RE: Is Freud contagious?

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu 26 Feb 2004 - 21:41:58 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "RE: Is Freud contagious?"

    >From: "Brad - Eufrates" <brad.jensen@eufrates.com>
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    >Subject: RE: Is Freud contagious?
    >Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 11:46:44 -0600
    >
    >
    >Freud is a wonderful poet but a horrible scientist.
    >
    From what I vaguely recall, Freud did some interesting neurobiological work on lamprey (and other organisms I can't remember right now). Maybe he should have stuck to this work. I can't think of much he contributed to modern psychology that's worthy of merit, beyond some nifty neologisms. Maybe the superego has some value as a moral constraint.

    He is of historical interest though, and is nested well within the subset of early psychology I'm interested in, allied to Jung and sharing a debt to Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Haeckel, etc. (ie- long dead German guys).
    >
    >I think there
    >is an article in Atlantic Monthly about how off-base and even
    >dishonest Freud was.
    >
    >Brad Jensen
    >
    >
    > > -----Original Message-----
    > > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk
    > > [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Scott Chase
    > > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 9:19 AM
    > > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > Subject: Is Freud contagious?
    > >
    > > In his book _Totem and Taboo_ Freud is discussing some of the
    > > same topics re: totemism which Durkheim addresses in _The
    > > Elementary Forms of Religious Life_, but Freud puts a
    > > psychoanalytical spin on them by looking at so-called
    > > "savages" (eg- native Australians) in similar terms as
    >neurotics.
    > >
    > > Freud also addresses incest avoidance and mentions Westermarck.
    > >
    > > Anyway, here's a quote memeticists might want to ponder.
    > > Freud reflects (page 42):
    > >
    > > (bq)"Anyone who has violated a taboo becomes taboo himself
    > > because he possesses the dangerous quality of tempting others
    > > to follow his
    > > example: why should *he* be allowed to do what is forbidden to
    >others?
    > > Thus he is truly contagious in that every example encourages
    > > imitation, and for that reason he himself must be shunned"(eq)
    > >
    > > ref:
    > >
    > > Sigmund Freud. 1950. Totem and Taboo: Some Points of
    > > Agreement Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics.
    > > WW Norton & Company. New York
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > ===============================================================
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    > >
    > >
    >
    >

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    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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