Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychoanalysis Essay example

“Civilization and Its Discontents” is a book written by Sigmund Freud in 1929 (originally titled “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur” or The Uneasiness in Culture.) This is considered to be one of Freud’s most important and widely read works. In this book, Freud explains his perspective by enumerating what he sees as fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He asserts that this tension stems from the individual’s quest for freedom and non-conformity and civilization’s quest for uniformity and instinctual repression. Most of humankind’s primitive instincts are clearly destructive to the health and well-being of a human community (such as the desire to kill.) As a direct result, civilization creates laws designed to prohibit

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.

The therapist would use techniques such as free association and dream analysis. Free association is when the therapist attempts to unearth thoughts from Ellen’s unconscious in order to lend insight into her distress. Overall, the therapist would use techniques to interpret Ellen’s dreams and memories in order to reduce Ellen’s anxiety.

Freud created the Psychodynamic Approach to explain behaviour. Within it, he describes that there are 3 components of the human mind: The conscious, Pre-conscious and Unconscious. The conscious is the part of the mind which is in our awareness; it contains behaviours and desires which we are aware of. The pre-conscious is the part of the mind between the conscious and unconscious, it contains items such as memories and desires which we are not currently thinking about but can easily bring to conscious awareness. Lastly is the unconscious. This part of the mind is

Freud is known for developing the use of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is based on the observation that people are often unaware of many of the things that determine their emotions and behavior. Psychoanalytic

* Psychoanalysis: technique of helping people with emotional problems based on Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind (based on

but his theories on dreams seemed to be the most popular, even to this day.Freud thinks that the agent that

Sigmund Freud created strong theories in science and medicine that are still studied today. Freud was a neurologist who proposed many distinctive theories in psychiatry, all based upon the method of psychoanalysis. Some of his key concepts include the ego/superego/id, free association, trauma/fantasy, dream interpretation, and jokes and the unconscious. “Freud remained a determinist throughout his life, believing that all vital phenomena, including psychological phenomena like thoughts, feelings and phantasies, are rigidly determined by the principle of cause and effect” (Storr, 1989, p. 2). Through the discussion of those central concepts, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis becomes clear as to how he construed human character.

The psychoanalytic perspective, is the outlook that behavior and personality are effected by the conflict between one’s inner dreams n and expectation of society. Most of this conflict occurs in unconscious, which is outside the knowledge of an individual. Renowned psychologist, Freud established the psychoanalytic theory as an explanation for perplexed phenomena such as the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and behavioral reflex reactions to stressful situations. The unconscious is a primary focus in psychoanalytic theory due to its typical development in childhood and the ways in which it influences nearly every detail of an individual’s life. The unconscious mind also holds unvented memories and unexpressed urges that make their process into the conscious mind through a variety of different means. However, topographical theory of the mind states that conscious, preconscious, and unconscious serve as motivating forces in human behavior. Corsin & Wedding (2011) define the conscious as mental activity which individuals are fully aware of, preconscious as thoughts and feelings that could be easily brought to mind and unconscious as thoughts, feelings, and desires of which one is unaware of.

Freud was the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud used to make his patients sit on his couch and advise them to talk freely about what is on their mind and their symptoms. Freud used Free association in his therapy sessions. Free association is when patients talk freely without censoring themselves, and during this exercise images will pop in the patient's mind. Freud would use those images to analyze the cause of it, which he believes lies in the unconscious. Human behavior can be controlled or determined by inner and outer forces. Freud explained how the unconscious can be a cause for our behavior. Mental illnesses contradicts the concept of free will. Since individuals with mental illnesses lose control over their behaviors. For example, a patient suffering from temper issues loses control over their thoughts, words and actions or someone who is suffering from depression can not control their emotions. In The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, published by Freud in 1901, he used the term Fehlleistungen. Fehlleistungen refers to slips of the tongue. Freud blamed the unconscious and repressed desires for those slips of the tongue. His emphasis on the importance of the unconscious mind is shown in how the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the patient conscious of the unconscious mind. Freud believed that those slips would allow him to access the unconscious mind of the patient and understand it.

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

He was the first to talk about psychoanalysis, a technique that allows an individual to recount dreams by what psychologists call free association. Free association is the individual saying whatever comes to mind when something is said. The definition of psychoanalysis can best be defined as "emphasising the roles of unconscious mental forces and conflicts in determining behaviour." The main branch of psychology is "normal thinking" of the mind. Freud thought that many of our problems

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

Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, which will allow one to gain insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences. For example, making the unconscious conscious. Freud had a massive impact on the way people viewed mental illnesses during the First World War. During this time, many psychoanalysts were drafted into war efforts, as physicians or as psychiatrists, due to the rise in “war neuroses.” Many psychiatrists at the time believed that when soldiers showed symptoms of constant nervousness, nightmares, and traumatic memories of war experiences, they were merely cowards trying to escape combat. During the First World War, this perception started to change and people began to think that these symptoms were signs of real psychiatric problems. Shortly after, Freud created a model of the mind called “the Psychic

At the age of 40 in 1896, Sigmund Freud introduced the world to a new term- psychoanalysis (Gay 1). Psychoanalysis is a method of treating patients with different nervous problems by involving them in dialogues which provide the physician with insight into the individual’s psyche. These dialogues provided the basis for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, which “attempts to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges” (Weiten 363). Part of this theory involves the structure of the mind. This is a concept that touches