You do not seem fair to me here, nor for the women, nor for Freud. Starting with Freud, he was quite obviously a very unhappy man. God knows which secrets, apart from being coked which was not a secret at the time, which deep secrets he carried. Could be anything from having been beaten up as a youngster, having been rape or plainly being gay. Or yet, having a terrible wife. But he was obviously quite unhappy.Posted by shaberon (here)
That's how I usually understand people I disagree with. Or, in an example like Thomas Jefferson, who was ardent about tyranny, never seemed to question slavery...in a lot of ways, it's like removing one set of blinders at a time.Posted by Iloveyou (here)
I think you cannot judge him without taking his social/cultural background into consideration.
Compared to how "the insane" were often treated, Dorothea Dix was the real breakthrough pioneer.
Maybe we can also say, "Hey, nervous rich lady, it's your own fault for employing Freud". It's usually pretty uncomfortable to answer ourselves about how we allowed ourself to be swindled, deceived, taken advantage of...
In Freud's admission that he's basically an adventurer, that adventurism probably explains much more human behavior, than people who are devoted to some kind of ethical plan. I'd expect that if most people had the opportunity to get coked up and go around talking to people and writing papers, they would much rather do that, than what they actually do for a living.
He was also a man of his time: mysoginistic like most (I just finished listening to Marie Curie's live movie wow did she meet mysogynist man) - mysoginists means woman haters, I do not know if it is the proper word in English.
And the woman were woman of their time too: often married young to men they did not want, who were fundamentally often chauvinistic pigs, bad at love making, with numerous mistresses or forced maids, rich wives having children with them they did not want either. And they had nobody to talk to about how prisoner like their life were. Plus, they had never met a man listening to them. Most women in such circumstances would have fallen for it, with or without sex.
I have seen women in that situation in some countries, and they would come to speak to me because as a foreigner, they knew I would have nobody in their family or friend to report the conversation to. Never heard as many lovers stories as in that country. They needed to speak out about their husband and its mistresses, about their own hidden lover, etc.
Everything always has to be seen within historical and cultural contexts (and often personal ones) before trying to pass any judgment, as long as people are in their ego, which is 99.9% of the population.