Evelyn, this was an amazing read! I'm really glad that you chose to do this. I did not know about the two classic stories. I knew about the fairy tale but not the "one that got away" but now that you've mentioned it, it's everywhere! Roadrunner and wild e coyote, Bugs bunny and Elmer Fudd, Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweetie... So many! Also, the Freud analysis is fascinating. In university, the Electra and Oedipus complexes just didn't wash with me when it came to character analysis. Now I know why!
I'm so glad you liked it! Relieved too I have to say, as it ended up being a lot longer than I intended.
I'm the same with the Oedipus and Electra complexes, and to be honest I think they may have been well and truly debunked since, in the sense that I don't think psychologists take them seriously anymore. In particular because children simply don't have a sexuality (because they don't have the hormones), plus there is an innate 'taboo' against incest - partly for obvious biological reasons (inbreeding) but also because any adult who abused children in that prehistoric communal setting would've been ostracised. In that way, detrimental behaviours get kind of rooted out of the gene pool, so to speak. Eventually you're left with 'good behaviour' as the norm.
Neuroscience has also somewhat changed the parameters of this kind of discussion, in terms of brain development. I think a lot of the 'complexes' idea of developmental psychology are a kind of projection, as I suggested in the essay, and say more about Freud et al. than they do about children. Which in a way, in the fairytale sense of the thing, is itself a warning. Then again I did have some bad experiences with psychologists!
Yeah, it is fascinating how these story templates just keep on cropping up. And I do love mischievously subverting them!
Another thought that pops into my head about the complexes. The so-called 'Freudian coverup' thing. The basic psychological thinking here is that Freud himself was a victim of serious childhood abuse, which he had repressed. So when he encountered female patients who claimed to be victims, he dismissed their complaints as not real ('it doesn't happen in middle-class society, you know'). As a result of this, he then (logically) came to an erroneous psychological conclusion/theory that they must be expressing some kind of secret attraction to the father. Unfortunately, this was then picked up by the psychological community, and we are still feeling the effects of this today, in that victims are so often not believed. A similar thing is definitely true when it comes to rape - I believe the conviction rate is something like 1.3%, which is horrendous. You often encounter 'defence barristers' trying to claim that the victim 'secretly wanted it'. Then you get these awful people talking about 'rape fantasies'. So the amount of damage that Freud has done here is really quite shocking.
Also, I had no idea of the previous names of "flash fiction" I particularly enjoy vignette. I write a lot of vignette's and it's a more fitting word. I like it.
Evelyn, this was an amazing read! I'm really glad that you chose to do this. I did not know about the two classic stories. I knew about the fairy tale but not the "one that got away" but now that you've mentioned it, it's everywhere! Roadrunner and wild e coyote, Bugs bunny and Elmer Fudd, Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweetie... So many! Also, the Freud analysis is fascinating. In university, the Electra and Oedipus complexes just didn't wash with me when it came to character analysis. Now I know why!
I'm so glad you liked it! Relieved too I have to say, as it ended up being a lot longer than I intended.
I'm the same with the Oedipus and Electra complexes, and to be honest I think they may have been well and truly debunked since, in the sense that I don't think psychologists take them seriously anymore. In particular because children simply don't have a sexuality (because they don't have the hormones), plus there is an innate 'taboo' against incest - partly for obvious biological reasons (inbreeding) but also because any adult who abused children in that prehistoric communal setting would've been ostracised. In that way, detrimental behaviours get kind of rooted out of the gene pool, so to speak. Eventually you're left with 'good behaviour' as the norm.
Neuroscience has also somewhat changed the parameters of this kind of discussion, in terms of brain development. I think a lot of the 'complexes' idea of developmental psychology are a kind of projection, as I suggested in the essay, and say more about Freud et al. than they do about children. Which in a way, in the fairytale sense of the thing, is itself a warning. Then again I did have some bad experiences with psychologists!
Yeah, it is fascinating how these story templates just keep on cropping up. And I do love mischievously subverting them!
Another thought that pops into my head about the complexes. The so-called 'Freudian coverup' thing. The basic psychological thinking here is that Freud himself was a victim of serious childhood abuse, which he had repressed. So when he encountered female patients who claimed to be victims, he dismissed their complaints as not real ('it doesn't happen in middle-class society, you know'). As a result of this, he then (logically) came to an erroneous psychological conclusion/theory that they must be expressing some kind of secret attraction to the father. Unfortunately, this was then picked up by the psychological community, and we are still feeling the effects of this today, in that victims are so often not believed. A similar thing is definitely true when it comes to rape - I believe the conviction rate is something like 1.3%, which is horrendous. You often encounter 'defence barristers' trying to claim that the victim 'secretly wanted it'. Then you get these awful people talking about 'rape fantasies'. So the amount of damage that Freud has done here is really quite shocking.
Also, I had no idea of the previous names of "flash fiction" I particularly enjoy vignette. I write a lot of vignette's and it's a more fitting word. I like it.
It sounds nicer too! vignette. Like plinth. That's another good word.