Freud Psychodynamic Theory and Craigslist

Psychodynamic Theory

Craigslist website is full of classifieds. Recently I visited their Minneapolis/ St. Paul section and looked at their personals section. There was a category under that section called Missed Connections, where people posted about other people they saw somewhere and are interested in getting to know them more. They post in that website, hoping that the other party in interested in them too. They didn’t have the courage to talk to them when they saw each other; so they are using that website to post.

Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychodynamic explains that human beings have unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses. But they have to follow societal norms. So there is always a conflict between biological drives and having to follow social rules of interaction. Childhood early family experiences also plays role during adulthood.

Freud’s psychodynamic theory explains the phenomena present in Craigslist’s Missed Connections very well. People in that website did have the opportunity to talk to other person, but instead they are trying to communicate via this website. Psychodynamic theory explains that even though they have the sexual impulses to contact; they had to follow societal norms. Therefore, they won’t contact the other person unless both of them are in places such as bars where it is considered normal. Since they saw each other in places other than bars, it will go against the societal norm. So there is a biological drive versus social norm happening. The biological drive remains; but to compensate for societal norm, they try to contact the other person via this website.