What is Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is a systematic structure of theories concerning the relations of conscious and unconscious psychological processes (Dictionary). Psychoanalysis comes from the German word Psychoanalyse which means to investigate or to treat. By this means whatever troubles or nightmare that someone has in their unconscious mind or a dream, it is tied to an event or situation in that person’s life. This term was introduced by Josef Braur and his then assistant Sigmund Freud in 1895 when they both wrote Studies on Hysteria with the theory that experiencing trauma in one’s life cannot be interrogated into the world of understanding, to which Freud soon expands further into the field thus earning the title “Father of
…show more content…
In 1899, Freud published a book titled The Interpretation of Dreams and it was the first time that we ever considered dreams to have an actual reason behind them and that we should have more of a scientific approach to the matter (The Interpretation of Dreams). Freud takes the objective approach to dreaming, taking dreams and tying them into the external world. Freud distinguished manifest and latent content of dreams by determining what they are individually. Manifest is what the dreamer remembers while Latent is the underlying wish or desire the individual has (McLeod, 2013). “The process whereby the underlying wish is translated into the manifest content is called dream-work. The purpose of dream work is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-threatening form, thus reducing anxiety and allowing us to continuing sleeping. Dream work involves the process of condensation, displacement, and secondary elaboration. (McLeod, 2013)” Freud also developed the idea of id, ego, and superego and how they play a role in our personality that ties within our dreams. To Freud Id represents instinct and drives that can contain activities such as eating, sex, and breathing. Ego develops from infancy and its goal is to satisfy the demands of id in a safe way which can operate in both the conscious and unconscious mind. Superego can develop during early childhood and this ensures moral
Freud’s wish fulfillment theory began because he believed that the wishes in adult dreams were disguised in order to reduce their anxiety tendencies. Freud theorised that dreams are disguised by a “censor” of sorts, in four cognitive processes he collectively called the “dream-work” (Freud, 1900) these include; displacement, whereby highly charged thoughts are transferred to minor elements in the impending dream. Condensation then compresses several different dream thoughts. These two are then joined together by the regard for representability, which changes abstract thoughts into a form that is applicable for the sensor. Finally the dream is shaped by secondary revision which basically gives the dream content an understandable pattern. (Freud, 1900).
Psychoanalysis is a therapy of psychological theory that aims to treat mental illnesses based on the concepts of Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the importance of free association and dream analysis. The model of psychoanalysis aim is to release repressed emotion and experiences, by making unconscious thoughts, conscious. The fundamental principles of psychoanalysis are practiced by putting an emphasis on the patient to gain insight into the origins of their respective problems like a patient presenting symptoms of anxiety would be encouraged by a licensed professional to explore their past, in hopes of discovering problems that manifested the anxiety. The anxiety created may be a defense mechanism directed towards displacement in their world.
Freud’s theory is that dreaming is meaningful, unlike the activation synthesis theory. He believed that the mind had three sections, represented in a shape of an iceberg; the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. The conscious is the tip of the iceberg above the water involves everything we are aware of right now such as our thoughts. The
The point of view of which Freud interprets and examines the manifest of dreams content to obtain their latent meaning is of a professional psychologist and clinical observer who looked for a way to explain how our minds work and how the individual psychology functions. He based his work on clinical experiences and clinical neurosis of the matter of his own interpretations to be able to confirm his theories as a proven fact. The result Freud gets from the patients he observes and interpretation of their dreams are stereotyped to the complete human condition.
“Such are the familiar dreams of falling from a height, of teeth falling out, of flying and of embarrassment of being naked” (Freud 69). These dreams that we experience, are believed to be representations of our desires or fears, according to Freudian ideology. Sigmund Freud also believed that there existed a structural model for our personalities that consisted of the id, ego, and superego. He held the idea that the id was an instinctual drive that relied upon the pleasure principle. Conversely, however outrageous the desire was, it was repressed by the superego. This superego functioned as a censor, which assisted us in undertaking socially acceptable behaviors, by repressing urges from the id. The ego acted upon the reality principle
After a friend told me about some weird dreams he had been having I decided to research the meaning of dreams. I will focus on Sigmund Freud’s idea that understanding our dreams can help us to understand ourselves, and live a much happier and fulfilled life. Freud was known as “the father of psychoanalysis” and in 1899 he wrote his most famous work, The Interpretation of Dreams, and
Psychoanalysis began with a dream. When he was a boy, Freud dreamt of his mother’s death and how she was “carried into a room by people with bird’s beaks” (Kitcher,1995 p.104). Later, Freud determined the significance of his dream, which was the desire of having a sexual relationship with his mother, also known as the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex is defined by Freud as “a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feeling of jealousy for the father” (Dwell and Myers, 2015). Freud developed psychoanalysis to be the “cure to mental illness” (McLeod, 1970). It is defining as a personality theory that “attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders” (Myers and Dewall, 2015). Freud believed every dream was important, and should be analyzed. This started with his most famous case study Anna O. With studying cases, Freud developed two primary procedures, free association and the
Therefore, the unconscious must distort the meaning of its information to make it through the conscious. As a result, the images in our dreams are not always what they appear to be. Therefore, dreams need to be interpreted by using psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is the method developed by Sigmund Freud that was intended to investigate the mind, conclude a symptom, and to provide a treatment for the symptom. In today’s modern society, many discredit Psychoanalysis and deed it useless.
Freud found two meanings in a dream: the manifest meaning and the latent meaning (Freud 168). The manifest meaning of a dream is what is remembered upon waking (Felluga). The manifest meaning can reflect a situation that follows common sense and unfold in a way possible in waking life. Other times it can take its own wild path that follows little or no logical sequence when viewed at surface level. Despite this vast difference, both of these are influenced by the superego, a part of the mind that Freud believes houses the knowledge of the structure of society and what is acceptable in the dreamers culture. The dream takes place on a stage or backdrop that makes sense and relates to waking life (Freud 216-17). While the manifest meaning is useful and can itself contain a message, interpretation of it can reveal more than seen at face value.
Psychoanalysis is a therapy and also a theory which was produced by Sigmund Freud. This therapy stress that human behavior and emotion are unconsciously cause by their past experience and drive in the unconscious part and the client doesn’t know them. The therapist always uses this therapy to help the client understand more emotion and
Picture an elderly man sitting on an chair with pad and pen in hand listening to a patient lying on a couch recalling their dream. This elderly man is a psychoanalyst, his name, Sigmund Freud. Freud was a Psychologist who produced a theory on personality called the Psychoanalytic perspective. This perspective proposes that personality is the result of animal-like driving forces that often conflict with one another and sometimes are unconscious. All references and terminology regarding Freud are taken from Ciccarelli, S.K., & White N.J.(2013). Psychology an exploration (2nd edition) New Jersey: Pearson Eduction, Inc. According to Freud dreams permit us to express these desires without the regulations of our conscious thought processes. In
Freud believed that dreams represent repressed desires, dears and conflicts. He distinguished two aspects of dreams: the manifest content (Actual event) and the latent content (symbolic meaning of the event). In Freud’s latent content all of the symbolic meanings had a sexual background. He viewed dreams as revealing conflicts in a condensed and intensified form.
Psychoanalysis was the name given by Sigmund Freud to a system of interpretation and therapeutic treatment of psychological disorders. (McLeod, 2007) In particular, we present five key concepts on psychoanalytic therapy: structure of personality, psychosexual stages, defense mechanism, anxiety, and the unconscious mind.
Psychoanalysis had its beginning with the discovery that a person in complete physical health could experience an illness with physical symptoms that stemmed from things trapped in the subconscious known as hysteria. Charcot, a French neurologist tried to liberate the mind through hypnosis. A Viennese physician, Josef Breuer, carried this purging further with a process based on his patient, Anna O., revealing her thoughts and feelings to him. Sigmund Freud took Breuer’s method and made generalizations that grew into conceptualizations and eventually into the theories of psychoanalysis. Freud would listen to his patients, and then use these thoughts to interpret what was happening in the unconscious part of
Sigmund Freud is thought to be the founder of psychoanalysis and he embarked on conducting a study to analyse and interpret dreams as a means of determining their relation to the human psyche. Starting off his career as a neurologist he was already very familiar with the brain and it’s inner workings. However his study was specifically conducted to explore the more celestial attributes of the mind and apply scientific theory and neurological practice. Freud said that, "The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind." He meant that because dreams are such an unconscious activity they give an almost direct insight into the workings of the unconscious mind. In "The Interpretation of Dreams" he was the first person to look at the mind and to develop a theory about its basis and creation. By identifying which parts of the mind are unconscious and conscious he was able to fix scientific labels on celestial areas of the brain. In effect, Freud is responsible for giving the study of the mind it’s serious and scientific attributes. Something that had only previously associated with the physical study of the brain. In order to prove his theory he analyzed his dreams, his childhood memories, screen memories, slips of the tongue, and episodes of forgetfulness. His theory was that by analyzing dreams and memories they will aid in trying to understand how events from the past, including childhood, continue to actively influence