Theory Without Science
Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis, began his new and far reaching psychological theory during the spring of 1896 which expanded to many different arenas not yet explored by other theorists of his time. Much of Freud's work revolved around the unconscious mind, sexual inhibitions, and an abstract theory on the interpretation of dreams. Some of his study was grounded when Europe erupted into war and his three sons were fighting for their lives at the front lines of the battle (xviii). During this time Freud gave a lecture in 1917 which he called the "Revision of the Theory of Dreams." During this lecture Freud primarily examines how to interpret dreams. Around the same time Freud gave a lecture called "The Question of a Weltanschauung." During this rhetorical and tyrannical discourse Freud argues that psychoanalysis is a science and complements the true hard sciences already accepted. Freud's arguments, however, are far from credible. They lie on faulty grounds and presumptions with no accepted scientific theory. He uses a dogmatic approach filled with arbitrary suggestions with no scientific evidence proving his theories and thus he plainly relies on persuasive rhetoric to get his points across. Freud's theories of dream interpretation are ultimately unconvincing due to the lack of scientific support.
Freud begins his theory of the interpretation of dreams with a faulty premise and arbitrary suggestions with little scientific support for his theory. He begins to present his argument on an assumption which he admits, "We have?quite arbitrarily, it must be admitted?made the assumption, adopted as a postulate, that even this unintelligible dream must be a fully valid psy ...