Thursday, February 10, 2011
Freudian Psychology
After reading the Freud packets, I decided to do some more research on his theories of the "pleasure principle." As stated in the packet about dream analysis, Freud believed all behavior was motivated by desire for pleasure. Freud believed that humans had two instincts: sexuality and aggression. Additionally, Freud identified the "id" as the source of "libido", or sex drive, the only structure in the brain at the time of birth. After birth, part of the id becomes translated into "ego". Freud also believed the brain was composed of an Oedipal complex, developed in the "phalic stage" of children ages 3 to 6. Freud definitely had interesting views on humans' sexual needs and conscious/subconscious sexual desires.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Freud's options on women have recently come under attack by the feminist movement. Like most men from his time period, he was against women being equal to men. Freud believed that women’s lives were controlled by their sexual reproductive systems. On the other hand, he believed that men were instinctually aggressive. In other words, he depicted women as damsels in distress and males as dominant figures.
Although I believe that Freud made quite the contribution to psychology, I find many of Freud's philosophies both disturbing and absurd. Such ideas as the oedipal compex and penis envy seem ridiculous. Like in the dream interpretation where Freud says that the women's dream about a butchery being closed represents a Man's zipper being open and her sexual desires. However, I do find Freud's studies of human conciousness and unconciousness quite interesting.
I think that Freud probably did more for 20th century literary and philosophical thought than he did for science. As Olivia said, he certainly has motivated feminist movements and modernist writers. To this day, people find this vision of the world to be provocative and somewhat frightening. What if civilization really IS run by subconscious aggressive and sexual cues? Modern dystopian novels (1984 and Brave New World in particular) owe a good deal of their material and world-views to Freud. As Blaine pointed out, many of Freud's theories are certainly overstated. The Oedipal and Electra complexes are no longer scientifically accepted. However, it is interesting to note that Freud's discussion of the subconscious mind essentially legitimized the concept that there are autonomous cues which lead to conscious thought.
Freud was certainly one of a kind and his philosophies were quite disturbing but I do see his point. If you look at the world around you, you can see that many problems in the world are caused by either man's sex drive or his natural aggression. It can be as common as a fight with a friend over an affair, which unfortunately happens too often, or a political problem that began with a leader's aggression and desire for power. I definitely see Freud's logic but I think it might have been a little extreme.
Post a Comment