Plural of Freudian; people who believe in or practice Freudian psychology and psychoanalysis.
From 'Freudian' (adjective/noun, follower of Freud) + '-s' (plural), formed as a professional and intellectual identity category in the 20th century.
Calling yourself a Freudian was once a prestigious intellectual badge—like how 'Marxist' or 'Darwinist' labels carry whole worldviews—but the term has become somewhat historical as psychology moved beyond Freud's specific theories.
Freudian theory pathologized female sexuality and attributed women's psychological distress to penis envy and hysteria, anchoring diagnostic frameworks in biological essentialism that persisted through 20th-century psychiatry and continue to influence practice.
When referencing Freudian concepts, acknowledge discredited gender assumptions (penis envy, hysteria as female pathology). Contemporary psychology has rejected these theories as scientifically baseless.
["psychoanalysts","contemporary psychology practitioners"]
Women analysts like Melanie Klein, Karen Horney, and Anna Freud challenged Freud's gender bias from within psychoanalysis, developing alternative theories that centered maternal experience and criticized phallocentrism—contributions often overshadowed by Freud's dominance in historical accounts.
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