Wittgenstein Reads Freud

Is psychoanalysis a disciplined science or a blanket of hypotheses held loosely together by Freud's personal points of view? Jacques Bouveresse, a professor at the College de France, utilizes the work of the British Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to examine Sigmund Freud, the 20th century psychiatrist whose theories have guided modern-day psychoanalysis, but who some believe was nothing but an egomaniac and a fraud. Wittgenstein argued that, "To be a scientist, you have to put forward falsifiable hypothesis, and Freud can easily weasel his way around any putatively falsifying evidence, whereas physicists usually cannot." As Bouveresse examines the scientific usefulness of "ideas" versus facts, he questions whether we should relinquish many of our Freud-based beliefs.