Freud's theory of the unconscious shocking as the turn of the 20th century?

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why was Freud's theory of the unconscious shocking as the turn of the 20th century?

-- zmei (andatino@yahoo.com), June 10, 2004

Answers

He Zmei, I guess there were several aspects of Freud's theory that were shocking around the time it came out. Many might not have liked Freud's idea of how important unconscious (or mostly unconscious) factors (particularly those driven by strong emotions) were in controlling us and the lack of awareness of such important influences on us. According to Freud, we were not very aware of some of our internal conflicts and often misunderstood the reasons behind many of our feelings of discomfort (often using various defence mechanisms to deal with the discomfort like denial, regression, rationalization, etc.). People usually like to think they are in control of themselves and pretty much know what they and other people are up to and why. Add to that Freud's unpopular beliefs in determinism, his strong emphasis on sexual motivation, universal male oedipal complex, female penis envy, the concept of a mysterious death instinct, view of religion as an illusion and his general pessimism about life. There was plenty to disturb not only people at the turn of the 20th century, but also people today. However, I believe that even if most people at the time (and maybe also today) thought that most of Freud's ideas were wrong or exaggerations, there was the feeling in many people that he may have got some things correct (he actually got many of his ideas from other people). For example, that we have some mental processes going that we are not completely aware of made some sense. Also many of the Freud's (with his daughter Anna help) defence mechanisms seemed to made some sense. So did the idea of the importance of early childhood experiences on later adult personality. I think that many of Freud's ideas have not been well supported by research, but some have. I would recommend that if Freud had something to say about the topic you are interested in, it is worthwhile to check it out. I hope this helps. Paul

-- Paul Kleinginna (pkleinginna@georgiasouthern.edu), June 10, 2004.

There is, perhaps, some truth that Freud's theory was "shocking" in its time, but it appears that this aspect has been vastly overplayed by both Freud's advocates and critics. I would recommend that you read some of Allen Esterson's work on Freud, particularly his criticism of Jeffrey Masson's well-known (but poorly-regarded) _Assault on Truth_. There was an article of his that appeared in _History of the Human Sciences_ in 1998, "Jeffrey Masson and Freud's seduction theory: a new fable based on old myths". A discussion of it can be found on-line at http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/. You should also have a look at the 2002 article by Esterson that appeared in _History of Psychology_, "The Myth of Freud's Ostracism by the Medical Community in 1896-1905: Jeffrey Masson's Assault on Truth."

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@utoronto.ca), June 10, 2004.

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