ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some recent responses to attacks on the value of Freudian theory. The argument that Freudian theory can only be appreciated when more loosely or figuratively construed is also addressed. It has been claimed that a memoir said to provide direct evidence of the correctness of Freud’s psychology of female development, Hug-Hellmuth’s A Young Girl’s Diary, was a fabrication. James Hopkins’ response was to insist that Freud was not invoking the infantile anal theory to explain the content of the obsession but merely its obsessional character. The philosopher Jerome Neu complains of the unfairness of imputing to Freud the claim that the male child has a desire to copulate with his mother. Lear holds that Freud’s distinctive contribution to human understanding is the discovery that “the human soul has depth”.
