Refutation on Eysenck's Criticism to Psychoanalysis

Lee, Byung Wook

Abstract

Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) was an eminent German-born English psychologist. He was a prolific writer especially in the fields of intelligence and personality. His work frequently stirred controversy in numerous public debates due to his support for the argument that racial differences in intelligence scores have a genetic basis. However, he was never mindful of the controversy, and confident in his ability to apply scientific methods to issues of importance. Therefore, he also challenged Freudian psychoanalysis. He hypercriticized psychoanalysis, saying that it is mere pseudo-science when viewed from the perspective of behaviorism. Such arguments of Eysenck seem to be rather absurd than sound. In the author's view, he seemed to be very upset emotionally when he dealt a blow to Freud of Jewish decent, while being relatively tolerant of Gustav Jung, a German psychiatrist. Therefore, the author traced his psychological background and the results are summarized as follows: 1) He was abandoned by his Jewish mother and German father at the age of two when they divorced. The early separation traumatized him psychologically. 2) He was raised by his Jewish grandmother who was victimized in a Nazi concentration camp, which trapped him in an adolescent identity crisis. 3) He chose Britain as a 3rd country to live in. 4) He became a behavioral psychologist instead of psychoanalyst, but had to work with many Jewish analysts in London. 5) He was very ambivalent to Jewish analysts expressing both envy and hate. 6) He projected his hidden rage against parental objects to Freud. 7) He needed to deny his own inner conflicts and early psychic trauma. 8) He took a compromising attitude by denying his murky Jewish half and upholding his proud origin of German half. 9) Hence, he criticized psychoanalysis and devoted himself to study of behaviorism and racial differences.