Josh Staples

Critical Thinking Question

A friend of yours is learning about Freuds psychoanalytic theory of personality, and tells

you they do not understand why they have to study Freud. Hes outdated, a chauvinist, and just

plain wrong! your friend exclaims. Evaluate your friends claim. Is your friends statement

accurate? Is Freud still relevant in todays world? Be sure to incorporate concepts/information

from Chapter 10.

Part II (Answer to Question)

It has been discussed a lot about whether Freuds psychoanalytic theory of personality is

still relevant today. I would say that, according to the statement that my friend made, Freuds

theory is still relevant to us in todays world. I wouldnt say that Freud was just plain wrong and

outdated.

Freud brought a lot to the table when talking about the Psychoanalytic Theory. He was

able to focus a lot on the development of children as they grew up, he talked about the

unconscious processes, and he also was able to come up with a therapy that we still use today

where one can go and sit on the couch and just start speaking about what was on their minds.

(Lecture Notes, 11/14) Just that last comment shows that his theory does play a big part in our

world today because we still see that practice being performed.

There were a few things that were weak about Freuds theory. There was a lot of

emphasis on sexuality, too much about children, there are still people who are trying to find

evidence of the id/superego/ego in a scientific way. I would tell my friend that although there are

weaknesses and there are things that may be irrelevant to us today, they are still important. The

things that Freud worked on in his career, was a base of what was to come. As more
psychologists studied these findings, they started adding upon the things Freud found and began

to make them more relevant to us. Anna Freud was one of his daughters and based off the

id/superego/ego theory, she was able to come up with strategies of Defense Mechanisms.

Another psychologist, Carl Jung, was able to dig deeper into some of Freuds other thoughts

about topics such as the unconscious and how it works. (King, 2016, pgs. 363-369)

Freud was one of the first to start studying personality and it was difficult to find evidence of the

things he studied about, but all in all, he has influenced many others to discover more about

Personality and how it is affected, even though his thoughts may be wrong.