Who is Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) ?
An Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. First of all, I am impressed by his critical thinking and his attempts to reject his thoughts and conclusions. It is difficult to keep track of every questioning he makes regarding his assumptions and the casualty of the train of his thoughts. In his book Introduction to psychoanalysis, he deals with the psychology of errors and dreams and neurosis.
What kind of errors?
“Meaningless” errors, such as slip of tongue or casual forgetfulness. Freud in contrast, claims they have importance and meaning. He summons laws of determinism and free association for his cause(For later discussion).
In short, Freud thinks of errors as a collision between 2 intentions. One that is conscious and one that is unconscious.
For example, you might forget your car keys before going to the grocery
- The conscious intention: Going to the grocery and buying stuff
- The unconscious intention: You don’t want to go for some suppressed wish
The collision of these intentions causes error. The suppressed wish seeks to rebel.
Freud says that you know about yourself information but you believe that you don’t know, so the knowledge stays in the unconscious. One of the goals of psychoanalysis is to bring that knowledge to the conscious and release the suppression.
Society and culture make a lot of suppression through education. This starts from childhood. Society suppresses sexuality in individuals for the attainment of its goals. The suppressed wishes and intentions rebel at some point and an individual might walk some path out of rebellion, which also causes errors.
There are primitive, incest and evil wishes and desires in everyone. Freud denies the claim that satanic rulers managed to herd the rest of the “kind, peaceful and good” population to do evil. Evil was in each of them in the first place and is suppressed. Freud discourages suppression and encourages proper management.
What is unpleasant or embarrassing is not necessarily false and untrue.
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