Freud's Legacy

Freudian theory made Western man suspicious of conduct previously regarded as virtuous, often with unfortunate consequences. In 1900 the person who displayed altruism and self-sacrifice would simply have been regarded as ‘good’. Since Freud, people are inclined to suspect unselfishness as masochistic self-punishment, and altruism as concealing a wish to patronize. Unselfishness and generosity are still virtues; but Freud has made it easier for those who do not wish to cultivate these virtues to justify their avoidance if them. Celibacy used to be admired. Now it is invariably interpreted as concealing perversion or as an ignominious flight from sex, rather than a self-control or evidence of spiritual excellence. The Victorians were more, not less, tolerant of homosexual feelings, if not of homosexual practices, than we are. Tennyson’s In Memoriam, his long lament over the death of his beloved friend Arthur Hallam, could not be published today except by a poet who had ‘come out’; that is, who are certainly predominantly heterosexual, as was Tennyson, seem to be allowed less latitude than formerly in expressing passionate friendship involving their own sex. As Freud asserted that everyone is bisexual at some level, this seems odd. However, psychoanalysis has, on the whole, increased both understanding and tolerance for those who do not follow conventional sexual patterns. Sex may not be quite prime mover which Freud thought it to be; but we do owe him a considerable dept for having lifted the covers of Victorian prudery and made sex into a subject which can be openly and seriously discusses.