Freud

Sigmund Freud

Up until the late-nineteenth century, the human mind remained a mystery. Scores of people had tried to understand why we thought the way we did, and why, as a collective, human beings could often act in the most irrational of ways. For a long time, little progress was made. But that all changed, thanks to the trailblazing work of one man: Sigmund Freud.

Born to Jewish parents in the Austrian Empire, Freud’s family had a strained relationship with authority. At a young age, he became interested in his family’s past, a past that had seen them driven out of Germany hundreds of years earlier as part of an anti-Semitic uprising.[1] He had experienced the mental contortions that led people to inflict blind cruelty on one another at close quarters, an insight that seemed foreshadowing of his subsequent studies.

Freud studied Medicine at the University of Vienna, before          opening his own psychiatric practice. Having first used hypnosis during his sessions with patients, he switched to a more conversational, open style that gave the patient free reign to speak about whichever topic they liked. He called this termed ‘free association’.[2] It was the direct precursor to his most significant breakthrough, the method of psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis would prove to have a seismic effect on the world. It led Freud to develop complex theories about the human sub-conscious, a murky underworld of conflicting urges and imperatives that could explain much of the previously unexplainable. The Magic Formula of 6 uses Freud’s theory of the sub-conscious as a way of stripping away facades and getting at the truth. In life, so much of what is really true is hidden from view, so the Formula requires us to channel Freud’s hypothesis to dig deeper and see what is sometimes difficult to see.

The sub-conscious remains a controversial and little-understood aspect of human psychology. Even today, more than 100 years after it was first posited, its effect on intellectual discourse remains immense. What is crucial to take from this theory in the context of the Magic Formula of 6 is the idea that humans programmed to be influenced by the unseen workings of their own mind.[3] Therefore, there are a number of biases and beliefs within all of us that can traced back to some experience at a formative stage in our lives.

Freud believed that although the subconscious operates independently of the conscious, the former can influence the latter. He attributed an autonomous will to the unconscious to such an extent that he posited it as possessing its own intentions. According to Freudian theory, the cognitive rules that determine the agenda of the subconscious are different from those that guide the conscious mind.[4]

Knowing this can help us to get to the heart of every topic. It can explain ancient, enduring problems like war and conflict by equipping us with the tools to look beyond the surface level. Freud’s question of ‘What does our sub-conscious say?’, coupled with the proper application of the other elements of the Magic Formula of 6, can help us overcome longstanding barriers to our development as a species.

Perhaps the most astonishing part of Freud’s theories are how relevant they are today. In an era of unparalleled scientific boldness, where assumptions about human biology and the very nature of the universe are being challenged, the underworld of our subconscious is still an important consideration. Every step we take should be viewed through the prism of Freud’s views on the subconscious. The Magic Formula of 6 will do this, ultimately squaring whatever advances we make with the important consideration of how our sub-conscious may be impacting our decisions.

His research forms a crucial part of the Magic Formula of 6 as it equips the formula with all the necessary tools to challenge appearances and strive to achieve a more accurate understanding of how and why we do the things we do. The Magic Formula of 6 will use Freud’s trailblazing work as a means to better understand the barriers that our own psychologies present to us in bringing about progress. Once we are aware of these barriers, it becomes far easier to overcome them.

[1]                Ernest Jones (2019). The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Lexington, USA: Plunkett Lake Press, p. 1.

[2]                Wendy Hollway & Tony Jefferson (2008). The Free Association Narrative Interview Method. In Lisa Given (ed). The SAGE Encyclopaedia of Qualitative Research Methods. (pp. 296-315). Sevenoaks, UK: Sage, p. 309.

[3]                Sigmund Freud, as cited in John Archer and Barbara Llyod (2002). Sexuality: Psychophysiology, Psychoanalysis, and Social Construction. In John Archer & Barbara Lloyd (eds). Sex and Gender (pp. 84-108). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 93-94.

[4]                Sigmund Freud, as cited in Mathieu Arminjon (2011). The Four Postulates of Freudian Unconscious Neurocognitive Convergences. Frontiers in Psychology, 2. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00125/full

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