Freud

This week at school was a good week at school because it wasn't much of a week of school at all. Having two days off in the middle of the week and then having to go back on a Friday is both awful and awesome. It's kind of like tomorrow (this is being written on Thursday) is both a Monday and a Friday. I'm coming back from two days off, but getting ready for two more days off.

This Monday in class we were given a post-it note that told us what we were to read about it in our textbooks. Although it wasn't as good as having two snowdays, I was happily surprised to get Sigmund Freud. I was in psychology last semester and he's a really interesting person.

Considered the father of psychoanalysis, Freud talked about the importance of our subconscious thoughts and how they affect our every day lives. He believed that each person had an id (representing primal instincts and evil thoughts), superego (representing kindness and empathic thoughts), and the ego (the happy medium that is affected by the other two). A good metaphor for this that I learned in psychology was to think of it like a cartoon.

In lots of cartoons, the hero or some character will be faced with a decision. On one shoulder stands a demon (id), and on the other stands an angel (superego). In the middle of course, is the person himself(ego).

What does this have to do with sociology? Well, if we believe Freud's theories, then when looking back on someone's actions, we have to not only look at the obvious motives, but we also have to think about someone's innermost, deep thoughts. It's fun to try and predict what someone else is thinking, but as Freud points out, it's not easy at all.