[lbo-talk] Freud: what is science

[Michael Catolico]

i'm a little surprised that much of this discussion about freud has 
turned around whether or not his work is "scientific" - as though this 
is a neutral or non-ideological category in itself. freud's is not a 
positivist empirical discipline  in the sense that he made observations 
that could be readily repeated in a lab-like setting. isn't this one of 
the same arguments leveled at the "unscientific" aspects of marxism by 
bourgeois economists?

to me it's more a matter of truth content.  in the sense that marxism 
provides a radical knowledge base for social change, i believe that many 
aspects of freudianism are useful for identifying  and challenging how a 
dysfunctional society fractures individuals.

one intriguing attempt to apply  freudian concepts in something close to 
a "legitimate" scientific, clinical and socially analytic setting was 
adorno's work on "the authoritarian personality"  in which he and others 
identified psychological underpinnings of regressive/reactionary social 
movements (e.g. anti-semitism, nazism, etc.)

michael  "apparently no longer classifiable as neurotic by the medical 
profession" catolico