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I just learned about you have Sexual desires of a child. Like when ur young if your a girl, ur probally attracted to your father. I believe this theory, [Which i think Frued made it, Correct me if i'm wrong] Well, Many of my friends dont. Any Help on trying to convince them. I know many theorys that they dont believe, like they told me that colors cant convince u if your cold or warm. Eh, Its so confusing when ur the only one who loves Psychology.

I don't know about being attracted to the parents but I do recall something about the way the average family sits at the dinner table. I can' tremember the order but the seats they chose signify the roles they have in the family. the eldest will usually sit near the father across from teh mother in competition for the father's attention while the youngest will sit beside the mother for security. the middle children like to sit nearer the eldest as they are the role model of their lives. Something like that.

I also think orange is supposed to make you feel hungry

This theory doesn't hold much water in the world today. Women raised without fathers may still strive to emulate their mothers; without a mother in the home, they will still take on feminine gender roles. This is the same with men and their fathers.

Freud is interesting, but didn't study the average person. Most of his theories are based upon his findings with psychotic patients (he was a shrink, only psychotic people, or those who thought they were psychotic, visited his office).

Just something to think about...

Sorry for being too straight and maybe a bit rude, but seems like none of you know much about Freud. I'll guess most of you read or heard what other people write and say about him, but never what he wrote himself.

Well, the main point is that Freud defines sexuality in a much broader sense than we use in everyday language. For example, the act of sucking the thumb by a child is sexual in the sense that it gives pleasure. Defecating, or holding one's own feces is also sexual in this sense. Sexuality is about pleasure, not about copulating.

There's a lot of metaphor in Psychoanalysis. The p***s, for example, is metaphoric. The boy doesn't REALLY fear losing his p***s (well, sometimes he does, but that's not that important). The p***s is a symbol of power, mainly because, at least when Freud came up with his theory, power was always on the hands of men.

And guess what... "men" and "women" are also used somewhat in a metaphoric sense. Back in the 19th century, men and women had very distinct roles in society. The roles still exist, but they're not necessarily occupied by men or women in a biological sense.

Freud's own work is really intriguing, interesting and insightful, and most of its beauty is lost when it's said through other people's words. People tend to emphasize the "freaky" aspect of the theory, talking about children wanting to kill their parents, etc. There's much more to it, and if you're really interested, I suggest you go and read some of his work.

Like Calunio said, it's all about the symbols.

Taken literally, "kill your father and marry your mother" is graphic and unbelievable. But if you think of it in terms of what your parents symbolize to you, then it makes a little bit more sense. Maybe your mother symbolizes warm hugs and a source of food and someone to talk to. If you marry someone like her, then you'll have those same things in your relationship--warm hugs, food, and companionship.

On the other hand, if your father represents power and success, as a boy, you're capable of picking a few wildflowers to give to Mom in thanks for the above mentioned hugs, food, and companionship. As a successful man, Father is making enough money to buy Mother a diamond ring, which is clearly more sparkly than your wilted wildflowers.

My example is greatly oversimplified and so gender-stereotyped that it's kind of sickening, but it'll at least demonstrate how something which sounds right out to lunch can be distilled down into symbols and then make sense.

One other thing that we have to take into account with Freud is that he had his own issues, and some of them bled over into his research. Part of the reason his theories seem so odd is that Freud himself was an odd person.

Doesn't mean there isn't some validity to them. Empirical measures of Freudian things (like defenses) are being used, and reliability isn't great, but it's definitely acceptable (can be around .7 - .8ish depending on the measure you use).

If you're really interested in psychodynamic theory, look up Freud's original work. But then look up the work which came after Freud--it's more developed, and there's a lot of interesting stuff there.