ABSTRACT
S. Freud's biographer Ernest Jones called Freud "the Darwin of the mind." In fact, Darwin was the Darwin of the mind, with Freud as his great popularizer. Freud is the father of psychoanalysis and Darwin is its usually unacknowledged grandfather. Newton modestly described himself as a dwarf sitting on the shoulders of preceding giants. Freud was probably over-valued in his own lifetime and has been compensatorily undervalued since. He divided the contributions of psychoanalysis into three parts: psychoanalysis as a theory of human nature; psychoanalysis as a research tool; and psychoanalysis as a therapy. These three roles have fared differently in the crucible of history and will likely also face very different futures. Freud’s early career was as dedicated neuroscientist, a pioneer in understanding neurons and their interconnections through synapses. Ferenczi, much more than Freud, was a complete clinician and the father of psychoanalysis as healing art and psychotherapy.
