--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Freud was just a novelist." description: "\"Freud was just a novelist.\" — Peter Ackroyd" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg" --- # Freud was just a novelist. ![“Freud was just a novelist.” quote by Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg) > “Freud was just a novelist.” [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A provocative claim that reduces Freud's complex psychoanalytic work to mere storytelling, questioning his scientific status. **In simple terms:** Questioning Freud's credibility as a scientist. Key Takeaway Critically evaluate Freud's methods. Themes psychology skepticism literature history Mood skeptical analytical Type critical philosophical When to use this quote - academic debate - psychology courses - reading Freud - discussing scientific rigor - writing essays Key Concepts psychoanalysis fiction vs fact intellectual critique Questions to Reflect On - Do you think Freud was a scientist or a storyteller? - What evidence supports each view? A Different Perspective The statement oversimplifies Freud's influence and contributions. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Novelist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novelist/) [Novelists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novelists/) ## Related quotes > [“Please, don’t kill me," she stammered, "I'm just a novelist…”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-l-michaels/please-don-t-kill-me-she-stammered-i-m-just-a-novelist/) Alex L. Michaels > [I'm really lucky in that I can do lots of different things. It must be really hard to just be a poet or just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-haddon/i-m-really-lucky-in-that-i-can-do-lots-of-different-things-it-must-be/) [Mark Haddon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-haddon/) > [In America they have to know just what you are-- novelist, poet, playwright... Well, I've been all of them... I think poems and novels…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-penn-warren/in-america-they-have-to-know-just-what-you-are-novelist-poet/) [Robert Penn Warren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-penn-warren/) > [It's almost a sort of fairy story tale, just what a novelist would write about a discovery.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-hard-townes/it-s-almost-a-sort-of-fairy-story-tale-just-what-a-novelist-would/) [Charles Hard Townes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-hard-townes/) > [The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andre-gide/the-bad-novelist-constructs-his-characters-he-directs-them-and-makes/) [Andre Gide](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andre-gide/) > [That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pat-barker/that-balance-between-involvement-and-detachment-is-what-novelists-do/) [Pat Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pat-barker/) > [The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/curtis-sittenfeld/the-fact-is-that-in-this-day-and-age-i-don-t-think-any-novelist-can/) [Curtis Sittenfeld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/curtis-sittenfeld/) > [Whether he be an original or a plagiarist, man is the novelist of himself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jose-ortega-y-gasset/whether-he-be-an-original-or-a-plagiarist-man-is-the-novelist-of/) [Jose Ortega y Gasset](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jose-ortega-y-gasset/) > [A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/howard-jacobson/a-novelist-should-make-you-realize-nothing-is-stable-if-you-don-t/) [Howard Jacobson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/howard-jacobson/) > [As an historical novelist – there are few jobs more retrospective.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-sheridan/as-an-historical-novelist-there-are-few-jobs-more-retrospective/) [Sara Sheridan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-sheridan/) > [And that singular anomaly, the lady novelist-- I don't think she'd be missed--I'm sure she'd not be missed!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-s-gilbert/and-that-singular-anomaly-the-lady-novelist-i-don-t-think-she-d-be/) [W. S. Gilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-s-gilbert/) > [Playing with different genres and perspectives and ways of telling stories is one of the perks of being a novelist, but at the same…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/linn-ullmann/playing-with-different-genres-and-perspectives-and-ways-of-telling/) Linn Ullmann > [I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt-2/i-am-not-an-academic-who-happens-to-have-written-a-novel-i-am-a/) [A. S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt-2/) > [I'm a novelist. Fortunately I don't have to rule the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/i-m-a-novelist-fortunately-i-don-t-have-to-rule-the-world/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [“She'll be an excellent novelist: a monster of self-absorption.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lan-samantha-chang/she-ll-be-an-excellent-novelist-a-monster-of-self-absorption/) [Lan Samantha Chang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lan-samantha-chang/) ## More by Peter Ackroyd > [If I did only one thing at a time I'd think I was wasting my time. If, for example, I only wrote novels I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/if-i-did-only-one-thing-at-a-time-i-d-think-i-was-wasting-my-time-if/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [I believe that the gods themselves are frightened of the world which they have fashioned.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/i-believe-that-the-gods-themselves-are-frightened-of-the-world-which/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [“A woman is a deep Ditch, said he, her House inclines to Death and her Paths unto the Devil”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/a-woman-is-a-deep-ditch-said-he-her-house-inclines-to-death-and-her/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [I don't know if I have a voice of my own. I don't see me being an important person with something to say. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/i-don-t-know-if-i-have-a-voice-of-my-own-i-don-t-see-me-being-an/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make up almost the whole of experience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/the-ordinary-routines-of-life-are-never-chronicled-by-the-historian/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [“I believe now that there can be no real sense of loss or seperation without the recognition of death; we were too young to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/i-believe-now-that-there-can-be-no-real-sense-of-loss-or-seperation/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [I don't find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly. You could sum it up in a few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/i-don-t-find-myself-interesting-as-a-person-and-the-details-i-find/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [Rioting has always been a London tradition. It has been since the early Middle Ages. There's hardly a spate of years that goes by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/rioting-has-always-been-a-london-tradition-it-has-been-since-the/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [“absinthe removes the bitter taste of failure and grants me strange visions which are charming principally because they cannot be written down. Only in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/absinthe-removes-the-bitter-taste-of-failure-and-grants-me-strange/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [“Those in their snug Bed-chambers may call the Fears of Night meer Bugbears, but their Minds have not pierced into the Horror of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/those-in-their-snug-bed-chambers-may-call-the-fears-of-night-meer/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [In so far as I have any beliefs, I suppose I'm like that old Peggy Lee song, 'Is That All There Is?' I want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/in-so-far-as-i-have-any-beliefs-i-suppose-i-m-like-that-old-peggy-lee/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [“dyer. (Looking at him scornfully) So that is why Wits swarm like Egypt's Frogs. If I were a Writer now, I would wish to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/dyer-looking-at-him-scornfully-so-that-is-why-wits-swarm-like-egypt-s/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [The embrace of present and past time, in which English antiquarianism becomes a form of alchemy, engenders a strange timelessness. It is as if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/the-embrace-of-present-and-past-time-in-which-english-antiquarianism/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [In London, I've always lived within 10 miles of where I was born. You see, there is something called a spirit of place, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/in-london-i-ve-always-lived-within-10-miles-of-where-i-was-born-you/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) > [There is no humiliation worse than the consciousness of a wasted life. It stains the spirit, forestalls hope, and destroys any motive for action…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/there-is-no-humiliation-worse-than-the-consciousness-of-a-wasted-life/) [Peter Ackroyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) [Explore all 178 Peter Ackroyd quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/) ## More Freud quotes > [“Woe to you, my Princess, when I come. I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sigmund-freud/woe-to-you-my-princess-when-i-come-i-will-kiss-you-quite-red-and-feed/) [Sigmund Freud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sigmund-freud/) > [You don't have to be Sigmund Freud to surmise that war has a perverse appeal for the human race, nor is the attraction limited…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/you-don-t-have-to-be-sigmund-freud-to-surmise-that-war-has-a-perverse/) [Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/) > [“It’s so easy to lose faith and become lost in all of the politics of the world. That’s why we need the arts. To…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kamand-kojouri/it-s-so-easy-to-lose-faith-and-become-lost-in-all-of-the-politics-of/) [Kamand Kojouri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kamand-kojouri/) > [In the 1950s and early 1960s, psychoanalysis swept through the intellectual community, and it was the dominant mode of thinking about the mind. People…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-kandel/in-the-1950s-and-early-1960s-psychoanalysis-swept-through-the/) [Eric Kandel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-kandel/) > [Freud pointed out, in his Problem of Lay Analysis, that it is extremely unlikely that a young man who would throw the best years…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-goodman/freud-pointed-out-in-his-problem-of-lay-analysis-that-it-is-extremely/) [Paul Goodman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-goodman/) > [“I may now add that civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sigmund-freud/i-may-now-add-that-civilization-is-a-process-in-the-service-of-eros/) [Sigmund Freud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sigmund-freud/) > [“By what psychoanalyst friends tell me, in the field of the emotional subconscious, the emotional resistances to be overcome are no longer the ones…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/massimo-piattelli-palmarini/by-what-psychoanalyst-friends-tell-me-in-the-field-of-the-emotional/) Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini > [The people who had the most impact on me when I was young were Freud and Darwin, but growing up I also had my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hugh-hefner/the-people-who-had-the-most-impact-on-me-when-i-was-young-were-freud/) [Hugh Hefner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hugh-hefner/) > [My conversations with my wife tend to revolve around who's picking up the kids. Although for years I was aware of some sort of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-morrissey/my-conversations-with-my-wife-tend-to-revolve-around-who-s-picking-up/) [David Morrissey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-morrissey/) > [And these two elements are at odds with one another because Freud is utterly adversary to almost all the ways of structuring the human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chaim-potok/and-these-two-elements-are-at-odds-with-one-another-because-freud-is/) [Chaim Potok](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chaim-potok/) > [“What troubled Jung most was Freud’s tendency to reduce any expression of spirituality—in a cultural or philosophical sense—to something smaller. Freud sniffed out sex…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gary-valentine-lachman/what-troubled-jung-most-was-freud-s-tendency-to-reduce-any-expression/) [Gary Valentine Lachman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gary-valentine-lachman/) > [“Freud, again using his conclusions about men’s moral attitudes and functioning as a baseline, had decided that women lack a strong superego and hence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-a-mitchell/freud-again-using-his-conclusions-about-men-s-moral-attitudes-and/) [Stephen A. Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-a-mitchell/) > [Marx and Freud are the two great destroyers of Christian civilization, the first replacing the gospel of love by the gospel of hate, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-muggeridge/marx-and-freud-are-the-two-great-destroyers-of-christian-civilization/) [Malcolm Muggeridge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-muggeridge/) > [I thought foolishly that Freudian psychoanalysis was deeper and more intensive than other, more directive forms of therapy, so I was trained in it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-ellis/i-thought-foolishly-that-freudian-psychoanalysis-was-deeper-and-more/) [Albert Ellis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-ellis/) > [“Freud answers by suggesting that the harshness that can be shown by the superego is a result of the channelling of part of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-sandler/freud-answers-by-suggesting-that-the-harshness-that-can-be-shown-by/) Joseph Sandler Browse all 384 Freud quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Freud was just a novelist.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Peter Ackroyd" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/freud-was-just-a-novelist/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Freud" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/freud-was-just-a-novelist/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/peter-ackroyd-2223_freud_freud-was-just-a-novelist-364046_364046.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Freud was just a novelist.” — Peter Ackroyd", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Peter Ackroyd", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-ackroyd/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Freud was just a novelist.", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/freud-was-just-a-novelist/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-ackroyd/freud-was-just-a-novelist/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```