Wittgenstein on Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was perhaps just as much a philosopher as a psychologist, at least in the sense that most of the support for his theories is a priori.  Freud was a materialist and a determinist.

His most distinctive idea is that we have unconscious mental states, states that cannot become conscious in normal circumstances, such as repressed memories of traumas.

In the 1920s he introduced some new concepts into his theory:

the id, which contains all the instinctive drives for immediate pleasure and works on the "pleasure principle"

the ego, which perceives the outside world and decides how to act, working on  the "reality principle" and mediating between the id, the superego, and perceived reality

the superego, which contains the conscience and acts like a parent, opposing the id and telling the ego what to do based on moral norms learned at an early age from one's parents and others

All human action, Freud believed, is driven by instincts, but he seems somewhat unsure about what instincts are.  The are something like electrical charges, and there are at least two of them.  In his early work these two are self-preservation and libido (sex drive).  In his later work they are Eros (life) and Thanatos (death).

A normal person will develop through five stages: the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency period, and the genital stage.  If something goes wrong, a neurosis can occur, whose precise nature will depend on the stage of development reached.  It is even possible, Freud thinks, that society as a whole is neurotic and thus infects the superego of every member with the seeds of neurosis.

Wittgenstein once called himself a Freudian and admired Freud's originality, but he also pointed out a number of weaknesses in Freud's view.

1. Freud has no real proof of his major theories.  He is only speculating, however plausibly.

2. Thus Freudians are accepting a kind of mythology or particular way of looking at things that might not be the best or only correct one.

3. Freud assumes without justification that all dreams are wish fulfillments. (This is one reason why Freud came to think that we must have a kind of death wish, since we dream about dying.)

4. Freud assumes without justification that sex is at the root of all psychology.

5. Freud assumes without justification that dreams must have not only a meaning, but one specifiable, right interpretation.