There's some actual data to support one of Freud's theories, based on a study with a sample size of 11:
Wow. Is that the best they can do?Researchers took 11 people with anxiety disorders who all received psychoanalysis as part of the study, to see what underlying unconscious conflict might be causing the anxiety.
Words capturing the nature of the unconscious conflict were then selected from the interviews, as well as words that related to each patient's experience of anxiety disorder symptoms.
A control category with words that had no relationship to the unconscious conflict or anxiety symptoms were presented to three patients wearing scalp electrodes to measure brain responses.
Researchers found a new measurement of the brain's alpha wave frequency, linked to communication, was made when the unconscious conflict words were presented directly before the conscious words.
Results showed highly significant correlations, suggesting an inhibitory effect, were obtained when the amount of alpha generated by the unconscious words were grouped with the conscious words.
