Is Freudian Theory A Science?

First, lets look at Freud’s model of the psyche. Now, Sigmund Freud is a pretty famous psychologist from the early 20th century/late 19th century. His idea for the model originally sprouted from a young lady by the name of Anna. Anna just wanted her doctor to listen to her problems and what she had to say; later this becomes known as “chimney sweeping,” which was the main basis for Freud’s idea (). Psychoanalysis, therapy in its early days, was just observing human behavior through the word of mouth of the client. As the study of psychoanalysis moved along, physicians tried to piece together the evidence and see trends in the psychic in order to comprehend it.

Freud was in his day an answer to many of society’s questions. As evolved and as the sciences evolved, we learned much more about Freud and his theories. Most of his work has been criticized most of the time. The criticisms of Freud and his theories have increased since

Most evidence for theories is taken from Freud’s case studies, e.g. Little Hans. This case study was only based on one person in detail. Little Hans case study was carried out via mail contact with his father, only meeting Hans after the case was published which many would argue is not reliable. Freud got his results from talking sessions known as “free association” with patients which he wrote as case studies. Some patients in question are often small numbers of middle-aged Jewish women from Vienna that suffered comparable issues, which are biased samples, this makes the generalization to the wider population challenging. (Gross, 2015). Re-examinations of Freud’s theories propose that he occasionally distorted his patient’s cases to fit with his theory, e.g. being Dora and Ratman, both separate case studies both claimed he misrepresented facts and was unsuccessful in curing them. The theories are also greatly criticized by the humanist approach for being sexist against women. (Sulloway, 1991).

The psychodynamic approach founded by Sigmund Freud was a lot of our behavior, is determined by unconscious thoughts, memories. Freud developed the first complete theory of mind and is the founder of a series of techniques called psychoanalysis. This aims to explore the unconscious mind by using techniques, such as free association, dream interpretation etc. and then and be used treat abnormal behavior. Psychodynamic psychology ignores the aspects of science and instead focuses on trying to get inside the head of individuals to make logic of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world. (McLeod, 2007). Freud’s theories

The trouble with these two theories is that they are both very hard to prove through research, for example Freud’s theory is difficult to test empirically. As Mummendey (1996) has quoted ‘the essential concepts such as that of destructive energy are so global and inexact that one can derive no precise predictions or hypotheses that can then be tested. The psychoanalytic approach is really only able to attempt an explanation of events or behaviour that have already taken place’. McIlveen, Gross. (1998, pp125)

The British Psychological Society states that ‘Psychology is the scientific study of people, the mind and behaviour’ (BPS). In this essay I will be discussing what is actually meant by this and whether psychology fits into both the traditional views of a science, as well as more contemporary perspectives. It is widely suggested that Psychology is a “coalition of specialities” meaning it is multi-disciplinary (Hewstone, Fincham and Foster 2005, page 4). I will therefore examine whether it could be considered wrong to think that all parts of the discipline should neatly fit into one view of a scientific approach.

By studying the ideas of other psychologists and philosophers to support his own ideas, Freud was able to take the parts he agreed with and disprove the parts he did not agree with. He explores the ideas of Aristotle, Hildebrandt and Strumpell to name just a few. He agreed strongly with Aristotle’s belief that dreams are not divine in

In chapter one, Stanovich argues for a psychology supported by scientific research. He begins with The Freud Problem, a general outlook on psychology that primarily consists of Freudian-style psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. He is seen as the father of psychology. Freud based his approach to psychology on his own developed theories. Freud responded to the public 's misconception about psychology in a general way. He took notes about the several fields that existed in psychology. There is over fifty different divisions in psychology with psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is responsible for developing the Psychoanalytic Theoretical Perspective; Freud argued that our early life experiences are essentially the base to our subconscious mind and in turn heavily influence our current behavior. Freud believed that people could be treated and healed by articulating their dreams and childhood memories allowing an individual to gain insight into these unconscious thoughts and ultimately motivate them to resolve the repressed conflicts within. This technique was developed into a therapy used today known as Psychoanalysis, similar to hypnosis, it was founded in 1896 (“Freud's Psychoanalytic Theories.”). Just like any other psychological theory, there are many interesting concepts to Freud's Psychoanalytic Theoretical Perspective. The theory says that your personality is determined by the manner in which your behaviors have been depicted to the unconscious mind, this theory tells us that our behavior is completely

on this. According to Ku (2011), Freud’s theory helped scientists to have a further look into human

Sigmund Freud explored many new concepts in the human mind during his lifetime. He was the scholar who discovered an immense new realm of the mind, the unconscious. He was the philosopher who identified childhood experience, not racial destiny or family fate, as the vessel of character, and he is the therapist who invented a specific form of treatment for mentally ill people, psychoanalysis. This advanced the revolutionary notion that actual diagnosable diseases can be cured by a technology that dates to the dawn of humanity: speaking. Sigmund Freud, writing more than 320 books, articles and essays on psychotherapy in his lifetime, forever changed how society viewed mental illness and the meaning of their dreams. However, controversy over

Freud’s theory was initially based on his own person and experiences and memories, hence, lacking experimental and scientific

Is psychology a science? How does it differ from the traditional sciences? How is it similar?

Psychologist, psychoanalyst, doctor of medicine, and author, Sigmund Freud’s contributions to the world of science and psychology were far from limited. The self and widely regarded scientist was born in Friedberg in 1856 where he lived before moving to Vienna, Germany, where he would later produce founding revelations at the birth of psychology as a science. From his beginnings, Freud focused on psychopathology and the conscious mind (Jones, 1949). The renowned “Father of Psychoanalysis” created a pathway and a foundation for psychology, influencing the world of psychology from its birth to modern day practice. Freud’s delve into the unconscious, dreams, psychosexual development, and the id, ego, and super-ego, are just a limited number of his studies that greatly influenced numerous psychologists and theories of modern psychology. One of his earliest practices and most accredited work dealt with psychoanalysis specifically. Though this practice is seldom used in modern psychology in the treatment of psychological disorders, it assuredly carried great influence in the development of modern practices of psychological theories. Freud’s creation of psychoanalysis exceeded his professional career, influencing modern psychologists and theories, one specifically being ego psychology, that was founded in the mid 20th century of modern

It is difficult to summarize psychodynamic theory without a brief discussion of Freud. Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, the father of psychodynamic theory, and in effect the father of modern psychotherapy. Freud's notions retain quite a bit of popularity, especially his ideas that things are not what they seem on the surface. Because of his understanding of the mind and behavior, Freud considered that overt behaviors were not always self-explanatory (or perhaps "not often explanatory" would be the better term). Instead, these overt or manifest behaviors represent some hidden motive. Sigmund Freud was trained as a neurologist and specialized in the treatment of nervous disorders. His early training involved using hypnosis with the French neurologist Jean Charcot in the treatment of hysteria, the presentation of baffling physical symptoms (mostly in young women) that appeared to have no physical origin (Hall, Lindzey, & Campbell, 1998). Freud also partnered with the Viennese physician Josef Breuer who practiced a revolutionary "talking cure" to reduce patients' symptoms by talking with them about how they felt as well as using hypnosis to remove emotional barriers to their feelings. He eventually abandoned the use of hypnosis in favor of a process he termed "free association" in which he had patients talk about what was on their minds without censoring their train of thought. This led Freud to develop his theory of the human mind as a complex system that is