Freud Ignored

In the 1950’s and 1960’s Freudian theory was deemed to be a vital part of the sociological tradition, but since then it has fallen from favor, largely because of the simplifications and misinterpretations both by Freud’s sociological critics and his supporters. One of the main misunderstandings is the tendency to view Freud’s social theory as a variant of that of Hobbes which differs profoundly. From these misunderstandings came the myth of the Hobbesian Freud, this has distorted Freud’s most fundamental concepts.
How did anyone manage to take Freud seriously? Freud no longer appears central to the theoretical grounding of most of most sociologists. Even those social scientists who are most receptive to Freud and to the psychoanalytic perspective have been anxious to distance themselves from Freud’s work. Freud’s social philosophy and theory of culture is seriously deficient of that of Hobbes, some theorists have rendered Freudian theory sociologically uninteresti...