week of 3/2 link and reflection

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/freud.html

Since this was mentioned a few times in the reading I thought it would be interesting to look up the Freud covers of TIME Magazine. The article mentions some interesting points. For instance, it factors in religion as the cause of Jung and Freud's split, Jung and his commitment to religion and Freud as an atheist.

There were a few things that struck me while reading and so I will just comment on them briefly here. Freud talked about doctors distaste for people diagnosed with hysteria instead of a brain injury, yet for some reason Breuer, being a neurologist, took up Anna O. as a patient. This puzzled me. Why did Breuer begin and continue to see Anna O, when other doctors would have shunned her as a patient? On the same note, I found the movie a little cryptic in terms of Breuer's relationship with Anna O. Does noone really know what actually happened? Because honestly, I demand an explanation!! Why did Freud not bring up the "hysterical pregnancy" and such up in his writings? It seems to me that the relationship between Anna O. and Breuer would be an excellent example of transferene and counter-transference.

I found it amusing that it took American psychologists so long to realize that they could just test Freud's theories and try to refute them rather then constantly bashing him in academic journals and the popular press. There was such a distrust and a dislike for Freud and psychoanalysis at first in America it begs the question why wasn't there such a distrust for such theories in Europe. It seems from the readings that Freud and his theories, though causing some controversy, became quite popular, quite fast. As much as I think Freud suffered from his own sexual repressions which manifested themselves in his penis envy, Oedipal complex theory, etc, some of his theories and ideas really do strike a chord with me. For one, although our dreams aren't necessarily our unconscious and repressed feelings coming out, I have begun to believe, based on my own dreams, that, at least my dreams, are almost like manifestations of fears or worries that I have. They serve as a reminder for me to always be wary.