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655-705 Level|   Inference|      
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noboru
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 26 Jul 2009, 05:31
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D
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

53% (01:33) correct 47% (01:44) wrong based on 2968 sessions

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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.

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
(B) a greater reliance on biological rather than psychological explanations of behavior
(C) a critical reexamination of Freud’s place in the history of psychology
(D) a reexamination of Freud’s theories in the light of contemporary biology
(E) increased financial support for studies in neurophysiology and biochemistry
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D
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Ludacrispat26
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 12 Nov 2009, 23:33
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noboru
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.
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
(B) a greater reliance on biological rather than psychological explanations of behavior
(C) a critical reexamination of Freud’s place in the history of psychology
(D) a reexamination of Freud’s theories in the light of contemporary biology
(E) increased financial support for studies in neurophysiology and biochemistry
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OA (from another thread) is D

B cannot be correct because we see no evidence that this is the case. For all we know, the advances in biochem and neurophys debunked Freud, but are still worse than today's version of psychology. We just can't properly infer B.

We can, however, get D. The beginning of the passage is implying that Freud was great, but not as great as we thought, and that we need to reexamine our evaluation of his theories (thanks to advances in science).

Remember, we only hear about biochem et. al. in relation to Freud's theories. Claiming B from this passage is just too much of a stretch.
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 29 Aug 2011, 20:54
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IMO D
noboru
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.
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 - too extreme and also the passage doesn't talk about abandoning Freud's theories.
(B) a greater reliance on biological rather than psychological explanations of behavior - the argument does not mention the importance of one over another. It mentions the new advances and hence the need to re-check Freud's theories.
(C) a critical reexamination of Freud’s place in the history of psychology - Out of scope. Why would we want to examine Freud's place in history? We need to examine the theories. He did a good job in his time :)
(D) a reexamination of Freud’s theories in the light of contemporary biology - Correct. All the argument wants is not to rely completely on the theories developed 80 years ago but to evaluate them as new developments in the same field has happened.
(E) increased financial support for studies in neurophysiology and biochemistry
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- Again, out of scope
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 19 Oct 2009, 21:57
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clear D. The author will favor the reexamination of Freud’s theories in the light of contemporary biology, because Freud's studies are not up-to-date.
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 30 Aug 2011, 10:24
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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.
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 19 Apr 2019, 04:26
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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.
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 19 Apr 2019, 05:07
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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.
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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 16 Jan 2021, 02:06
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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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Freud’s theories of the workings of the mind, while brilliant for thei 04 Jun 2025, 10:00
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Why not A ?? please provide the official solution. thanks in advance!!
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