Sigmund Freud did not believe that all people’s repressed feelings were the result of erotic fantasies, according to a scientist who has revealed the reason behind this popular misconception.
After re-examining one of the psychoanalyst’s most important works, The Interpretation of Dreams, Mark Solms revealed that mistranslations have given people the wrong impression of the Austrian’s views, which are often seen as controversial and bizarre.
Solms, a renowned South African psychoanalyst, will correct a number of errors in the revised English edition of the work and aims to combat the misconception that Freud believed that the erotic drive was the driving factor behind much human behaviour.
He told The guard that Freud had a ‘very broad conception of sexuality’.
“For him, any activity that sought pleasure for its own sake—anything done solely for pleasure, as opposed to for practical purposes—was ‘sexual,’” he said.
It turns out that the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was not as sexually obsessed as many people think
One of Freud’s most recognized theories is the Oedipus complex, named after the Greek hero who had sex with his mother and murdered his father.
Mark Solms, a renowned South African psychoanalyst, will correct several errors in a revised English edition of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. Pictured: Solms attends Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation 2nd Annual Benefit at Private Residence NYC on November 5, 2009
Thus, a child sucking on a pacifier or playing with a ball was considered ‘sexual’ by Freud, in the sense that they were pure sources of pleasure.
Solms believes that this theory extended the word ‘so far beyond common usage that it led to significant misunderstandings about his theories’.
As a result, activities that were purely pleasurable, but not “sexual” in the commonly accepted sense of the word, were pushed into the category of deceptive, he added.
The scientist argued that the idea that everything had to do with libido was a misinterpretation of Freud’s theory and who he was as an individual.
Of the artists who had used Freud as an inspiration for their work, he said: ‘None of them understood that Freud was a rather conservative gentleman and did not share any of their revolutionary social tendencies’.
According to the psychoanalyst, these artists also had a flaw in Freud’s theories.
“His taste in art was also really very conservative. Freud described Dalí as a fanatic,” he added.
One of Freud’s most famous theories is the Oedipus complex, named after the Greek hero who had sex with his mother and murdered his father.
In Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, the founder of psychoanalysis presented the controversial psychoanalytic theory that young boys feel sexual desire for their mothers and hostility toward their fathers.
According to the theory, these feelings are largely suppressed out of fear of displeasure or punishment from the same-sex parent.
Such taboo theories have made him a controversial figure, but Solm wants to clear Freud’s name. He says: ‘There are people who would rather see Freud forgotten than retranslated.
“They would prefer to see him erased from history.”
Solms’ completely revised edition, a 24-volume work, was commissioned by the British Psychoanalytic Society to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the final volume of Freud’s works
The release is scheduled for September 19 at the Freud Museum in London, two days before a special conference at University College London.