Freud, the feminist?

           Sigmund Freud wrote some of the most controversial work in the psychological society. Scholars have been and are actively taking apart his work finding corrections and new beliefs. One usually believes in Freud’s views or does not; there is no middle ground. Suzanne Brom takes a closer look of his view of women. In Freud, the Feminist? she takes us through different circumstances between him and his patients and shows how Freud may be considered one of the earliest feminist. When first starting to read this article I thought Brom was trying to criticize Freud and his treatment of women. Shortly into it I realized it was doing the opposite, this made the article even more interesting to read.

            Although some of his accusations were rather sexist, the way he treated women canceled the negative comments out. Brom made me remember that during that time women were very repressed and secluded and most doctors would not even treat hysterical women. The whole society viewed women as the only ones who could be hysterical and “tools for men, creating their children, maintaining their homes, and providing sexual release.” I would be hysterical too. I think that the women who sought out treatment with Freud knew this was not the way they were supposed to live and were more modern women, who were ahead of their time. They were ambitious, intelligent, outspoken, and even homosexual.

            In looking at Freud and his patients we see a man who did not want to change the patient, but study how they became this way. The women would get better just from talking about their troubles, because they had no one else to listen to them. Freud was one of the only men to willingly treat hysterical women and even claimed that they were gifted. He treated them as equals.

            This article was not only useful for learning about Freud but also about women’s history. It is amazing in how many years such progress has been made. These women were totally repressed by their society and if they tried to challenge it they were diagnosed as hysterical. I think if we lived by those same terms today most of the women in our country would be diagnosed hysterical.

Ashley Burger