.”10 Darwinhad such a profound influence on Freud’s psychoanalytictheories that Freud wrote Darwin’s Origin of Species wasone of the most significant books ever published.11Freud’s academic studies were also greatly influencedby “such world-famous scientists as Darwin”.12 Forexample, “much of Freud’s philosophy and general scientificattitude”, including his conclusion “that the [human] mindis ultimately physical (or, rather, physiological) came fromsuch great scientific theorists as Darwin”.10 It took Freudeight years instead of the usual five to qualify as a physicianbecause he also perused extensive graduate work in zoologyfocusing on Darwinism.13Freud was so involved in trying to prove Darwinismthat, by his third year in college, he was spending most of histime in the zoological experimental station working underProfessor Brucke. By this time he decided on a career, not inmedicine as he had originally planned, but rather in research;specifically on the “problems of comparative anatomy posedby Darwin’s evolutionary theory”.14 For Freud, Darwinwas not just Darwin, but ‘the great Darwin’. Freud wassuch an enthusiastic follower of Darwin that he was calledthe “scientific heir to Darwin”.15 Freud took his Ph.D. inphilosophy and zoology under Professor Brentano, whoFreud wrote was “a Darwinist and . a genius”.16 Freud alsoworked with Carl Claus, one of “Darwin’s most effectiveand prolific propagandists in the German language”.17In his writings, Freud referred directly to Darwin andhis work over 20 times, “always very positively”.18 Freudwas especially interested in Darwin’s work in the areaof psychology—for example, in his book Expression ofEmotions in Man and Animals Darwin taught the selfpreservation theory, an idea that was central to his survivalof the fittest concept. The theory developed by Freud andhis followers from Darwinism was based on the idea that allbehavior is the result of a few basic animal drives producedby natural selection to facilitate survival.Darwin argued that all animals have an innate selfpreservation instinct (i.e. libido) that included both thestruggle to survive and the drive to reproduce. The animalsthat survive this struggle and left more offspring were morelikely to pass on their ‘survival’ genes, including those for117
PapersFigure 1. Sigmund Freud approachingmiddle age at the height of his career.In almost all of the many photosI have seen, including this one, he isholding a cigar. Freud died of suicideafter suffering from a serious case oforal cancer that was likely caused bysmoking.a high sexual drive,to their progenycompared to animalsthat left feweroffspring. By thismeans, Darwinismargues, there was aselection for sexualdrive strength, whichcaused sex to becomethe main drive insexual animals. Thisconclusion is whythe sex drive becamecentral in Freud’stheory of humanbehavior and is whyhis system is termedpsychosexual theory,and the applicationof his theory is calledpsychosexual analysisor psychoanalysis.19Freudian concepts,such as libido, id,all derived from thisand/or psychosexual stages, areconclusion of Darwinism.Grace Adam wrote that as Darwin speculated aboutour evolutionary past, so too prominent psychologyleaders have speculated about “which seemingly humantraits might have been received intact from the dimsimian past.”20 One of the Darwinian ideas that Freudaccepted was the now discredited inheritance of acquiredcharacteristics, including the inheritance of mental traits,an idea that had a profound influence on psychology upto the 1950s.21Freud wrote that his ‘scientific’ theory of psychoanalysisis rejected by many persons, not because of science,but because “powerful human feelings are hurt” bypsychoanalysis theory and that“Darwin’s theory of descent met with the samefate, since it tore down the barrier that had beenarrogantly set up between men and beasts. I drewattention to this analogy in an earlier paper, inwhich I showed how the psycho-analytic view ofthe relation of the conscious ego to an overpoweringunconscious was a severe blow to human selflove. I described this as the psychological blowto men’s narcissism, and compared it with thebiological blow delivered by the theory of descentand the earlier cosmological blow aimed at it bythe discovery of Copernicus.”22Furthermore, the evolution of life means that“ no spirits, essences, or entelechies, nosuperior plans or ultimate purposes are at work.118The physical energies alone cause effects—somehow. Darwin had shown that there was hopeof achieving in a near future some concrete insightinto the ‘How’ of evolution. The enthusiastswere convinced that Darwin had shown morethan that—in fact had already told the full story.While the skeptics and the enthusiasts foughtwith each other, the active researchers were busyand happy putting together the family trees of theorganisms, closing gaps, rearranging the taxonomicsystems of plants and animals according togenetic relationships, discovering transformationseries, finding behind the manifest diversities thehomologous identities.”23Freud’s acceptance of Darwinism and atheisminfluenced his view of humans. In his words“ ethics are remote from me. . I have foundlittle that is ‘good’ about human beings on thewhole. In my experience most of them are trash. If we are to talk of ethics, I subscribe to a highideal from which most of the human beings I havecome across depart most lamentably.”24The psychoanalytic techniqueAt the core of psychoanalysis is free-association, atechnique encouraging the patient to talk about whatevercomes to his or her mind. The goal is to uncover the“unconscious roots of human behavior in man’s ineradicable animal nature”.25 One of the therapist’s majorroles is to provide an accepting environment that allows thepatient to shed animal inhibitions, open up, and mentallyroam without direction or censorship. To help patientsfree associate, they lie on a couch to encourage them torelax while the therapist sits behind the patient and takesnotes. This approach is largely limited to fairly articulatepatients with relatively mild symptoms: schizophrenicsand most psychotic patients are rarely able to benefit frompsychoanalysis.Freud taught that innate biological drives, such as sex,ultimately determine all behavior:“After Darwin had shaken mankind’s selfesteem by proposing a theory demonstrating humankinship with other animals, Freud shattered it stillfurther by asserting that people were far less masterin their own mental house than they had alwayssupposed.”26In short he taught “the ego is largely the servant ofunconscious and uncontrollable forces of the mind”, an ideathat no doubt hindered helping people with problems.27Freud and religionFreud, although very influenced by both Catholic andJudaic traditions as a youth, when taught Darwin in school,he rejected theism and became an atheist.28 Nonetheless,Freud openly acknowledged that “his early reading ofJOURNAL OF CREATION 24(2) 2010
Figure 3. The famous couch that Freud used to psychoanalyzehis patients. He sat in a chair to the left behind the patient so thathis patients would not be distracted by his note taking. Freud feltthe distraction would discourage them from speaking.the Bible had a decisive influence on his intellectual andspiritual development.”28Freud declared himself an atheist in 1874 whilestill a medical student, influenced by Darwin who “hadundertaken to place man firmly in the animal kingdom.”29One reason why Freud actively opposed religion wasbecause he concluded that it suppressed and inhibitedfreedom, especially sexual freedom.30 Freud postulatedthat basic drives, such as sex, were all programmed inhumans by evolution. For this reason Freud opposed the“suppressive, inhibitory rules of conventional morality,especially antagonism to sexual pleasure, which he believedwere contributory causes of neurosis.”31Psychological drives, such as the oral stage, werebelieved to be normally expressed only during thedevelopmental stages that correspond to Haeckel’sevolutionary developmental stages. Haeckel taught that aswe develop in the womb, we pass through the fish, reptile,and mammal stages before birth. Children likewise werebelieved to go through developmental stages, including theoral, anal, and phallic stages, until they reach adulthood.These stages dominate during certain growth periods, andhappiness as an adult was said to depend on successfullymeeting the needs of each developmental stage. Frustrationfrom failure to meet the needs of any one stage resulted inthe development of psychological problems later in life.Freud’s most famous and controversial idea was theOedipus complex. In his book, Totem and Taboo, Freudargued that the Oedipus complex was the “ontogeneticrecapitulation of an actual occurrence in the developmentof civilization” at the period of Darwin’s evolutionary stagethat taught when humans lived as apes in small groups thatoften consisted of one powerful male and several females.32Darwin’s 1876 work, A Bibliographical Sketch of an Infant,JOURNAL OF CREATION 24(2) 2010also stimulated Freud’s work in the area of psychology,especially child psychology.33Freud believed that Darwin had proved that our bodieshad evolved from animals, and said that our minds had alsoevolved from the lower animals:“The aspect of man’s pride to be wounded bybiological discoveries, those associated with thename of Darwin, was his belief in his unique status inthe animate realm . man came not simply to assumea position of domination over other animals, but .the power of reason, the possession of an immortalsoul, were his prerogatives alone. The demonstrationof his essential affinity with other animals, and hisdescent from them, was the second great blow toman’s pride. (Incidentally, this admission had beengenerally made only in respect of man’s body, not hismind; it was Freud’s work that is gradually extendingit to the latter.)”34As the Discovery Institute Wedge Documentconcluded,“Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and SigmundFreud portrayed humans not as moral spiritualbeings, but as animals or machines who inhabiteda universe ruled by purely impersonal forces andwhose behavior and very thoughts were dictatedby the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and[the] environment.”35Just as he believed that life evolved, Freud taughtthat religion, like every other aspect of mind includinginstinct, had evolved from animals, and for this reasonthe human mind, Freud believed, “could be accountedfor without the necessity of invoking any supernaturalintervention.”36 In manyways psychoanalysishas replaced religion:“Psychoanalysis hasoften been referred to asa religion because of theintensity of the disputeswithin the movementthat so often led to rebelsleaving it and setting uprival schools or splintergroups, in a mannerreminiscent of religioussects.”37Freud believed thatDarwin’s theory destroyed“the belief in a spiritualforce working withinthe organism”. 38 As a Figure 2. Totem und Tabu, theresult, Freud believed original edition translated intothat nothing stood “in the English as Totem and Taboo. This,one of his most controversialway of scientific method books, was heavily influencedbeing able to explain all by Darwinism and is now almostthe mysteries of organic universally discredited.119Photograph by H.-P.Haack www. wikipedia.orgCreated by Konstantin Binder www. wikipedia.orgPapers
Paperslife and of psychology.”38 This foundation of psychology andpsychiatry may explain why such a high percent of personsin this profession are atheists or, at least, agnostics.Darwin wrote that the origin of all biology was onceseen as the “handiwork of the Creator” but evolution hasshown it is actually the result of a “cruel and relentless battlefor existence, in which the less functional were selectedout.”39 Freud wrote that, likewise, the human personalityand all human traits are also a conflict in which thosepersons with the fittest traits survived. This selection oftraits that result from conflict in human relations “is basicin Freud’s psychoanalytic thinking, as it was in all postDarwinian biology.”39 Cooper concluded that mainstreampsychiatry has, since its very beginning, been preoccupiedwith the natural sciences; specifically Darwinism, whichhas strangled the way psychiatry views human nature, theresearch they do, and the solutions proposed to deal withpsychological problems.40One psychiatrist who exposed the fallacies of thisapproach to helping clients was Karl Menninger, founder ofthe Menninger Clinic. In his 1974 book, Whatever Becameof Sin,41 Menninger recognized that the idea of beingruled by our biology, and that misbehavior was a result ofinappropriately met needs that became part of the humancondition as a result of evolution, was erroneous. Menningerconcluded that the biblical teaching of personal responsibilityfor accepting the reality of sin and then endeavoring to dealwith it is central to good mental health.Criticism of orthodox psychoanalysisFreud also faced “a flood of criticism” during his life,which Jones notes Freud responded as his hero, Darwin,did, namely by publishing “more evidence in support of histheories”.42 According to Jones, Freud often tried to dismisscriticism of his theories by concluding that his critics werestupid, arrogant, illogical, and conscienceless.43 Jones addedFreud found that the “only effective reply” to his critics wasthe one Darwin used, “and that is the one he consistentlyfollowed”.44 A major problem with Freud was his relianceon Darwinism that taught all life was the result of “blind,clashing profane forces”, an idea that produced great debateabout the nature of human, creatures Darwin placed “firmlyin the animal kingdom”.45Orthodox psychoanalysis nowwidely discreditedPsychoanalysis has now been widely discredited byboth professional psychologists and others partly becausethe ideas it is based on have been discredited. An exampleis the ‘law of ontogenesis’, the idea that we repeat ourevolutionary history in the womb, traveling through theworm, fish, reptile, and mammal stages as we developfrom an embryo to a fetus.25 The vast literature critical ofpsychoanalysis published by mainline presses includes that120by Harvard graduate Harry K. Wells.46 Wells documentsthat psychoanalysis was introduced in America only duringthe last century and has, in this short time, passed fromorthodoxy, to revision, to reform, to reconstruction and,last, to demise. A major problem with psychoanalysis hasalways been its lack of solid scientific support and the factthat its supporters have failed to give scientific proof forthe efficacy of their technique.47 Kenyon concluded that“psychoanalysis is a constellation of suppositions withouta trace of scientific evidence in their support”.48Orthodox Freudian therapy is now widely consideredmoribund or, at the least, far more time consuming andexpensive than other equally or more effective therapies,and of historical interest only. Few books today arewritten critiquing orthodox psychoanalysis, except froman historical viewpoint because of this fact. Now critiqueshave spread to all of psychology. New York Universitypsychology professor Paul Vitz documents that psychologyhas become a substitute religion, one that stresses what hecalls ‘self worship’. 49ConclusionsBoth Marxism and psychoanalysis were based onDarwinism, and both are now widely regarded as moribundor worse. Thirty years ago psychiatry professor JosephWolpe concluded from a review of the research that currentpsychotherapeutic practices often harm the patients they aresupposed to help.50 Since then new techniques have largelyreplaced Freudian approaches, including drug therapy.The failure of Darwin’s progeny, including Marxism andpsychoanalysis, in the end is a result of the failure ofDarwinism itself as a system that accurately explains the realworld. Most of Freud’s innovative ideas, such as the Oedipuscomplex, have largely been empirically discredited. 51,52Freud built his theory of the mind so completely onDarwinism that his biographer, Ernest Jones, “bestowed onFreud the title . Darwin of the mind.”36 Of note is the factthat Freud was actually a Lamarckian (i.e. he accepted theinheritance of acquired characteristics theory of Lamarck),as was Darwin, and remained so“ from the beginning to the end of his lifewhat one must call an obstinate adherent of thisdiscredited Lamarckism. Over and over again heimplied or explicitly stated his firm belief in it.”53This may help explain why so many of Freud’stheories are now recognized as wrong, and actuallyirresponsible.Freud was driven less by science than his “liberalindividualist philosophy, itself a heritage of the Darwinianage.”54 In the end, as Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Medawarconcluded, “Freud’s theories will remain for ever one ofthe saddest and strangest of all landmarks in the history ofthe twentieth-century thought.”37JOURNAL OF CREATION 24(2) 2010
PapersAcknowledgementI wish to thank Paul Ackerman, Wilbur H. Entz, Jody Allen,RN, Clifford Lillo, George Cooper, and John UpChurch.Referencesand Company, Boston, MA, p. 7
was especially interested in Darwin’s work in the area of psychology—for example, in his book Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals Darwin taught the self-preservation theory, an idea that was central to his survival of the fittest concept. The theory developed by Freud and his followers from Darwinism was based on the idea that all
'1 On Freud's similarities to Hobbes, see Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (New York, 1988), 546; Paul Roazen, Freud: Political and Social Thought, 154, 213; Jeffrey B. Abramson, Liberation and Its Limits: The Moral and Political Thought of Freud (New York, 1984), 4, 11, 52-53, 133-34, 137-38. ' Freud
Freud's cases is a sense of how Freud thought, and, more particularly, how he thought with his patients. Even to the non-psychoanalytic reader Freud's case studies seem to communicate how it feels to do psychoa nalysis and learn from patients. In contrast to his theoretical writings
Plato, Precursor of Freud By Sarah Kofman I N THE INTERPRETATION Freud and OF DREAMS, Plato FREUD CITES PLAT0 ON two occasions. In the chapter "The Moral Sense in Dreams," reviewing the various authors who have expressed opinions on the subject, he writes, "Plato. . thought that the best men are those \\.ho only dream what others do
Freud, Sigmund. “The Economic Problem of Masochism.” In J. Strachey, ed. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Volume XIX. 159-170, 2001a. (Originally published in 1924) Freud, Sigmund. “The Ego and the Id.” In J. Strachey, ed. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud .
Psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud CLASSROOM EXERCISE: DO STUDENTS SUBSCRIBE TO FREUD’S THEORY? Purpose: To help students identify the extent to which they agree with Freudian presumptions, and to examine the underlying reasons for their beliefs. Provide copies of Miserandino’s survey in Teaching of Psychology as an introduction to Freud’s
FREUD, S. (1895c) Projeto de uma psicologia para neurólogos. In: Obras Completas de Sigmund Freud. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu, 1985. v. I. FREUD, S. (1895d) Sobre la justificación de separar de la neurastenia un determinado síndrome en calidad de 'neurosis de angustia'. In: Obras Completas de Sigmund Freud. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu, 1985. v .
Laissez-Faire Social Darwinism and Individualist Competition 19 Of course, laissez-faire was a prominent economic position in early-nineteenth-cen- tury Britain, and the doctrine
Image 34 Charles Duncan – A Modern Approach to Classical Guitar 106 Image 35 Mario Rodriguez Arenas – The School of the Guitar 108 Image 36 Julio Sagreras – First Guitar Lessons 109
