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Sigmund Freud is an institution. The idea of Freud, shaped by popular opinion, rarely helps us understand the man, let alone his concepts. He’s the most misunderstood and misinterpreted figure in recent history. They key to understanding Freud remains in focussing on questions that try to explore the whys and not the whats. To measure his success or the lack of it, in terms of how scientific his theories were, would only serve to reinforce the popular notion that Freud was wrong on most fronts — something that the majority of academics and psychologists are convinced is true.
Critics have repeatedly pointed out that almost all of Freud’s theories are a result of his own neuroses or mental illness and accused him of lacking scientific rigour. To understand Freud, we need to understand why psychology can never fully be a scientific field of study. Studying of human behaviour and mental processes by reducing it to set number of variables and in terms theories is akin to trying to hold water using a net. There are infinite number of variables in the realm of human experience and most of it cannot be factored in however controlled the experiment is. Therefore, most of the theories or experiments will cease to be repeatable or produce the same results, in which case it will deemed illogical or a failure. And most of Freud’s work were dismissed based on lack of scientific evidence which has, in many ways, shaped public opinion too.
Here are some of Freud’s theories, formulated nearly 100 years ago, that are relevant as ever.
On dreams and the unconscious
Freud was the first to acknowledge that dreams were more than random images and called it the “the royal road to the unconscious”. He believed that dreams offered a window into the unconscious, a space that we, under normal circumstances, are unaware of but influences our judgment, feelings and behaviour. He was of the opinion that the unconscious played a greater role in our day-to-day activities without us realising it. Most modern researches have proved that dreams indeed provide an insight into the way how our brains function. There are many theories on why we dream but the Freudian and the Jungian models of dream interpretation still command a lot of attention. Their ‘primitive’ studies and assessments still hold their own in the 21st century and are among the few areas that have evaded the grasp of modern technology.
Defense mechanisms
Freud understood the concept of internal conflict and how we cope with them. He believed that we employ techniques -- not at the conscious level — to cope with reality and maintain our self-image. All our politicking, debates, outrages on social media are different manifestations of our defense mechanisms. Ever wondered why some people can’t take in new ideas or righteously defend theirs? Or why some get easily influenced while others don’t?
Psychoanalysis, anyone?
It has gone through many revisions over the last 100 years but in essence, still maintains Freud’s imprint on it. It involved a series of sessions where people are asked to express their thoughts, desires, dreams and just about anything they wished to share. The idea behind this was to gauge their different levels of defense or resistance to certain ideas and trace it to its source — childhood, a period where most of one’s problems take shape, according to Freud. He believed that a cure could be found only by understanding conflict. Many still consider this pseudoscience and not scientific. Consider this: how far will you let a stranger enter your personal space, a place where your deepest and darkest secrets reside? How many us will be willing to undergo such an experience?
Freud, the artist
His insights and theories still continue to fascinate the academia. The modern lexicon has embraced many of the words introduced by Freud — like slips, denial, defense mechanisms, oedipus complex. Despite widespread criticism, he’s still very much a part of the syllabi in most of psychology-teaching schools. His ability to articulate complex ideas, concepts and write brilliant essays made him popular among the literary circles as well. His 1933 speech on whether psychoanalysis leads to Weltanschauung — an intellectual construction that gives a unified solution of all the problems of our existence — is a case in point.
“Of the three forces which can dispute the position of science, religion alone is a really serious enemy. Art is almost always harmless and beneficent, it does not seek to be anything else but an illusion, except when a few people who are, one might say, obsessed by art, it never dares to make any attacks on the realm of reality. Philosophy is not opposed to science, it behaves itself as if it were a science, and to a certain extent it makes use of the same methods; but it parts company with science, because it clings to the illusion that it can produce a complete and coherent picture of the universe, though in fact that picture must fall to pieces with every new advance in our knowledge. Its methodological error lies in the fact that it over-estimates the epistemological value of our logical operations, and to a certain extent admits the validity of other sources of knowledge, such as intuition.”
This passage, taken from the same speech, shows the man was much ahead of his time. Much of what he had said still reverberates among the different intellectual circles today. His insights, views on different subjects were largely moulded by his approach of self-analysis. And his love for poetry is well documented too. His famous quote, “Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me”, in many ways, captures his approach to psychology.
Sigmund Freud was more a thinker than a scholar or a psychologist.
