hi Davey,
Velikovsky's psychology training was in the Freudian school, his mentor Stekel was a student of Freud. Velikovsky knew Freud personally and my impression from his writing is that he had serious issues with Freud.
Bearing in mind (from my own point of view) that Sigmund Freud's theories say more about his own insecurities
Apparently you agree with Velikovsky. In
Oedipus and Ahkhnaton Velikovsky writes a scathing critique of Freud and his work. He basically psychoanylyzes Freud, pretty much agreeing with your statement.
Velikovsky's theory of Collective Amnesia is his own. While Freud and others have explored the effect of amnesia on individuals Velikovsky applied it to the collective. The concept of a collective mind was an area that was examined by Carl Jung. So Velikovsky was not rehashing Freudian psychology, on the contrary he was expanding upon an idea of Carl Jung.
You need to read
Mankind In Amnesia, a great book, the ideas put forward are even more pertinent today...an era of radical religious terrorism and rogue nations acquiring nuclear weapons, with the willingness to use them. Think about it, if you accept that there may have been global catastrophes in ancient times, why does modern man deny the possibility? Why does modern man seem to be compelled to destroy the Earth? Why the fascination in art, literature, and cinema with the end of the world? Why do we prefer to forget?
Here is a link to a speech Velikovsky gave at the University of Lethbridge in 1974 which is very brief summary of his theory of collective amnesia and the book
Mankind In Amnesia:
Cultural Amnesia
The Submergence of Terrifying Events in the Racial Memory and their Later Emergence
http://www.varchive.org/lec/lethbridge/amnesia.htm
Nick