Criticism of Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
One of the largest criticisms of the psychoanalytic theory is that it places far to much emphasis on childhood. For one, Freud's theory says that personality development occurs during childhood, but many modern psychologists say that this development is lifelong. A similar criticism is that the minds of children do not attain as much trauma that Freud linked many psychological illnesses to. Also, criticism has been raised against Freudian slips, saying they do not arise from unconscious motives, but rather confusion in word retrieval from memory. Also, Freud's ideas of repression are rebuked by most modern psychologists who say repression is a rare phenomenon and that intense stress and pain actually causes better remembrance of an event. One other criticism of his theory was directed on his idea of the unconscious mind. Critics stated that the unconscious mind did not consist of hidden or repressed, passionate emotions. Instead, it was underlying information such as cognition, memory, perception, as well as emotion, but generally not the repressed kind.
Citations
Myers, D. (2010). Psychology in modules: Personality. New York: Worth Publishers.
Myers, D. (2010). Psychology in modules: Personality. New York: Worth Publishers.