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My therapist really likes interpreting my dreams, and is obsessed with Sigmund Freud. He makes what feels like completely random interpretations of my dreams. For example when I told him that I saw a spider in my dream, he had a whole tangent about how my right brain was expanding, and asked me about my relationship with my mother.
I had a therapist once who encouraged me to call my abusive ex to reconcile since I loved him (I never called him), and who would talk more than I during our sessions she'd talk about her own life and compare my problems to her sons problems.
She also never kept within the time frame, she'd be late some sessions and other sessions drag our appointment out several minutes. Some therapists are just crazy. Some are really good. It's just like within any other working field. If this therapist isn't helping you, find someone new.
This morning I dreamt I was snoring so loud that I might actually have been and woke myself up. Explain that, Freud!
Besides the dream interpretation scenario, is the therapist helping you in any way? If so focus on steering your sessions into helpful directions and skip the subject of dreams. If not, it's time to move on.
Freudian thought is a very outdated psychology principle. Sigmund himself was sexist against females (I'm saying this as an anti third wave feminist male) sex was everything to sigmund. While it is a fundamental part of the human exsistance it is not a required pillar to ones fulfillment unlike feelings of belonging and sustenance.
Any therapist worth their salt knows when freudian thought can be applied. Not every person has a sexual projection out of the normal. There are more modern standards to be upheld when it comes to talking out ones problems.
Get a new therapist. This particular one is in a runt of probably good results from freudian thinking. Though not every person is the same the therapist is probably filled with ego believing they know exactly what ails you.
Hey I'm a big Freud fan but that doesn't mean he knew everything. Your therapist sounds like a quack.
I just had a quasi-sexual dream about that Mayhem guy in the insurance commercials. It was a pretty cool dream. The dream ended up morphing into something where I hid from these monster people in a department store after closing. I managed to get to a high place, and pick off the bad guys like a sniper.
A Freudian would probably say that the Mayhem guy is obviously a father-figure, the monsters are all those judgemental people in your life who you subconsciously feel are attacking you for your suppressed daddy-feelings, and the gun is an obvious penis-substitute which proves you actually want to literally penetrate them too.
I'd say it's a bunch of random shit generated by your free-wheeling brain jumbling together various things you've seen, heard or thought of in the last few days. But what do I know? I don't have a fancy certificate on my wall.
Ol' Siggy was a pretty screwed up dude. He deserves credit for bringing psychology into the mainstream of medicine and he got some things right, but most of the big theories he had about how our brains work have been found to wrong, and some of his ideas have been highly damaging to people.
I've always been very sceptical about dream interpretation. Although I'm willing to accept that there are some dreams where the symbolism is blatantly obvious, I'd question the competence of any therapist who was obsessed with dreams and seemed to feel the need to ascribe some profound meaning to everything in every dream.
It seems to me that if you've reached the point where you're questioning the competence of your therapist on a forum like this, then you either have a feeling that you might be approaching a point in your therapy where something significant could be about to happen and you're resisting, or you're seeking validation because you've concluded that your therapist is not a good match for you, but you're reluctant to admit that you should detach and find another.
Nawww bro Freud deserves more credit than that. I don't think it's fair to say most of his theories have been disproved.
I don't forgive him for his backdown on father daughter incest: after many of his female patients reported this, he initially supported them but then decided it was all fantasy because all girls want to have sex with their fathers.
I don't forgive him for that either! That is seriously wrong!
All I'm saying is he deserves more credit for what he knew, I never said he was a nice guy or had good morals lol. Just cause someone who is smart happens to be a sexist scumbag, doesn't make all his theories/discoveries invalid.
It's impossible to weigh up the damage his backdown on child sexual abuse has caused, but it has to be huge. However, I don't know how that can be balanced by the positive repercussions of some of his other theories.
I also think his emphasis on sex as a driving force was exaggerated and prefer Victor Frankl's theories about the search for meaning in life being a major force (see "Man's Search for Meaning"). Freud's emphasis on sex certainly freed up discussion about it, I'll give him that.
Well define what you mean by "balanced out"?
I am not saying it balances out and makes him a good man still. I just don't like when people try to discredit his theories because of that.
And yes unfortunately, we do disagree on your last point. I do in fact, think sex is a very serious driving force that people like to downplay to avoid seeming shallow.