Why is Freud so important in psychology and why do we teach his ideas? Thomas Denham

Why is Freud so important in psychology and why do we teach his ideas?

Thomas Denham Upper Sixth

In the modern era of psychology, Freud is considered as largely outdated: if this is the case, then why are his theories still being taught at GCSE, A-level and at University level? Perhaps even more importantly, what actually was the significance of his contribution to the field of psychology as a whole?

The first reason that Freud is often considered to have been ‘outdated’ is because of the nature of his ideas. One of the biggest problems with his approach to psychology is the fact that it simply cannot be proven wrong – he can neither and ideas such as all women experiencing “penis envy” which make it unsurprising that many feel as if valuable education resources are being wasted on teaching these outdated ideas and that they could be better spent on newer and more influential approaches to psychology.

However, Freud was influential. Whilst many of his ideas are widely considered as wrong and lacking in evidence, he acted as the foundation of more trustworthy research which has resulted in what we know about the human mind today. Firstly, Freud popularised the idea that people were influenced by an “unconscious” mind which grew from your experiences. This theory has today stemmed into “modern attachment theory” which was pioneered by John Bowlby where researchers acknowledged the role of caregivers in the formation of future relationships and whilst the erogenous or psychosexual stages are hard to prove, it has been accepted that unremembered experiences as a child influence you as an adult. Modern attachment theory is a highly recognised theory and is supported by evidence in its validity, for example, using the theory researchers at Minnesota were able to predict at age 3 if a child would or would not drop out of high school with 77% accuracy.

Furthermore, Freud’s contributions have indeed stemmed past the development of new theories such as Bowlby’s attachment theory. Arguably one of Freud’s biggest contributions to psychology was the usefulness of therapies resulting from his theory. Freud’s psychoanalysis - otherwise be proven nor denounced. So they are known as psychodynamic therapy - involves purely theoretical ideas. Psychologists talking about unconscious feelings. The have long wanted to debunk a lot of what therapy has proved effective which has is considered to be been supported by “nonsense” more recently, but this [U]nremembered an array of metaanalyses. A metais very hard to do. The main problem, therefore, is that his ideas come with very experiences as a child influence you as an adult. analysis in 2008 looked at 23 studies that compared long-term little evidence to psychodynamic support them. For example, his ideas of the therapy to shorter therapies and found stages of psychosexual development, sexual that spending more time in psychodynamic frustrations with the parent (such as the treatment was generally better for Oedipus complex and the Electra complex) personality functioning and reducing

symptoms of mental illnesses. Despite this, it is undeniable that research such as this does indeed have its weaknesses – just like any research does. The meta-analyses on [He] offered psychoanalysis often compared it to short term therapies or no evidence that cultural differences therapy at all. Also, the results of the studies involved in the analyses have an impact on psychology and varied heavily with behaviour. many finding that psychoanalysis was not helpful with others finding the opposite. In reality, the therapy is likely to need to take into account the fact that everyone is different. Different therapies work for different people depending on the nature of their mental illnesses. This certainly does justify why Freud is included in nearly all courses – the fact these therapies are still widely used means that it is useful for students to understand where they came from and what ideas they are based on. Regardless of the perception of Sigmund Freud’s theories, there is no question that he had an enormous impact on the field of psychology. His work supported the belief that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes – he noticed that many of his patient’s symptoms didn’t seem to have a physical cause – and he also offered evidence that cultural differences have an impact on psychology and behaviour. His ideas cannot be proven nor denounced, but what we do know is that these ideas effectively kick started the whole of what we know about psychology today. Whilst many consider him to simply be an old man with old fashioned views, his contributions cannot be overlooked. This explains just why a huge emphasis is put on teaching his ideas, why he is considered one of the figureheads of psychology and how he shaped the subject as we know it.