History Main / AllPsychologyIsFreudian

* As long as we're mentioning ''{{Persona}}'' as an aversion, let's discuss the other ''Persona'' (a film by [[TheSeventhSeal Ingmar Bergman]].) In terms of Freudianism, the film makes little to no sense. However, when compared to a glossary of common terms in Jungian psychology, it practically goes down the list one by one, including an ultra-rare example of countertransference (basically, [[WhatAboutBob the patient drives the examiner crazy]].)

** It should be noted that, while the use of potentially hazardous electric shocks as part of an experiment is simply not done, electro-shock therapy still remains a valid form of therapy. It's neither the most common nor preferred form of psychotherapy in this day and age, but a valid one nonetheless. Even if only used in rather extreme cases. Much of the confusion surrounding unethical ''electrical'' experiments can be attributed to this. It should also be noted that real electro-shock therapy is nearly painless and not the convulsion-inducing barbarism shown on TV.
*** Indeed, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) is now used only in severe cases of depression that are unresponsive to any other form of treatment. The patient is fully anaesthetized before the treatment now, and every precaution is taken to ensure that the treatment is safe and humane. It works beautifully, but does have short-term memory loss as a potential side-effect, which is usually temporary but occasionally permanent; most patients with depression that is severe enough to need ECT consider this an acceptable trade off.
** Don't forget Sheridan and King, who demonstrated that around 80% of people will electrocute a puppy to death, while able to actually see the effects on the puppy, if they are instructed to by a perceived authority figure...
*** What's the date on that study?
**** It was after the Milgram experiment, but the methodology is really the more important one; it's one thing to ask [[strike:me]]somebody if they'd do it (yes) and another to actually get them to it ([[ComedicSociopathy hold these alligator clips for a few sec, please? thanks]])...

*** Whats the date on that study?

There is also a tendency, formerly seen in the first paragraph of this entry, to use "psychology" and "psychiatry" interchangeably. The difference between the two is [[strike:about two hundred bucks per hour]] that psychiatrists are [=MDs=] who then studied two years of psychology, who can provide therapy and prescribe medication, while psychologists train for between six and ten years and cannot prescribe medication--though most of them, if they feel it's necessary, will just write a note to the patient's GP recommending one drug or another. Psychologists also do nearly all of the research in the field of psychology. Psychiatrists tend to view psychologists as "the poor man's option," while psychologists tend to view psychiatrists as "total quacks."[[hottip:*:The psychiatrists who went for the MD/PhD route are, presumably, just enjoying the show.]] Interestingly, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung ''were'' psychiatrists with ''medical doctorates''. Their methods of working and researching would probably count as psychology today, but back then psychology wasn't really a common academic field.

There is also a tendency, formerly seen in the first paragraph of this entry, to use "psychology" and "psychiatry" interchangeably. The difference between the two is [[strike:about two hundred bucks per hour]] that psychiatrists are [=MDs=] who then studied two years of psychology, who can provide therapy and prescribe medication, while psychologists train for between six and ten years and cannot prescribe medication--though most of them, if they feel it's necessary, will just write a note to the patient's GP recommending one drug or another. Psychologists also do nearly all of the research in the field of psychology. Psychiatrists tend to view psychologists as "the poor man's option," while psychologists tend to view psychiatrists as "total quacks."[[hottip:The psychiatrists who went for the MD/PhD route are, presumably, just enjoying the show.]] Interestingly, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung ''were'' psychiatrists with ''medical doctorates''. Their methods of working and researching would probably count as psychology today, but back then psychology wasn't really a common academic field.

There is also a tendency, formerly seen in the first paragraph of this entry, to use "psychology" and "psychiatry" interchangeably. The difference between the two is [[strike:about two hundred bucks per hour]] that psychiatrists are [=MDs=] who then studied two years of psychology, who can provide therapy and prescribe medication, while psychologists train for between six and ten years and cannot prescribe medication--though most of them, if they feel it's necessary, will just write a note to the patient's GP recommending one drug or another. Psychologists also do nearly all of the research in the field of psychology. Psychiatrists tend to view psychologists as "the poor man's option," while psychologists tend to view psychiatrists as "total quacks." Interestingly, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung ''were'' psychiatrists with ''medical doctorates''. Their methods of working and researching would probably count as psychology today, but back then psychology wasn't really a common academic field.

* Humanistic (a field that grew out of a combination of behavioural and psychoanalytic psychology, which holds that the best way to help the client is to build a trusting relationship with them)
* Evolutionary (based on the belief that behaviors, like physical traits, are naturally selected and thus each behavior has or had some kind of pro-reproductive purpose)

Other obsolete theories that show up include:

** Sadly, this was TruthInTelevision when the science was in its infancy.

*** Indeed, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) is now used only in severe cases of depression that are unresponsive to any other form of treatment. The patient is fully anaesthetized before the treatment now, and every precaution is taken to ensure that the treatment is safe and humane. It works beautifully, but does have problems with short-term memory as a potential side-effect, which are usually temporary but occasionally permanent; most patients with depression that is severe enough to need ECT consider this an acceptable trade off.

The cause of this trope is obvious. While it may be ''correct'' to say that a psychopath has no empathy because his frontal lobe has dodgy wiring, it makes a much better ''story'' to say it is due to him being beaten as a child. A schizophrenic being treated by drugs is dull; treatment by finally confronting the neighbour who raped her is triumphant.

* Done more or less straight in ''TheVentureBros'' when Doctor Orpheus goes inside Dr. Venture's mind. He encounters the Eros and Thanatos drives, which take the forms of Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White, and the id, ego, and superego, who all look like Dr. Venture.

* Done more or less straight in ''TheVentureBros'' when Doctor Orpheus goes inside Dr. Venture's mind. He encounters the Eros and Thanatos drives, which take the forms of Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White, and the id, ego, and superego, who all look like the doctor.

* Done more or less straight in ''TheVentureBros'' when Doctor Orpheus goes inside Dr. Venture's mind and encounters AnthropomorphicPersonifications of the id, the ego, and the superego, along with the Eros and Thanatos drives.

** Charlie didn't date a woman with the same personality as his mother, he dated a woman with a motherly personality, which is the exact opposite of his mother's ice queen persona.

There is also a tendency, formerly seen in the first paragraph of this entry, to use "psychology" and "psychiatry" interchangeably. The difference between the two is [[strike:about two hundred bucks per hour]] that psychiatrists are [=MDs=] who then studied two years of psychology, who can provide therapy and prescribe medication, while psychologists train for between six and ten years and cannot prescribe medication--though most of them, if they feel it's necessary, will just write a note to the patient's GP recommending one drug or another. Psychologists also do nearly all of the research in the field of psychology. Psychiatrists tend to view psychologists as "the poor man's option," while psychologists tend to view psychiatrists as "total quacks."

* Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, an idea that first we focus on the physical necessities like sleeping and pooping, then needs relating to safety, then love and friendship, then esteem and being respected, and finally "self-actualization" at the top, a term endlessly debated because Maslow didn't bother defining it very well. (Because of its complexity, there are widespread misconceptions of this theory even in psychology - another psychologist skipping his lunch break after pulling an all-nighter to hang out with a friend is not quite an invalidation of the theory.)
*** Maslow's hierarchy is mostly used in practical psychology to treat people with obsessive disorders who neglect things like eating and sleeping to carry out their obsessions; reorganising their priorities is often extremely useful.
*** Maslow's Hierarchy is taught in an Air Force ROTC textbook on leadership, in a chapter on motivation of subordinates.
*** Not to mention pretty much every high school health textbook there is--are we ever going to be rid of this thing?
* Psychologists carrying out some extremely unethical experiments, often involving electric shocks. While some of them would be a lot of fun and quite possibly useful to carry out in real life, there is no way in hell a psychologist would be allowed to perform them. There are a LOT of checks in place to make sure there are no [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate abuses of power.]]

** Sadly true when it was just getting started.
** It may also be related to the ''fake'' electrocutions done during Milgram's study of obedience. Participants ''thought'' they were delivering shocks to a helpless fellow test subject, but in reality the fellow test subject was an actor in confederacy with the researchers, who had been given specific reactions to perform as the experiment went on.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, an idea that first we focus on the physical necessities like sleeping and pooping, then needs relating to safety, then love and friendship, then esteem and being respected, and finally "self-actualization" at the top, a term endlessly debated because Maslow didn't bother defining it very well. (Because of its complexity, there are widespread misconceptions of this theory even in psychology - another psychologist skipping his lunch break after pulling an all-nighter to hang out with a friend is not quite an invalidation of the theory.)
** Although these theories tend to obsolescence, portions of them remain in current forms of psychology. Maslow's hierarchy of needs appears a lot in psychology theories (though not so much in practice), and marketing-related careers make ample use of Maslow's hierarchy, since it has proved quite useful to those who plan advertising campaigns.

* In academia, his importance in the basic 101 of psychology that people who don't go into psychology any further will only know means that Freud is taken more seriously in the literature department than in the psychology department. The psychology applied in sociology, "gender studies" and other tangentially related fields can be biased towards basic Freud, whose denial of an evolution-created biological impact on behavior fits the ''it's-society's-fault'' approach of most sociology teachers perfectly.

* The main characters in StephenKing's ''{{Cell}}'' theorize that the zombies running around killing people all had their ego and superego wiped out by a Pulse of electromagnetism coming from their cell phones, leaving only the id, which was Freud's fancy way of saying "the part of your brain that just wants to kill and screw".

* Cognitive (the study of how people think, learn, and remember, with strong ties to biological psychology : also the natural evolution of behavioral psychology)

* Humanistic (a field that grew out of a combination of behavioural and psychoanalytic psychology, with a strong focus on counselling that helps the client to help himself)

* The old behaviourist idea of psychology that thinks all learning, etc., is simple reward-stimuli reactions, like Pavlov's dog learning to salivate when a bell is rung--while behaviourism still exists, this is an extremely dumbed-down version that bears only the smallest resemblance to reality
* Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, an idea that first we focus on the physical necessities like sleeping and pooping, then needs relating to safety, then love and friendship, then esteem and being respected, and finally "self-actualization" at the top, a term endlessly debated because Maslow didn't bother defining it very well. (Because of its complexity, there are widespread misconceptions of this theory even in psychology - another psychologist skipping his lunch break after pulling an all-nighter to hang out with a friend is not quite an invalidation of the theory.)

*** Indeed, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) is now used only in severe cases of depression that are unresponsive to any other form of treatment. The patient is fully anaesthetized before the treatment now, and every precaution is taken to ensure that the treatment is safe and humane. It frequently causes memory loss, however.

That and most viewers only know the Freudian model, and only a little of it at that. Sometimes it may actually be used as a gag, but there ''are'' more serious uses than joking.

* Some such experiments do still take place--but they only involve low level shocks (and this in the context of studying fear conditioning).

----

If a psychologist is asking about the patient's parents and childhood, sees sexual imagery in everything the patient says, and uses lots of projective tests like the Rorschach ink blot test or word association, you're probably looking at television's idea of Freudian psychology. The next most common form of psychology in media is Humanistic psychology-- when you've got a patient lying on a couch with the psychologist asking questions like "Could you tell me more about that?" and "So how does that make you ''feel''?", you're looking at a Humanistic psychologist. Ironically, these are probably the two ''least'' common of the five major schools in real life.

That and most viewers only know the Freudian model, and only a little of it at that. Sometimes it may actually be used as a gag, but there ''are'' more serious uses than joking.

* Kyon in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' references to Freud's psychology at times. After the events of episode 6 (chronological), when it still seemed like AllJustADream (which ended with a kiss) he cries "What the hell?! Freud would have a field day with this!" That being said, the story (the novels) does have a ''[[ViewersAreGeniuses giant]]'' [[ViewersAreGeniuses reference pool to advanced physics, history, ancient mythology and other stuff]] you don't know, so it doesn't really make sense why this trope is active.
** It makes perfect sense. Psychoanalysis is the only area of psychiatry that typically finds the content of dreams to be important. If you asked someone who follows the behavioral or biological methods what your dreams means they'd probably laugh at you.
*** Not necessarily; while interpreting symbolism in dreams is sneered at by most non-psychoanalysts, the emotional content can often be extremely helpful in working through things the client might not be acknowledging consciously.

* In academia, his importance in the basic 101 of psychology that people who don't go into psychology any further will only know means that Freud is taken more seriously in the literature department than in the psychology department. The psychology applied in sociology, gender studies and other tangentially related fields can be biased towards basic Freud.

* Humanistic (a field that grew out of a combination of behavioural and psychoanalytic psychology, with a strong focus on counselling that helps the client to help themself)

* Used in ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''. [[JustifiedTrope By Freud himself, no less.]]