Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei

IMO D
- Again, out of scope

IMO D.

"It would be foolish to continue parroting Freud’s psychological theories as if these advances had never occurred" - As I understand the author is saying that it would be foolish to continue using freud's model without reexamining it. but we get no info about what he believes is better.

It is possible to assume that the old theories are matching the new ones and therefore - we can rely on both in the same way.

Would be happy to know OA for this one. Thanks.

Hi nightblade354,

Could you please provide an explanation for this question. I was confused between B and D. I went for B as B establishes one over the other just like the last line in the passage does. I am not convinced how D could be the right answer.

Wonderwoman31, your line of thinking is correct, but a little off. Let's break it down:

Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for their day, were formulated before most of this century’s great advances in neurophysiology and biochemistry. Today, we have a far deeper understanding of the biological components of thought, emotion, and behavior than was dreamed of eighty years ago. It would be foolish to continue parroting Freud’s psychological theories as if these advances had never occurred.

Premise: Freud had brilliant ideas, but were not created when we had more advanced sciences
Premise: We have a better grasp of the biological components than when Freud was around
Conclusion: Why are we still talking about his original ideas without taking into account the other sciences?

To be honest, there are only a few contenders here, the trickiest ones being A, B, and D. Remember, this is an inference question. We are looking for what the author is 100% saying.

It can be inferred from the passage above that the author would be most likely to favor

(A) the abandonment of most of Freud’s theories -- Where did we say this? You would have to assume "It would be foolish to continue parroting Freud’s psychological theories as if these advances had never occurred" to mean that we should abandon it. But we are never told this. So it cannot be true.

(B) a greater reliance on biological rather than psychological explanations of behavior -- Tricky, but the author doesn't pit psychology against biology. If that were the case, the conclusion probably should have concluded that we need to evaluate everything and re-examine how we analyze people. What if we evaluate Freud's theory under the new biological theories and nothing changed? We are simply adding a criteria to the equation, not advocating for a brand new way to evaluate.

(C) a critical reexamination of Freud’s place in the history of psychology -- History? Never talked about this and requires the assumption that place in history and the possibility the accuracy of his theories go hand in hand. Wrong.

(D) a reexamination of Freud’s theories in the light of contemporary biology -- Bingo. The last sentence says we need to re-evaulate Freud using these methods. This is our answer, as it is spelled out in the question.

(E) increased financial support for studies in neurophysiology and biochemistry -- Nonsense. Financial support? Just remove this one immediately.

GMATNinja mikemcgarry

Can you guys throw some light on this question? I don't understand why D is the right answer.

The last line of the argument is: "It would be foolish to continue parroting Freud’s psychological theories as if these advances had never occurred." For me, its meaning is we shouldn't use Freud's theories since better ones are available. Here the author knows that Freud's theories are sub-par than modern biology-based theories. If the author is so clear about his stance on Freud's theories, how do we arrive at option D that says that he is in favour of re-examining Freud's theories in light of contemporary biology. We know that author has disapproved Freud's theories in front of more advanced theories, so how does the question of re-examination arise?

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