Sigmund Freud

The father of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud is a figure I've known about ever since my first Psychology class and I feel that while many of his theories have been debunked, he is still relevant for his contributions to the field and worth talking about. When one thinks of Freud, they tend to first think about all of his theories on sex. Many of his ideas were pretty out there from the Oedipus complex to the Penis envy concept. Yes he thought about sex quite a bit, but one can't deny that it's a crucial aspect of the human experience so why shouldn't it have been a prominent focus of his work? Like I said, many of his theories have been put to rest, but they served the important purpose of starting a discussion. I sincerely doubt that the reason behind women's emotional instability is their anger due to their perceived castration, and I have never had sexual thoughts about my mother, but it should be mentioned that much of Freuds theories were rooted in the subconscious or the ID, ego, and super ego as he referred to them. Freud understood that there were levels of human consciousness, some of which were below our normal surface level of understanding. He believed that there were some tendencies we had that could only be explained by the inner workings of our mind of which we can't always completely understand and I agree with that to a degree. The human mind is a complicated thing and I'll admit that there are many things that I've done in the context of not being entirely sure of why I did them in the first place. I would say the context of a deeper level of the mind would explain that to a degree. On the topic of Freud, the subtopic of his substance abuse can't be avoided. Freud had an interesting mind, and like many people with interesting minds, he gravitated towards drug abuse, and he drove down that path at full speed, which may explain some of his more outlandish theories. I think it isn't just people with unique minds that abuse drugs, I would say it's also those with troubled minds that resort to such practices as a means of relieving some of the pain that they're in. I would say Freud is no different. It should also be noted that he was a fan of cigars, which is what led to him getting mouth cancer and subsequently having himself euthanized. The cigar thing is somewhat funny since Freud himself supposedly said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" in reference to the likely point that was made to him that the cigar could be interpreted as a phallic symbol. If Freud did say this, I would say that's indicative of his own awareness that some of his ideas that were a bit out there. I think that says that even he was under the impression that sometimes we overthink things and he was very prone to that. Still that's just a funny side note(510). At the beginning of this entry I called Freud by his informal title; "the Father of Psychoanalysis" which should also be discussed. Psychoanalysis is essentially the series of processes used to understand the human mind in the context of categorizing psychological issues. The practice, like many other aspects of psychology Freud developed, has been contested but it remains a very relevant concept in the field of psychology. I'm seriously oversimplifying the whole thing since there's a lot that goes into it but what I mentioned is what it is in a nutshell so I feel that's sufficient. Freud wasn't the only one that brought it about, but he's the most significant and is usually credited with it's development and for the sake of this entry being about him, I'll keep the focus on that. When one thinks about psychoanalysis, one typically imagines someone laying on a couch and spilling the situation of their lives to some egg head therapist writing things down as they're sitting at a desk not far away, but the process is so much more than that (and isn't always exactly as I described it). Yes therapists offices are typically designed to create an air of comfort and safety so the individual entering therapy feels they can reveal what's really going on with them, but I'm fairly certain psychoanalysis is more about the process than the environment. Either way, it's significant, as is Freud in general. He may not be significant because everything he put into the field is still relevant, but he is because his contributions led to the development of a discussion about psychology and the human mind, which is why he is important. The last thing I'm going to discuss in the context of Sigmund Freud is the concept of the "Freudian Slip" which is something that's always been interesting to me. In a nutshell, a Freudian slip is when someone accidentally says what they really mean. The funniest way I've ever heard the concept explained is "a Freudian Slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother, I mean another!" (an obvious reference to Freuds thoughts on maternal sexual attraction). Freudian slips are always funny because they are when someone accidentally shows their true colors that they were trying to conceal. We see them all the time, but not everyone is aware that there is a word for the occurrence. The best one I've ever seen was when I saw a fox news clip (on a comedy show obviously) in which one of the anchors (Brian Kilmeade I believe) stated something to the effect of "we don't want immigrants coming here in such vast numbers because they will be changing the color, I mean the culture of the country". He accidentally revealed the racist undertones of the anti-immigrant sentiments that many express in this country and I thought that was both distasteful and revealing, but all together it was a fantastic Freudian Slip. Again, while Sigmund Freud may be regarded today as a man with some crazy ideas, it can't be refuted that he's important to psychology. After all, we're still talking about him aren't we?