Editing Psychoanalysis (section)

===Freudian theory===
{{quote box|width=30%|align=right|quote=Many aspects of Freudian theory are indeed out of date, and they should be: Freud died in 1939, and he has been slow to undertake further revisions. His critics, however, are equally behind the times, attacking Freudian views of the 1920s as if they continue to have some currency in their original form. Psychodynamic theory and therapy have evolved considerably since 1939, when Freud's bearded countenance was last sighted in earnest. Contemporary psychoanalysts and psychodynamic therapists no longer write much about ids and egos, nor do they conceive of treatment for psychological disorders as an archaeological expedition in search of lost memories.|source=—[[Drew Westen]], 1998<ref>Drew Westen, "The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science". November 1998 Vol. 124, No. 3, 333–371</ref>}}
A survey of scientific research suggested that while personality traits corresponding to Freud's oral, anal, Oedipal, and genital phases can be observed, they do not necessarily manifest as stages in the development of children. These studies also have not confirmed that such adult traits result from childhood experiences.<ref>Fisher, Seymour, and Roger P. Greenberg. 1977. ''The Scientific Credibility of Freud's Theories and Therapy''. New York: [[Basic Books]]. p. 399.</ref> However, these stages should not be considered crucial to modern psychoanalysis. The power of the unconscious and the transference phenomenon is vital to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.<ref>{{cite book|author=Milton, Jane.|title=Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy|year=2000|pages=440}}</ref>

The idea of "unconscious" is contested because human behavior can be observed, while human mental activity has to be inferred. However, the unconscious is now a popular topic of study in the fields of experimental and social psychology (e.g., implicit attitude measures, [[fMRI]], [[Positron emission tomography|PET scans]], and other indirect tests). The idea of unconscious and the transference phenomenon have been widely researched and, it is claimed, validated in the fields of [[cognitive psychology]] and social psychology,<ref name="Westen and Gabbard">Westen and Gabbard, 2002</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=February 2022}} though the majority of cognitive psychologists does not hold a Freudian interpretation of unconscious mental activity. Recent developments in neuroscience have resulted in one side arguing that it has provided a biological basis for unconscious emotional processing in line with psychoanalytic theory (i.e., [[neuropsychoanalysis]]),<ref name="Westen and Gabbard" /> while the other side argues that such findings make psychoanalytic theory obsolete and irrelevant.

[[Shlomo Kalo]] explains that the [[scientific materialism]] that flourished in the 19th century severely harmed religion and rejected whatever was called spiritual. The institution of the [[Confession (religion)|confession]] priest in particular was badly damaged. The empty void that the newborn psychoanalysis swiftly occupied this institution left behind. In his writings, Kalo claims that psychoanalysis's basic approach is erroneous. It represents the mainline wrong assumptions that happiness is unreachable and that the natural desire of a human being is to exploit his fellow men for his own pleasure and benefit.<ref>[[Shlomo Kalo|Kalo, Shlomo]]. 1997. "Powerlessness as a Parable." ''The Trousers – Parables for the 21st Century''. UK: D.A.T. Publications. pp. 16, back cover.</ref>

[[Jacques Derrida]] incorporated aspects of psychoanalytic theory into his theory of [[deconstruction]] in order to question what he called the '[[metaphysics of presence]]'. Derrida also turns some of these ideas against Freud to reveal tensions and contradictions in his work. For example, although Freud defines religion and metaphysics as displacements of the identification with the father in the resolution of the Oedipal complex, Derrida ([[The Post Card|1987]]) insists that the prominence of the father in Freud's own analysis is itself indebted to the prominence given to the father in Western metaphysics and theology since [[Plato]].<ref>[[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]], and Bass, Alan. 1987. ''[[The Post Card|The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond]]''. Chicago: [[University of Chicago]].</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2018}}