Question Home

Position:Home>Philosophy> What is a "Freudian remark"?


Question: What is a "Freudian remark"!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
A Freudian remark is a statement which assumes the truth of one of more of Freud’s claims on the nature of the human psyche!. Freud is massively misunderstood, his work is about much more than the simple idea that sex lies at the heart of human behaviour!.

The most important ‘big idea’ is the claim that we have an unconscious, a part of the mind/personality of which we are not aware and cannot control, which is separate from the conscious, that of which we are; and that this unconscious affects our behaviour in ways which we cannot immediately understand!. For Freud there are three principle forces to the psyche: the id (our basic wants: sex, food, warmth, pleasure), the superego (social conditioning, standards of behaviour, conscience) and the ego (the balancer)!. When these three elements are well balanced there we have psychological health, where there is an imbalance then psychological problems arise!. Now, sex comes into the equation so much because at Freud’s time of writing sex was very taboo in polite society and so the superego, enforcing social conditioning, would cause the sexual impulse to be repressed – driven from the conscious mind into the unconscious!. The impulse, thought, would lie in the subconscious and influence our behaviour, dreams and thoughts in an indirect manner!.

The other ‘big idea’ is the Oedipus complex, which Freud considered to be the jewel in his crown!. I can’t be bothered to explain it fully!. Essentially it the developmental idea that the male child forms an intense (unconscious) ‘sexual’ attachment/attraction to/relationship with the mother and therefore considers the father a love rival and has the (again, unconscious) desire to kill him!. This is resolved where the boy comes to identify with the father for two reasons:
(i) because they both have penises and other physical attributes, and (ii) as a way to escape the total control of the mother (who is an object of fear as well as desire)!. Thus the boy resolves the complex and seeks to find a woman ‘like father did’!. In the unconscious desire/wish and act are the same thing!. So where the father vanishes or never existed (death, divorce, bad marriage etc), you can get an Oedipal victor, and the boy will unconsciously believe that he killed his father!. As a result he will have an element of guilt for this and never fully resolve the Oedipus complex!. As we have a limited amount of ‘psychic energy’, the boy will have trouble in future relationships because much of this energy is still invested in the mother and in the guilt for the father!.

There is also projection and transference, death and guilt and theories of pleasure (drive towards death/life)!. Which are rich also!.

So a Freudian remark could be anything that seeks to explain behaviour based on these ideas!. So, ‘he always goes for women like his mother’, ‘she’s a daddy’s girl’, ‘he still lives with his mother and he’s 36!’, men who smoke are secretly homosexual (cigarette – phallic imagery, the subconscious expression of sexual impulse) etc etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think the term you are looking for is a "Freudian Slip" which is a remark which conveys what you ACTUALLY mean by substituting one of the words you were PRETENDING to mean, like when you are playing star wars with your friends and instead of saying "Luke, I am your father" you say "Luke I am your fatter" because the guy playing Luke is really fat!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Freudian remark!.!.of course is in reference to Sigmond Freud!.!.who is known as the grandfather of psychoanalysis!.!.!.who seemed for some reason during the sexually represesed Victorian Age obsessed with repressed sexual desires!.!.so a Freudian remark refers to a comment or statement that hints at repressed sexual need!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No other guys a Freudian remark is an expression, unless you meant a freudian slip, a Freudian remark is just a statement thats encompasses one of the many phillosophies about psycology!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It's when you "accidentally" say something you are actually thinking, instead of what you want to say!.

For example: You might want to say "I really like your boots!." But what you actually say is: "I really like your boobs!."

!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

a freudian slip is when you say something "accidently" that has a degree of truth in it!. like if your mother in law is named betty and you call her b*tch instead!. it's a bad example but, i hope you get the point!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Freud blamed everything on sex so it must have a remark like that!. "Someone didn't get enough nipple time as a baby so they are estranged from women because of it!." That kind of remark!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

When you say something but you mean your mother!.
=DWww@QuestionHome@Com