but your mention of contemporary obsession with psychiatry in the arts really rang a bell. As I recall, it was realy bad in the 50s, before Freud started falling out of favor amongst professionals. The contagion even spread to SF. Remember the Freudian themes in Bester?
Both "The Stars my Destination" and especially, "The Demolished Man" were saturated with it. A.E van Vogt and Phillip K. Dick were also taken in by that smooth-talking Austrian quack. L. Ron Hubbard saw right through it, and decided straight away to find a way to cash in on it, instead.

But at least, Freud was articulate and erudite. The modern versions of psychiatry are just as absurd, but much more touchy-feely and navel-gazing, in keeping with some of the more populist sentiments of our age. There's more Vegas than Vienna in today's Science of Mind.