Great Thoughts and Opinions of Sigmund Freud - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of Sigmund Freud's thoughts with the Historical Context of his Settings.

Introduction.

Sigmund Freud presents great thoughts and opinions regarding repressed wish and the unconscious human mind, which contributes towards psychoneurotic, using the ancient story of Oedipus Rex. According to Sigmund Freud, parents play a crucial role in the neurotic development of the child. As a result, the child's character and love for their parents are primarily dictated by how well his mother or father raised him. In most instances, the boy child will love their mother more than they love their father because of how well their mother cared for them in their early development stages. Consequently, as the child grows, a repressed wish also develops that later becomes part of their destiny. Depending on the nature of their wish, some children have developed into psychoneurotic unintentionally, and end up killing their fathers so that they can have their mothers for themselves. These wishes are compelled by falling in love with their mothers in their early stages of life. As a result, it becomes their destiny to commit patricide and marry their mothers. This research paper critically evaluates how the ancient historical context surrounding the author could have influenced his thoughts and opinions regarding the causes of psychoneurology.

The existence of divine powers primarily influences Freud's conclusion regarding human fate. From the Oedipus Rex, it’s clear that despite how Oedipus tried to overcome his future, he ends up failing by killing his father and marrying his mother. This can best be summarized using this; "it’s tragic effect depends on the conflict between the all-powerful will of the gods and the vain efforts of human beings threatened with disaster”. It is evident that Freud contextualized his thoughts on an ancient story, where the gods we still believed to have existed. The presence of divine powers during the Oedipus greatly influenced his fate, despite trying to overcome what would happen to him in the future. Therefore, it’s evident that Freud opinion that a child’s destiny already exist even before he or she is born was primarily influenced by existence of gods and their ability to make sure that one’s destiny is fulfilled as seen in Oedipus Rex.

Furthermore, the social, economic and political events surrounding the research time frame of Sigmund greatly influenced his thoughts. During the time of his research, people strongly believed in the existence of gods and divine powers. As a result, they would always live in ways that were dictated by their gods and ancestors. This is clearly depicted when King Thebes went to consult the oracle, so that he could know the fate of his child. After discovering that he was destined to marry his wife and kill him, decided to abandon the child, so that he could appease the gods, and change this fate. “Oedipus, the son of Laius, king of Thebes, and Jocasta, is exposed as a suckling, because an oracle had informed the father that his son, who was still unborn, would be his murderer”. Due to their belief in the gods and ancestors, these people ended up doing very bad things, for instance abandoning a suckling child, just to please the oracle. Such acts would rarely go unpunished, as a result, King Thebes had to face the consequences of actions. Therefore, I believe that this ended up creating a wrong impression for Sigmund Freud that a child’s destiny was already decided even before they were born (Trotta and Formica).

Freud’s opinion on repressed wishes and power of destiny are based on uncivilized and illiterate acts (Zepf, Ullrich and Seel). It is important to acknowledge that the ancient times were characterized by high levels of illiteracy and uncivilization. This is clearly seen when Oedipus gets into a short argument with King Thebes, who was a stranger to hm. This shows how uncivilized these people were, by resolving small conflicts using fights. Additionally, the strong believes on the oracle could be caused by illiteracy and uncivilization. This is because a caring farther would never abandon his or her child regardless of the situation. In fact, he invited a curse into his life, by abandoning a suckling child. By basing his thoughts on this legendary story, there are very high chances that his opinions are outdated since generations have evolved and people have understood the need to preserve human life and protect their loved ones.

The idea of unconscious mind by Freud can be rebuked, since it doesn’t contain a repressed wish or hidden emotion (Ackerman). The unconscious mind is made up of already existing information, which is comprised of memory and cognition. This concept raises a number of concerns regarding his opinions on the unconscious mind, since Freud bases his arguments regarding the repressed wish. Moreover, the repression is usually a very rare brain response to tragic event of trauma. Basing this arguments on the Oedipus case, it comes out clearly that Oedipus was still a suckling child before he was abandoned. Therefore, as an infant he would not have any ability to know that he had been abandoned by his farther so that he would later come to avenge this on his farther. As a result, the historical context of Oedipus Rex contradicts the idea of unconscious mind and the repressed wish as presented by Sigmund Freud.

The era in which Sigmund Freud makes his discovery is characterized by strong beliefs in ancestors and divine powers. After King Thebes is blessed with a son, he goes to consult the Oracle, which is believed to be a medium through which the ancient people could communicate with the gods. He discovers that his son would later kill him and marry his own son. This shows how these people strongly believed in the existence of spiritual forces. Their belief is likely to have negatively impacted their lives, by forcing them to live in way that was dictated by the gods. As a result, they ended up making mistakes, which were very wrong, for instance abandoning their young children, which is a taboo. Consequently, it becomes irrelevant to generalize the thoughts of Sigmund Freud on the modern world, since they are not scientifically proven (Hartke).

The theory of unconscious mind is highly deterministic and is contextualized in the nineteenth century. According to him, whenever a person makes a decision, then he or she is usually guided by an inner will, which in most cases is the hidden wish (Hartke). As a result, Freud decided to conduct a research on some of the legendary stories so that he would be able to develop an explanation for particular behavior during the nineteenth century. In this era, it was normal for sons of kings to kill their fathers, so that they could inherit their father’s throne. Freud felt that this was not normal, as opposed to how the ancient people perceived such happenings. He began investigating these children right from the time of birth, by evaluating the circumstances that they raised. This gave him a chance to determine so of the reasons why legends like Oedipus ended up killing their fathers’ and marrying their mother. However, it’s important to acknowledge that Oedipus didn’t know that Jocasta was his mother. Therefore, when drawing such a conclusion from this story, it raises second thoughts about Freud’s theory on unconscious mind.

Conclusion.

Sigmund Freud’s thoughts and opinions on the repressed wish and unconscious mind are generally influenced by the historical events and ancient times, which surround the time he conducted research on human mind. However, he did perfect work by making exemplary discovery, which has been used to explain the cause of psychoneurology among people in their adult stages of life. Although this arguments have largely been based on childhood development, where the child doesn’t experience much stress and trauma as compared to the adult stages of a person, his argument make sense and provide satisfactory explanation on psychoneurology. At the same time, we must acknowledge that his opinions were based on mythological evidence, which lacks scientific back up, and prone to errors, thus lacking sufficient psychological foundation.