Sigmund Freud

Here are my notes on old Freud, what a stand up guy he knew his stuff! Got Always Sunny on in the background, just enjoyed steak night and there will be a hilarious picture at the end very relevant to this topic courtesy of Cyanide and Happiness comic, so read on!

Freud: He had an all encompassing theory of everything. His work casts a long shadow as it addresses the whole human condition, which is highly contested. Freud states that we are always unhappy because we are divided, even alienated from ourselves - which correlates to what Marx says about the working class - we have no idea what we need but we have to work. Freud himself was a psychiatrist and claimed to find the reason we are unhappy. He claimed to have found away into the part of our brains that control us - the thing is that we don't know we are being controlled and we have no actual control over our actions. If we think that we are doing these things, for example, if I think I'm sitting in my room blogging on my own volition then I'm very mistaken, because it's actually my brain that is controlling me; basically we don't make our own decisions and we have no idea that this control is even happening. Think about when you choose what to wear, your subconsciousness will tell you to wear blue because you associate that with looking fierce. This is explored greatly by psychoanalysis which we will come to.

The most common aspect of Freud's work you will hear of is people talking about 'Freudian slips' this is when we say something that we didn't intend to, but these slips are supposed to be our real thoughts creeping through. This is linked in with dreaming - dreams are supposedly the royal road to the unconscious and they can explain some sort of deeper meaning within a person, for example if you have dreams of running away or 'running up that hill' then, this supposedly means that you're not having enough sex - dreams just express our true thoughts and this can only happen while we are asleep. Freud stated that if he didnt treat people then this would cause a downward spiral - this is because Freud would help you address these underlying feelings and if they were to go unnoticed then you would become greatly neurotic and life would just get progressively worse.

Freud was seen as a secluded renegade, he was a massive sex addict and thought that sex was the center of everything - which damaged the old view of ourselves as being noble creatures who were chivalrous and decent. Freud claims that we are brutal creatures that cave into basic desires and will not go out of our way for someone unless we benefit from it. This links into pessimism - which is seen as the center of all - Freud was highly pessimistic and he saw humans as having a little light but an overwhelming amount of darkness inside. This pessimism is somewhat understandable when you know of Freud's origins - for example he was lived through the first world war, general aggression from the German state, he was of Jewish descent living in Vienna so he would have been very fearful and if that wasn't enough, he lived through the Great Depression and would have seen a phenomenal amount of unemployment and strife. These factors and I'm sure more, are more than responsible for his dark and pessimistic view on humans.

Attack on Plato: Freud agreed with Plato on the idea that there is a tripartite self - a person is made up of three parts - reason, spirit and desire. Plato's example of a charioteer is used to explain this idea - there are two horses, which represent spirit and desire and then the charioteer at the reins is reason, dictating the actions of spirit and desire. However, Freud doesn't agree on the order that Plato put forward; insofar as reason is not in control as he thought reason to be the weakest of the three and completely unable to control desire or spirit. I believe that Freud would say that desire is the one in control of spirit and reason.

Attack on Marx: While Marx believed that humans have unlimited potential and that we can always become better version of ourselves, Freud believes that this is complete nonsense and this is because there is a part of us that we can never escape - our aggression. For example, if we were to live in a communist state Marx would say we would all get along just fine and would all be equal, whereas Freud would argue that we would still be ourselves, nothing would change and that deep down we are all just aggressive, we only ever want to hurt people or we want to goad people into hurting us so we have a reason to hurt them back, this is all we want to do deep down. This is linked to Hobbes and his state of nature, where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short - we need the Leviathan to rule over us and stop us from being animals.

The Freudian Personality: The reality of human nature is pain - this is what it is to be human, to be in and feel pain perpetually. This is because we are divided in ourselves, we are always at war with ourselves and these divided parts within us are fighting themselves and the most dominant force in ourselves is the 'ID' which is and has been a part of us all since the very beginning.

The ID is sex and aggression, which is the most dominant part of us all which Freud called "a cauldron of seething excitation" always bubbling away, demanding to be noticed, demanding expression and fulfillment. The main thing is that we are never aware of the dominance of the ID and the problem is that the ID is essentially a spoiled brat in a toy shop that wants everything and wants it now - this is the ID.

The 'EGO' is the rational self, it is also supposed to be the weakest and least powerful part of a personality, which concerns the voice of reason, moderation and common sense - these rarely have an effect on our life decisions, says Freud. In terms of reality, we don't make choices based on facts - we are not rational beings in the slightest - for example with the charioteer, Plato's charioteer is not in control, the ego is just constantly embarrassed and is overruled by stronger forces within us.

The 'SUPER EGO' is essentially the nice parts of us, the part that wants to respect authority and be nice to other people. The super ego is the values that have been passed down to us through our parents and other outside influences. The super ego and the ID are just irrational and are always fighting with the ego. So really the super ego is essentially the parent who is screaming at you to do better, to revise more so you do well as it would reflect on them, the super ego is the guilt you feel when you don't get something right, when you don't get the right grades. It is equated to religion insofar as that sets very unrealistic demands - don't be a bad person, love thy neighbor and so on.

Why is society awful? 
1) Freud says that this is mostly because of other people - this is loaded with pain as they are always out to get us and other people are always trying to do better than you; just trying to get in your way, every single person is some sort of a road block on your path to success. When you see others you don't see friends or family, you see a multitude of people just trying to attack you. This is the greatest pain of all.

2) Because we are ever so slowly decaying. We are always getting older and with old age comes more problems, for example back pains, illness, dementia and so on, our bodies are going to run out some time and this is what adds to life being miserable and we are in a state of perpetual pain.

3) The external world - for example nature, you look outside to find it's raining again, you hate the rain as it makes you cold and soaks you through, this is just a daily occurrence to some people and it makes life that bit more of a chore and we just cant help it, nothing we do can change the weather.

Freud believes that the answer is 'psychoanalysis' which was an expensive treatment, not open to everyone. It is seen as necessary to strengthen the ego and it was just the answer to the people being upset. However, psychoanalysis is expensive and only a few people are trained in it, which means it is not an answer for everyone. This leads us to a way to contain urges, coping mechanisms for people who cant afford to go through psychoanalysis.

1) Isolation - just cut yourself off from the world and people altogether
2) Chemical Solution - this is reverting to drugs and alcohol to cope with the world
3) Religion as a type of sublimation - religion acts as a mass delusion
4) Sublimation -  is a type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior. However, the only real satisfaction is to beat someone you hate to death.

Civilisation is essentially a collective super ego, for example we are expected to respect authority, sit in rows, be respectful of others. Imposing moral limits, for example love your neighbor as yourself - unrealistic demand as we are animals, how would we do this? and even worse, we have to 'love your enemy', which is just insane according to Freud - again linked to religion placing outrageous limits on us and vast expectations.

Dreams are the royal road of the unconsciousness because while we are asleep the ego is like a sentry asleep at its post. this is when the ID would run rampant and the dreams we have reveal our true thoughts.

Attack on Freud: Popper and falsifiability would say that Freud's scientific predictions could be proven wrong, Freud was always vague, it can't be tested and he made up loads of his research and facts anyway. Furthermore, Freud claimed to be the only one to mention the unconsciousness but that is untrue, because Schopenhauer actually mentioned it in a round about way, insofar as he mentioned the 'Will' and so on, for example the will is the secret antagonist of the intellect.

Well there we have it, all my notes on Freud! Helpful revision session too as well as me now being up to date on my blog! FINALLY, took some time, but I got there. Hope you enjoyed, here's the picture I promised!

Freudian Ice - Comic Strip Courtesy of Cyanide and Happiness!

http://www.explosm.net/comics/2630/