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Psychodynamics
Freud, the founder of modern psychology, would probably agree with the Mooney Suzuki. Girls! Sex! That’s what’s on a young man’s mind or at least what motivates much of his behavior. The Id, our primary source of psychic energy, cares only about pleasure. Our ego must take reality into account, “dealing with the teacher and the folks and all that stuff” until it can find a way to do what the Id wants. Of course rock and roll did not exist in Freud’s time. However, he might argue that rock was an ego-defense mechanism used to sublimate some of the Id’s sexual desires into more culturally acceptable forms of expression. In other words, they sing when they can’t have the girls, but they really just want the girls.
Evolutionary Pscyhology
Modern evolutionary psychologists would put a slightly different spin on things. Instead of playing music to replace girls, the Mooney Suzuki are performing to attract girls. Thus they would agree with the thesis of “In a Young Mans Mind’. Basically, for the evolutionary psychologist, the driving factor in life is reproductive success, i.e. spreading ones genes. From this perspective the typical “young man” of whom the Mooney Suzuki speaks is on the right track. He is intensely focused on girls, without whom there can be no proliferation of his genes. Playing rock n’ roll only enhances his reproductive success by making him more attractive to girls. Within many species, including our own, it is known that females prefer males who engage in risky behavior such as bright displays of feathers (risky because they are more easily spotted by predators). Playing in a rock n’ roll band is risky enough. The Mooney Suzuki, in their mod-inspired outfits, are also more easily spotted by jealous boyfriends. Touring would also increase their reproductive success by exposing their genes to a wider gene pool.
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