Thursday, October 2, 2008

Freud or Fraud?

Time to take a position! I have taken a lot of time explaining Freudian theory in much detail. Was that time well-spent? Based on the readings, tell us if you think Freud was a "fraud" and I have misused the limited time we have in Psychology. Or do you think Freudian theory is relevant still today and should continue to be an important part of any Psychology curriculum.

Again, multiple postings and parental participation gets you extra credit!!

FIRST POST DUE OCTOBER 6!!

24 comments:

lovejonas91 said...

Haha Michaela,
I put the first blog again. LOL. Just Kidding.
Be back later to comment on this post from Mr. Yip.
~Natalie

lovejonas91 said...

Mr. Yip,
The time you spent on reviewing Freud was phenomenal. When we first had started talking about Freud, I was confused and disturbed. Now that you have gone into depth about Freud, his life, and his thoughts/beliefs, I have been given the capability to understand what he is all about.

A great deal of Freud’s theories makes sense. Responding to the blog question, I do believe that Freudian theory is relevant still today and should continue to be an important part of any Psychology curriculum. Freud teaches humans about reality. A great deal of what he says/believes about humans makes sense too. His explanation about the psychosexual stages has made a lot of sense as far as what we have gone over in class so far. Also, his major ego defense mechanisms are great descriptions of people and their actions.

I would have to say that after reading the article, “An Unhappy Birthday to Sigmund the Fraud” that Freud was NOT a fraud because he was not lying about what the information which he interpreted about humans. A lot of what Freud thought/saw in humans still goes on today proving that Freud was not a fraud. I found it interesting in this article when it said, “He recognized that the influence of parents on their children ran through deep and hidden channels, that it showed itself in every aspect of their future lives, and in no matter more fatefully than that of sexual desire” (page 2). Freud analyzed people from birth to adulthood and their instincts, the way they act, and their lives.

Mr. Yip, you did not waste time in class. In fact, I enjoyed learning more about Freud. I had always heard people talking about Freud and wondered who he was and what he did. I’m glad I got to learn about Freud in your psychology class and can’t wait to see what is next.

~Natalie D.

mishy91 said...

Yeah I've noticed that Natalie is always the first blogger lol. Anyway, I think it would disrespectful to Freud to say he was a fraud. He contributed more to psychology than anyone and the fact that his name is so famously known, proves that. Sure some of his ideas were a weeee bit out there, but who's mind isn't weird? He took a huge risk in not only delving into his own mind, but also telling the entire world what goes on in his head, the good and bad. The only thing I have a problem with him, was that he automatically assumed certain things about the human psyche without much evidence or examples to prove it. K, I'm done lol.

-Michelle :)

Anonymous said...

I beleive, after reading the two readings, I beleive that that Freud was not a fraud. He was very helpful in helping with psychology break throughs. "Freud's pscychological map may have been flawed in many ways, but it also happens to be the most choerent and, from the standpoint of individual experience, meaningful theory of the mind there is." -Panksepp.

I do beleive that his theroy's are bizzar, but they are effective. I do support his findings, and he was very affective when it comes to learning about the human brain, and its actions. The time that was spent in class looking at Freud was not a waste of time.
~erin

MLRoxYourSox said...

Natalie!! not fair...i had to do community service today so i didnt have time to do a blog! this is ridiculous!! I will do my blog later haha

Michaela

lovejonas91 said...

That's ok Michaela,
Maybe next time you'll be first...
Or maybe NOT!
Hahaha
~Natalie

lovejonas91 said...

Michelle,
I would have to agree with you.
It would be disrespectful to call Freud a fraud. It is like when people judge a book by it's cover without knowing anything about the book. Or even when people don't talk to others because they aren't "cool" enought to be seen with. You made a good point and you make a lot of sense. Freud is just human, like all of us, except he was a little bit out there....
~Natalie

Chris said...

Mr. Yip,

The time we spent learning about Freud was certainly well spent. I enjoyed learning about this. I believe all his theories are relevant today, we use these theories everyday and past and we didn't know it. It was very intresting to learn. It made me realize what Freud was saying in all his theories. Frankly, I think he's genius, for coming up with these theories.

-Chris E. (Period 1)

mishy91 said...

I promise that one day I'm going to be the first to post a comment on a blog (Natalie) lol

-Michelle :)

laurynp said...

I believe that spending this long on Freud was not a waste of time. Even if people, like myself do not fully agree with his opinions and theories, it does not meant the time was not well spent. Freud was a huge part of Psychology and if we did not learn about him we would be missing out on a big part of the study of psychology. Although, his theories and opinions were quite vulgar. I did not particularly enjoy learning about them all but he did make a point.

Freud believed in his theories and stuck by them. Thats what made people in the psychological community angry. Because what he said was inappropriate and indecent in society. No one really wanted to hear about his theories about sex and that conversation made people very uncomfortable

Anonymous said...

~Michael

I think we would be wrong to call Freud a Fraud he has alot of logical info with alot of work to show he results. I personally think Freudian theory is relevant still today and should continue to be an important part of any Psychology curriculum.

Marissa Mardo said...

Mr. Yip,
I think that the time we spent in class learning about Freud and his theories was definitely well spent. When we were first introduced to each one of his theories, i didnt understand where he got his ideas from, which lead me to believe he was a bit crazy. But as time went on and we got to learn about his life and his beliefs in great detail, my opinion drastically changed.

I now feel that Freud was a very intelligent man because all of his theories make sense. I especially agree with the ego defense mechanisms and the psychosexual stages of development. I believe it would be unfair to call Freud a fraud since all of his theories and beliefs are what made him well known in psychology. Learning about Freud and his theories in psychology was time well spent and i think that Freudian theory should continue to be an important aspect of the psychology curriculum. Without Freud, we wouldnt have been able to explore all of his beliefs that are very commonly used today.
Marissa Mardo

MLRoxYourSox said...

Although Freud was a sex obsessed man and hated women, i still believe that all his theories made sense and should still be studied today. All his theories explain why we do some of the things we do. I'm not sure what else to say about him. I don't think he was a fraud at all and everything he said is still important today. Freud greatly contributed to psychology and every single thing made sense. So no Mr. Yip you did not waste time in class. I actually found our discussions very interesting!

Michaela Laliberte

Wynne said...

Freud was a strange guy. He was obsessed with sex. He ostracized women from any descent thought. He had some fascination going with the penis. His beliefs in the human mind were pessimistic and cruel; everybody in his mind seemed to have a problem. Loads of his theories and ideas are wild and impossible to believe while others are offensive and pointless. A dream could mean you want to have sex with your mother and another dream might infer that you should murder your dad.

Freud was a very strange guy.
He very well may have been insane.

Yet, his research into the chasms of the human psych holds an incredible presence over the theories and questions that are built around and within the psychology field today. His ideas on the libido and other forms of impulses and decision making have revolutionized research involving the human mind. Greater understanding of mental illness and lunacy owe a firm hand shake and thank you too Freud’s imagination and possible genius. The way of thought in this modern world is a result of Freud – and of course many others – but a large part of today’s mindset owes something to the man with the goatee and cigar. He may have been a jerk and a crazy man, but you can’t say he didn’t leave an impact.

Anonymous said...

of course learning about freud was time well spent, he was a ground breaker in psychology a lot of what is like common knowledge about psychology is either based on something he said or its word for word freud was DEFINITLY going in the right direction. not to say he wasn' wierd, because he was, but someone can be wierd AND right, correct?

Ben Pickering said...

I think the time spent of Freud was time well spent. Freud was like a founding father of psychology and say what you want about the guy, he knew alot of things. He made many advancements to psychology and without him people would not know as much as they do today. Many of his ideas were very accurate and made great advancements in society. Therefore, calling Freud a fraud would be obsurd, due to he did much good towards psychology.
Yours Truly, Benjamin Miguel Pickering

Unknown said...

Sigmund Freud was a pretty interesting guy. While some find his theories looney, I feel as though his research was a breakthrough in the field of psychology. From what Freud has found about ego defense mechanisms, our constant drive for pleasure, and everything there is to know about the unconscious, we can continue to use in uncovering more secrets about our minds. A huge portion of what we know about our subconscious selves can be derived from Freud's theories, and that makes them worthy of learning and being kept in the psychology curriculum today. Sigmund Freud saw things in a different light; he was able to realize that analyzing the self is highly important, and by doing so he changed the way the world views the human mind. Freud was a great man. So great, I'd like to shake his hand and buy him a drink. That is all.

Katherine Gannon

Leslie said...

I don't think it would be cool to call Freud a Fraud. His ideas may have been bizzare, but he was definitely not a fraud. Freud's theories opened a lot of doors for other people's theories in psychology. Even though Freudian theory isn't practiced by a lot of psychologists today, we still refer to is theories. Freud was brave enough to even bring up his theories in the period of time he was living in. As I've said the the previous posts, I didn't like Freud. I thought he was a craaaazzayy man. But when you started to teach us about Freud, his theories started to make a lot of sense.
I don't think you wasted time teacing us about Freud. I'm glad we did because if you hadn't I would've learned about him. I had never even heard his name, until you brought it up. It was fun discussing his theories and I learned a lot.

McCall Theriault said...

Well, I think that it was time well spent. However, Freud i think only thought with his male reproductive parts and not with his mind. He totally didn't even give woman a chance to defend or voice their option, they were given what they needed and had to think!
What he had to say did make me think about the topics that are being discussed today and they make sense but people should be able to think and life their life with out repression of thought.
I however don't think that spending all this time was a waste I think that it benefited us, and we will now be able to understand the way thought is processed and how others may think in future lessons!

Matt L said...

~Matt

I do not think our time in class was wasted studying Freud. Although some of his ideas are no longer accepted, they created a foundation for new research to work off of. I feel that Freud's radical ideas made many psychologists perform research in order to prove Freud wrong, leading to much of the knowledge we know today. Because Freud was the beginning of modern psychology, I do not feel we were wrong in beginning our year learning about him.

yipf said...

McCall Theriault

Well, I think that it was time well spent. However, Freud i think
only thought with his male reproductive parts and not with his
mind. He totally didn't even give woman a chance to defend or
voice their option, they were given what they needed and had to
think!
What he had to say did make me think about the topics that are
being discussed today and they make sense but people should be
able to think and life their life with out repression of thought.
I however don't think that spending all this time was a waste I
think that it benefited us, and we will now be able to understand
the way thought is processed and how others may think in future
lessons!

kelsiegagne said...

i think that the bases of freud's ideas are legitimate but i believe he took it kind of far. for example the whole thing about orogenous zones is a little extreme i think that it makes sense that a baby tends to be focused on their mouth because eveyrthing goes in their mouth however i dont think it is necessarily because of "sexual pleasure". i think that he forms everything into being sexual when it is not. A lot of his ideas are right and make sense but i have a hard time relating everything to being sexual. the thing that makes the most sense is the fixations that occur from these life stages. this shows a lot how our memories go into our subconcious and that the things we cannot remember still effect us, i believe strongly that his reasoning for the fixations we develop is right and we find it hard to believe and understand because it all involves things we subconciously think about and the things we dont remember so it makes it hard for us to take it in. but i think freud is definitelyu not a fraud he came up with a lot of good psychological ideas. i just think he took them way to far by relating everything to sex.

Taozoo4u said...

Freudian theory is still very relevant to learning psychology and is a very important part of psychology. through Freud's theories we are able to shed new light on the basis of psychology and allows us to understand basic psychological impulses.

Roberto said...

The Freudian Theory pretty much set the basis for all modern forms of Psychology today by analyzing our mind and giving us specific reasons for how we act the way we do. In fact due to you teaching Freud it is much easier to accept the theories of other psychologists like Carl Jung and Erik Erikson because their theories can really be easily related to Freud's in one way or another.