1. Why Freud? 2. In what way(s) is Freud still relevant to us at this moment in time? 3. How do you see yourself in relation of the Freudian heritage? -- that is, is you interest specific to his works, or are you devoted to some consequent school or branch of psychoanalysis? what do you see as good/bad useful/not useful in psychoanalysis after Freud? [Lacan, Klein, Kohut, Winnicot etc etc] 4. Which Freudian texts do you find most compelling, original or crucial? 5. What do you find most convincing in Freud's theory? least convincing? 6. Do you see psychoanalysis as relevant to politics? if so how? what thinkers do you feel have made good use of psychoanalysis in the realm of political analysis? if not politics, then fit "cultural studies" into that spot and re-ask this question? 7. What are your thoughts about psychoanalysis' relation to science? is it one? does it need to be one? are they at odds? does its status vis-a-vis science have any effect on its truth value (if it has any)? 8. How does Freud or psychoanalysis inform your work or research? does it? 9. How do you respond to those who say that Freud is nothing but a turn-of-the-last-century pseudo-scientist with patriarchal values and sexist attitudes who is irrelevant to the contemporary world? 10. How important is actually undergoing analysis? that is, can we be satisfied with being "armchair freudians" or if there anything about the actual practice which is still important? 11. What do you think about the fate of diagnoses like Hysteria or Obsessional Neurosis? are they still valid and thus enduring structures discovered by Freud - or - are they dependent upon their time & thus now we have a need for new diagnoses to keep up with an ever-mutating situation?
I think we're still deep in the throws of Freudian psychoanalysis. If I go up to somebody and tell them about my tendency to be alone and avoid social situations, they're emmidiately going to look for things in my past, and the more traumatic they are, the more they're going to settle on that as the root cause of my anti-social tendencies. Why shouldn't it be neuro-chemical? Why couldn't it be just my predisposed preferences. Why couldn't it be that there's something I enjoy doing in my alone time that captures my interests so intently? Anyway, I know I'm not answering your questions point-by-point, but my general opinion on Freud is that his overall theory is true. I believe people are greatly influence by unconscious motives and thoughts, but I disagree with his psychosexual stages of development. Dream interpretation? Maybe, but not to the extreme that he promoted it.
^ yes. freud undoubtedly sparked some good initial thinking/exploration in the early days of a rising interest in psychological phenomena, but many of his theories are untestable junk based on his own eccentric personality and have little to no application to our modern understanding. his bullshit about sexuality and repression makes me laugh every time.
I've always thought it was funny how one of the main predictions that Freud's theory makes is that people would deny it. Kind of ironic.
Exactly. And one thing that's frequently forgotten is that Freud was addicted to cocaine and encouraged its use. Freud in a lot of ways was probably considerably crazier than many of his patients.
That's an exaggeration. As soon as Freud realized cocaine was addictive - they didn't know back then, after all - he kicked the habit pretty damn quick.
All shrinks are crazy. I want to be a psychiatrist and have worked in the field a lot and I am fucking nuts. Part of the reason I got A's in my psych classes is because I enjoyed learning there were people out there who are nuttier than me and my own nuttiness allowed me to empathize. My therapist is a complete whack job, but she is good. My psychiatrist is so glazed over and drugged up he can't remember a thing...he got me hooked on so many pills and told me the root of my problems were that I 'smoked the marijuana once to twice weekly'. I quit smoking 'the marijuana' and now I am still crazy but also hyper and overly sensitive.
