Readers' reactions

Last week in The THESI Anthony Elliott wrote about the influence of Freud. We asked whether Freud was finished.

Stevan Harnad Professor of cognitive science at Southampton University

Freud may not be finished in political science but in psychology it is a different story. I am not a clinical psychologist but I suggest that he is irrelevant to cognitive and neural psychology. From a specific point of view, as far as I know, whether you apply Freudian psychology or astrology has the same value. It is not really a theory at all. It is more a way of interpreting things, which is why I compare it to astrology.

John Forrester Author of Dispatches from the Freud Wars (Harvard 1997)

Freud is one of the great writers of the 20th century and there are a lot of people still fundamentally influenced by him.

The reality is Freud is incredibly influential and much more important than analysts would think. You cannot do analysis without Freud.