Practice question · Multiple choice
Freud's specific mechanisms have largely not survived, yet he is still taught. Which of his claims did survive, and why does that distinction matter?
Hints
- Separate 'the unconscious exists' from 'the unconscious is a boiling cauldron of repressed drives'. Which is testable?
- Modern cognitive psychology has a name for processes running outside awareness. Ask whether that vindicates Freud or replaces him.
Show the answer
D. That mental processes can be inaccessible and still shape behaviour
Why
The general claim held and the machinery did not. Implicit memory, automatic processing and unconscious priming are all well evidenced, and they look nothing like the id. Being right about the existence of a thing and wrong about its nature is the usual fate of an early theory, and worth separating carefully.
Practise Psychoanalysis
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More questions on Psychoanalysis
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