Freud was the Man

This week we did not really learn anything new, so I'm taking the freedom in picking my own topic.

Our class makes Freud out to be some super crazy, demented, old dude who knew nothing about what he was talking about. But I think some of his concepts make logical sense, even if they do seem a bit farfetched. 

Free association is a pretty cool concept. This is the Freud psychoanalysis method of psychological treatment where the psychologist is to the side and the patient just speaks about life and their problems and wherever they hit a road block in telling the story (something like a slip of the tongue, which is classified as resistance), this is where the underlying, unconscious problem is revealed. And doesn't this make sense? If someone is telling a story in general and they get up to a part that is embarrassing in anyway, they don't tell it with ease. I don't find it preposterous to say that the same can be true of one's unconcious. Free association sounds pretty solid. 

And then there are the id, ego, and the superego. These also make sense. Whenever you watch movies and there is the devil on a guy's left shoulder and an angel on his right shoulder, that is not too far from what actually goes on in someone's mind. When you are making decisions, you have what you want to do (steal the hotdog, you're starving!), but then there is society pulling you back (you could be arrested), and you make your decision based on whichever side wins. So Freud believed in that: the id is your instinctive impulse, the superego is your sense of right and wrong and society, and the ego is the mediator. Freud wasn't off his rocker with this concept.

So give Freud some slack. He was not conventional, but then again, who is nowadays? He makes sense; I respect the guy.