ABSTRACT
It is widely accepted that modern psychology owes a debt to Freud: he is one of its ‘founding fathers’. Yet contemporary sports psychology does scant justice to that fact. This may result partly from the far from positive relationship between psychoanalytically inclined psychology and the kind of empirical psychology from which sports psychology developed. Whatever its general pedigree, I shall urge here that neglect of Freud typically leads to an impoverished view of the character and potential of sports psychology: that Freud could offer a more positive model. So my thesis is not merely that contemporary sports psychology neglects Freud’s work, but that it is damaged thereby. For Freud’s work offers ways of viewing the mind, the person and action more plausible than many currently espoused by sports psychology; and this is especially important when we consider methodologies, as Freud’s ideas can help combat a dominant scientism.
