I want to take the next few articles to really dive into Freudian theory in an effort to better understand the good, bad, and ugly behind Sigmund Freud. In this framework, Freud postulated that all thoughts and emotions were rooted in innate sexual impulses.
He stated that development took place in several stages: oral, anal, phallic, and latent stages. Moreover, repression or improper development in any of these stages would lead to a set of pathological symptoms later in life Encyclopedia. In the scientific community, in order to be a theory it has to be falsifiable or testable. While his theories and sentiments aligned with the Victorian Era of the time, modern scrutiny highlights the incredibly sexist nature of much of Freudian theory.
Much of his work blamed mothers for issues in their children and asserted that femininity was inferior to masculinity. Phallic symbols. Anal retentiveness. Defense mechanisms. Cathartic release. And on and on and on. But his legacy is a shaky one.
Freud has, for the most part, fallen completely out of favor in academia. Virtually no institution in any discipline would dare use him as a credible source. Moreover, his theories have even proved damaging — and even dangerous — to certain segments of the population. But, luckily for him, academics have been — and still are — infinitely creative in their efforts to whitewash his errors, even as lay readers grow increasingly dumbfounded by the entire mess.
Without a doubt, many of these criticisms and valid and totally justified. Yes, even for a guy who died in , his work is incredibly out of date.
Some areas of inquiry have been refined and expanded, while others abandoned and dismissed altogether in favor of new theories. This is good. This is how science advances. Modern psychology has produced very little to substantiate many of his claims. He was totally, utterly wrong about gender. Nor that the interference, or arresting, of these stages leads to specific developmental manifestations. For example, he theorized that homosexuality was a failure to reconcile the anal phase, or the Oedipal phase.
Which is nonsense. Again, nonsense. The boy also has the foresight to realize that his father is simultaneously his protector. Presented with this challenging scenario, the child is forced to repress his homicidal cravings. When people asked about young girls, Freud hastily came up with another idea, the Electra complex.
Suddenly, the little girl wants to have sex with her father," Crews said. At the core of both these theories is the notion of repressed emotions. That very concept empowered Freud to dismiss his detractors. When patients disagreed, he didn't entertain the notion that he could be mistaken," Crews said. That's the exact opposite of testing ideas. Day residues are exactly what you think they are: traces of what happened in reality that find their way into our dreams.
Freud was nothing if not prolific, content to opine on matters as diverse as sexual perversions, the notion of female "hysteria," and subliminal memory, or the memories that supposedly lurk in parts of the brain separate from the conscious.
But for some observers, that's where the man's apparent genius lies. He hoped other people would take on his ideas to prove or disprove them. But Freud's theories are, on the whole, almost impossible to submit to the rigor of statistical analysis that legitimate science has to endure, said Crews. How do you test for them?
They're just phrases. Editor's note: This story was updated at p. EDT Oct. Originally published on Live Science.
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