Posted by Jeb on February 13, 2000, at 14:53:02
In reply to Re: Freud and his relevance, posted by Eric on February 13, 2000, at 14:35:14
I agree many of Freud's theories are "worthless and laughable" as you put it, but isn't there some substance to his notion of repression of emotions and desires? Dream analysis?
I also agree that some of us are genetically predisposed to experiencing some sort of mental illness in our lives but wouldn't you agree that some of us will experience mental illness based solely on some sort of trauma experienced early in life?
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> Jeb, Freud's work means nothing in the modern world. If anything, Freud's work has largely contributed to the many problems and misconceptions that exist in psychiatry and psychology today. Freud was a quack and I would pay no heed to his bogus theories...nor to any other of the "psychological" theories of depression. Depression is a neurological disease...a disease of the brain and central nervous system. To put it bluntly, people with clinical depression have problems with their brain not functioning properly. A person with severe clinical depression has a poorly functioning brain Jeb. No amount of "psychanalyzing" in the Freudian sense can ever correct this problem once one has been hit by major depression.
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> Quit thinking of clinical depression as a "mental illness" or an "emotional problem" and start viewing it as just another serious neurological disorder like Parkinsons disease, Alzheimer disease or other serious medical problems.
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> Furthermore, serious mental illness has a heavily genetic component. Sure, it usually takes some type of severe environmental stressors to "activate" depression but some people just dont have it in their genes to become that way no matter what happens. As history moves forward, we will begin to view Freud's theories as worthless and laughable. Kind of like the old time theories that the Earth was flat.
poster:Jeb
thread:21333
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000209/msgs/21340.html