Modernism and Freudism

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed that we were not shown a screening of James Joyce's Ulysses as scheduled for the lecture of week 4. I was looking forward to seeing a cinematic represenation of Joyce's great work. (I guess I'll have to watch it in my own time.) However, I must also state that the material shown in its place was of high interest.

Intrigued would be the best word to describe how I felt after reading Chris warn us that the lecture would contain 'SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL OF AN ADULT NATURE INCLUDING SEXUAL CONTENT OF A POTENTIALLY DISTURBING OR OFFENSIVE NATURE.' Now if you want people to attend a lecture, this is the way to do it! Offer a group of young adults a lecture containing sexual material and more than likely they will turn up!

However, this wasn't just some big screen porn show (although I did take down some notes on how Chris has an average sized member, potentially a homosexual, and something about a nazi disco!), this was a lecture of interesting observations in reference to psychoanalysis and modernism.

Early on in the lecture Chris commented on the fact that with todays technology we can use incredible advanced machines to see how each and every one of our brains and bodies function. Through the advancement of science we can literally see inside someones brain, which is essentially what Sigmund Freud set out in doing. His machine was mythological literature and comparing ancient myths with patients' problems in his practice. The most classic example of this is the Oedipus complex. Wikipedia explains:

The complex is named after the Greek mythical character Oedipus, who (albeit unknowingly) kills his father and marries his mother. According to Sigmund Freud, the Oedipus complex is a universal phenomenon, built in phylogenetically, and is responsible for much unconscious guilt.

So basically, within our subconscious, we all want to kill our fathers and have sex with our mothers. On the face of it this seems a truly rediculous theory. Who in their right mind has ever even considered this act? Freud maintained that the supression of this subconscious desire could result in neurosis, paedophilia, and homosexuality.

I think it is interesting to compare Freud's reading of the brain with some of the material Chris showed us in the lecture. The fact that the parts of the brain called the Amygdaline and the Hippocampus light up when sex, rage, fear; emotions are engaged shows Frued's work as mere speculation. It conveys my earlier point that scientific breakthroughs in neurology seem to undermine Freud's methods and theories. You cannot aruge with this sort of high level science, but people have been arguing over Freud for years.