Freud

Freud’s theory of the human condition is an all-encompassing theory. Freud’s work addresses the problem that is the misery of the human condition. We are unhappy because we are alienated from ourselves, we don’t know what we want. Freud believed he had found the solution in psychoanalysis as the way to gain access to the understanding of why we act the way we do. Freudian slips, dreams and neurosis, are all evidence that an unconscious mind exists and are gateways to your true thoughts.

Freud sexualised everything and believed that sex is the cause of our motives. He challenged the idea of the enlightenment that we are calculated beings, and he damaged our idea of ourselves as noble creatures. Freud was very pessimistic and had a dark view of humanity; he likened his ideas to the artwork of Rembrandt, a little light but a lot of darkness.

Marx also thought that we are alienated, but he had a teleological view that it was going towards a brighter thing – communism. Marx believed that we can evolve and become better. Freud rejects this and thinks it is nonsense. Our deepest needs are aggression, the wilful desire to hurt others and hurt ourselves. We seek our own destruction.

Freud followed Plato’s idea of the tripartite self (reason, spirit, desire – allegory of the two horses and a chariot). However where Plato believed that reason was the strongest, Freud actually believed it was the weakest.  Freud split the self into the Id, the Ego, and the Super Ego. The Id is the dominating part of our lives and is at our core from the moment we are born. It is made up of aggression and sexuality, it is the spoiled brat in us. “A cauldron seething in excitations” demanding fulfilment, always demanding we hurt others. The Ego is the least powerful part of the personality and is the voice of reason. We think it is the most dominant part of us but we are wrong. The Super Ego comes from the outside, initially from our parents and then the wider society. It is irrational. It is the policeman in your head, and punishes you with guilt when you don’t achieve perfection.

Society is full of suffering because it is full of pain:
1) Our own decaying body- nature
2) The external world – fate
3) Interaction with other people – the greatest pain. People are out to get us, but we are also inclined to hurt others.

Freud believes the answer to this is psychoanalysis, but this isn’t available to everyone. The masses will continue on their own destructive path. Freud outlines ways to contain these urges but he doesn’t recommend them:
1) Intoxication- but it is temporary and expensive
2) Isolation – stay away from other people
3) Religion – mass delusion

Civilisation is a collective super ego imposing moral limits on the Id.  The best example of this is religion “love our neighbour as ourselves” but how is that possible if the Id wants you to hurt them and for them to hurt you? Religion puts impossible demands on us.

Attacks on Freud’s theories:
1) Falsifiability –Popper – Freud was so vague that his theories could not be tested. There is no proof that psychoanalysis works.
2) Freud was not the discoverer of unconsciousness  - Schopenhauer said something similar.
3) Reich believed the complete opposite. The unconscious forces inside the mind are good and it was their suppression by society that distorted them and made people dangerous. Reich believed that the underlying energy was sexuality and if it was released then people would flourish.