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Glad to hear it man i'm not the biggest fan either but hey what every works for the guys out there i suppose thats what counts.
Sorry buddy i don't want to come across rude, i really don't, but thats bullsh*t. I studied psychology for 3 years, and have a basic degree in it, and Freudian psychology is the solid base from where a great deal of social theory grew from.
Harlow, went and did his Rhysus monkey experiment on the internal drives of young infants in their early years, from Freud's nature nurture debate. Piaget is slated almost as much as some of Freud's works, if not even more. In fact his greatest publication has not long ago been proven so be utter crap.
Freud didn't actually set up many experiments but he definitely did a few, however other psychologists have done a lot of work proving or denying his theory's. Its also worth noting that he did a lot of observational work and although he didn't manipulate a I.V he did come to some ground breaking points.
His work is still at the foremost of dream psychology which is now widely accepted as a guideline.(And also accepted as the subconcious's way of working things out.) Im currently reading his book which you can get free off ibooks for the iphone or ipad if you have one.
Yea some of his phallic symbology is very weird and pretty eccentric however his base understanding of why humans think the way we do and "What Motivates Us" is still regarded as important if not paramount when considering the area. It is still taught at universities around the world however i do know he has had a lot of criticism in the U.S.
I appreciate different points of view buddy, i really do, but by saying Freud isn't important to social psychology is like saying Einstein isn't important to Physics.
All the best
Saint
It's fine dude, we have differing opinions on the history of psychology and the role that Freud played in it. To be honest it's nice to have a debate with someone who actually understands psychology and reads up on it!
To say, "this theory has been proved wrong" isn't how psychological research works, in social sciences we don't/can't prove anything.
There almost no theories which have been accepted as "true" in psychology. Instead we develope paradigms, Piaget-Vygotsky being one of the strongest in developmental, with attatchment its classicaly Bolwby and Ainsworth.
Freud worked in a time where psychology was still very crude and un-scientific and his theoretical side was based on ideas which had evolved before we really understood anything about conscious experience, mental health, neuropsychology, development, attatchment, social psych or anthropology.
That's not to discredit the man, he did father modern psychology and gave birth to some fundamental precepts within it BUT he is not a source for modern psychology itself.
Clinging to Freud is like clinging to Darwin for evolution, yup he founded it but the field has undergone such massive transformations since then that reading "The origin of species" is now so out-dated that it's no longer sufficient to educate yourself on evolution.
Note: I'm in the U.K., we're taught Freud as well, but we're also taught John Locke as a proponent of the nurture side of the nature nurture debate.
So these figures and theories tend to be taught for their historical importance to understanding the background of psychological theory and philsosophy.
CHAT
When you started name dropping i was loving it!