ABSTRACT
Walter Lippmann had been the first lay writer in the United States to refer to Freud in a book. Freud was still regarded with much suspicion and hostility in 1915. In discussions of Freud's work, the perfect bromide is to say that his theories are exaggerated. Since the history of scientific thought makes it clear that later research modifies practically every hypothesis, it is altogether safe to insist that Freud's theories will appear crude to men of the future. Yet in the mouths of laymen, and even of ordinary neurologists, the remark is a most uninteresting truth. When made by people who have neither the knowledge nor the technique to understand or to criticize Freud, the comment is sheer platitude. They do not know wherein he exaggerates; they cannot give evidence that he does. Freud is first of all a physician, an applied scientist using his theory to carry him forward in dealing with his patients.
