Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience

In the early 1970s, Cioffi demonstrated that Freud falsified the account of his discovery of the Oedipus complex - an account that had gone unquestioned until that time. Moreover, Cioffi showed that this misrepresentation was necessary to the propagation of the Oedipus theory. The author subsequently revealed Freud's falsifications in retracting his theory of infantile seduction, a revelation that has been often cited in recent books and scholarly journals.

As a result, the scientific legitimacy of psychoanalysis has been highly contested in recent years - with a growing wave of critics insisting that psychoanalytic research must meet adequate standards of cogency and candour if psychoanalysis is to claim to be more than a pseudoscience. In Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience, Cioffi presents nine essays that highlight the ongoing controversy and add insight into current debates.