Freud Flashcards
Why is it ironic that psychology is called a science?
Science addresses the physical world and religion addresses the inner world. Psychology addresses the inner world but tries to call itself a science.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
A psychologist in the 20th century.
What does psyche mean?
personality
What are the three elements of psyche?
Id, ego and superego which all develop at different stages of one’s life.
What is the id?
Primitive ans impulsive part of the psyche which responds to our instincts.
What is the ego?
Decision making part of the psyche.
What is the superego?
Moral part of the psyche which includes the conscience.
What did Freud note in his paper 1907?
People who suffered from obsessional neurosis exhibited similar patterns of behaviour as religious people who feel uneasy about neglecting repeated actions.
What is the main difference of people suffering from obsessional neurosis and religious people, according to Freud?
Sufferers don’t understand the meaning of their actions.
What is an instinctual impulse?
An instinct that is unconscious but active in the psyche.
What did Freud say was the meaning of the repeated actions?
An unconscious protective measure against the temptation to give way to these instinctual impulses.
Quote from Freud defining religion.
“Religion as a universal obsessional neurosis”.
Why is it called a collective neurosis?
Because neurotic compulsions and religious practices are found universally.
What does totem mean?
Something that is a symbol for the family of tribe.
What is totemism?
A system of belief where humans are said to have a mystical relationship with a spirit being eg animal or plant.
Briefly explain Darwin’s primitive horde theory.
- Human beings originally lived in small groups called hordes.
- A single dominant male seized the women for himself, fighting off including their sons.
- At some time a band of brothers came back to kill their father.
- Ater, they feel guilty and become rivals to each other.
- Social order collapsed and a totem took the place of the father.
What did the totem represent?
The dead father from the primal horde.
What did the totem become?
The reputation of the slaughtered father grew to divine proportions and became worshipped and became the God.
According to Freud, where does our inherited sense of guilt come from?
The memory of killing our father in the primal horde or having entertained such thoughts.
According to Freud, how does primal horde theory explain Holy Communion?
The Son (Christ) has replaced the totem and it’s a totemic meal.
What is the Oedipus complex?
The theory that young males are sexually attracted to their mothers so resent their fathers. These feelings are repressed by the fear of their fathers.
What did Freud think was the most basic instinct?
The libido/ sexual drive
For Freud, what does the libido represent?
The body’s desire for satisfaction that originates in the id.
How does the Oedipus complex link to the primal horde theory?
Freud says that the main reason the brothers killed the father was due to sexual frustration - the father was preventing their sexual desires from being fulfilled.
The Oedipus complex was named after a character in a play, what happened in this play?
A boy kills his father and commits incest with his mother, when he found out that it was incest, he gouged his own eyes out with his bare hands.
Freud says that boys aged 3-6 fear castration when they begin to grow up, for what reason?
- Weaning means the boy no longer has his mother’s breast which he thought was part of him.
- When his parents found him exploring his penis, they were upset.
- He discovered that some people do not have penis’ and thought of it as punishment rather than knowing that they are women.
Quote by Freud about the parental complex.
“We recognise that the roots for the need for religion are in the parental complex.”
What did Ludwig Feuerbach say?
He saw God as a projection of the human mind based on our longings and desires.
What did Freud say about our desires and God’s attributes?
Each attribute of God can be interpreted as an expression of hope that humans have to be free from their limitations.
According to Freud, why were the doctrines created?
Religious people created them so that their wishes would be fulfilled.
How is religion a reaction against helplessness, according to Freud?
We help helpless in both the external and internal forces of nature. Religion provides security and gives us more control which means that we no longer feel powerless.
Why is the Darwinian theory so important to Freud’s theory?
It’s based on the idea of natural selection - increasing the chance of survival by passing on genes that are helpful e.g the sexual drive
Briefly give three challenges to Freud’s ideas.
- Lack of anthropological evidence for primal horde
- Lack of psychological evidence for Oedipus complex
- Evidence basis too narrow
why is the lack of evidence for primal horde a problem?
- Merely a speculation by Darwin
- It is thought now that there is a greater variety in the way that people were grouped.
- The primal horde has never been observed
- Just because there was a primal horde, doesn’t mean that they worshipped a totem either.
Why is lack of evidence for Oedipus complex a challenge?
- Beliefs, motives and emotional responses varies greatly in different cultures.
- A polish anthropologist studies the Trobriand race.
- The were disciplined by their uncles so the discipliner (uncle) and sexual rival (father) were separate.
- Some cultures the mother is dominant and the father plays little role is bringing up the child.
- Some cultures have no God or no male God.
Why is the narrow evidence basis a challenge?
- He argues the importance of the father figure developing into the male God but fails to consider religions with female Gods e.g Egyptian Isis cult.
- His theory is not scientific according to Karl Popper as it cannot be tested and falsified.
- Many of Freud’s patients told him about being seduced as children by male relatives but he viewed them as fantasies, now would be seen as sexual abuse.
