Sigmund Freud
Quote
Men are more moral than they think and are far more immoral than they can imagine. — Sigmund Freud
Theory
- The disease mindset. Symptoms are clues to help us figure out what the real problems are.
- Before Freud, psychology is all about how “average human” works.
- Late 1800’ and 1900’, Victorian Era
- Freud talks about the dark side of human — sex and aggression
- Psyche
- Id = It, primitive, pleasure principle, immediate gratification
- Super-Ego, societal, “perfect us”
- Ego, find a way to satisfy Id without compromising Super-ego
- Medical Perspective - what works works - Clinical Psychology
Criticism
- A lot of the ideas Freud proposed are scientifically untestable
- His theories do not provide testable predictions. As a result we can never falsify Freudian theory.
- Note that, the community of clinical psychology, specifically psychoanalysis, has developed more scientific theories around Freud.