I remember in 2016 in the US during the primary with Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders being increasingly incredulous at the far left and wondering if I was the only one who was concerned. Someone I went to high school with got deep into the Bernie movement and would write about how America was never great and how in certain circles everything was about how horrible America was. Until recently I considered myself left wing and I had no intention of sugar coating where America had gone wrong, but I also felt it was important to create a narrative of America as striving for a more perfect union that was positive. Yeah, we messed up big time with slavery but we got rid of legal slavery in the 1860s. The process was messy and then we had Jim Crow, but we also got rid of that because we kept striving for a more perfect union and that was what made us great type thing. But that type of thinking was not very welcome.
I think another component of this is that with streaming platforms and so many different news sources to choose from, we no longer have a unified culture. When I was doing group therapy 10 years ago I would try to use examples from popular tv shows to illuminate certain truths, but I would have to reference shows that were popular in the 1990s or noughties because once you got to 2010, even a very popular tv show had a small audience and not enough people in the group would have seen it to get the reference.
I worry with my kids about their ability to form a group identity or culture, especially with things like patriotism being so loaded these days.
I have a few comments to make, but, to start with, I don't necessarily disagree with the concepts presented.
What does disturb me is the references to Freud's work. Freud had an inkling that there was sexual abuse going on in families. For references to this, look to "The Assault on Truth" written by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. In that book, Freud apparently appears to abandon his "seduction" theory (where adults are the perpetrators of sexual abuse against children) and turns to such theories as the Oedipus complex among others.
Your guest talks of ideology getting in the way of truth, and I see Freud's cowardice in shifting his ideas as very clearly applying ideology to children and their experiences with abusers. Further, he seems to either shift the blame onto children for actual situations, or dismiss their allegations as erotic fantasies.
In backing down from his initial theory, Freud, especially due to his influence and fame, could have shed long needed light on the abuse of children, but he did not, thereby allowing another hundred years of abuse to continue until some enlightenment was shown in the 1980s.
Another disturbing aspect of Freud's theories is that, even in the naming of his theories, he appears to be looking at children's sexuality through the lens of adult sexuality, ascribing adult lusts and desires to small children. This is just the kind of thinking that leads people (mostly men) to think that children want sex with adults, while it is far closer to the truth that children know that adults are more powerful than they are, and they,(the children) want to be loved and appreciated by adults, and are afraid to resist, or are not allowed to.
I remember in 2016 in the US during the primary with Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders being increasingly incredulous at the far left and wondering if I was the only one who was concerned. Someone I went to high school with got deep into the Bernie movement and would write about how America was never great and how in certain circles everything was about how horrible America was. Until recently I considered myself left wing and I had no intention of sugar coating where America had gone wrong, but I also felt it was important to create a narrative of America as striving for a more perfect union that was positive. Yeah, we messed up big time with slavery but we got rid of legal slavery in the 1860s. The process was messy and then we had Jim Crow, but we also got rid of that because we kept striving for a more perfect union and that was what made us great type thing. But that type of thinking was not very welcome.
I think another component of this is that with streaming platforms and so many different news sources to choose from, we no longer have a unified culture. When I was doing group therapy 10 years ago I would try to use examples from popular tv shows to illuminate certain truths, but I would have to reference shows that were popular in the 1990s or noughties because once you got to 2010, even a very popular tv show had a small audience and not enough people in the group would have seen it to get the reference.
I worry with my kids about their ability to form a group identity or culture, especially with things like patriotism being so loaded these days.
Another brilliant guest responding to great questions. Well done!
Fascinating conversation thank you!
I have a few comments to make, but, to start with, I don't necessarily disagree with the concepts presented.
What does disturb me is the references to Freud's work. Freud had an inkling that there was sexual abuse going on in families. For references to this, look to "The Assault on Truth" written by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. In that book, Freud apparently appears to abandon his "seduction" theory (where adults are the perpetrators of sexual abuse against children) and turns to such theories as the Oedipus complex among others.
Your guest talks of ideology getting in the way of truth, and I see Freud's cowardice in shifting his ideas as very clearly applying ideology to children and their experiences with abusers. Further, he seems to either shift the blame onto children for actual situations, or dismiss their allegations as erotic fantasies.
In backing down from his initial theory, Freud, especially due to his influence and fame, could have shed long needed light on the abuse of children, but he did not, thereby allowing another hundred years of abuse to continue until some enlightenment was shown in the 1980s.
Another disturbing aspect of Freud's theories is that, even in the naming of his theories, he appears to be looking at children's sexuality through the lens of adult sexuality, ascribing adult lusts and desires to small children. This is just the kind of thinking that leads people (mostly men) to think that children want sex with adults, while it is far closer to the truth that children know that adults are more powerful than they are, and they,(the children) want to be loved and appreciated by adults, and are afraid to resist, or are not allowed to.
As a parent and a clinician this explains much of what I've felt without being able to put it into words.
Thank you- your words are part of my pathway out of the confusion, and into the clarity reforming from the dust of this miserable ideology.
Truth and clarity.