Book Description
For the 75th anniversary, a new edition of the seminal work with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand.
Civilization and Its Discontents may be Sigmund Freud's best-known work. Originally published in 1930, it seeks to answer ultimate questions: What influences led to the creation of civilization? How did it come to be? What determines its course? In this seminal volume of twentieth-century thought, Freud elucidates the contest between aggression, indeed the death drive, and its adversary eros. He speaks to issues of human creativity and fulfillment, the place of beauty in culture, and the effects of repression.
Louis Menand, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Metaphysical Club, contributor to The New Yorker, and professor of English at Harvard University, reflects on the importance of this work in intellectual thought and why it has become such a landmark book for the history of ideas.
Not available in hardcover for decades, this beautifully rendered anniversary edition will be a welcome addition to readers' shelves.
Customer Reviews:
Patriarchy and its discontents.......2007-09-28
These days there is talk of the collapse of civilizations. For example, Jared Diamond's massive tome "Collapse." It is therefore timely to see what an influential thinker like Freud said on the subject of civilization. Freud thought that mankind was over-sexed and innately aggressive. He favored civilization as the way to curb these instinctual drives. The sublimated energy can be channeled into the creation of (high) culture and scientific "progress." Freud does admit that the repression of instincts is a problem of civilization, but it is the price we have to pay for order, culture and "progress." Further, he advocated psychoanalysis in order to manipulate people so they would accept the discontents of civilization. But Freud bases his defence of civilization on false premises. There is nothing wrong with healthy outlets for the sex drive. Culture can be created without sublimation. Repression causes more problems than it is worth. Man is not innately aggressive.This is a fallacy propounded by the patriarchy to justify its aggression and repression. On the last page Freud questions his own assumptions about man's aggression. He states that man's power over nature gives him the ability to destroy himself. We can't avoid the fact that that civilizations promote devasting weapons and wars. By exploding Freud's ingenuous arguments we can see civilization as a tool of patriachy for dominance and repression. Civilizations collapse because they are inherently corrupt. Just a bunch of agggressive men who want to screw the world for power and profit.
am i crazy? or dumb?.......2007-09-06
I am reading this book for a THIRD time. It's a required book for an introductory composition class I'm taking. The fact that my teacher asks his students to read this book AT LEAST three times should have been a clear warning sign. It is the most round-about, long-winded and dense book or writing I have ever come across. I'm shocked that it's such a popular book, a landmark they say. Although Freud does have many interesting ideas, they could be stated MUCH more simply. What a HEADACHE!
Nevertheless, those who enjoy convoluted, intricate and time-intensive reading are likely to seriously appreciate this book. HOWEVER, for those who prefer simple sentences and straightforward writing, like myself, this is NOT the book for you.
Ultimate Summation of Freud's Thought.......2007-07-12
`Civilization and its Discontents' is Freud's miniature opus. It is a superficial masterpiece that stretches further than any of his other works; he is reaching for an explanation for human nature in terms of the id-ego-superego structure of the individual as he exists in civilization. For Freud, human beings are characterized by Eros (Sex Drive) and Thanatos (Death Drive), which remain in opposition to one another. This small book is filled with as many interesting ideas as any work of modern philosophy. Freud adopts (perhaps a bit hastily), a Nietzschean position with regard to the role of religion and institutions of social morality which curb and shape primordial human drives. As a result, human beings, and civilizations as a whole remain unsatisfied and suffer from neuroses. He concludes with a discussion of human aggression, which manifests itself in the form of communalized human aggression. He wonders as to whether or not human beings will be able to overcome this drive. It seems to me that this question remains the most important for human beings in the 21st century. Will we be able to overcome our Thanatos and survive the destructive powers that we have created? I suspect that Freud will be better remembered as a thinker and philosopher than as an analyst or doctor precisely because he asks the questions that remain relevant for civilization today, and are likely to remain imperative in the future.
Western civilization is part of our unconscious mental history as well.......2007-05-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Sigmund Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents," written in 1930, was his attempt at using his theories of psychoanalysis to observe and critique the psychological affect Western civilization had on the human subject. In his book, Freud sets the stage for his analysis by comparing the development of Western civilization with the development of the individual. In a sense, Freud is using Darwin's evolutionary theory to link social constructs and psychic constructs (Freud 3-9).
In essence, Freud postulated that the history of Western civilization is part of our unconscious mental history as well. Since Freud had an extensive classical education, it is no wonder that his works were replete with classical analogies. In this book, Freud relied on the city of Rome to represent the historical birthplace of society, and to explain the ill effects civilization had on the human psyche. Rome has been destroyed and rebuilt, in situ, numerous times since its founding. Rome contains ruins from all its previous eras, which allows one to observe every stage of its developmental history and character. Thus, Freud uses Rome as a metaphor for the observation of the developmental process in the human psyche. Similar to Rome, our unconscious psyche possesses ruins and traces of the past, which make up the structure of the mind as well. The mind is the repository for all of its earlier stages of development and it allows them to coexist with the latest stages of development. By using Rome as his metaphor for psychic development in both the subject and humankind, Freud is answering the criticism that was often leveled against psychoanalysis. Freud's psychoanalytical theories often came under criticism for depending too heavily on the psychological traits of the individual without taking into account the interaction of individuals within society.
Freud believed that the individual would always find it hard to feel content with life in civilization, because unbeknownst to the individual, the individual was under tremendous pressure from their unconscious guilt. Thus, civilization acted as a kind of superego; its conscience, repressing the individual's unconscious desires manifested by their id (Freud 86). What Freud theorized, was that in a sense, civilization, had a life of its own and that it had to control and punish the individual's two great primal instincts in order for civilization to survive and flourish (Freud 69). The two primal instincts are: 1) the death instinct, which in Greek is Thanatos, where one's aggressive impulses reside; and 2) Eros, which is his name for the life instinct or sex drive, also known as the libido. Both Thanatos and Eros reside within an individual's unconscious id and are in a constant state of struggle with each other. In fact, Freud believed that the history of civilization was a struggle between Thanatos and Eros (Freud 80-82). Thus, civilization acting as a superego and protecting itself from destruction, represses humankind's death instinct towards each other through the implementation of authoritative agencies, religion, and by enacting laws (Freud 36, 69, 73-74). Thus, aggression is turned inward towards the individual's ego and forms a person's "conscience," giving the individual their sense of guilt and frustration with life in civilized society (Freud 82-84). Therefore, civilization, acting as the superego, subdues the individuals death instinct; "...setting up an agency within him to watch over it, like a garrison in a conquered city" (Freud 84).
Recommended reading for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, and history.
Freud is Fascinating--In a Historical Artifact-Like Way.......2006-03-27
Although many of his ideas have now been refuted and/or are seen as far-fetched, it is worth taking a look at if one is interested in reading first-hand what Freud has to say.
Very intellectual material. Definitely not a bedtime read.
Amazon.com
Whether we love or hate Sigmund Freud, we all have to admit that he revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. Much of this revolution can be traced to The Interpretation of Dreams, the turn-of-the-century tour de force that outlined his theory of unconscious forces in the context of dream analysis. Introducing the id, the superego, and their problem child, the ego, Freud advanced scientific understanding of the mind immeasurably by exposing motivations normally invisible to our consciousness. While there's no question that his own biases and neuroses influenced his observations, the details are less important than the paradigm shift as a whole. After Freud, our interior lives became richer and vastly more mysterious.
These mysteries clearly bothered him--he went to great (often absurd) lengths to explain dream imagery in terms of childhood sexual trauma, a component of his theory jettisoned mid-century, though now popular among recovered-memory therapists. His dispassionate analyses of his own dreams are excellent studies for cognitive scientists wishing to learn how to sacrifice their vanities for the cause of learning. Freud said of the work contained in The Interpretation of Dreams, "Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once in a lifetime." One would have to feel quite fortunate to shake the world even once. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
Freud's Revolutionary Theory
This ground-breaking work, which Freud considered his most valuable, forever changed the way we think.
Now, in this definitive and bestselling translation by James Strachey, Freud's timeless exploration of the unconscious through the dream world is clearly and precisely rendered. Including dozens of case histories and detailed analyses of actual dreams, The Interpretation of Dreams remains an invaluable tool in helping us all discover the truth about ourselves.
Download Description
In this book Sigmund Freud has attempted to expound the methods and results of dream-interpretation; and in so doing he does not think he overstepped the boundary of neuro-pathological science. For the dream proves on psychological investigation to be the first of a series of abnormal psychic formations, a series whose succeeding members-the hysterical phobias, the obsessions, the delusions- must, for practical reasons, claim the attention of the physician. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Customer Reviews:
Don't buy NuVision Edition.......2007-09-04
I just got my 2007 edition copy of "Interpretation of Dreams" in the mail so I haven't had a chance to read it. So this rating is only on the particular edition that is published by NuVision. They did not include an index or any information about who translated this version. Also, the table of contents is nearly worthless; no detail what-so-ever about the chapters, not even titles of the chapters, just Chapter 1 etc. and a page number. Even though you may think a newer publication is better, this one is much much worse and more expensive. Go with the 1980 publication. I'm returning the book to Amazon (who gets 5 stars for customer service!)
Plenty of facts and a wrong theory.......2007-05-19
Freud's book must be read by anyone who studies dreams, because it contains about 220 dreams and valuable information about the dreamers' life experiences related to their dreams. But, his wish fulfillment theory of dreams is definitely wrong both concerning its origin and its consequences, as explained below.
Freud began to interpret his patients' spontaneously reported dreams by likening them to daydreams and psychotic hallucinations. Everyone knows that daydreams are produced for fulfilling wishes in an imaginary way, and psychologists know that most psychotic hallucinations constitute imaginary fulfillments of wishes frustrated in the waking state. But, likening waking-state products to sleep-state products does not look realistic, because the waking state is a time for fulfilling wishes, whereas the sleep state is known to realize resting and self-restoration rather than realizing new successes and gains. So, Freud's first step in dream interpretation was most probably wrong.
Nevertheless Freud became convinced that dreams meant wish fulfillments because of two dreams that he misinterpreted, as explained below.
Pepi's dream: Medical student Pepi H. was late to wake up one morning, and the landlady called through the door: "Wake up, Herr Pepi! It's time to go to the hospital!" He dreamed that he was lying in bed in a room in the hospital, and there was a card over the bed on which was written: "Pepi H., medical student, age 22." He went on sleeping, thinking that he was already in the hospital.
It is evident that Pepi had, in the disabling state of half-sleep, the incompatible wishes of staying in bed and going to the hospital. Both of these wishes were fulfilled by the image of him in bed in the hospital. This cannot be considered a true dream because of several reasons: (1) Pepi was in a state between sleep and wakefulness; (2) both of his wishes belonged to the waking state instead of being activated in the sleep state; (3) his two wishes frustrated each other; and (4) therefore the image of him in bed in the hospital, which fulfilled both of his wishes in an imaginary way, looks more like a psychotic hallucination than a true dream.
On the other hand, the image of the card on the bed, which was apparently produced after he fell asleep, can be considered a true dream element seeking to terminate the failure to go to the hospital by conveying the following message: "You are not a patient, and you are not a child; you are a medical student of age 22! So, get up and do what you have to do!" The last part of this message was only implied.
We see that, after baselessly likening dreams to psychotic hallucinations, Freud had the bad luck of encountering a mental product that was half hallucination and half dream and took it for a true dream. Below is a dream that is similar to Pepi's dream.
A man who had been driving all night was desperately trying to stay awake and to keep the car on the road, or rather to keep the road in front of the car, as he later remembered. The car jolted twice with no apparent reason, and he woke up in a cornfield. We understand that the image of the road in front of the car had become a hallucination caused by the wish and the failure to keep the road in front of the car in the disabling state of half-sleep. It is also possible that this hallucination was then replaced by a "sleep-preserving" dream when sleep prevailed. Thus, a hallucination was produced in the state of half-sleep and was then transformed into a dream when sleep took over, just like it happened to Pepi.
Freud's dream "Irma's injection" (Freud 1900). This dream of Freud's about a hysterical patient of his gave to him the final conviction that dreams meant wish fulfillments. He had it 9 months before he delivered his lecture The Etiology of Hysteria, in which he exposed his seduction theory of hysteria, according to which this disorder is caused by sexual abuse suffered in childhood. This means that the thoughts expressed in this dream were produced in conformity with the seduction theory. But when he published the interpretation of this dream in his book on dreams, he had already switched to the fantasy theory of hysteria, which said that this disorder was caused by repressed unacceptable fantasies, or wishes, of sexual nature. Thus, the dream's thoughts were based on the seduction theory of hysteria, whereas its interpretation presented by Feud in his book was based on the fantasy theory. But despite this discrepancy, Freud produced an interpretation that is correct to a great extent. He misinterpreted only the part of the dream that explained the cause of hysteria and the part that said that hysteria was incurable, as shown below.
The dream is about Freud's failure to cure his patient Irma. Many psychologists believe that Irma represented Freud's patient Emma Eckstein and others like her, whom he had failed to cure. Freud recognized correctly the subject of the dream as the presentation of several causes of his failure to cure Irma. For example, Irma did not cooperate with Freud and did not believe his interpretations, which must have been based on the seduction theory, and physicians ignorant of hysteria influenced the therapy negatively. Freud interpreted these parts of the dream correctly, including even the part that accused Freud of believing a physician's wrong diagnosis without examining the patient himself. He had to say, "the material was, one might say, impartial." We can say that the dream expressed the truth, as it was known to the dreamer, as Jung believed. The accusations directed to the physicians were realistic external attributions of Freud's failure. Freud interpreted them as "revenge on other doctors" and "derision of physicians who are ignorant of hysteria." The dream accused physicians of ignoring that hysteria was caused by sexual abuse, as explained below, whereas Freud implied that they ignored its cause explained by the fantasy theory.
The dream explained the cause of her illness as sexual violation and declared that it was incurable because it was impossible to undo the violation. This is the part that Freud misinterpreted, knowingly or by mistake, which in reality carried the following message: "Physicians thought that hysteria could be cured by physical, physiological intervention, but this is absurd, because hysteria is caused by sexual violation which cannot be undone. You all directly know that your colleague who was staying with her gave her an injection. Injections of that sort should not be made so thoughtlessly. That was a dirty injection, and you know very well what it was." The negative idea that hysteria could not be cured by physical/physiological intervention is expressed in the dream through an absurdity (this being one of the means of expressing negative ideas in dreams): Someone suggested in the dream that dysentery would intervene and Irma would be cured. This absurd thought exposed the physicians' ignorance, but also the fact that sexual violation could not be undone and therefore hysteria could not be cured. This dream shows clearly why Freud chose to lie about the cause of hysteria and switched from the seduction theory to the fantasy theory of it. Evidently, he had thought that the only means of curing hysterical patients was to deny that the sexual abuse had happened. That was the only means of "undoing" the abuse which was said by his dream to be impossible.
Freud's overall interpretation of the dream was that it "represented a particular state of affairs as I should have wished it to be. Thus its content was the fulfillment of a wish and its motive was a wish." So, Freud became convinced that dreams meant wish fulfillments by summarizing the meaning of Irma's dream taking into consideration only what he liked in the dream and ignoring, for example, the accusations directed to him by the dream and the fact the dream said that the real cause of hysteria was being sexually abused.
Freud's final belief about the meaning of dreams is this: "A dream is a (disguised) fulfillment of a (suppressed or repressed) wish."
One of the arguments that Freud used to support his wish fulfillment theory was that the mind could do nothing but fulfilling wishes, and because realistic wish fulfillment was impossible during the sleep state, it was done in the form of perception. This argument is obviously wrong, because the mind does plenty of preparatory work before it can actually fulfill a wish, and much of such work can be non-pleasurable. Ignoring these facts, Freud interpreted everything in a dream as an actual wish fulfillment, as exemplified by his misinterpretation of his Irma dream, which presented, for example, several non-pleasurable causes of his failure to cure Irma. I have shown elsewhere that a complete dream contains three types of thought (expressed in Freud's terminology): the frustration of a wish, the causes of the frustration, and the means of fulfilling it. Irma dream was about Freud's failure to cure her but did not present a means of fulfilling it and said instead that curing her was impossible, this being his honest opinion.
Freud's idea of the disguised fulfillment of suppressed or repressed wishes had one more source. He wrote in his letter of January 3, 1899 to Fliess: "I now understand why in spite of all my efforts I have not yet finished the dream book . . . . I shall be able to present the psychic process in dreams in such a way that it also includes the process in the formation of hysterical symptoms." How Freud "discovered" that psychic process is explained below.
Freud's friend Fliess claimed that hysteria could be cured by a surgical operation performed on the nose of the patient. Freud believed him, and Fliess performed an operation on Emma's nose on February 20, 1895. On March 6, 1895, a second operation was performed by another friend of Freud, and half-a-meter of gauze was removed from Emma's nose. The gauze had been accidentally left in by Fliess and had caused excessive bleeding that had nearly killed her. Nose-bleeding continued even after the second operation and was probably a consequence of the two operations. But Freud wrote to Fliess about Emma on May 4, 1896: "She became restless during the night because of an unconscious wish to entice me to go there, and since I did not come, she renewed the bleeding, as an unfailing means of rearousing my affection." And he wrote to him on February 19, 1899: "It is not only dreams that are fulfillments of wishes, but hysterical attacks as well. This is true of hysterical symptoms, but it probably applies to every product of neurosis."
We see that Freud's wish fulfillment theory of dreams and symptoms was a consequence of baseless generalizations, misinterpretations of some dreams, invalid arguments, and the wrong and wishful interpretation of a physiological phenomenon. Thus, Freud's theory is untenable as far as its origin is concerned. It is equally without proof concerning its consequences, as explained below.
Freud believed that every event that a dreamer could associate with the images of his or her dream in the waking state was part of the meaning of the dream. And he interpreted all that material as wish fulfillment by using devices such as displacement, inversion, and other types of disguising to make the dream fit his theory. It is evident that any event can be interpreted in any way one wishes by using such devices. Even this procedure shows that Fred's theory is wrong.
Freud's theory is refuted also by the difficulty he experienced in explaining the emergence of anxiety in dreams and his total failure to interpret the so-called "incest dreams." He wrote in a footnote added to a later edition of his book on dreams that anxiety was experienced in dreams by consciousness when an unacceptable wish was fulfilled without being sufficiently disguised. But if this were true, "incest dreams" interpreted as wish fulfillments would be dreams of highest anxiety, which is not the case. They are found revolting in the waking state by being interpreted wrongly as wish fulfillments. I explained elsewhere that "incest dreams" mean that sex partners must intimately know, love, and respect each other. The wish fulfillment theory has not been useful in psychotherapy either.
However, to repeat, Freud's book must be read by anyone who studies dreams, because it contains about 220 dreams and valuable information about the dreamers' life experiences related to their dreams. The book also contains some of Freud's own dreams, of which the correct interpretations tell much about his life experiences and the true geneses of his theories. Moreover, the book exposes the importance of unconscious thinking, although Freud misinterpreted the contents of the unconscious and the aims of its products, as I further explained elsewhere.
Cognitive-Behavioral Cybernetics of Symptoms, Dreams, Lateralization: Theory, Interpretation, Therapy
Theory Construction and Testing in Physics and Psychology
Dreams = Wish Fulfillment .......2006-03-19
Freud's thesis, The Interpretation of Dreams, can be summed up as follows - all dreams are the mind's subconscious effort at wish fulfillment. For some dreams this is obvious - if you eat salty foods before going to bed, you may then dream that you are drinking water. This is a simple example of you wanting something and your subconscious trying to fulfill that wish. For most dreams, quite a bit more analysis is required to undercover what exactly you are wishing for, and Freud dedicates the bulk of his book to giving examples of such analysis. Freud argues that dreams are distorted because the upper layer of the mind is trying to censor what the lower layers of the mind are wishing for - usually out of embarrassment, guilt, etc. For example, I may be envious of my friend's success, so I will dream that my friend fails, but I am also embarrassed at wishing ill will on my friend, so the dream is distorted - perhaps the activity that he fails at will be obscure, twisted, strange, etc. Freud also makes the point that all dreams have their trigger in the preceding day's events, and once triggered the dream has access to all the experiences a person has gathered during his lifetime, as long as the experiences can be linked back somehow to the trigger event. Since the mind thinks in terms of symbols, the dreams must by analyzed by trying to understand how the various symbols can be translated into wishes, or the suppression of wishes. Thus the inner layers of the mind, or the Ego (prime desires), will generate a basic wish based on the experiences of the previous day. The Super Ego (refined sense of culture, guilt, morality, consciousness, etc.) then regulates the Ego's basic wish to fit within the mind's framework of right and wrong behavior. The greater the conflict between the Ego and Super Ego, the more distorted the dream becomes. All dreams are wish fulfillment, without exception.
Freud successfully makes his point within the first 75 pages of the book - the remaining 400 pages are a dry, archaic, tiresome, and in my opinion are not worth the time to read. Much of the book is dedicated to analysis of the dreams of either Freud or Freud's patients. Since Freud lived in early twentieth century Germany, the dreams described are anachronisms and for the most part are irrelevant. Also, I think a lot of meaning is lost in the translation from German to English.
Bottom line, Freud successfully explains the fundamental truth on dreams, put this pioneering analysis is archaic and difficult to read by today's standards. For the layman, I would look for something more current.
an outstanding read that delivers esteemed perceptivity to t.......2005-05-03
My version of this book has a translation by Joyce Crick (ISBN 0192823523). She gives an insightful introduction to Freud that is well referenced. However, her style is absolutely monotonous and was far more difficult to complete than Freud's writing which was to follow. What Crick has done well with this version is that she has retained certain significant or vague tests in German (original) with their translations as parentheses, footnotes, or explantory notes. She has also added value to the version with an extensive package of explanatory notes after Freud's work. In addition, her translation of Freud's work "captures the lightness and pace of Freud's style, freed from the jargon and Victorian elaborations of James Strachey's famous version."
On Freud's work itself, The Interpretation of Dreams was a revoluationary paper of its time, discussing for the first time, concepts such as the Oedipus complex and the practice of psychoanalysis. Freud explores his personal life with this paper, enriching the reader with his self-analyses. However, I felt he over did the case studies, presenting several examples of a single concept, which was for me perhaps a little long-winded and tiring to read, especially if his first examples were good ones, and presented the concept/s acutely.
The pace of the paper picks up at the start of each new concept and tends to wind down and even drag at the middle or end portions. Towards the end however, his pace dramatically picks up (and no, it's not a placebo effect), as he summarises and pulls all his concepts together in an attempt to hold on to the reader and deliver his final call to action. Overall this is an outstanding read that delivers esteemed perceptivity to the faculty of psychoanalysis, how we perceive and interpret the arts and literature, and on the variety of complex languages with which we do so. However, be prepared for an intense read, but remain assured that upon completion of this work, you will be duly facinated, inspired, and impelled to re-examine your psyche.
Classic contribution to psychoanalytic theory.......2005-02-02
Although Freud's ideas and psychoanalytic theory haven't fared that well in recent decades (Jung's views and reputation have actually done much better), there is no doubt that Freud's ideas were a major contribution to the understanding of human behavior and the mind and remain at least historically important today. Although perhaps superceded by the cognitive and neurobiological approaches that have developed in the last few decades, Freud was still a brilliant thinker who changed our undestanding of the mind for the better.
For example, although his idea of the ego, super-ego, and id are now being supplanted by more physiological explanations (the limbic system of the brain being a very good analog to the id), nevertheless, basically what Freud was saying was that a shaping process goes on during early childhood that results in the formation of relatively enduring personality characteristics. There is no doubt that this developmental idea still has validity to this very day.
However, while I certainly respect and admire many of the early psychologists, and they were great pioneers in many ways, and some of their ideas are still important, nevertheless, a lot of what they said has to be taken now with a considerable grain of salt, and the area of dream interpretation is one them. It doesn't mean that dreams are completely valueless, but they're of much less significance than has been claimed in the past. The most serious critique of the psycholanalytic (and others) view of dreams comes from recent research into the brain and neurobiology. The problem is that dreams are really not what people think at all most of the time--which is some sort of cyptic but profound message from the unconscious mind.
For example, consider the question of why most dreams seem to consist of collections or sequences of difficult to interpret images, thoughts, and memories that seem to be combined or strung together in a not very logical and difficult to interpret fashion. The reason why, contrary to the popular belief that this reflects some profound and not easily discernible meaning, is that the order really is almost random, or is governed by very weak associational processes. The reason why this is, and why most dreams seem so puzzling and difficult to understand is that when you go to sleep, the memory areas of the brain located in the temporal cortex become more active through a process known as corticocipedal disinhibition, allowing memories, images, and thoughts to flood into consciousness willy-nilly. This is prevented or inhibited during normal waking, otherwise the flood of thoughts and images would interfere with normal memory retrieval and thinking processes.
This is a little off the subject, but one area of pseudo or quasi-scientific theory and speculation that has been getting a lot of attention lately (and shows how much more sophisticated the more fantastically oriented or perhaps "mystically" oriented types in psychology are getting) is the idea that the brain is a "quantum computer" and uses quantum mechanical and even multi-dimensional spatial capabilities to do its work. At least one world-famous physicist and mathematician, Roger Penrose, has suggested it himself. (I critique Penrose's proposal on this in my Amazon review of his book, The Large, The Small, and the Human Brain).
However, although a fascinating idea, there is still no real evidence that this is in fact the case. Neurobiologists have drawn analogies between devices like SQIDs (super-conducting quantum interference devices) and nerve cells, but this is reaching a bit.
One main problem for me would be the noise factor. There is already a huge amount of random noise in the firings of nerves in the human brain and quantum mechanisms are far below the level of this noise. The brain seems to ignore the high noise level just fine and to operate pretty well despite it and so I don't see how quantum effects which would be far more subtle would have much of an effect.
The other main problem is that the brain typically shows a huge amount of integration and convergence in its mechanisms, and phenomena at the level of quantum effects would probably just get lost in the overall convergence process or even the resting level of noise. Another way to think about it is how likely quantum effects are to manifest themselves at the molecular level, let alone the cellular level or the level of a neural circuit or the entire brain.
So until there's some real evidence, I remain sceptical, and this is probably another "mystical" idea that will probably go the way of all the others.
But anyway, getting back to the present book, that little digression was really by way of pointing out that unscientific speculation has been rife in psychology from its birth in the mid-19th century with thinkers such as Rudolph Lotze, Paul Brentano, Wilhelm Wundt, Johann Fechner, Hartmann and the Scottish faculty psychologists, Janet, Freud and the other psychoanalytic theorists, and many others. It's just getting harder for the layman to recognize this sort of thing when he sees it since their ideas are more and more taking on the language of physics and engineering and neurobiology. But that doesn't mean it's not the same old unfounded speculation and mystical nonsense.
Customer Reviews:
Open door on psychoanalysis.......2007-07-26
If you, like me, are curious and fascinated about psychology and psychoanalysis, have confusedly heard some bits & pieces about Freud and his weird but intriguing ideas, and think that it has finally come the time when you want to find out what it's all about, this book will serve you as a gentle and effective introduction. You will gain an historical perspective of the main theories and school of thoughts, with enough material to get you started and further stimulate your curiosity, avoiding overwhelming details. Of course to really appreciate psychology and psychoanalysis you eventually have to read the main authors directly... as this discipline is not clear cut like mathematics or computer science, and the interpretation and relative weights given to the original ideas can play a major role. But you have to start somewhere, you need to have a bird's view of the discipline so that you find your orientation and decide where to go digging for more. This book serves exactly this purpose, with a synthesis of Freud's views, and an exposition of the derivation of his theories . the psychology of the ego, the Psychology of the Self, and Freudian revisionism. Alongside this historical development some case studies are presented, a nice addition to help keep the discussion on practical and realistic terms. As a minor criticism to this book, I wish there cases had been discussed in more depth. Also, you cannot help getting the impression that , like in philosophy, psychology is a field where bs is standard practice, there are no experiments like in physics and biology that can disprove the impostors. As a general rule, avoid the most convoluted and obscure authors. Freud might be weird, he might be wrong, but at least he was very clear about his ideas. Almost invariably, here and elsewhere, complexity is just a cover for emptiness.
Historical foundation.......2006-01-30
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting a historical perspective of the development of psychoanalytic theory. This book takes you through different offsprings of psychoanalysis beginning with Freud's contribution. It also offers a comparison of each new theory with classic Freudian psychoanalytic thought so you have an idea of which aspects were further developed and which ones were "trashed." It's a good foundational book for anyone beginning an interest in psychoanalysis.
"and Beyond" could have been a good read...........2005-12-15
This could have been a valuable reference. The front cover lists 39 names, some well known, others so obscure as to invite interests to learn more. Try to find these 39 when opening the book. Only in the Index. At least two pages, as chapters, should have provided insight into the thoughts of these 39 names who appeared under the caption, "A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Throught." However, Chapter headings only cover Freud, Sullivan, Klein, Fairbairn/Winnicott, Erikson/Kohut, and Kernberg/Schafer/Loewald/Lacan--and that's it. Eleven theorists.
Toward the end of the book, the last two chapters appear to be the mission of the book--Controversies. Two pages are devoted to why the authors think homosexuality is normal. Uh-huh! They emotionally vent against the psychoanalytic view that includes binding mothers and detached fathers. They grouse over psychoanalytic notions of homosexuality as a "pathological defensive, phobic retreat from castration fears" and renounce employing a "directive/suggestive" approach to treatment. The authors cite at least one well-known activist by only calling him a "contemporary author."
While Chapter 8, Controversies in theory notes that "Freud regarded sexual orientation as largely constitutional" (p223), the reader must flip to the "Notes" section (p263) to read, "Freud termed homosexuality a perversion, because he considered only heterosexual genital intercourse to be the 'normal' sexual organization. In the Freudian lexicon, perversions are pregenital fixations caused either by constitution (an overabundance of one or another component drive) or conflict."
The authors have an agenda to discredit theory and call it "expansion" and "transformation" hoping to convert readers to their own way of thinking. In perusing earlier reviews of this book, they appear somewhat successful. You might ask, are the authors simply preaching to the choir, or have these reviewers not thought through the material in order to provide credible opinion? As far as this book being required reading for a doctoral class in Psychodynamic Theory, as one reviewer states, I would hope that expectations of a critical read would accompany such a requirement. Some of the reviewers appear to be thirsting for knowledge...any knowledge concerning psychoanalytic theory and will drink from the first cup available, without question.
The book's authors, by using vague phases such as "In many cases" to denote Freudian thought to which they disagree, offer no examples to support their attack and leave the reader guessing. Basic Books is a reputable publisher. The reader deserves better. I bought this book but returned it after a selective skimming through its contents. Finding that the mission of transformation is a failure, the reader will only note that it accedes to political motivation of coveted views.
Pschoanalysis in Layman's terms.......2005-08-28
Very good book for someone who is just learning about pschoanalysis. Good examples of clinical application and a very common sense approach to psychology. A much easier read than other texts such as The Freud Reader. Good stuff.
Excellent introduction.......2004-09-16
This book is very well written. An excellent introduction to the topic, if you are a guy like me, who had been thru psychoanalisys but really didn't understand what the foundations of the process were. The author explains that there are many different theories and kinds of psychoanalisys, not only one (freud), like most of us think. Even though the subject is hard and complex, the author makes it easy to understand with his fluent prose.
Amazon.com
"To deny a people the man whom it praises as the greatest of its sons is not a deed to be undertaken lightheartedly--especially by one belonging to that people," writes Sigmund Freud, as he prepares to pull the carpet out from under The Great Lawgiver in Moses and Monotheism. In this, his last book, Freud argues that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman and that the Jewish religion was in fact an Egyptian import to Palestine. Freud also writes that Moses was murdered in the wilderness, in a reenactment of the primal crime against the father. Lingering guilt for this crime, Freud says, is the reason Christians understand Jesus' death as sacrificial. "The 'redeemer' could be none other than the one chief culprit, the leader of the brother-band who had overpowered the father." Hence the basic difference between Judaism and Christianity: "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son." Freud's arguments are extremely imaginative, and his distinction between reality and fantasy, as always, is very loose. If only as a study of wrong-headedness, however, it's fascinating reading for those who want to explore the psychological impulses governing the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Freud's speculations on various aspects of religion where he explains various characteristics of the Jews in their relations with the Christians.
Customer Reviews:
Terrific Insights.......2007-03-27
Like all of Freud's books, this one will change the way you look at things.
In the first part (written in Vienna as the Nazis approached), Freud essentially analyzed Judaism into 2 component parts.
First was the Moses religion--a strict monotheism deriving from Egypt (via Moses, who was an Egyptian) and Ikhnaton: this monotheism was universal, ethical, stripped of priestcraft and magic, retaining circumcision (an Egyptian custom).
Second was the tribal religion of Jahve (Yahweh)--a volcano god of one of the Canaanite tribes: not monotheistic, punitive, exclusivist, loaded with incessant in-group rules and rituals.
Naturally, these two don't fit together well, and this explains why the Old Testament presents such a crazy picture of God: sometimes impersonal and ethical and absolutely fair; most times homicidal (even genocidal), bad tempered, vindictive, given to human sacrifice, obsessed with punctilious rules.
In the second part of the book (written in Freud's last year--after he had escaped to England), Freud talks about the psychodynamics of such a religion, mainly in terms of father-murder.
While I don't agree with some of Freud's assumptions (particularly the idea that monotheism is an "advance" on polytheism), this is still brilliant work.
Reading Freud is always an education (he knows so much) and always a pleasure (he is a wonderful writer).
Can't go wrong on this one.
let my people go - all of them.......2006-08-18
Reading through the many wonderful reviews here, one gets the picture of what it is with this book: love it or hate it, believer or skeptic, even telling people the gist of the thesis and the story (the book is magnificently both), this work never fails to evoke a strong reaction. Look at the reviews. What is evident is that the book is truly provocative - rare for any book - no less a slight, speculative work of less than 200 pages, written somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century. Who would really care? But as you can see from this representative sample, people do.
Despite the ongoing controversy regarding, increasing skepticism towards, and perhaps dismissal of his major ideas, Freud still engages us as one of the most influential thinkers of the past century, and this work, which, surprisingly, may come to be regarded as his masterpiece (it is a masterpiece - do not doubt that), written as he was dying of cancer of the jaw and fleeing from the Nazis (Freud was Jewish - and among all the things that it is, the book is his response to that singular experience), is his signal contribution to religious studies.
The story is that:
1) Moses was an Egyptian, likely of royal birth, that he learned monotheism from the renegade Egyptian monarch, Akenaton, who, during his brief and probably aborted reign, unsuccessfully attempted to displace the long-standing polytheism and its attendant institutions with a unitary sole deity - a sun god - not represented in any form or art .
2) - That he may have been the proprietor or governor of a fringe province, the Biblical "land of Goshen" with a population of Hebraic or Semitic descent, to whom he taught the new religion. At some point during the exodus, Moses was murdered by his followers. The new God was rejected in favor of a tribal deity, a bloodthirsty, local lunar God, Jahve. However, his immediate entourage, also of the Egyptian court or priesthood, were established as the Levites, or priestly caste, and their descendents eventually revived the ancient monotheism, which we know as the religion of the ancient Hebrews.
The thesis (more complex) quite briefly is:
Akenaton possibly adopted monotheism as adjunct to Egypt's imperialist expansion in the 18th century B.C. Circumcision, which first evolved among the Egyptians (there is the pictoral evidence, as far back as it goes), is rooted in the idea of prehistoric enforced fidelity to the clan father under threat of castration thus symbolized (the primal "covenant" between father and sons). Moses was murdered because he restricted access to the women of the tribe, in repetition of the totemic archetype. The Pentateuch is a palimpsest, references the original monotheistic religion inscribed under references to the later religion of Jahve, and then again, the revival, written over those references in the Levitical Law. The revival was spurred by long, pent up guilt over the collective memory of the death of Moses. And well, Papa don't take no mess! The religion of the Levites, developed during the Babylonian exile, represents a return to the Father dominance. The Messianic trend represents yet another turn away from this father dominance toward the Son, away from circumcision, and toward social decentralization, eventually a priesthood of all believers. There's a lot more to it - but these are the bare bones.
I don't believe anyone would want to make absolute claims as to what went down thirty-eight centuries ago - but, all considered, Freud's thesis has its moment, and that moment is now. Could it be that the Jews and Arabs are one people - Semites - who have been divided over time by those with ulterior motives? Resoundingly, yes, the possibility must be considered. Freud wrote this remarkable text at a time when the Nazis were beginning to fund the Islamic Brotherhood (after they themselves had been funded by Prescott Bush and the Union Bank). Ironically, Freud's thesis suggests that the current situation in the Middle East has apparently brought this world to the edge of annihilation, may involve combatants who have no conception of their true origins or the basis of what they are fighting for, but, from the standpoint of carefully fostered illusions, merely believe, in an all too human way, that they do. Freud argues closely and pervasively enough to raise and honest doubt in our minds. Well worth the read.
Freud's Last Act.......2006-03-29
Freud's Last Act
Who founded Judaism and monotheism is indeed a tricky but nevertheless intriguing question? Tom Cahill, in his wonderful and lyrical piece "The Gift of the Jews," lists monotheism as an important Jewish contribution to civilization. On the other hand, Dr. Frances Cress Welsin, in the Isis Papers, and others of her Africanist cohorts, suggest that Judaism -- as well as Christianity -- are but off-shoots of well-established Egyptian myths, rituals and religions.
While it is one thing for free-lance interlopers on either side of this issue to speculate on these matters, it is quite another when the father of modern psychology himself, Sigmund Freud, does so -- even if it is done as his last professional act.
Using his earlier work, Totem and Taboo as the psychological foundation and backdrop, Freud in his final book, spins out a not altogether unconvincing tale that Moses was an Egyptian Prince who was killed by his sons, and that monotheism was the necessary cultural invention and outcome that ultimately prevented the cycle of fratricide from continuing.
It is a fascinating read even if not up to Freud's normal high standards of analytical rigor. Despite its speculative nature, this thesis has global implications for contemporary religion, the Western worldview, and for how our current structure of morality was established and continues to work. Five stars
Kemet-Moses & Akhenatens religion.......2005-02-07
Kemet-Moses:
Who founded Judaism is a tricky question. More tricky is, who founded Monotheism, Moses or Akhen-Atun? There are several people who were essential to the creation of Judaism, Egypt served as a womb, in a nascent stage, where the Jewish people were formed as a nation, within four centuries of their soujourn in the land of Goshen (North-eastern Egyptian province), by training in civilized traditions and worthy articrafts.
The Bible shows Moses as the founder of the faith, while Abraham was the root of the nation. Moses, the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, has protected the Jews from the wrath of God, and negotiated with God on their behalf, according to the Torah, is an Egyptian Princely sage, according to Sigmund Freud.
Philo to Assmann's Moses:
Philo Judeas of Alexandria mentioned that some Jews doubted the historical reliability of their scriptures and considered part of their content as myth. Aristobulus, Philo's Alexandrian predecessor moved beyond the literal to the hidden meaning, allegorical and philosophic, similar to the treatment of texts of classical mythology, as was the tradition in their megalopolis (Great City).
Origen, who wrote Contra Celsius, refuted Celsius argument that the Mosaic book of Genesis was based on borrowed sources like the Ducalion narrative for the flood story, known as such to the Greeks.
Assmann starts with the definition of Egyptian thought construction as Mnemo-history, a 'Suppressed history of Repressed memory' of Akhenaten in Moses conscience. His ultimate thesis, srarting from Spencer's findings as 'before the Law,' is based on his analytical review of eighteenth century historical discourse on Moses. Freud shows up in his spear headed psychological idea; 'the Return of the repressed.' The roots of Egyptian monotheism of the enlightened elite, was conceived in the 'One,' Amon-Ra'e, and Aten, consecutive masters of Theban and Heliopolitan Pantheons, which echoes in Psalm 82, Concluding into what JH Breasted elaborated eighty years ago. freud followed him in abolishing Mosaic primacy of monotheistic revelation.
Revelation to Akhen-Atun:
Freud is drawn to confirms his discovery of Moses origin and role, in the Jewish traditions, preserved in the Pseudo epigraphic writings, that Moses was murdered by Joshua, who buried him in the wilderness*. "The 'redeemer' could be none other than the one chief culprit, the leader of the brother-band who had overpowered the father." Concluding thatl; "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son."
The Jewish inter-testiment writing, on the occasion of Moses' impending death, by the rebelling congregation (Numbers 14), and doubting exodus generation with calmination into the revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (numbers 16), support the same concept of authority rejection of a non-Hebraic Moses.
* The Assumption of Moses: Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha
Freud's Moses & Moses Monolatry.......2005-02-04
"One will not easily decide to deny a nation its greatest son because of the meaning of a name," (Moses is an Egyptian name) Sigmund Freud's original draft
Moses & Monotheism:
* Moses of Exodus 2:10, is presented as a derivation from the Hebrew Mashah (to draw) is implied, while Josephus and Church Fathers assign the Coptic mo (water) and uses (saved) as the constituent parts of the name. Contemporary views widely patronized by Egyptologists, tracing the name back to the Egyptian mesh (child), is dominating but nothing could be established as decisive.
*Monotheism:(Gk. monon: single, Theos: Deity.) the belief in a single, an all-encompassing universal, deity.
*Monolatry: The worship of only one god, while admitting the existence of other gods.
What is Your Name?
There are many Jews & Christians alike, who are upset by Martin Buber's interpretation of Moses inquiring from YAHWEH, as showing the influence of the Egyptian 'name magic.' This may have been the reason beyond the strange inquiry of the learned Moses, who may have asked the encountered God of the 'Unconsumed Bush' for His identifying name, and the Lord's mysterious answer, explained in 'The Egyptian Book of the Dead in which (?)-Moses could have been initiated into by the priests of the solar cult of Heliopolis, whose predominant cosmological world view, Moses has presented in the book of Genesis, describes multiple names for Atum, Master of its divine Pantheon, and creator deity, "whose name has been variously interpreted as meaning 'the Completed One,' 'He Who is Entirity,'...or 'The Undifferentiated One.' the last rendering seems the most probable.., i.e., an undifferentiated unity," (The Book of Going Forth by Day, translation by Dr. Raymond Faulklner, with introduction & commentaries by Dr. Ogden Goelet)
Freud's Moses:
In his last written book, completed just before the holocaust, Freud was not the first to argue that Moses was an Egyptian Prince, and that the Hebrew religion that developed into monotheistic Judaism was but an adapted Egyptian thought carried back into Palestine. Freud confirms Jewish traditions found in the Pseudo epigraphic writings (The Assumption of Moses, which echoes in New Testament writings) that Moses was murdered by Joshua who buried him in the wilderness.
Sigmund Freud's controversial and ingenious multi leveled psychological treatise, on the Egyptian roots its and relation with Akhenaten's monotheistic, short lived revelation and Akhetaten's revolution against Amun's polytheistic representation of the Loving and sociable Deity, there overshadows a typically complicated Freudian thesis which endeavored to explain a multi purpose and very complex theory of every thing: all human atrocities and Jewish calamities.
For those who want to explore the psychological impulses governing the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. "The Christ whom Moses foreshadowed seemed eclipsed by him in the minds of the learned. It was, humanly speaking, an indispensable providence that represented him in the Transfiguration, side by side with Elias, and quite inferior to the incomparable Antitype whose coming he had predicted." New Advent
Assmann's Moses:
Assmann starts with a parapsychological definition of Egyptian thought construction as Mnemo-history, advancing into Suppressed history of Repressed memory of Akhenaten in Moses conscience, proceeding to Spencer's findings as 'before the Law.' The crux of his advancement to his ultimate thesis lies in a historical review of eighteenth century discourse on Moses. Freud shows up in a psychological spear head idea; 'the Return of the repressed,' the roots of Egyptian monotheistic theology of the elite was conceived in the 'One,' the master of Egyptian Pantheons, Aten, or Amon-Ra'e. Concluding into what breasted initiated eighty years ago: abolishing the Mosaic monopoly of revelation. Marvelous!
Moses Reinterpreted:
"interpretation and critique of 'Moses and Monotheism' are wide and varied," from Jan Assmann to Yosef Yerushalmi, in 1986 Columbia University Lectures.
Yerushalmi argues forcefully and almost convincingly that "Moses and Monotheism is 'a work neither of negation nor degradation but affirmation and pride in belonging to a people from whom, there rose again and again men who lent new color to the fading tradition, renewed the admonishments and demands of Moses, and did not rest until the lost cause was once more regained."
Anti-Semitism Psychosis:
Freud's analysis is amazingly original though extremely imaginative, and his distinction between reality and fantasy, defies his psychological conclusion, and common sense logic. However, his theory is fascinating, and converts this subject to a 'DaVinci Code' type of reading, 50 years ahead of his time.
Freud's genius has failed him in his thesis of what he presented as a discovery of Hebrew Christian evolution as an analogy with the primitive father/son tribal succession rather than an advancement in Cosmic consciousness from Egyptian liturgical (People Worship) to Hebrew Temple sacrificial Worship. That Rabbinical post Temple Judaism transformed into Messianic Judaism which is Christianity.
Those which emigrated into Arabia developed an Ebiobnite Judaism which reflected a deformed disbelief in Israel's hope in a Davidic kingdom rather than a Kingdom of God that no doubt prevailed, a Kingdom of the Loving Lord.
The undying guilt for Moses killing, proposes Freud, is the basis of Christians conception for Jesus' death as a sacrifice to the Father, Thus the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity becomes; "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son."
Book Description
In 1923, in this volume, Freud worked out important implications of the structural theory of mind that he had first set forth three years earlier in Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The Ego and the Id ranks high among the works of Freud's later years. The heart of his concern is the ego, which he sees battling with three forces: the id, the super-ego, and the outside world.
Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey. Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, from bibliographical and explanatory. Many of the translations were done by Strachey himself; the rest were prepared under his supervision. The result was to place the Standard Edition in a position of unquestioned supremacy over all other existing versions.
Newly designed in a uniform format, each new paperback in the Standard Edition opens with a biographical essay on Freud's life and work—along with a note on the individual volume—by Peter Gay, Sterling Professor of History at Yale.
Customer Reviews:
The Ego and the Id.......2007-09-06
The book was delivered to me complete and in the condition that it was sold to me in. I would recommend and use this seller for future transactions.
Understand the self.......2007-04-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. In 1923, Freud introduced new terms in his book "The Ego and the Id," to describe the division between the conscious and unconscious: 'id,' 'ego,' and 'super-ego.' He thought these terms offered a more compelling description of the dynamic relations between the conscious and the unconscious. The "id" (fully unconscious) contains the drives and those things repressed by consciousness; the "ego" (mostly conscious) deals with external reality; and the "super ego" (partly conscious) is the conscience or the internal moral judge.
The id is the source of our drives and Freud considered it to be the reservoir of libido. 'The libido' or simply 'libido', is the form of energy cathected upon objects or an effect received from objects, predominantly sexual, which underlies all mental processes. Our drives (Freud had very theoretically specific "-drives" such as the death-drive, but drives can often be equated to 'instincts') surge forth from the id and apply libidinal energy to objects, which may result in aggressive or erotic attachments/actions upon chosen objects. The drives of the id are considered to be inborn, operating within the primary psychical processes (those of the unconscious) and are absolutely determined according to the pleasure principle. It is said that the id behaves as though it were unconscious, the reason thought to be is that our ego and our super-ego's ideals and pressures are often in conflict with the id's, causing repression, as the gratification of the id's drives would often be devastating in terms of social- and self-image. The word "id" is taken from the nominative single neuter Latin demonstrative pronoun (is, ea, id) meaning "it" or "that thing."
In Freud's theory, the ego mediates among the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives, morals, and reality while satisfying the id and superego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego when id behavior conflicts with reality and either society's morals, norms, and taboos or the individual's expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals, norms, and taboos. Although in his early writings Freud equated the ego with the sense of self, he later began to portray it more as a set of psychic functions such as reality-testing, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The word ego is taken directly from Latin where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis. Ego is the English translation for Freud's German term "Das Ich."
Freud's theory says that the super-ego is a symbolic internalization of the father figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and is aggressive towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and the prohibition of taboos. Its formation takes place during the dissolution of the Oedipus complex and is formed by an identification with and internalization of the father figure after the little boy cannot successfully hold the mother as a love-object out of fear of castration. "The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the influence of authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on -- in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt" (The Ego and the Id, 1923). In Sigmund Freud's work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) he also discusses the concept of a "cultural super-ego". The concept of super-ego and the Oedipus complex is subject to criticism for its sexism. Women, who are considered to be already castrated, do not identify with the father, and therefore form a weak super-ego, apparently leaving them susceptible to immorality and sexual identity complications.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy.
Why we call him Freud.......2006-08-18
I started reading this again and I can't believe how fresh and relevant Freud remains. The text is clear and considering how much the world has changed it remains as useful as it always has been. I suppose that it is not an accident that his writings are the foundation of an entire discipline.
One of Freud's major models .......2005-01-11
This work presents one of Freud's major theoretical models for understanding human personality. The three- fold division into ego- id- super-ego in some sense parallels the three fold division in Plato's thought. For Freud the Id is the unconscious instinctual animal element in us. It is our ' drives our hungers our lusts, our sexual lust centrally. The ego is the social self, the construct with which we meet the world. It is our rational self, our self as we present ourselves to the world through. The superego is the conscience, the what we should be. For Freud it is the voice of others, and especially of our parents telling and teaching us the difference between right and wrong. As Freud understood these three aspects of self are in constant interaction, and the kind of personality we are is determined by which of these faculties is predominant.
It is possible to regard this theory as insight and useful and draw conclusions from it.Or it is possible to simply put it aside as one more human construction aimed at understanding what must be understood in many different ways.
The book is small but not easy to read. A great mind is at work making order out of the minds of all of us. Whether he succeeds for you , you alone must judge.
i would give this classic a 4.5..........2004-08-26
reading Freud is a must for anyone who is interested in psychology or "psycho-analysis." He is the founding father for modern psychology and "psycho-analysis" and has become a household name. He has made many other contributions: he coined the famous terms, ego, id, super-ego, "psycho-analysis," unconscious, Oedipus Complex, reaction-formation, identification, free association, object-cathesis, etc. Although he is known to be extremely hard to understand I did not find this is so. This book does have a complex terminology but if you bookmark this page for the other reviewers great work on defining and getting at what Freud really means by the terms ego, id, and super-ego (ego-ideal) and do active reading (taking notes on the margins, underlining, and that type of stuff) its not as hard as everyone thinks. Take into account though, that Freud homophobic, sexist, anti-semetic, and was alive before many of the modern technological advances were made so brain study was unthinkable back then, and psychology was mainly sexual or childhood development theories used to explain parts of the brain and consciousness. Although Freud was wrong about alot of things and his method of free association was great for most of his patients (who volunteered to be studied by Freud) it takes too much time for people who dont want to be analyzed or who have trouble talking about their feelings. Even so, this is a great book and a must read plus its incredibly short. You also as someone else suggested might want to draw a new model of the brain since freud's one in this book does not include a lot of important details, check the new lectures book for an improved one.
Customer Reviews:
a brilliant synthesis.......2007-01-15
Stephen Mitchell was one of the original group of analysts who began to differentiate (along with Jay Greenberg) between drive/defense models of the self (e.g., Freud) and relational models. In this book Mitchell applies the relational perspective to several areas of clinical concern, including sexuality, childhood development, narcissism, and theories of change and healing. I recommend this book in the Theories of Depth Psychology graduate courses I teach; it is clear and refreshing and brings analytic thought a new and vitalizing emphasis on image, metaphor, story, and other aspects of the weave of relations we all remain in even when alone.
most influential book in psychoanalysis I've read.......2004-11-18
I know people say this all the time, but I cannot recommend this book enough. As a developing clinician, this book has given me a tremendous advantage in conceptualizing cases. Mitchell draws on the best of the best in psychoanalysis and presents a very clear, convincing, and amazingly helpful integration.
Impressively clear and careful.......2000-06-27
This book is one of the most clear, careful, and rigorous contemporary psychoanalytic theoretical texts around. Mitchell writes with the logic and incisiveness of an analytic philosopher or logician. Although one might wish his depictions of specific clinical examples were a bit more textured and colorful, the theoretical arguments here are some of the best and most clearly stated around. I hope that more contemporary psychoanalytic theorists will become able to achieve this level of theoretical clarity and rigor.
Customer Reviews:
Analysis of Freud's Book of Psychoanalysis.......2007-09-21
Freud, surprisingly, does a fine job in explicating the basic ideas behind Psychoanalysis. Unlike other texts which can use pretty complicated and verbose language, Freud (and the editors) used clear and easy to read syntax. I recommend this book for any looking to get a basic understanding of Psychoanalysis or to further enhance an undergraduate or graduate class.
Freud was interesting, but troubled..........2006-11-04
Frued was an interesting figure in history but a very troubled individual. He theorized based on his own feelings and beliefs about things (i.e. - Oedipus Complex, a son wants to kill his father and marry his mother) and also made a lot of generalizations from a handful of case studies of equally troubled individuals. When held up to scientific scrutiny, Freud is little more than an interesting appearance on Jerry Springer. He was addicted to cocaine, smoked dozens of cigars a day, and in the end took his own life. He should be surplanted as "the Father of Psychology" by B.F. Skinner or possibly Watson. They have done much more to make Psychology a science.
A study on human behavior.......2003-01-03
I would do great injustice if I attempt to provide my thoughts on the works of Sigmund Freud. I admit my knowledge in this area is shallow and limited; and I took this read more out of curiosity than a scientific study. With this said I would ask you to bear with me in the following paragraphs and at the same time suggest taking this read with a caution that undertaking this read requires immense patience.
The ego has the task for self-preservation; it performs that task by becoming aware of the stimuli, by storing up experiences about them in the memory. It handles it by avoiding strong stimuli, by dealing with moderate stimuli and finally by learning to bring about expedient changes in the external world to its own advantages. It performs that task by gaining control over the demands of the instincts, by deciding whether they are to be allowed satisfaction, by postponing the satisfaction to times and circumstances favorable to the external world or by suppressing their excitation entirely. It is in this activity that tensions are produced by the stimuli. The raising and lowering of these tensions cause unpleasure and pleasure. It is probable however that what is felt as pleasure or unpleasure is not the absolute heights and lows but something in the rhythm of the changes in them. The ego strives after pleasure and seeks to avoid unpleasure. An increase in unpleasure which is unexpected is met by a signal of anxiety.
In contrast to ego; the id expresses the true purpose of the individual organisms life. This consists for the satisfaction of its innate needs. No such purpose as keeping itself alive or protecting itself from dangers by means of anxiety can be attributed to the id. That is the task of the ego to figure out the most favorable and the least perilous method of obtaining satisfaction; which entails taking the external world into account. The forces which hide behind the tensions caused by the needs of the id are called instincts. Freud proposed the existence of two basic instinct Eros and destructive instinct. The aim of the first is to establish greater unities and to preserve them thus in short to bind them together. The aim of the second is to undo connections and to destroy things. Modifications in the proportions of the fusion between the two instincts have the most opposite result. A surplus of sexual aggressiveness will turn a lover into a sex murderer, while a sharp diminution in the aggressive factor will make him bashful or impotent.
excellent resource...........2000-05-28
well-organized and well-written; very compact and filled with formulations useful to a comprehension of some of Freud's core concepts.
This book was informormative and well written.......1999-05-04
I found that this book was on a higher level than most of Freud's literary pieces. Though many of the same information is presented here, it is presented in a wholey different manner, and a much more understandable one. I personaly find this a fairly good source of reference. Though one can not rely completely on anyone of Freud's ideas; they give good background to new ones.
Average customer rating:
- Exciting Book
- Terrible character development, stupid plotting
- Insight into US Psychotherapy...
- A smart write, a good read
- Lost in boredom
|
The Interpretation of Murder: A Novel
Jed Rubenfeld
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Deals
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Literature & Fiction
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Mystery & Thrillers
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
-
The Meaning of Night: A Confession
-
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
-
The Poe Shadow: A Novel
-
The Ruins
ASIN: 0805080988
Release Date: 2006-09-05 |
Amazon.com
It has been said that a mystery novel is "about something" and a literary tale is not. The Interpretation of Murder has legitimate claims to both genres. It is most definitely about something, and also replete with allusions to and explications of Shakespeare, to the very beginnings of psychology, to the infighting between psychoanalytic giants--all written in a style that an author with literary aspirations might well envy.
In 1909, Drs. Freud and Jung visit Manhattan. They no sooner arrive when a young socialite is murdered, followed by another attempted murder, bearing the same characteristics. In the second case, the victim lives. She has lost her voice and cannot remember anything. The young doctor, Stratham Younger, who has invited Freud to speak at his University, soon involves Dr. Freud in the case. Freud, saying that Nora's case will require a time committment that he does not have, turns her over to Younger. The rudiments of Nora's case are based on Freud's famous Dora, complete with sexual perversions, convoluted twists and turns and downright lies.
That is just one of the myriad plot lines in the novel, all of which are intricate, interesting and plausible. All it takes for all of the incidents to be true is a great deal of bad will--and it is abundant here! There are politicians who are less than statesmen, city employees at work for themselves and not the city, doctors who will do anything to undermine Freud's theories, thereby saving the neurotics for themselves, and opportunists at every level of society, seeking psychological or material advantage. Carl Jung is portrayed by turns as secretive, mysterious, odd, and just plain nuts, while Freud remains a gentleman whose worst problem is his bladder.
Not the least interesting aspect of the book is all the turn-of-the-century New York lore: bridge building, great mansions, the Astor versus Vanderbilt dustup, immigrant involvement, fabulous entertaining, auto versus carriage. Despite the tangle of tales, debut author Jed Rubenfeld finishes it with writerly dexterity--and the reader is sorry to see it all end. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
In 1909, Sigmund Freud, accompanied by his then-disciple Carl Jung, made his one and only visit to the United States. Freud always spoke, in later years, as if some trauma had befallen him. He called Americans savages. This is the story of what happened in 1909. The Interpretation of Murder is an intricate tale of murder and the minds most dangerous mysteries. It unfurls on a sweltering August evening as Freud disembarks from the steamship George Washington. Across town, in an opulent apartment high above the city, a woman is found dangling from a chandelier. The next day, a second woman, Nora Acton, barely escapes the killer. Suffering from hysteria, only Freuds psychoanalytical methods can help her recall the identity of her assailant. In a historically accurate portrait of early 20th century New York City, The Interpretation of Murder will take you deep into the subterfuges of the criminal mind.
Customer Reviews:
Exciting Book.......2007-09-17
I lost more sleep over this book than any I have read in the past few years. I would think that I would stop at the end of a section and go to bed but it would hook me and I would have to keep reading. Several times I was literally on the edge of my seat as I was reading.
Terrible character development, stupid plotting.......2007-08-26
Ugh. I've gotten to the final 30 pages and cannot believe where this is going. What a terribly plotted book. And characters are just bare sketches on the page. Connections to 'Hamlet' go nowhere. It seems as if the author is simply showing off a certain amount of knowledge (oh, I see, he drops his Julliard School credit into his frontpiece bio -- so, what does that mean, he audited a Shakespeare class??). Two stars because he is able to string sentences together. Cheesy.
Insight into US Psychotherapy..........2007-08-23
The start is slow, but the action breathless by the end. The foundational prejudice of US psychiatry towards the medical model, followed by that of US psychotherapy towards a cognitive model, are given an intriguing explanation.
A smart write, a good read.......2007-08-14
I read this book about a month ago while on holiday. I thought I would wait a little before reviewing it in order to see how it would play in my own play-back memory machine. And the answer is that it has played back well. A good plot with some smart twists, a cast of generally realistic and 'sympathetic' characters, well-researched places and times, and a very nicely interwoven piece of fiction with what was an important event in the history of psychoanalysis and its embracement in the US.
So why so many negative reviews? One reason is that the book does require considerable attention; it keeps the reader on his/her toes as every page seems to contain potential clues that may be vital for the plot. Secondly, the author follows the currently fashionable cinematic style of constant scene changes and breathless editing, in which several different subplots move at the same time and the reader has to disentangle them. This proves tiresome at times, as if the author cannot just settle down and tell a story - he has to tell several stories at once. This brings us to the third criticism - the book does move at times from being clever to being clever clever. I found the final denouement very entertaining and satisfying, though the reasons that bring it about seem to fall into the clever clever category. Finally - the hype. Of course, this raises people's expectations; it may have been good for the book sales, though may have undermined its lasting effect.
What then are the book's virtues? As someone familiar with the way psychoanalysis works and with the different existing accounts of its founder, Sigmund Freud, I found the descriptions of Freud's visit to America, accompanied by Jung and Ferenzci and met but Brill and Jones, all historical personages, well researched and very convincing. The portrait that the author paints of Freud is very compelling and several of his interchanges with other characters are very realistic and have an authentic feel. Far from being an irrelevance to the plot, the author uses the presence of the father of psychoanalysis as a vital machine that moves the story forward. How so? By using very skilfully the well-established technique of drawing side by side crime-solving with the solving of the mental enigma that is posed by people's actions, especially those that are violent, irrational and 'crazy'. Normal people are crazy, says psychoanalysis; and the detective can go a long way by understanding how a crazy person acts out his/her crazyness while maintaining a perfectly normal appearance.
I found that several Freudian 'interpretations' are very well described; they do make us see events and actions in a very different, very persuasive light; this is surely the sign of a good interpretation. Freud's exchanges with the different characters at a dinner party are highly effective in this regard. Jung's character, by contrast, is not as sympathetically portrayed and, I suspect, that some of the admirers of his theory of the collective unconscious and archetypes will view it as bordering the caricature. However, the rancour with which Jung came to regard psychoanalysis and its founder is borne out by his his writings and letters.
This book reads quickly, but does not read easily. It makes demands of its readers. But if the reader is willing to put the effort into reading it, the book repays this effort in trumps.
Lost in boredom.......2007-08-06
This book starts out with a lot of promise but by about 50% through dissolves into shear boredom. There a basically 3 story line - the Crime, The Solving of the Crime and the gathering of a group of disfunctional men of little interest.
The first two stories (the crime and the solution) hold together well and would make an interesting read - the third losses its relevance quite soon into the novel and brings the whole thing to a crashing halt.
I'm sure some academic somewhere will find it rivetting but, for me, I couldn't even be bothered finishing the book (got about 75% through) I gave up careing about the crime and its solution.
Average customer rating:
- Heidi
- False advertising
- Mixed bag
- A great service to fans of Freud and Lewis
- Which worldview works for the way you live your life?
|
The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life
Armand M. Nicholi Jr.
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Modern
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Religious
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy of Religion
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophy
| Theology
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Health Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis
-
Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lo |
The Future of an Illusion
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)
The Ego and the Id (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud)
On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo
The Interpretation of Dreams
