Of course I had heard of Sigmund Freud before, but I had no
idea what he had created. In the past week we have learned much about Freud's
ideas and concepts of the workings of the human mind. While learning about it, I
felt a strange sense of calmness and familiarity towards the subject. I think
this is due to the fact that in the past 100 years or so since Freud's ideas
came to fruition, society has widely accepted his teachings and they have
become a part of our culture. I imagine Freud's ideas, the subconscious and how
trapped memories and emotions could have a profound impact on our lives, must have
been viewed as crazy at the time. But
learning about these ideas now, in today's society, they don't seem so strange
and crazy.
One of
the more interesting topics of psychoanalysis was the defense mechanisms and classifications.
There were many mechanisms that I was aware of but perhaps not familiar with
the correct terminology. One that I hadn't heard of that I thought was very
interesting was dissociation. This is a defense mechanism is very interesting
because it allows the person to split of into different people at different
times. However, the two or multiple personalities do not know of the existence
of the other. This is fascinating to me because
I know that I have never experienced this before, but it is very strange to
think that there are people that live like this; and since it is a stage
three(neurotic) defense mechanism, a person who does this can still be a
function member-or members- of society.
Learning
about these defense mechanisms has also made me think more closely about how I might
use them in my own life. For example, I've
noticed recently that when I watch patriot games on TV, I sometimes bite
my nails without even thinking about it. I'm not sure what's going on subconsciously
in my brain, but now I suspect that it could be one of those mature mechanism
that we learned about, perhaps sublimation.
Hi Cam! It's funny that you felt so calm learning about Freudian psychology because I felt almost the opposite! Sometimes I wonder how accurate any human can actually be when it comes to social sciences. There is no way to 100% prove the theories Freud published, which makes me hesitant to accept them. Some people could argue that's true about everything, though. All discoveries and scientific theories humans have made could be wrong and no one could know!
ReplyDeleteWhen we learned about the different defense mechanisms, I also related them to my own life. When I related to some of the mechanisms, I was a little concerned because I thought that meant that I was somehow psychologically unstable. Ms. Baskin reassured us, though, that all humans display defense mechanisms in order to stay sane! It's pretty interesting to learn about something and be able to directly relate it to yourself.