THE FREUD MUSEUM: A REVIEW

10.02.2013

[Written for NEW WINCHESTER REVIEW. Find the published article HERE.]

Situated in Maresfield Gardens in London, the museum remains a tribute to one of the most talked about philosophers of our time. It was in this house, old, rustic, antique, that Freud lived out the last year of his life until his death on 23rd September 1939. It remained occupied by his youngest daughter Anna Freud, the only of his six children to take up the study of psychoanalysis, up until 1982 and it was her request that it be turned into a museum to honour her late father's work.

L1: "Phenomenology and Existentialism"

Existentialism. The rejection of DESCARTES. "I am, therefore I think" - We exist. There is no need for proof. [Anti-POPPER].

KANT and "The Critique of Pure Reason" [1781] Existence has no purpose, it is just necessary; a pre-condition of consciousness. As we exist, we constantly change and mutate. Our consciousness is subjective (based on the moods of the moment) and aposteriori in nature. 

HUSSERL and Phenomenology (consciousness without reference to external). "Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint" [1874] The metaphysical view that our essence is embodied. Abolition of mind and matter. Instead, mind over matter. Phenomena is presented to us through consciousness as a "thing in itself" (independent).

HEIDEGGER - "Being and Time" [1927] saw the end of the metaphysical outlook. He disagreed with HUSSERL - objects are not independent from mind, instead, they are a refection of consciousness. Objects exist only in the mind. Therefore, there can be no "absolute truth" DESCARTES - No difference between dream and reality.

DASEIN: "way of being"/"being there" (German) Reflective of the perceiver's mood. HEIDEGGERS PROJECT - to live subjectively; an 'authentic life'. Rejection of all philosophy since SOCRATES. ROUSSEAU - to break free from industrial chains.

L5: "The Freudian Consciousness"

SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)
 

[Image available under Wikimedia Commons]

"The secret antagonist of the intellect" The misery of the human condition. People alienated. [MARX] Sex becomes important in the Media as motivator. People no longer considered noble creatures. Challenges Enlightenment.

The Freudian Personality. ID. From birth. Aim to gain pleasure and avoid pain. Demands fulfilment. "Spoilt Brat" EGO. Reality and Reason. Rational. The least powerful part of the personality. SUPEREGO. Socialisation. Person punished with guilt. Attempting to live up to impossible standards of perfection. Society as collective.

Psychoanalysis. The exchange of words between patient and doctor. Believed he discovered the 'archaeology' of the mind. Dreams as the 'royal road' to the unconscious. Reveal real problems. The existence of  a "subconscious". Method aims to try and distract/contain the ID.  No real satisfaction unless destroying enemy. 
 
"The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious. What I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied" [FREUD]

L2: "Empiricism vs. Idealism"

KARL POPPER (1902-1994)

"Logical Positivism" The Vienna Circle (FREUD, WITTGENSTEIN). Attack on Empiricism. Metaphysics as "gibberish" consisting of theories that have not been verified. Rejection of DESCARTES, his Cogito branded a "non-verifiable induction". Something that cannot be proved through aposteriori reasoning.

POPPER was against the scientific process of induction. Like HUME, he saw the process of induction as "unreliable" but necessary in the quest for truth. 

"Hume has proved that pure Empiricism is not a basis for science... without the principle of induction, then science is impossible" (page 612)

In "The Open Society and it's Enemies" POPPER explains how the state should leave maximum room for self-correction in order to minimise suffering. Each law should be highly experimental. There is no 100% knowledge, therefore everything is untrue/falsifiable. Otherwise known as "The Theory of Falsification".