Freud's Cognitive Style: It's a Surprise

Authors

  • Charles A. Peterson
  • Sally N. Phillips

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i70.138

Keywords:

Freud, Discovery, Cognitive Style, Surprise

Abstract

ABSTRACTFifty (50) years ago Robert Holt (1965) argued that knowledge about Freud's cognitive style would help us better understand his thoughts. He further hoped that his essay would attract additional attention to this problem: How did Freud process information? We've taken the challenge, focusing on a puzzling comment by Martin Bergmann (2011a), We never find Freud saying 'This surprised me very much. Therefore, we will focus on Freud's openness to surprise in the context of discovery. We first approach the question narratively, as did Holt, and with the help of PEPWEB (for the first time we believe), in a textual analysis (surprise, surprises, surprised, surprising,  surprisingly?) of Freud's Standard Edition. We conclude that Freud was open to surprise and encourage other analytic writers to consider the deployment of the PEPWEB to address this and other aspects of his cognitive style. 

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Published

2018-02-27

How to Cite

Peterson, C. A., & Phillips, S. N. (2018). Freud’s Cognitive Style: It’s a Surprise. Free Associations, (70), 34–47. https://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i70.138

Issue

No. 70 (2017)

Section

Articles

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