A story is told of young Freud at a Charcot lecture in the Salpêtrière asking the master how he reconciled his new factual findings on hysteria with the theoretical constructs of contemporary German physiology. "La théorie, c'est bon," replied Charcot, "mais ça n'empêche pas d'exister."

This anecdote is told from two different perspectives. By one group it is used to show that Freud was imbued from the beginning with the value of theory and the rational necessity to merge it with clinical observations. Another group, having quite a different purpose, cites this incident as evidence that theory cannot be relied upon: "You see, even Charcot said so." Data can exist and should be seen in spite of theory. Theory works to suppress new observations; theory cannot be trusted. Individuals and groups from then to the present have been