Question

What role does the subconscious actually play? How accurate were the early psychoanalytics? What place do they have in the practice of psychology if any?

Answer 1

@cinork1

Answer 2

your subconscious mind is basically a storage unit. it stores and retrieves data, making everything you do fit a pattern.

Answer 3

Depends on what school of psychology you come from. The early psychoanalytics believed that the subconscious played a huge part in personality. Whereas CBT for instance views the subconscious as less important.

Answer 4

Was just about to tag you jm xD

Answer 5

The psychoanalytic approach was essentially founded upon Freud's personality systems and their implications in the conscious, PREconscious, and unconscious mind. According to psychoanalysts, the technical term for 'subconscious' is actually 'preconscious', which stores thoughts, memories, feelings, and images we can easily recall, but we are not aware of at a particular moment. Freud had disused the term 'SUBconscious' because it does no good in distinguishing mental processes.

Answer 6

Psychoanalysts actually refrain from the term 'subconscious' because people kept misusing the term, and hence Freud documented it as the 'preconscious'.

Answer 7

Psychoanalysis is not covered by most insurance companies. Therapists can technically practice psychoanalysis if they are “eclectic” therapists. Personally I am much more a proponent of either the Humanistic school or the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy school than that of psychoanalysis. I refrained from using the term preconsious mainly because most people that haven’t studied psychology know it as the subconscious. However, I disagree with many of Freud’s points and this is a matter of opinion because as we know we can’t prove nor disprove the preconscious. I tend to agree more with schools of thought which have much more “good”psychological research done on them. I know that even the best psychological research can’t prove anything whatsoever because Psychology is a soft science, but I think the more research the better.

Answer 8

Most modern psychologists don't practice much of the topics covered from psychoanalysis, especially Freudian psychodynamics, and people only learn them because it's history. Especially the Freudian aspects. If you ask me, Sigmund Freud had one of the most absurd theories such as the psychosexual stages and the idea of incest.

Also, the idea of proving laws and theories in psychology is not really possible unless we get to biopsychosocial models and genetic predispositions of psychological phenomena. The biological approaches to psychology is really where we can actually do more work.

Personally though, the most interesting for me to learn was the humanists and behavioral perspective as well. They're the most applicable to daily life too.

Answer 9

The only points from Freud that is actually worth covering are the defense mechanisms and dream analysis.

Answer 10

And dream analysis is still iffy. For me his wildest theory was that of hysteria and his idea of rest therapy.

Answer 11

True. But dream analysis opened a branch to a much deeper bit which people are trying to uncover today. IMO, the wildest proposal he made was castration anxiety and his whole theory of psychosexual stages.

Answer 12

Not to forget, psychoanalysts ironically had a lot of ego among each other's ideas. This rings a bell to Horney's womb envy which was essentially a feminist theory and countered the penis envy.

Answer 13

I like Erikson’s developmental stages a lot more than Freud’s. I do like some of what Jung had to say as well but Freud’s arrogance about something that can’t be proven is just off putting.

Answer 14

Erikson's developmental stages are way more applicable than Freud's, lol. And correct, Jung and most of other Neo-Freudians essentially had the same stuff to say as Freud, but changed the terminology. Jung's archetypes are the only original idea from Jung.

Answer 15

Also other Neo-Freudians like Adler again made theories for the sake of ego, which is again ironic. Rings a bell to Adler's Birth Order theory

Answer 16

Freud didn’t talk too much about the overall concept of the Animus and the Anima. Which is interesting if you view it not as a gendered idea but rather as “good and evil”.

Answer 17

It's funny how psychoanalytic theories attempted to explain ego and it's relation to the unconscious mind, yet ego was the force behind the making of several psychoanalytic theories.

Answer 18

Oh yeah Adler and Birth Order of Which we have so few genuinely good resources for the validity of that theory. I wrote an APA paper on that theory and believe me I looked 😂

Answer 19

And true. Jung had a few interesting concepts like ancestry and it impacts on personality

Answer 20

xD
Other psychoanalytic theories were mostly common sense. I remember going through the chapter on psychoanalysis and I was like, "Hell, even I can make a theory"

Answer 21

Yeah I’ve got several in the works based completely on the “subconscious” or “preconscious” specifically for the purpose of destroying any “Freudlings” (as I like to call them they’re the unbelievably blind followers of Freud’s ideas that somehow still exist) I tell them that they believe in Freud so vehemently because they view him as a father subconsciously. Which they can’t disprove😂

Answer 22

Damn, I never even knew there are still Freudians, or Freudlings as you said xD. I began realizing how credible their ideas were once I read about the psychosexual stages. But there's one thing that Freud did a tremendous job was the defense mechanisms. Not going to lie, once you know them pretty well, it's easy to observe them amongst individuals today and catch them if they're using it.

But nice, so you write&publish theories on psychology?

Answer 23

I have a couple phenomena that I’m gathering data for, for my own personal ideas, but nothing official at least not yet.

Answer 24

Oh that's nice.

Answer 25

Yeah I write plenty of papers though. And boy do I despise APA format.

Answer 26

Ah that's nice. I took a psych class last year, but hell it changed me a lot and I'd definitely expand on it more. So are you a psych major?

Answer 27

Yeah I am. Eventually going into clinical psychology hence the love for Maslow and Rodgers.

Answer 28

That's pretty cool. Well it's a pleasure to see someone else fascinated about psychology. All the best :)

Answer 29

This was a wonderful read. I wish I could medal you both. @Isry I'm a fellow psychology major and I'm down to read your stuff and send thoughts. @justjm what are you majoring in man?