Freud's Influence: the Western World

    Everyone and their mother has heard of Sigmund Freud by adulthood, the man is embedded into our culture. Why? How did he affect our culture across the Western world so much? Well, he got everyone thinking about thinking. What a subconscious, or a Freudian slip is, or the human psyche were not obvious facts of nature before Freud.

     People consider why they do the things that they do and the nature of their nature like second nature. We all subconsciously consider the psychology of how others work everyday. Using the word “subconsciously” is a great example of doing just that, because you would never have thought to use that word let alone inherently know what it means before Freud.

     In ancient Greece, the gods were embedded into the culture. The gods were thought to affect how weather works, how your body works, how well a harvest does, who your daughter marries, etc.. It was natural to consider the gods in everything you do, even if you aren’t considering them consciously. Now, people understand that your brain affects how your body works, what you do about the weather, how to learn how to harvest, the differences between lust and love and the chemicals that persuade each. It is natural to turn inwards and consider your train of thought when doing anything.

     There is a positive and negative to the culture we live in. We take the value out of how we assess things rather than morals, which takes away the value of what is good and true a little bit. We have tools to help others, and to understand ourselves better to improve, but in taking so much time to consider your inner workings and how you feel, it becomes more and more difficult to consider how you react to what you feel. Rather than understanding “this is morally right, therefore I need to fix this.” people consider, “I needed more time to process therefore I did it in a different way than is socially acceptable.” Then again, fidget toys are readily available for anyone who needs it to stay focused on menial tasks.

      When culture is affected, art is affected too. Like paintings that showcase loud color and insane waves of motion to display something underneath the surface like a different perspective, or an emotion, rather than what is literally in front of you like the Mona Lisa.

There’s a positive and negative side to having a culture so focused on the mind when it affects art too. From performers who create social experiments as art by allowing you to cut at their clothing, to people who paint a white canvas white and tape bananas to walls for money.

People take the value away from what is moral and true and good by looking for every unexplainable thing under the surface rather than operating as if there is always one truth. However, there are so many ways psychology is good and meaningful too.

The color yellow makes you happier, so put some sunny throw pillows in your favorite room of the house. The color red makes people hungry when thinking of food, so get good business by making your restaurant menus red. Be happy and have fun painting, be considerate of the quiet kid wearing noise canceling headphones. But don’t let your understanding of what lies beneath the surface become something less than good, true, and beautiful. Just because expressionism is a fun way of painting, don’t think less of the “soulless” flower painting, and just because you have a tendency to do something less than socially acceptable in public, don’t push your “needs” onto the poor Starbucks lady, or let the panicking kid wearing noise cancelling headphones hit you. 

    Freud changed the culture, and you can’t “fix” how the culture affected you, but you can always consider the difference between right and wrong, the difference between meaningful and try-hard art. Do you appreciate the way Freud affected our culture?