Phillip Rief’s book, Freud: The Mind of the Moralist, is a thorough and well-researched account of Sigmund Freud’s life and work. Rief does an excellent job of highlighting both Freud’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing readers with a clear understanding of his intellectual development. While Rief is clearly sympathetic to Freud’s theories, he … Read more
Over the past century, psychology has become one of the most respected and widely-studied scientific disciplines. In recent years, psychologists have made groundbreaking strides in our understanding of human behavior, cognition, and emotion. While the field of psychology has come a long way, there is still much to learn. For example, psychologists are just beginning … Read more
In The Interpretation of Dreams, one of the classic works of psychology in the 20th century, Freud wrote that dreams were created by two processes in the mind. The first comes from an unconscious force which construct a wish that is expressed in the dream. The second is censorship which distorts the expression of the … Read more
The Psychology of Joker Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, provides the backdrop for the life of the famous Batman villain. The movie touches on key psychological themes that relate to Jung, Freud, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky. Arthur has a problem; he sometimes loses control of himself, and bursts into fits of laughter. While working … Read more
The Discovery of the Unconscious is a book that explores the history of the dynamic psychiatry. It starts with an introduction to Mesmer (responsible for Hypnotism), and then transitions to Janet, who’s main contribution was explaining neuroses and hysteria by deviations in mental energy. Then we are introduced to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic revolution – his … Read more
Alfred Adler and Carl Jung both had independent ideas and were not psychoanalytic deviants, as is commonly believed. They collaborated with Freud, but maintained their independence, and after their break, they developed their own systems of psychoanalysis. Freud’s goal was to incorporate into scientific psychology the insights alluded to by Shakespeare, the Greek tragedians, Goethe, … Read more
The 19th century gave birth to a new dynamic psychiatry. At the time, Europe was a society that was dominated by men. It was a world for men by men, and women had no say in politics and were not admitted into universities. Male values were celebrated. Among the aristocracy, women and men who had … Read more
The background of dynamic psychiatry can be traced to two centuries back. The 1800’s was a time that is difficult for us to imagine. People were much tougher, since they had no access to the luxuries and comforts of today. Sedatives and narcotics were almost unheard of and public hygiene was at a primitive stage. … Read more
Background Freud is the author of several influential books including Civilization and its Discontents and Totem &Taboo. But he was a medical doctor, not a psychologist. This explains the controversy around his ideas. But he was the first to systematically study the unconscious. His ideas led to the Neo-Freudians (Jung, Horney, Adler, Erikson). id, ego, … Read more
Sigmund Freud’s Totem and Taboo is a book that explores the origins of human morality and religion. Freud argues that the primitive societies of the past were organized around a totem, or a sacred object, which was the focus of religious rituals and taboos. He suggests that these taboos were created to protect the totem … Read more