Sydney Smith 
Denysha Taylor 
What do we make of Freud’s depiction of humans? He brings us the idea of the unconscious mind. A scary thought. A new thought. An awakening thought. Freud sees into each individual, diving deeper than others before him to explain why we act the way we do. What drives us. What motivates us.
Freudian thought falls under many categories. Under Creation, we see Freud’s view of man, that man possesses innate tendencies and instincts that want to act out. How does this fit into our view of God’s creation of man? Are we born with original sin, or are we born good? Is our id, as Freud calls it, our sinful nature? Do we constantly struggle against our id, try to overcome it and act in a more righteous way? This sounds a lot like the book of Romans to me. So Freudian thought falls under the category of the Fall too, that man has these desires that are primal, sexual, lead to potentially bad things. That man makes mistakes and wants for selfish things. Then we add the ego and superego, redemptive qualities to complete Freud’s theories. Qualities that find parallels with religious morality, values, faith. Would you consider your moral code to be your superego? Is it defined by your faith and religion, or other things as well?
I would have to say that Freud brings us ideas about the Restoration category as well, for he presents psychoanalysis as a pathway towards healing. It is relieving- after all his explanations about how we are truly thinking, how we really feel, even if we might be suppressing or repressing those feelings- that he provides a type of therapy to work through those feelings, process and try to understand ourselves. One very positive thing about Freudian thought is realizing even if we do not know where our desires and motivations come from, we have a chance to understand and pay attention to them.
Matt McMahon
9:10 pm, 11.02.13
Freud and his theories are very hard to pin down and that’s why I like this post so much. I think you have done a good job examining some of his ideas and instead of trying to make them all fit into one category you take them for what they are and explain your reasoning for each choice.
Jacey Ferrara
5:01 pm, 11.04.13
Caroline, I like the thoughtfulness of this post! There are so many things we can examine about Freud, and I think you did a good job of touching on different things he contributed to. One thing I’ve always found interesting is the id, superego, and ego. It seems like Freud is one of the first people to try and pin point and write down the inner human… the part of us we all deal with. I think we all have the two sides battling inside of us and it’s interesting that Freud tries to narrow this down and put a name to it. It’s like with any decision I make… Do I work out? One part of me says yes, it helps you maintain health, strength, stamina, and releases endorphins. The other part of me says no, it will be hard, just lay down, sleep, do something more relaxing for yourself! Needless to say, your post has me thinking! Thanks! 🙂
D.J. Acevedo
8:06 pm, 11.04.13
You did an awesome job of exploring so much in so little time, well done! It is easy to say that Freud went a little deeper than the average thinker. I like how you have found all the categories somehow fit with Freud. I don’t know what else to say other than you made some very excellent points and I think you should write a book someday. Great post!
Tyler McCuistion
10:49 pm, 11.04.13
Freud’s theories were so successful in their time because he was able to explain away nearly anything due to his very complete “facts” as he called them. I like how you acknowledged how he encompasses every paradigm in his work.
Kami Earle
11:57 pm, 11.04.13
Caroline, I think it’s awesome that you explored how Freud’s theories and ideas can fit into all categories, since they do seem difficult to place into just one category sometimes. You made great points for all of the different aspects. Great post!