Social Work Commons^™

The Status Of Freud’S Legacy On Emotional Processing: Contemporary Revisions, Jill Littrell

SW Publications

This paper evaluates, in light of current empirical data, several of the assumptions contributed to our field by Freud about how emotions operate. The idea that expression of emotions dissipates these emotions is evaluated. The idea that bottling up emotion results is ill health is reviewed. The idea that pain of trauma and loss needs to be confronted will be examined. Additionally, the assumption that traumatic events invariably result in distress will be discussed. It is argued that empirical findings reject the Freudian model of emotion as energy that must be discharged. Empirical findings also support the view that revisiting …