Lunchbox7

I swear Sigmond Frued gets more beatings than that nerdy guy who smells in the playground. Lets get a few things straight.

Frued doesnt deal with future predictions. He deals almost exclusively with the past. One of the reasons why his works are criticised in academia is that he places too much emphasis on the early childhood experiences. He would never interpret your dream that something will happen in the future as it is always (in his theories anyway) your minds way of dealing with past experiences.

Frued being obsessed with sex is one of the most common misconceptions of his works. Lets look at the definition of sex in the time that he was formulating his theories. Sex and love are not seperated in those times. In present western society we talk about sex as the physical act as completely seperate from the emotional intimacy. The people of the time wouldnt of understood modern tv shows like 'sex in the city' or 'the bachelor'. When Frued used the term 'sex' he refered to emotional intimacy. With this in mind the oedipous/electra complex doesnt sound so far fetched now. When refering to the physical aspects of sex he coined the term 'adult sexuality'. If Frued refered to every boy wanting to indulge in adult sex with his mother then your current interpretations of his work would be accurate. As it so happens we cant enforce current societies definition of the word 'sex' onto Fruedian societies work.

Frueds dream interpretations rely on symbolism. His 'obsession' with the penis is due to the symbolic meaning of it. The penis is symbolic for power. Think about all the nicknames for the penis (eg purple headed warrior, thumper, Mr Big, Heavanly spearetc) or sexual intercourse from the male perspective (Pounded her, Boned her, Took her, etc). All very powerfull names. Since power is intergrated into almost everything we do then talking about the symbolism of the penis in regards to everything is prudent. Thus the reason why the penis is talked about in fruedian psychoanalysis.

A question for all you Frued bashers: If Frued was such a 'wacko' why is psychoanalysis (which he founded) still the one of the most powerfull schools of psychology in current society?

Now I will agree that Frued was a sexist bastard when it came to his works. Maybe that is another product of the time though Im not validating it. There have been other psychoanalysists such as Karen Horney who were as sexist about their theories but from the feminist perspective.

Can we all just move past the myths in order to appraise his work or him as a person. Its the age old arguement :Ad Hominum. Attrack the persons arguement by attacking the person, eg Micheal Jackson cant play music because he is a pedophile. It doesnt make sense because your using a reason to invalidate their work which has no relevance to the topic.

Whilst I personally dont agree with everything he says he definately says a heap of awsome stuff which was totally revolutionary at the time and is still the basis for modern research. Thats my two cents anyway.