Sigmund Freud

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

I apologize, Richard, but I don't believe I ever answered your question
regarding how much Sigmund Freud is esteemed by modern-day psychologists.

Well, psychologists nowadays have basically found most of Freud's theories
to be mostly false.  However, there is something to be grasped from the
bases that he formed.  They, apparently, were quite correct.  So, basically,
modern psychology has taken Freud's comments and shifted them just a bit to
make them "correct."

This means that he still forms a *very* integral part of our literature.  In
fact, many of you believe Freudian suppositions.  There are truths we hold
to be quite evident in our society that aren't necessarily so -- they
haven't been proven really.  Take, for instance, how we all believe that
some traumatic repressed experience from childhood will later evidence
itself in adulthood.  Don't most of us believe this?  Yet, this is a
Freudian theory that really hasn't been absolutely proven yet.

My personality prof "posits" (I don't know why he always "posits;" it just
seems like something that he likes to do.  I mean, it's a cool word and all,
and I use it on a number of occasions, but he almost always posits.  Well,
that's a different story.) that Freud created what he defines as a "cultural
mythology."  [Special note: in academic realms, a mythology is not
necessarily false -- it's a set of values that a number of people believe to
be true, but that we can't prove.  Religions and "The American Dream" are
both "myths" in this view.  Check it out in your dictionary -- look back
toward the beginning of the definition.  Older definitions are placed
towards the beginning, so that way you'll miss it's newer "falsehood"
definition.]  Anyway, my prof says that Freud was growing up in the shadow
of Darwin's Natural Selection.  Basically, a lot of people were having a
difficult time with religion because Darwin basically tore their concept of
creation apart.  So, they needed something to hold and believe to be true, a
myth if you will.  That's what he argues Freud is; that he was actually a
"religion" with followers.  (He kinda likes making these wild hair-brained
statements as well.)

Interestingly enough, my professor said that religions actually have a very
therapeutic effect.  In other words, it's good for you to have a religion.
Pretty neat, huh?

Well, Freud's here to stay.  He was not all wrong; he actually has very
important contributions to psychology.  It's just that, well, most
psychologists feel that he took his theories a bit too far.

Hope that answers your question!

Kyle

P. S.  Freud was kinda therapeutic as well.  But, I probably should talk to
you about that in a personal email, as it's kinda tangential to something
else we've been discussing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
R. Kyle Jones                       || Internet: rkjones@fas.harvard.edu
60 Linnaean Street                  ||           rkjones@galstar.com
Cabot Mail Center, Box 464          || Phone: (617) 493-5957
Cambridge, MA  02138-7521           || http://www.galstar.com/~rkjones/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen,
I will be exalted in the earth."
                                     Psalms 46:10

R. Kyle Jones is not a licensed nor practicing psychologist, but merely an
undergraduate studying psychology.  Any advice given should not be 
miscontrued in any fashion to indicate any form of professional counseling.
Please seek a practicing professional for any mental health or other
professional counseling concerns.