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Freud's Contributions To The Field of Psychology Essay example

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Sigmund Freud was a pioneer within the field of psychology who developed multiple theories that introduced the world to the inner meanings of the human unconscious. He created the theory of psychoanalysis, which allowed him to enter the world of the unconscious mind. He also proposed that humans go through a transition of various psychosexual stages, each level containing a different drive and desire. These urges were governed by the three components of the mind: the id, the ego, and the superego. He also believed that humans create defense mechanisms in order to drive away anxiety, guilt, and depression. However, he believed his greatest work resided within his interpretation of dreams through a method he called dream analysis. Each …show more content…

He called these stages, psychosexual development and theorized that if any one of these stages is not successfully completed, a person will remain stuck, or fixated, in the stage that was not resolved. Psychosexual development contains five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. The oral stage occurs during infancy, and pleasure is brought about through activities that include oral stimulation such as eating or sucking. If the infant does not gratify these desires, Freud believed that the individual would later develop issues with dependency or aggression. At about eighteen months of age, the infant enters into the anal stage of development. In this stage, pleasure is gratified through bowel movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training, when the child must learn to control his or her bodily needs. If this control is established, the young child feels a sense of accomplishment and interdependence. Fixation occurs through the parent’s methods of potty training. If the parents utilize a praise and reward system, the child will develop into a successful, productive adult. However, if the parents are too lenient, the child will have a messy and wasteful personality. In contrast, if parents are too strict, the child will develop an orderly, rigid, and obsessive personality. Around the age of four, children become focused on the genitals and enter into the

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