It isn't clear to me that we would have anything resembling the approaches to a scientific concept of consciousness that we have today, were it not for passing through something like psychoanalysis on the way. Freud's contributions would have been replaceable, of course, had he not been there — just as Galileo's would be. But condemning Freud seems like condemning Newton, who likewise had plenty of wrong ideas.
The cult of Freud is unfortunate, but not particularly relevant to his contribution.
This brings us to a couple of additional reasons why Freud-bashing, or tarring Freud as irrational, could be unfair. Maybe he was a necessary step along the road to scientific psychology. Maybe it's an unfair double standard to bash Freud while ignoring the wrongnesses of (e.g.) Galileo & Newton.
I personally disagree with the first reason. True or not, I don't see it as justifying the wilful shoddiness from which a big chunk of Freud's work apparently suffers. I see no reason why a counterfactual Freud couldn't have come up with basically the same idea...
Previous open thread
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one.
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.