Our Common Nature #3 : Freud 101
Hi everybody, Mary here.
So, here's the third post in the "Our Common Nature" series, and this time, I will briefly talk about Freud's lost important theories and why they are being actually debunked nowadays.
Although Freud is probably one of the most well-known psychatrists ever, his theories have been recently found as outdated and very simplistic. Nevertheless, I will explain his theories to avoid all this clichés that really piss me off sometimes.
First of all, his Oepdipian theory is a little bit more complex than the "you just want to f*ck your mother". It is linked to his theory on sexuality and the differences between "a girl" (by that understand a cisgender girl) and "a boy" (by that understand a cisgender boy). For a boy, according to him, having a penis meant that he was afraid of his father, who also has a penis, and that a competition is settled between them, for the mother's love, and the boy was afraid of getting his penis cut by his dad, because his dad may think that he wants to take his position in the mother's bed. For girls, the scenario is different and is called more frequently the Electra's complex. A girl doesn't have a penis, and thus, feels inferior to men who have one. She feels devaluated, she misses the penis, and sees her mother as a rival for the father's attention (since she wants his penis, hahaha). This theory is deeply heteronormative and cisnormative, in the sense that queer people, well, do exist. Myth debunked.
He also linked hysteria to these repressed memories of early sexual abuse and these Oedipian theory, by linking the subconscious of his patients to their dreams, which are linked to this forgotten abuse. His methods, actually, were very dangerous and included drugs such as cocaine, and that's what caused his "seduction theory".
All of Freud's works are very related, so the next point is linked to the previous one. In his analysis of the human psyché, he put three parts of the human's mind : the Ego (the rational person who's controlling evertything), the Id (the impulses, aka the devil on your shoulder), and the Super-Ego (the angel on your shoulder, which is supposed to regulate the stuff and protect the Ego from the Id).
In young children, that are not yet socialised, only the Id and the Ego work. Until the age of five, children have no inhibition and roam freely, unaware of the pressure to conform to social norms. But then, the kids are taught stuff, and the Super-Ego appears. Now that there are two contradicting forces trying to control the Ego, the person can listen to one at a time. But since this is all subconscious, we never really realise it anyways. This is a very simplified and individualistic manner of seeing things, but it's pretty easy to understand, at the very least.
He also presents dreams as "fulfilled wishes", which shows latent it secondary content (the real meaning of the dream) in the forms of words and images. It is only thanks to an analysis that the first meaning can be found again. It's also related to the Freudian slip, which is when someone says something instead of another, only to realise that they were trying to convey a subconscious message through these misplaced words.
Freud didn't only talk about the unconscious and sex, though : in 1930, for example, he wrote Civilisation and Its Discontents, which shows the decrease in religious thinking and how it will change society forever. Since religion was, according to him, a way for individuals to cope,with the feeling of infinity and the moral life, it was a sort,if protection against all the negativity in the world, and gave reassurance to those in need. Basically, it was a way to cope against our mortal life, the brutality of nature, and the displeasure of living in society.
In return, since the individuals are only looking for pleasure, they seek in science and technology the miracle that could just grant them a little bit more happiness. But as they seek for happiness, they also must sacrifice some of that happiness, such as control, beauty, hygiene, order, and the more intellectual functions. He then talks more in detail about life and death, but I won't add anything else.
He tales about many more subjects such as cerebral palsy, so it's a little bit reductive to only talk about Freud as "the guy who said that you wanted to have sex with your mother"...
Anyways. That's it for now, I will see you very soon with the next post in the series ! Please tel me if I've made any mistakes or inaccuracies, as usual !
And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !
Although Freud is probably one of the most well-known psychatrists ever, his theories have been recently found as outdated and very simplistic. Nevertheless, I will explain his theories to avoid all this clichés that really piss me off sometimes.
First of all, his Oepdipian theory is a little bit more complex than the "you just want to f*ck your mother". It is linked to his theory on sexuality and the differences between "a girl" (by that understand a cisgender girl) and "a boy" (by that understand a cisgender boy). For a boy, according to him, having a penis meant that he was afraid of his father, who also has a penis, and that a competition is settled between them, for the mother's love, and the boy was afraid of getting his penis cut by his dad, because his dad may think that he wants to take his position in the mother's bed. For girls, the scenario is different and is called more frequently the Electra's complex. A girl doesn't have a penis, and thus, feels inferior to men who have one. She feels devaluated, she misses the penis, and sees her mother as a rival for the father's attention (since she wants his penis, hahaha). This theory is deeply heteronormative and cisnormative, in the sense that queer people, well, do exist. Myth debunked.
He also linked hysteria to these repressed memories of early sexual abuse and these Oedipian theory, by linking the subconscious of his patients to their dreams, which are linked to this forgotten abuse. His methods, actually, were very dangerous and included drugs such as cocaine, and that's what caused his "seduction theory".
All of Freud's works are very related, so the next point is linked to the previous one. In his analysis of the human psyché, he put three parts of the human's mind : the Ego (the rational person who's controlling evertything), the Id (the impulses, aka the devil on your shoulder), and the Super-Ego (the angel on your shoulder, which is supposed to regulate the stuff and protect the Ego from the Id).
In young children, that are not yet socialised, only the Id and the Ego work. Until the age of five, children have no inhibition and roam freely, unaware of the pressure to conform to social norms. But then, the kids are taught stuff, and the Super-Ego appears. Now that there are two contradicting forces trying to control the Ego, the person can listen to one at a time. But since this is all subconscious, we never really realise it anyways. This is a very simplified and individualistic manner of seeing things, but it's pretty easy to understand, at the very least.
He also presents dreams as "fulfilled wishes", which shows latent it secondary content (the real meaning of the dream) in the forms of words and images. It is only thanks to an analysis that the first meaning can be found again. It's also related to the Freudian slip, which is when someone says something instead of another, only to realise that they were trying to convey a subconscious message through these misplaced words.
Freud didn't only talk about the unconscious and sex, though : in 1930, for example, he wrote Civilisation and Its Discontents, which shows the decrease in religious thinking and how it will change society forever. Since religion was, according to him, a way for individuals to cope,with the feeling of infinity and the moral life, it was a sort,if protection against all the negativity in the world, and gave reassurance to those in need. Basically, it was a way to cope against our mortal life, the brutality of nature, and the displeasure of living in society.
In return, since the individuals are only looking for pleasure, they seek in science and technology the miracle that could just grant them a little bit more happiness. But as they seek for happiness, they also must sacrifice some of that happiness, such as control, beauty, hygiene, order, and the more intellectual functions. He then talks more in detail about life and death, but I won't add anything else.
He tales about many more subjects such as cerebral palsy, so it's a little bit reductive to only talk about Freud as "the guy who said that you wanted to have sex with your mother"...
Anyways. That's it for now, I will see you very soon with the next post in the series ! Please tel me if I've made any mistakes or inaccuracies, as usual !
And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !
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