Welcome to the Online Dictionary

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The Online Dictionary of Mental Health is brought to you by Human Nature  as a global information resource and research tool, compiled by Internet mental health resource users for Internet mental health resource users,  covering all of the disciplines contributing to our understanding of mental health.  The Dictionary is an exercise in democratic psychiatry in keeping with the traditions of the host site. Therefore there are no definitions here; instead there are links to many sites offering different viewpoints on issues in mental health, which are accessible using the A-Z links above, or the subject index below. Because of the nature of this resource we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the contents of any of the sites to which links are provided, and inclusion of a site here does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by Human-Nature.Com or any of its associates.

Clinical research studies being conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Read our latest book reviews in The Human Nature Review.

Latest News

You can stay up-to-date with the latest news in mental health by reading our daily summary of news, reviews, and research papers in The Human Nature Daily Review.

Mental Health Bestsellers [Top Ten Best-selling Titles - Continuously Updated]

(See also UK Bestsellers: Aging, Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression), Death & Bereavement, Depression, Domestic Violence, Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Eating Disorders, Mood Disorders, Psychiatry, Psychotherapy & Abnormal Psychology, Rape, Schizophrenia, Stress, Suicide )

Subject Index

Topics currently included in the Dictionary:

Discussion Webs

• Burying Freud? - Debates on the Validity of Psychoanalysis

A century has passed since Freud started publishing the works that established his reputation as a scientist, healer, and sage, as one of the major thinkers of the 20th century, and as, in the words of the Freudian literary critic Harold Bloom , "the central imagination of our age". Although his standing as a clinical scientist and biologist of the mind has always been precarious among those capable of judging scientific competence, his admirers have by no means been confined to the laity. In 1938, the secretaries of the Royal Society brought him their official charter to sign, "thereby joining his signature with Newton's and Darwin's". Despite much early hostile criticism-sometimes motivated by overt or covert anti-Semitism-Freud's reputation simply grew. He was, and remains, more famous than his critics, who have often seemed mere detractors. And yet his reputation is deeply mysterious. Esterson has reflected that "the rise of psychoanalysis to a position of prominence in the twentieth century will come to be regarded as one of the most extraordinary aberrations in the history of Western thought".  - Professor Raymond Tallis Burying Freud.

• Jeffrey Masson and Freud's Seduction Theory: a new fable based on old myths
  by   Allen Esterson

One of the most enduring myths of psychoanalytic history is that Freud proposed his seduction theory as a result of hearing frequent reports from his female patients that they had been sexually abused in childhood. A second myth is that in the early days of psychoanalysis, Freud's medical colleagues took such exception to his theories of infantile sexuality that they subjected him to professional ostracism. Jeffrey Masson combined these two myths to produce a compelling and influential account of the seduction theory episode. However, an examination of the contemporary documents indicates that Freud's clinical findings reported in the seduction theory papers were spurious, that he was right to abandon the seduction theory, and that Masson's version of events is erroneous.

human-nature.com © Ian Pitchford and Robert M. Young - Last updated: 28 May, 2005 02:29 PM

Welcome to the Online Dictionary

Search Now:

The Online Dictionary of Mental Health is brought to you by Human Nature  as a global information resource and research tool, compiled by Internet mental health resource users for Internet mental health resource users,  covering all of the disciplines contributing to our understanding of mental health.  The Dictionary is an exercise in democratic psychiatry in keeping with the traditions of the host site. Therefore there are no definitions here; instead there are links to many sites offering different viewpoints on issues in mental health, which are accessible using the A-Z links above, or the subject index below. Because of the nature of this resource we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the contents of any of the sites to which links are provided, and inclusion of a site here does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by Human-Nature.Com or any of its associates.

Clinical research studies being conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Read our latest book reviews in The Human Nature Review.

Latest News

You can stay up-to-date with the latest news in mental health by reading our daily summary of news, reviews, and research papers in The Human Nature Daily Review.

Mental Health Bestsellers [Top Ten Best-selling Titles - Continuously Updated]

(See also UK Bestsellers: Aging, Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression), Death & Bereavement, Depression, Domestic Violence, Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Eating Disorders, Mood Disorders, Psychiatry, Psychotherapy & Abnormal Psychology, Rape, Schizophrenia, Stress, Suicide )

Subject Index

Topics currently included in the Dictionary:

Discussion Webs

• Burying Freud? - Debates on the Validity of Psychoanalysis

A century has passed since Freud started publishing the works that established his reputation as a scientist, healer, and sage, as one of the major thinkers of the 20th century, and as, in the words of the Freudian literary critic Harold Bloom , "the central imagination of our age". Although his standing as a clinical scientist and biologist of the mind has always been precarious among those capable of judging scientific competence, his admirers have by no means been confined to the laity. In 1938, the secretaries of the Royal Society brought him their official charter to sign, "thereby joining his signature with Newton's and Darwin's". Despite much early hostile criticism-sometimes motivated by overt or covert anti-Semitism-Freud's reputation simply grew. He was, and remains, more famous than his critics, who have often seemed mere detractors. And yet his reputation is deeply mysterious. Esterson has reflected that "the rise of psychoanalysis to a position of prominence in the twentieth century will come to be regarded as one of the most extraordinary aberrations in the history of Western thought".  - Professor Raymond Tallis Burying Freud.

• Jeffrey Masson and Freud's Seduction Theory: a new fable based on old myths
  by   Allen Esterson

One of the most enduring myths of psychoanalytic history is that Freud proposed his seduction theory as a result of hearing frequent reports from his female patients that they had been sexually abused in childhood. A second myth is that in the early days of psychoanalysis, Freud's medical colleagues took such exception to his theories of infantile sexuality that they subjected him to professional ostracism. Jeffrey Masson combined these two myths to produce a compelling and influential account of the seduction theory episode. However, an examination of the contemporary documents indicates that Freud's clinical findings reported in the seduction theory papers were spurious, that he was right to abandon the seduction theory, and that Masson's version of events is erroneous.

human-nature.com © Ian Pitchford and Robert M. Young - Last updated: 28 May, 2005 02:29 PM