ABSTRACT
The reception of Sigmund Freud's new psychology itself reflected the assumptions of the time. According to the Freudians, The Interpretation of Dreams was being ignored by the "major technical medical weeklies" because of ingrained mores and entrenched beliefs. Moving Freud's biology and neurophysiology to the center of his system devalues its humanistic content; concentrating on political repression underlines its sympathy to Marxist ideals; stressing the contributions of the disciples implies questions about Freud's originality. Freud's ideas arose from a specific conjuncture of theoretical and practical conditions and elicited a variety of responses. In Central Europe, what is roughly called "modernism" was nearing its height. Most historians agree that the Viennese were hostile to psychoanalysis and that this hostility was part of a pervasive and often unexpressed anti-Semitism. Hostility to psychoanalysis in German-language areas came from psychologists, sociologists, theologians, and philosophers, in addition to psychiatrists.
