What did Freud get right?

[vulcanlogician]

We can all point to some asinine idea of Sigmund Freud. Penis envy....castration anxiety.... these are preposterous. Oedipus complex... his method of dream analysis... plenty in Freudian theory that we can safely call absurd. Modern psychology has basically thrown Freud into the dustbin. And I think this is the right call.

But do you think Freud was correct about some things? Do you think he had any good ideas or insights?

I do. So let's bring them up and discuss them. Just anything Freud said that you think is reasonably correct... or (maybe with some things) where he actually hit the nail on the head.

(And if you want to really rail on him for a bad idea, we can do that too.)

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What he got right: ‘The Irish are the only people impervious to psychoanalysis.’

Boru

[Ahriman]

What's absurd about dream analysis?

[vulcanlogician]

What's absurd about dream analysis?

Nothing inherently. I see merit in Jung's approach (though I have reservations too).

It's Freud's particular method with which I take issue. Any penis-shaped object in a dream represents a phallus. You have a dream about a pen? Freud says you're dreaming about a penis, but your internal censor has made it into a pen... to prevent you from waking up. Freud's approach to the symbolism in dreams is what I think is absurd.

[onlinebiker]

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar? Ok Sigmund - but sometimes it's a big brown cock... Suck on that motherfucker" - George Carlin

[Ahriman]

What's absurd about dream analysis?

Nothing inherently. I see merit in Jung's approach (though I have reservations too).

It's Freud's particular method with which I take issue. Any penis-shaped object in a dream represents a phallus. You have a dream about a pen? Freud says you're dreaming about a penis, but your internal censor has made it into a pen... to prevent you from waking up. Freud's approach to the symbolism in dreams is what I think is absurd.

Yeah, maybe Freud didn't have the right idea.......but dream analysis in general, can definitely be valuable. Me and my friends used to share our dreams with each other, literally and figuratively........we would talk about our dreams, but I had some dreams in which I was hanging out with my friends, and when I told them about those dreams, they would say they had the same dream. Perhaps we were all connected on a psycho-spiritual level, and met up with each other in the dream world?

[brewer]

The effect of the unconscious mind.

The existence of defense mechanisms.

The fear/resistance of change.

The idea of transference.

Talk therapy.

Cocaine.

[GUBU]

Sometimes a cigar just is a cigar.

Plus, his ardent love of Limerick hurling. (Said love not 100% confirmed, but as an intelligent man, logically it must have been so).

[Brian37]

We can all point to some asinine idea of Sigmund Freud. Penis envy....castration anxiety.... these are preposterous. Oedipus complex... his method of dream analysis... plenty in Freudian theory that we can safely call absurd. Modern psychology has basically thrown Freud into the dustbin. And I think this is the right call.

But do you think Freud was correct about some things? Do you think he had any good ideas or insights?

I do. So let's bring them up and discuss them. Just anything Freud said that you think is reasonably correct... or (maybe with some things) where he actually hit the nail on the head.

(And if you want to really rail on him for a bad idea, we can do that too.)

He was famous, I think everyone can agree on that.

[vulcanlogician]

The effect of the unconscious mind.

The existence of defense mechanisms.

The fear/resistance of change.

The idea of transference.

Talk therapy.

Cocaine.

Was he right about cocaine? Absolutely.

But what about talk therapy? Maybe. Studies have indicated that talk therapy's influence on recovery from mental illness may be negligible. As one of my psych profs explained to me, most of the data supporting talk therapy is based on what recovered individuals name as the cause of recovery. Meaning, people who have had talk therapy generally think IT was an instrumental factor in their recovery. But studies that focus on results only find the influence of talk therapy negligible.