Freudianism and autie’s loneliness.

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I don’t want to discuss Freudian theories because this has been done at length and Freudianism doesn’t even deserve to be discussed, but only to be denounced as one of the most damaging influences in the past century.

But Freudianism (I observe in this context the automatic corrector accepts the existence of those words and even puts the capital letters) has still much unconscious circulation in commonsense collective mind, probably much more in France and Italy than in the Anglo-Saxon world – but this I would like to know here.

When I say to a friend (sic) or an acquaintance: “look I am autistic, and my life is very difficult for this”, I don’t elicit any of the reactions I would like to hear: “autistic: what does it mean? Why and in what way you life is difficult? It’s just as if I said “I like to spend my holidays in the mountains”, or “last year I got a cold”. This happens for two reasons: (1) people don’t want to be faced by difficult problems and if in what you say there is some trace of a demand for help they just don’t feel like helping and turn a deaf ear. But (2) they have on the whole been accustomed to accept the psychoanalytic theories as something correct and “modern”; so they think in some automatic way that they must not concern themselves for the problems you had with your mother or father. If you miss a leg they may think they should be of some help and show some solidarity, but if you are autistic… well they don’t even know what autism is. For this Freudianism and psychoanalysis have a great deal of responsibility and I will never get tired of Freud-bashing in the most vituperative way and of denouncing that horrendous thing that has been, and to some extent still is, psychoanalysis. Freudianism is to some extent responsible for my utter loneliness !

I think sometimes people are afraid of what they don`t understand and ignore it in the hope it will go away.
I used to think about deliberately breaking a leg as that would be easier to explain than why I couldn`t manage mentally.
I have found that this sight has helped me a lot over the last few weeks to not feel so alone.
Freudian theory is quite silly, and the NT`s think we`re strange......

50% of all behavior is directly or indirectly attributed to genetics. I don't see how any thinking person could believe such crap that autism is psychological. Autism is a neurological differnce. I am sorry you have to live in such an environment. Freud is dead said The Atlantic Monthly.

Last edited by SeriousGirl on 10 Apr 2007, 3:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Is your beetle's name Gregor? If so I am very much on your side. Feel a little less alone.

I don't want to discuss Freudianism as such, but only its residual pernicious underground influence.

Last edited by paolo on 10 Apr 2007, 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was published in 1915, around the same time as Freud's theories. I have read and heard people talk about how these two 'geniuses' revolutionized their respective fields. It sickens me to hear Freud's work mentioned with the same degree of esteem of that of Einstein.

I think a lot of Freud's ideas are getting debunked nowadays, long overdue ( and in some respects Einstein's ideas are too).
But one has a lot to pay for; the other has a legacy and his genius is hard to deny.

Freudians used to claim that autism was caused by bad parenting, but that was debunked some time ago.

Until shown otherwise, a cigar is just a cigar.

This beetle is a literary beetle but his name is Small.
My next one could be Gregor Samsa though, I like that story too.

I had the most amazing psychiatrist some years ago, he was the first person in my life to treat me like a valued person. I also read some books by Irvin Yalom also which really helped me so the psych profession is not all bad.

The Freudian theory that autism was caused by "refridgerator mothers" was started by Bruno Bettelheim, a holocaust survivor. He used his observations of the concentration camps to project his theory on autistic children (and their mothers). It was an observational connection. It went perfectly with the practice of institutionalizing autistics for either therapeutic reasons, research reasons or protecting them from their "abusive mothers".

I am absolutely with you!! Freud pulled off an almighty con. I have blamed others for my problems for so many years and now I'm coming to understand that blame is irrelevant and only hurts the blamer and the blamed (especially if that's your parents). Freud did not take nature into account, and the idea that we are born a lump of clay that our parents and experiences mold is more or less taken for granted. BTW I'm a trained psych nurse who's now pretty much anti-psychiatry.

I have some personal accounts to settle with psychoanalysis. I have read and studied the most relevant books of Freud, and of his followers and exegetes; so I lost an huge amount of time in this enterprise. I also read Bettelheim and his “Empty Fortress”. But when B. died they discovered that he was an impostor and that he falsified his data to obtain grants.

I also went into analysis for a very short time; I think we exchanged some 25 words in two months then I quit. I began to realize that Freudianism was all wrong when I started to read Lorenz, Bowlby, ethology. If animals have a plurality of instincts why we should have one (Eros)?. Later Freud “discovered” that there was also an instinct of death (Thanathos) and this was pure delirium, because we are built by evolution to have absolutely no urge to die and we go on living in indecent and unhappy conditions as long as possible. Then he postulated the existence of an envy of the penis in his unfortunate female patients

Anyway in France the power of Lacan’s followers is still suffocating, and difficult to fight because Lacan’s and Lacanism’s jargon is nearly impossible to understand. It’s the language of an esoteric sect...

Freud is still very popular and undisputable in many literary circles, and in this way finds his insidious place in the mind of common people pretending to be cultured. And also among self-teached psychiatric “operators”, newspapermen and politicians.

I know there are psychoanalysts possessing charisma (not mine) who sometime can help. But I think they are white flies.

Also, it should be born in mind that he was a cocaine addict!

Most intelligent people in the US tend to realize Freud is a load of garbage, but his influence still affects our culture. What bugs me is that Freudian theory is not just bad science, it's not science at all. At most it is bad philosophy. I mean, how can you test his stuff scientifically? You can't. It's purely subjective. Sure, some general concepts may be true, such as our repression of thoughts through the subconcious, but even so, you can't call that concept scientific---it can't be tested. And the obsession he must have had with symbols and how he made other people obsess over them

One problem was calling everything sexually based. If its not based on the destruction instinct its sex. When you call everything sexual, the term sexual ceases to have meaning. Kissing or flirtation can be called sexual beacause the end result is reproduction through copulation. But come on, a childs love for his mother has nothing to do with him trying to copulate with her. For something to be sexual it must have the potential to lead up to intercourse. I don't know of any little boys that grew up to do this with their mothers---therefore they don't have that desire. If they did, it would happen. (excluding some really rare perverts)

Freud really makes me sick. I can't even beleive he got taught in psych class in high school. He should get mention simply for his historical influence and for how much damage he has done on psychology, but nothing else, he should not be taught as someone to take seriously.

auties is such a cute name for autism

Cute names annoy me XD. I'm sorry... but cute things just... drive up the wall.

look at your avatar. cute!

That is the ceiling cat. He watches.