Dowden's Theory Of Psychoanalysis Summary

Dowden’s review of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis is highly critical and denounces the credibility of psychoanalysis. In Dowden’s book, he critiques various theories and lists both pros and cons of them. His subjective opinions towards Freud’s psychoanalysis is by regarding it as being obsolete and a weak explanation for myths. However, Dowden overlooks the potential of psychoanalysis and the evidence that makes it plausible to understand myths. Sigmund Freud is considered the father of modern day psychology, so although his theory is no longer fully supported by modern psychologists, his theories laid the foundations of all of psychology. Freud’s credibility is at the utmost epitome, for Dowden to discredit his theory of psychoanalysis is …show more content…
22). He further points out that the characters do not have any psyche, as they are only a figment of the author’s minds. He insists that psychoanalysis wouldn’t work because it cannot analyze the psyche of the character and would be instead the author and the norms of society behaviours at that age (Dowden, 1992, p. 22). Another problem he mentions is that psychoanalysts are not trained nor are they equipped to analyze the writings of characters from myths. Dowden critiques psychoanalysis by essentially stating that for psychoanalysis to work properly, it would require many prerequisites (Dowden, 1992, p. 22). Dowden also mentions that Freud’s belief of a collective unconscious is unrealistic since not everyone is able to share a single mind and go through similar stages in life (Dowden, 1992, p. 22). Due to the aforementioned variables, Dowden concludes that Freud’s psychoanalysis is rendered …show more content…
Oedipus also married his own mother without his awareness of his true lineage. Freud theorized the Oedipus complex, where children are unconsciously in love with their mother and has a rivalry against their father (Levy, 2011). Oedipus is fixated in the Phallic stage, although unconsciously. He kills his own father and also gets together with his mother, similar to Freud’s Laius complex; Lauis complex is when a father wants his own children’s death (Levy, 2011). There are also myths with children attempting to kill their own father, such as in the Titanomachy where Zeus and his siblings fight against, their father, Chronos and his siblings (Liotta, 2014). This however, is more similar to Freud’s Fraternal complex where primal fantasies such as incest and castration is present (Liotta, 2014). As evident in several myths, incest is frequently prevalent. Perhaps the authors and characters of the myths had the unconscious desire for incest much like Freud