On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 12:28:56 -0600 "Arash" <arash at riseup.net> writes:
> Praise for freud from, oddly enough, an evolutionary biologist.
One person who was, perhaps surprisingly, not a Freud-basher was the great behavioral pychologist, B.F. Skinner. In a review of Marc Richelle's book, *B.F. Skinner: A Reappraisal*, (http://www.naturalism.org/reviews.htm#BFSkinner), I noted:
"Richelle devotes a chapter to Freud in Skinner's writings. He notes that while Skinner was highly critical of Freud's mentalism, he had many kind things to say about Freud's work. Skinner admired Freud for being a determinist, for being an astute observer of human behavior, and for having discarded consciousness and introspection as tools for understanding mental processes. Freud was praised by Skinner for having shown that mental activity does not require consciousness and that many of the most important aspects of mental activity occur beyond its ken. Skinner saw much value in the concepts of Freudian defense mechanisms (i.e., repression, sublimation, projection, rationalization) which in *Science and Human Behavior* and *Verbal Behavior* he sought to show could be translated into the language of behaviorism."
"Skinner also argued that Freud's modeling of human personality in terms of id, ego, and superego could be restated in terms of the various sorts of contingencies of reinforcement that control human behaviors. Thus the Freudian id was seen as corresponding to biologically based reinforcers and was responsible for behaviors that were ultimately reinforced by food, water, sexual contact and other primary biological reinforcers. The superego - the "conscience" of Judeo-Christian theology - was in turn responsible for the behaviors that control the id, using techniques of self-control that are acquired from the group. Id and superego inevitably clash, and their conflicts are in turn mediated by the ego, which besides attempting to reach a compromise between the id and superego also deals with the practical exigencies of the environment. "
Jim F.
>
> February 17, 2001
> THINK TANK
> Freud, Influential Yet Unloved
> By THE NEW YORK TIMES
>
> Jared Diamond, a professor of physiology at the U.C.L.A. School of
> Medicine,
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