Psychology

Civilization #57: How Modernism Ruined Everything

In 1896, Sigmund Freud published "The Etiology of Hysteria," positing that sexual trauma, often from familial abuse, was a core cause of his patients' conditions. Yet, Freud dramatically reversed this claim, later arguing that women's accounts of abuse were merely fantasies stemming from their own sexual urges and a desire for attention. This profound shift occurred in 19th-century Vienna, a city with documented secret societies engaging in transgressive sexual rites and where challenging powerful figures, as physician Ignaz Semmelweis tragically learned, could lead to ruin. The critical question remains: what drove Freud's about-face, and what were its lasting implications for psychology and modern society?