I heard recently a few people on youtube of whom I actually respect use the term “daddy issues”. I have heard this used in totally diametrically opposed ways. That made me think freud. His ideology contradicts itself numerous times. Therefore, I have said his ideas should all be thrown out. Yes, I do realize that even a blind man throwing darts at a dartboard will sometimes actually have a hit. People always try to salvage some of freud’s ideas in some weird to me desperate attempt to justify something I don’t know. So, as a philosophical thought experiment if I have one person sit in a room and make any all predictions about the future in any domain and is recorded. Yes in years to come some will be right. They may not be based on rational thought, or science whatsoever, which is the same as freud. The difference is he did not care about research and that is what science is based on.

So “daddy issues” goes back to the Oedipus complex for those who want the historical reference. This means his ideas generally are totally worthless scientifically to psychology. I have heard a female who is promiscuous, a stripper, or goes into porn having “daddy issues”. Then on the opposite end a woman to is “frigid” or a “prude “or does not have sex or “put out” also having “daddy issues”. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. The point is there is NO way to falsify a prediction based on the “daddy issues” concept when all you need to do is shift the goal posts saying, oh I meant it the other way. We need falsifiability in science otherwise anything goes. You can read entire academic papers on this if you like.

This also goes back to utilizing terms appropriately when taking them from any scientific discipline. The use of this at best ill-defined term, and self-contradictory terms needs to be completely disregarded. Basically, a female and I mean biological woman here acts in a way that the observer finds wrong, can invoke “daddy issues”. An example is and no offence to super conservative religious people hearing a female has premarital sex can sit and say “daddy issues”. Then also someone else who hears a woman was stripper or wants to become one or has had sex with 100 men by 25 can say “daddy issues.” These are polar opposite uses of the same term which according to logic renders it USELESS. It is like in logic saying A equals Up and then A equals down, like in this exact sentence. It does not make sense. You simply get to shift the goal posts when it is convenient for you the observer to utilize “daddy issues” when you want and the denigrate the female.

People need to be careful of using words and you must think of the historical value and usages of them. A related example of historical usage of a term was when I recently spoke with a gentleman who has had a history of Alcohol Use Disorder (Actual DSM-5-TR diagnosis) utilized the concept such as powerless over drinking. Now granted we were in a contentious conversation, he kept on using other Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) terms and concepts. I said these are all AA terms and concepts of which I reject. He got very angry telling me he hates AA and never to accuse him of aligning him with it. See this is a good example of someone who unwittingly is using terms from an ideology of which he purports to hate.  Ultimately, we all want to be internally consistent in the use of language and our own personal ideology. 

Now, I did an undergrad in psychology, then a M.A. in counseling and guidance and then a PhD in counseling. I never once in my entire educational career ever heard this concept of “daddy issues” uttered. Even to explain how lay people do armchair psychology. My question is why in six years of academic writing or of seeing patients, doing write ups on patients and doing treatment plans did I ever utilize this term? The answer is simply it is baseless and can easily be destroyed in a debate by any astute undergraduate in psychology.

So please stop using yet another term that is a throwback to the terrible bane on psychologies history of which is freud. In psychology we keep picking up the pieces of this person, and having to correct people.