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Criticism Of Sigmund Freud's Totem And Taboo

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After colonization of various indigenous societies around the world, efforts were made by various anthropologists, ethnographers and psychologists to study and observe the ways these indigenous societies operate. For understanding the customs, cultures and unique ways of these people studying their mental activities or development was regarded as a ground breaking revelation. The book titled “Totem and Taboo” is result of such an inquiry of the primitive mind. It is an English translation of few articles from its German origin which was first published in the journal Imago in 1913 depicting Sigmund Freud's interpretation of a number of ethnic phenomena in light of Psychoanalysis centring around the lives and customs of primitive people and the ‘savages’ form around the world, like Australia, New Zealand, Africa and so on. In this book Freud attempts to interpret the culture, ethics and religion in light of psychoanalysis. This particular work of Freud has been noticed by anthropologists, the vogue of the psychoanalytic movement founded by him is now so strong that the book is certain to make an impression in many intelligent circles. As a theory, psychoanalysis is strongly states that individuals are unaware of the many factors which lie in their unconscious mind that cause some behaviour and emotions. These …show more content…

Critics dispute many aspects of psychoanalysis including whether or not it is indeed a science; the value of the data upon which Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, based his theories; and the method and effectiveness of psychoanalytic treatment. There has been much criticism as well as praise regarding psychoanalysis over the years, but a hard look at both the positive and negative feedback of critics of psychoanalysis shows, in my opinion, that psychoanalysis is indeed a "great idea" in personality that should not be

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Originally from Austria, Sigmund Freud was a trained neurologist who was particularly interested in the human psyche. Over many years, Freud developed a theory to explain human behavior, what we refer to now as “Freudian Psychology.” First, he divided the mind into three levels, and used the analogy of an iceberg to help others understand it. On the surface, Freud identified the Conscious. It is here that most of our decision making and ideas are processed.

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Greenberg (1986) believes Freud’s case studies do not place enough stress on revealing the outcome of the treatment and that Freud’s aim was more to illustrate his theoretical points (p.240). In cases, Greenberg asserts that many of the presented cases would not even be considered acceptable examples of psychoanalysis and, in short, that virtually all of the cases studies had basic shortcomings (p.240). Furthermore, many other powerful criticisms about Freud inaccurate and subsequently flawed evidence have been published. These critics contend that Freud’s evidence is flawed due to the lack of an experiment, the lack of a control group, and the lack of observations that went unrecorded (Colby, 1960, p.54).

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Anthropologists have argued that Freud’s theory is culture bound. Freud’s theory centralised on the structure of the psyche, which is included within the inner models of reality of the individual in biological and social aspects. The unconscious is a psychic

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The overabundance of clinically rooted concepts begin to put threat onto the clinical field as such excess of clinical strategies and techniques are mutually incompatible will create a nearly impossible issues in the conduction of psychoanalytic knowledge and skills. (Nunberg, NCBI, 1943) According to Nunberg, NCBI, (1943) the last 30 years; advancements in every aspect of the field in neuroscience have invalidate the basis for the earlier psychoanalytic which result to neglecting this field. Neuroscientists are not anymore troubled with mental disabilities or even organic disorders. Current evaluations of neuroscientific work approve that most of Freud original studies in this field including his works on the universal influence of non-conscious processes and the organizing function of emotions for thinking, have been discovered validity in scientific

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