Jess Rubinstein
Intro to Theory and Criticism
Spring 2015
Midterm Essays
Freud and Literature
At some point in life, everyone has heard the name Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856, and went on to become one of the most talked about theorists. He is known as the father of psychoanalysis and has left behind an everlasting legacy. There were two influential and sometimes controversial theories that Freud left behind.
Sigmund Freud’s big legacy was his work with dreams and the unconscious. This work can relate to literature on a large scale. In our textbook, we learn that
“dreams are brief, meagre and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the dream-thoughts. If a dream is written out it may perhaps fill half a page.
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The Ego follows the reality principle. This means that our minds try to give into what the Id wants in a realistic and appropriate manner. It weighs the pros and cons of each desire before deciding whether to obtain gratification or abandon it. Lastly, there is the Superego. The Superego is the total opposite of the Id; it strives to suppress the Id’s desires. It opts for doing the right thing versus the wrong thing. To simplify, the Id is the bad devil on your shoulder. The Superego is the angel on your shoulder. The Ego is the one in the middle trying to make both the devil and the angel happy. In regards to dreams, the unconscious and the three stages of personalities; I find it completely fascinating and accurate. I know from personal experience that there really are three little thought processes that go into making the final decision. I also strongly believe that there are meanings behind my dreams (both conscious and unconscious). I like analyzing my dreams and seeing my unconscious thoughts fly into the open. Freud’s theories on dreams and the unconscious are influential today because they shed light on an individual and their thought processes. This is especially true in literature. When reading various novels, we get to analyze the character and their thoughts. This helps us to understand the text better, as well as gain more insight into the character’s mind. Freud’s three personalities’ can be seen in another one of his influential and very
Third, Sigmund Freud thought dreams had motives and there meaning is other than it appears on the surface. Dreams are disguised by condensation and displacement. Condensation is a thought expressed in the optative has been replaced by a representation in the present tense” (Freud, 151). In simpler terms, dream condensation is complex meaning compressed into a simpler one. While “dream displacement is concealing the meaning of a dream and to make the connections between the dream content and the dream thoughts unrecognisable” (Freud, 155). When we rationalise this, it is merely stating that dream content is derived from the dream thoughts and when an individual awakes the content of the dream may not be clear due to condensation and displacement. Often with dream displacement, for the dream content to be clear there has to be a linkage to something that corresponds to it. Freud also stated that, “we assume as a matter of course that the most distinct element in the manifest content of dream is the most important one; but in fact owing to displacement that has occurred it is often an indistinct element which turns out to be the most direct derivative of the essential dream thoughts” (Freud, 155). This shows that it is not the content of the dream, which is remembered, that is most significant but the
I wrote this paper to get a better understanding of Sigmund Freud’s method and theory of dream analysis. The purpose of the paper will be to show the principals of Freud’s dream related theory that focuses on the physiology, interpretation, and psychology of dreams and to explain concepts such as latent and manifest content of dreams, the part of unconscious process, and the nature of dreams role in the determination of dream content. I would like to explore Sigmund Freud’s explanations of psycho-analytic and psychological theory and method to reveal whether Freud’s continuous revising to sexually based conclusions are able to support his own arguments. One of his themes was the amount of activity that goes on in our brains without us even
Both Freud and Jung provided important and interesting theories on dreams; encompassing their functions, their roots, and their meanings. Freud looked at dreams as a result of repressed memories, particularly repressed sexual memories from our childhood. Jung however, believed that dreams delved beyond sexual repression during younger years, to other problems, be it trauma, anxiety etc. Jung also believed dreams changed predominately through middle adult years, while Freud believed the opposite. There is little empirical evidence to reinforce either Freud or Jung’s theories, however, their contributions to the study of dreams in psychology cannot be lessened or denied.
Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia in 1856. Freud was a distinguished child. He attended medical school in Vienna; from there he became actively embraced in research under the direction of a physiology. He was engrossed in neurophysiology and hoped for a position in that field but unfortunately there were not enough positions available. From there, he spent some of his years as a resident in neurology and director of a children’s ward in Berlin. Later on, he returned to Vienna and married his fiancée, Martha Bernays. He continued his practice of neuropsychiatry in Vienna with Joseph Breuer as his assistant. Freud achieved fame by his books and lectures; which brought him “both fame and ostracism from mainstream of the medical
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
According to Ciccarelli and White many of today’s professionals no longer appreciate Freud’s dream theory (151). The theory proposed by Freud appears highly unscientific. The unconscious mind was important in Freud’s work and the Freudian theory emphasized that the unconscious mind governed behavior.
By analyzing dreams, Freud believed that it could lead to understanding the most mysterious part of the human body: the brain. He viewed dreams as the unconscious mind making an endeavor to resolve a conflict regardless of when the conflict arose (Freud, 1900, p.577). Freud eventually developed a theory that the symbols and images in dreams may only be the front for multiple connotations, linking icons in dreams to parts of the body and biological drives. The dreamer may “find the top part of a clarinet in the street or the mouth-piece of a tobacco-pipe” in response to stimuli from male sexual organs (Freud, 1900, p.111). Freud argued in many of his early works that many latent dreams are sexual in nature. These connections separated Freud from his colleagues, such as Carl
Briefly present Freud's theory on dreams and how his ideas are distinctly different from the philosophy of the Activation-Synthesis Model. Freud believed manifest content/dream images brought out repressed wishes/wish-fulfillment and urges, and latent content/ disguised psychological dream meaning. Also, dream functioning was a release of unconscious and inappropriate urges. Images in dreams had different symbolism's such as, an elongated object represented male genital organ and ovens represent the female genitals. Researchers Robert McCarley and J. Allan Hobson created a model called Activation-Synthesis in which it suggests dreams are a way the brain makes sense of the activities while sleeping.
We can say that when dreaming, we jump to a different world plenty of our deepest feelings and sensations. Despite the fact that we do not always remember all the details of our dreams or even do not recall them at all, it is certain that dreams are part of us. This mixture of images, feelings, and thoughts can tell us much about our inner-self and give us a hint of what is happening inside our minds. The author Ed Struzik in his article “Sweet dreams; A mirror of our most intimate secrets or just a random bombardment of brain signals: [FINAL Edition]” makes reference to Sigmund Freud, one the first persons to study the science of dreams, suggesting that “dreams revealed our most intimate secrets, and are a method by which stress and psychological
Freud wrote “The Interpretation of Dreams” as an autobiography, telling about what dreams he’s had and what they mean to him. Although it’s one of Freud's best work that he's ever written there are a couple of flaws that weaken the story. One major change that could have happened was if Freud wasn't so focused on himself when he's trying to convince a reader to support his claim. In other words, it wasn't the best decision by Freud to write this book as an autobiography. Even though Freud uses a few examples of other people’s dreams it’s not enough to fully convince the reader if this was the only source they had. In the article “Publish
While many people in ancient times used that method to find a purpose in their dreams, Sigmund Freud shared his theory on the same topic. Freud’s theory about the effect of dreams was made well known in the late 1800s. His main belief on the topic was that dreams are very important for mental health, especially involving thoughts related to sexual desire. Freud wrote several books relating to his personal theory, but most popular (and controversial) was The Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1899. Additionally, Freud influenced many other psychologists including C.G. Jung who later shared his own theory on dream interpretation.
Despite the many skepticisms revolving around Freud’s theory, there are many people that believe in it. In fact according to Patrick J. Mahony (2005), “Freud’s revolutionary book pioneered our understanding of dreams in particular and of the workings of the human mind in general.” Mahony is referring to
Sigmund Freud was a Jewish Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis. Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind. The concept of the unconscious theory was central to Freud’s ideas of the human mind. He first introduced his ideas around the unconscious theory when trying to explain what happens to ideas that are repressed but remain in the mind.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, is predominantly recognized as one of the most influential and authoritative thinkers of the twentieth century. Freud gave a broad perspective on things involving dreams, religion, and cultural artifacts while still focusing on different states of the mind, such as unconsciousness. Freud also relied on a local sexual repression issue to create theories about human behavior. His theories and ideas of psychoanalysis still have a strong impact on psychology and early childhood education today. Freud’s most important claim is that with psychoanalysis he had invented a new science of the mind, however, remains the subject of copious critical debate and controversy.
“The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.” –Sigmund Freud