Freud, The Mind, . . . and all that

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     Psychology is one of the least understood sciences. Psychologists have been trying to figure it out from the moment they invented it. Their subject matter—the mind—is a phantom they can’t harness. Its primary quality—emotion—escapes understanding. So they become therapists, which is so daunting that they need therapy themselves: “You’re okay; how am I?”

I’m not making fun, perish forbid! One of my daughters is a therapist.

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     The main goal of therapy is to gain relief from symptoms that cause mental stress, but there are so many causes that even discovering them is often a career;

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     The main feature of therapy is finding ways to cope with it (stress, not therapy), but coping mechanisms sometimes become stressful themselves;

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     So the main benefit of therapy is not needing to see a therapist anymore. A lot of this is circular reasoning, sure, which is the main reason psychology is a science.

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     These are all wishful statements. Most of my psychologist friends would assert that I am either exaggerating or minimizing. (This is true, but our excellent Editor limits my contributions to 400 words or less—usually less—so I can’t dig into the subject with enough detail to explain and expose my ignorance, which is also why I am a scientist.)

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     But I digress..... The first psychologist/therapist was Sigmund Freud (there were a couple before him, but Freud was the noisiest.) Freud invented the three major parts of the mind that guide us: the Id, Superego, and Ego. Think of these as three rather obnoxious children. The Id says, “These toys are all mine,” the Superego says, “You can’t have them because some are too dangerous,” and the Ego says, “Both of you stop fighting or I’ll tell the teacher!” Snotty little urchins!

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     Freud was so acting out! He thought the Id was fundamental because a) it’s so masculine and b) it’s obsessed with sex. Hence, male dominance is natural, while the judgmental Superego, like an overprotective mother, is often hysterical, and so women are inferior. Freud needed therapy.

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     Fortunately, Freud’s daughter Anna became a psychotherapist herself and refuted such nonsense. Of course, it’s taken almost two centuries for her to be taken seriously. Must be an Ego thing.

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Ron Wetherington