Freud, Psycho-Analysis, & Sex

      When I read the first portion of Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, I was intrigued by his theories concerning dreams, manifest content, and latent dream thoughts. I thought, "Wow, this guy has really discovered some incredible concepts!" However, as I read on through the next two portions I soon came to realize Freud's first and foremost reason for all neuroses and problems had their root in sex, sexuality, or sexual experiences in childhood. Freud seemed to me to start off with very intellectually stimulating points about wish-fullfillment through dreams and the latent dream content which he uses to try to seek out the real meaning of the dream. However, he later introduces resistance, repression, infantile sexuality, and the oedipus complex, with each topic being contrasted between the sexes. Since Freud is a man, he is only fully able to comprehend the world he is looking into, through a male's eyes. He cannot completely vouch for women, especially since he is mostly only discussing such issues with women who have money which enables them to have an excessive amount of free time, an ideal many domestic housewives did not even have the option of considering. It seems to me that Freud over-emphasizes gender roles and sexual intercourse, especially toward the end of his book. He explains repression, resistance, and censorship, each having to do with trying to forget or hide things that have occurred in the past or even things not deemed acceptable in society. The main and most prevalent problem is stated again and again as being the sexuality or sexual lives of the affected people. A denial of someone's erotic wishes can lead them to frustration that further leads to illness. Or an interest in types of sex or sexual activities deviating from the "norm" can cause people to feel so ashamed and to repress these desires so deeply that this too can lead to illness. Freud uses homosexuality, fetishists, sadists, masochists, and perverts as examples of such incidents. During the time period in which Freud wrote about such radical ideas, sex was rarely, if ever, talked about. It was, "something improper, something ought not to talk about," and in some cases, the "strange and abnormal" cases, "intensified to the point of being abominable" (380). When I thought Freud was going to stop at that, he introduces the sexual life of children. He explains how all children, "have a predisposition to all of them and carry them out to an extent corresponding to their immaturity ... that perverse sexuality is nothing else than a magnified infantile sexuality split up into its separate impulses" (385). In my opinion, this is absolutely ludicrous. Freud would explain that I refuse to believe his theories because of the educational world in which I have been raised. I strongly disagree. Childhood is free, it is a time when children BEGIN to explore the world, with no knowledge of how anything really works. How is it even probable that a child can really see his mother's breast as anything more than needed for food, for survival? It just doesn't seem the least bit sensible that "sensual sucking" exists for any infant. Freud cannot comprehend that children do not have a sexual life before puberty, but it only makes sense that a sexual life develops during puberty, since puberty is the time when a girl or boy is fully developing their sexual organs and maturing in order to be able to reproduce.

      My last point would be the emphasis on the contrast between women and men. Women, according to Freud, have more illness and frustration due to their sexual lives, while men, also according to Freud, desire to stand up to other male figures as if they were standing up to their father. It seems that since Freud does not have an accurate portrayal of women in this research and comes from a male viewpoint, these theories are completely inaccurate. He also discusses how little girls wish they had the penis they seem to "lack," meanwhile little boys cannot fathom life without a penis. In today's society, men and women have come a long way to be equal on every playing field. Therefore, many of Freud's theories would be seriously contradicted. The theory of psychological illnesses and issues stemming from repressed childhood experiences does still have a strong root in psychology. However, the sexual life of children is not something that is constantly included in research studies in our current society. Freud's lectures were radical at the time and even are partially radical today, but have opened doors to many other theories and discussions that have greatly improved psychological research and knowledge. Sex was rarely talked about in the 1950s/60s, and is now almost an obsession, constantly all over various types of media. We have definitely come a long way from rarely discussing a major topic in society to being comfortable advertising contraceptives and shows like "16 and pregnant" which can help dissuade young adults from having unprotected sex or having sex too early. Yet, there are other aspects like masturbation, among other topics, that have yet to move into the comfort zone of conversational matter. There doesn't seem to be a clear future time when we will arrive at a point where every sexually related aspect is appropriate to discuss in schools or the workplace. Nonetheless, Freud, and others like him, have made examples of how one person's radical views, once voiced, can really change our society and impact future research.