In order to give us background on the influence of psychoanalysis not just within psychology but within culture generally (including the fascination with dreams and symbolism that we see in much of mid-20th century Western art and film) I’ve uploaded an article on the two warring giants, Freud and Jung. Note three new pieces of information you learned. Why do you think there was, and still is, so much fascination with the unconscious and so much disagreement about how its functions are described
2. The attack on psychoanalysis in the Third Reich led to the flight, exile, or imprisonment and sometimes death of influential researchers and theorists, particularly Jewish ones. In an earlier board you considered the role of government in psychology, but we have seldom seen such sweeping and violent intervention into science from governmental authority. Note any three aspects of the political standing of psychology and psychiatry that struck you in your reading of the uploaded article. What do you think are contexts or characteristics that led some non-Jewish figures to protest and some to acquiesce in the suppression and condemnation of the work of their Jewish colleagues
Please answer both questions and all parts of the question.
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Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is presented as a concept that investigates and explains what happens in
the unconscious mind of human beings. Despite being a concept used in psychology, it has a
background related to the culture of a certain group of people. Just the same way psychoanalysis
can be used to study the state of mind by bringing what is in the unconscious mind to the
conscious; it can also state the dynamics of culture (Ernst, 2012). The first piece of information
that one can learn from the concepts presented by Freud and Jung is that psychoanalysis heavily
depends on imagery and symbolism (Jones, 2013). The analysis of symbols within a specific
piece of art determines the extent to which the culture of the people operates. The relationship
between psychoanalysis and history is also a piece of information that one can learn from the
works of Freud and Jung. The differences that exist between the works of Freud and Jung are
important sources of knowledge that one also notes when going through the article (Ernst, 2012).
The two opposing sides provide insights into different thoughts that can explain the unconscious
mind instead of having one source of information. While Freud argues that whatever is kept in
the unconscious mind is specifically based on a person’s past experiences, Jung argues that a
person’s future can also impact today’s thoughts (Jones, 2013). The Jungian theory argues that
childhood experiences do not have a lot of impacts on the current state of mind that a person has.
Another concept that they argue about was libido energy. According to Freud, he considered it as
sexual energy. At the same time, Jung considered it generalized psychic energy that could also
motivate an individual spiritually, creatively, and intellectually.
Third Reich and Psychoanalysis
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Adolf Hitler’s reign was characterized by a high level of hatred and disregard for the
Jewish psychoanalysts. This period marked a duration when a concept that Freud started faced
opposition from the government. Jewish researchers focusing on the concept were faced with
hostility and forced to fly to exile. The decision by Hitler to do away with the Jewish
psychoanalysts after he received information from apologetic historians who appreciated the
working, he was doing with science (Braga, 2016). Hitler felt that criticism from the other
researchers was not healthy and would eventually divide the people based on ideologies. The
first political standing of psychoanalysis that one can note in the article is the beliefs that the
Nazis had under the rule of Hitler. By studying the factors that made the Nazis think in the
manner they did, the psychoanalysts would develop ways of changing their minds. Since Hitler
was focused on accomplishing his mission, he had to do away with them. Psychoanalysis also
addressed the military reasoning and the Nazis’ thoughts about the Jews and people from other
races (Braga, 2016). Although they did not express them at first, the Nazis could be seen as
people who were passionately against the presence of the Jews in Germany. The non-Jewish
figures that joined in the condemnation of how the Jews were being treated were led by their
conscious minds on the value of humanity (Ernst, 2012). They believed that every person had
the right to air their views without any interference from the government. Those that joined the
government in suppressing the Jews focused on the importance of having a country that did not
have divergent views.
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References
Braga, A. (2016). Mind as Medium: Jung, McLuhan and the Archetype. Philosophies, 1(3), 220–
227. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/philosophies1030220
Ernst, F. (2012). Freud and Jung: Freudians and Jungians. Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Jones, R. (2013). Jung’s “Psychology with the Psyche” and the Behavioral Sciences. Behavioral
sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 3(3), 408–417. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs3030408