The study of the human mind as with the sciences had many false starts. The last step before a truly scientific study of the mind was psychiatry. As with alchemists' countless failures to turn lead into gold, countless failures of psychiatrists' to cure anyone did not deter the continued application of the methods of psychiatry.

Take for example dream analysis, one of Freud's cornerstones. While today there is no general agreement among researchers as to why mammals dream there is one common point of agreement. Freud had no idea what he was talking about.