Some of these people caused similar revolution against their predecessors. We may not be aware that some of their toughs are interesting deviations or improvements for the previous state of things.
Freud is perfect example. He caused huge revolution in the philosophy of mind and changed our culture in many visible ways, but his theories did not survive.
Freud's theories are based on outdated concepts of how the brain works. The evidence was usually incomplete or questionable. Freud based his theories on anecdotes from his practice and his patients were mostly upper class women who suffered from sexual repression. Freud overgeneralized from this very odd set of patients very strange theories.
Still his basic themes are considered correct even today and they were revolutionary at the same way as Einstein's. They seem so basic and obvious to us that we don't think there was controversy or revolution involved.
Five still valid _general_ ideas that are left from his psychodynamics theories after most was debunked:
1. There are unconscious processes. Parts of cognition, motivation and emotions can be hidden from consciousness.
2. There are competing processes and conflicts in the brain.
3. Personality is significantly shaped by childhood
4. Our mental representations of other people shape our social relations.
5. There is a sequence of different developmental stages that create internal psychological conflicts.
Freud is perfect example. He caused huge revolution in the philosophy of mind and changed our culture in many visible ways, but his theories did not survive.
Freud's theories are based on outdated concepts of how the brain works. The evidence was usually incomplete or questionable. Freud based his theories on anecdotes from his practice and his patients were mostly upper class women who suffered from sexual repression. Freud overgeneralized from this very odd set of patients very strange theories.
Still his basic themes are considered correct even today and they were revolutionary at the same way as Einstein's. They seem so basic and obvious to us that we don't think there was controversy or revolution involved.
Five still valid _general_ ideas that are left from his psychodynamics theories after most was debunked:
1. There are unconscious processes. Parts of cognition, motivation and emotions can be hidden from consciousness.
2. There are competing processes and conflicts in the brain.
3. Personality is significantly shaped by childhood
4. Our mental representations of other people shape our social relations.
5. There is a sequence of different developmental stages that create internal psychological conflicts.
http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/psy430s2001/Westen%2...