The unconscious is not a concept, it is a rhetorical device." He wrote Stanley Fish in his article, "Withholding the Missing Portion". Fish 's article argues that Freud 's main concern in his writings is to influence the reader of the strength of his readings and the power of his theory through his clever use of rhetoric. In particular, Fish refers to the role of the unconscious in Freud 's theory, arguing that it can be freely used by Freud in such a way that it can appear to account for any data acquired in practice. This attitude reflects the commonly-held view amongst modern scientists that Freud 's theories are unscientific. In this essay, I aim to argue that while Fish makes a valid point about Freud 's use of the unconscious as a rhetorical device, to consider it as only a rhetorical device and to dismiss its importance as a scientific concept is not only unjustified, but also impractical in psychological theories of the mind. Freud 's theories, I argue, are no less scientific than other theories in science.
Before I say my own arguments concerning this matter, I will examine Fish 's spot in better detail, in order to understand the extent of his claim. A rhetorical device, according to Fish, "is entirely made and stands without external support", and "that insofar as it has been installed at the center of a structure of opinion, it obtains the status of that which goes without saying and that against which nothing can be said". Giving to Fish, Freud 's idea of the
Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers are two extremely renowned individuals who have greatly contributed to the history of psychology. Their contributions are the foundation for the tools, techniques, and methodologies used by psychologist today. Although, each psychologist is from different times and developed different methods, they shared a passion for the workings of the human mind. As a result, their drive and foundation has motivated and prompted new theories and research for the future. This paper will provide a summary of two articles highlighting the processes contemporary psychologists use to develop the theories of Freud and Rogers. It also explains their views of human nature and worldviews as
I wrote this paper to get a better understanding of Sigmund Freud’s method and theory of dream analysis. The purpose of the paper will be to show the principals of Freud’s dream related theory that focuses on the physiology, interpretation, and psychology of dreams and to explain concepts such as latent and manifest content of dreams, the part of unconscious process, and the nature of dreams role in the determination of dream content. I would like to explore Sigmund Freud’s explanations of psycho-analytic and psychological theory and method to reveal whether Freud’s continuous revising to sexually based conclusions are able to support his own arguments. One of his themes was the amount of activity that goes on in our brains without us even
In his 1992 essay “A Hoot in the Dark: The Evolution of General Rhetoric,” George A. Kennedy proposed a foundation of and for a “General Rhetoric” that encompasses the activity of all social, communicative animals, a rhetoric as potential energy that exists prior to not only speech but to the whole of communication. Twenty-five years later, writing in the same journal, Philosophy and Rhetoric, and affiliated with the same institution, Pennsylvania State University, Henry Johnstone identified rhetoric, as a philosophical activity, as one of the handful of activities that separate humankind from the rest of the animal kingdom. Kennedy expanded the particular activities that fall under the domain of Rhetoric to illustrate, in part, that rhetoric, far from being a superfluous, inexact art to be discarded of by the rampant logical positivism and instrumentalism which is characteristic of our era, is in fact integral to the very existence, survival, and indeed consciousness of not humankind, but the whole of socio-sentient life. Johnstone, too, argues his point against the devaluation of rhetoric as a discipline, even though his claim runs counter to that of Kennedy: rhetoric, he says, “is the evocation and maintenance of the consciousness required for communication,” a property unique to human beings (21). It would be folly, according to Johnstone, to attribute this
Sigmund Freud is often referred to as the father of psychoanalysis; he was the first to ask and pursue several groundbreaking questions. However, despite any proclaimed parentage, the field has proceeded through multiple generations since the death of Freud himself, and the once influential name has now become a chapter in a psychology textbook, a stepping stone on the way to the names that are important now. True enough, certain speculations on Freud’s part – the Oedipus complex, his opinions on the healing properties of cocaine – do seem dubious when examined through a modern lens. Freud is often discarded because of this, especially in professional settings, but Freud’s conjectures being “false,” does not mean they were not meaningful.
Freud attempted to examine how our society viewed the human mind by turning society’s attention inward and exploring the mind’s inner secrets. One of the large discoveries Freud popularized in society was the concept of a conscious and unconscious part of the mind. He believed the unconscious part of the mind was the primary source of human behavior because it comprised unreachable thoughts. This concept was a radical way to understand the mind, and Freud was the first to use psychology instead of sciences, such as biology, to discover where the mind hid its secrets. He believed studying psychology would help humans determine their base
Freud was in his day an answer to many of society’s questions. As evolved and as the sciences evolved, we learned much more about Freud and his theories. Most of his work has been criticized most of the time. The criticisms of Freud and his theories have increased since
By studying the ideas of other psychologists and philosophers to support his own ideas, Freud was able to take the parts he agreed with and disprove the parts he did not agree with. He explores the ideas of Aristotle, Hildebrandt and Strumpell to name just a few. He agreed strongly with Aristotle’s belief that dreams are not divine in
Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freud’s most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression: the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires,
Freud’s theory is that dreaming is meaningful, unlike the activation synthesis theory. He believed that the mind had three sections, represented in a shape of an iceberg; the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. The conscious is the tip of the iceberg above the water involves everything we are aware of right now such as our thoughts. The
Sigmund Freud created strong theories in science and medicine that are still studied today. Freud was a neurologist who proposed many distinctive theories in psychiatry, all based upon the method of psychoanalysis. Some of his key concepts include the ego/superego/id, free association, trauma/fantasy, dream interpretation, and jokes and the unconscious. “Freud remained a determinist throughout his life, believing that all vital phenomena, including psychological phenomena like thoughts, feelings and phantasies, are rigidly determined by the principle of cause and effect” (Storr, 1989, p. 2). Through the discussion of those central concepts, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis becomes clear as to how he construed human character.
Sigmund Freud explored many new concepts in the human mind during his lifetime. He was the scholar who discovered an immense new realm of the mind, the unconscious. He was the philosopher who identified childhood experience, not racial destiny or family fate, as the vessel of character, and he is the therapist who invented a specific form of treatment for mentally ill people, psychoanalysis. This advanced the revolutionary notion that actual diagnosable diseases can be cured by a technology that dates to the dawn of humanity: speaking. Sigmund Freud, writing more than 320 books, articles and essays on psychotherapy in his lifetime, forever changed how society viewed mental illness and the meaning of their dreams. However, controversy over
Freud viewed the unconscious mind as the primary source of human behavior. Freud saw the conscious mind as only the “tip of the iceberg” of the mind, because people are not always conscious of every decision they decide to make. For example, you may consciously think ‘I’m thirsty.’ and drink water, but according to Freud, that only scratches the surface of the decisions we make. According to Freud, the unconscious mind contains “significant” and “disturbing” thoughts and experiences that we need to keep out of the conscious mind. Traumatic events would be one such example of a thought that needed to be kept out of the conscious mind, and therefore was
Freud’s theory was initially based on his own person and experiences and memories, hence, lacking experimental and scientific
Sigmund Freud’s influence on modern day thinking permeates into our lives every day whether or not we realize it. Although much of his work has either been refuted or revised, his ideas have influenced an enormous spectrum of psychology and how we view life through our own thoughts. While his influence is irrefutable, the opinions concerning Freud and his writings vary greatly throughout the world. Individuals may distinguish the great genius in his groundbreaking theories of psychoanalysis, or they may reject his writings arguing that he had pushed the envelope too far. Either way, it is safe to say that his theories still evoke a considerable amount of debate to this day. Out of all of Freud’s theories, however, it can be argued that his
Sigmund Freud was the discoverer and inventor of psychoanalysis and coined the term in 1896 after publishing studies on Hysteria with Joseph Breuer in 1895. Psychoanalysis still remains unsurpassed in its approach to understanding human motivation, character development, and psychopathology. Freud’s insights and analyses of psychic determinism, early childhood sexual development, and unconscious processes have left an indelible mark on psychology (Korchin, 1983).