Comparison Of Mead Vs. Mead

Dylan Mahaffey

Professor Woodley

Freud & Mead Essay

March 5, 2014

Mead vs. Freud

Sigmund Freud was a very prominent neurologist and is known as the father of psychoanalysis and being a prominent thinker of his time in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. His theory of human personality is a well-known theory of the nineteen hundreds. His theory, describes prominence of what is known as the id, ego, and superego. His theory largely differs from another well know thinker known as George Herbert Mead. Mead is well known for his theory of self. Mead’s theory is more accepted than Freud’s theory in today’s society due to the increase of knowledge of the human persona. I will analyze the differences in theories based on which theory allows for more free will in human beings.

Freud believed that a human must go through certain stages in their lives or they will not socially develop to their full extent. He also made claims that a human is always struggling between their human, and instinctual nature. This was a very controversial topic because Freud concluded there was a lack of individuality of the human race. If Freud’s theory was the case then humans would have less of a choice in their life, and are truly slaves to their instinctual nature. While an intelligent figure of his time, I believe that Freud went in the wrong direction when approaching his theory. While humans do have a large amount of urges that he described, the person themselves can choose what to do based not solely on society, but their wants and needs as well. Had Freud been alive today I’m sure that his theory would have theorized much different things about the human nature. I think it is important to analyze the distinct cultural setting behi...

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...society. I find it odd that Mead’s theory is so much different from Freud’s because they lived relatively around the same time. The differences in countries could have to do with the divergence in theories. While Freud’s theory seems to make more sense if you study history, the last few decades prove his theory to be off.

While different in theory, both Mead and Freud were trying very hard to explain the complexities of what is known as the human existence. Meads theory states that we have more freedom and choice in our human development; while Freud theorizes we are slaves to our instinctual nature. After analyzing the differences between the two theories I came to the conclusion Mead’s theory of self, more accurately depicts my life and its experiences. Both Mead and Freud created great debate topics for the world of Sociology, and the world of Psychology alike.