Sigismund Schlomo Freud was an Austrian born neurologist, more widely known as Sigmund Freud and often regarded as the father of psychoanalysis. Possibly his most notable work , psychoanalysis , or ‘’the talking cure’’ as it is now known, was developed to help the mentally ill through dream analysis .One of his earliest influences was the French doctor , Jean Charcot, who employed hypnosis in treating his patients’ hysteria. Unlike Charcot, who was trying to cure those who suffered from hysteria, Freud was engrossed with the causes of the disease. Freud’s friend and colleague, Josef Breuer, helped him in advancing methods by collaborating with him on the book ‘’Studies on Hysteria’’. He then went through a period of self-analysis and further expanded his studies about the meaning of dreams which then led to the publication of his book ‘’The interpretation of dreams ‘’. One of Freud’s most significant followers was the young Carl Jung. The two collaborated very successfully at first , with Freud regarding Jung as his protégé but later on separating due to Jung’s disagreement with Freud’s theories. Despite being considered false and extremely controversial, his theories continue causing disputes within the science community to this day.
One of the most universally criticized and disputed of Freud’s theories is that of the psychosexual stages. According to him, a person’s personality develops in five fixed stages, at each of which the person’s energy force, or libido as he
