Sigmund Freud's Treatment Of Mental Illnesses

Many people believe Freud engaged in sexual abuse of children as a part of his studies. His studies on the theories of personality are based upon five stages of development in a child from birth until adulthood. All the theories are centered on specific erogenous zones or particular body parts that are sensitive to sexual stimulation (Stevenson, 1996). Needs, as noted by Freud, which need to be met during each of these stages of development are present from the moment of birth. If the needs are not met or if the needs are overly met, the child will experience frustration or overindulgence issues (Stevenson, 1996). In addition to the issues of frustration or overindulgence, should the child become fixated upon a particular stage the methods the child uses to obtain satisfaction for that stage will affect the child throughout adulthood (Stevenson, 1996).

The Psychoanalytic theory is about personality development and emotional problems. Psychoanalytic theories look at development in terms of internal drives that are unconscious, or hidden from our awareness. There are three basic drives: sexual, survival, and destructiveness. Freud outlined development in phases of “psychosexual stages” (Gordon and Browne, 2016, p.94) with a body part representing each stage. Oral (birth -2) Mouth source of pleasure: eating, teething. Anal (2-3) Bowel movement source of pleasure: toilet learning. Phallic (3-6) Genital source of pleasure: sex role identification and conscience develops. Latency (6-12) sexual forces dormant: energy put into school work and sports.

Freud is held most famous for introducing psychoanalysis as a method of mental health treatment. Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory that investigates the conscious and subconscious minds with the goal of treating mental disturbances. Psychoanalysis essentially retrieves a patient’s repressed feelings and fears to the surface with techniques such as hypnosis, word association, dream interpretation, and hesitations and fumbles. Although Freud was not originally a fan of hypnosis, it was theorized to be an effective of way of channeling the subconscious mind. Word associations are the first things that come into mind. It goes straight through the id, so there is no time to channel the ego or superego. In other words, when someone says the first word that goes through their mind, it gives Freud a way to see into their subconscious mind and discover the trauma that the patient may have experienced. The patient does not have the opportunity to over think about what he is saying. According to Freud, dreams arouse feelings that are disguised and the unconscious mind can be investigated by tracking and interpreting dreams. An example of a hesitation or fumble is a Freudian slip, which is when someone

Sigmund Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality", written in 1905, attempted to trace the course of the development of the sexual instinct in human beings from infancy to maturity. This instinct is not simply an animal instinct but is specific to both human culture and the form of conscious and unconscious life we live within it. For Freud sexuality is infinitely complicated and far-reaching in its effects and forms the basis of self-identity and interactions. His Third Essay discusses the transformations of puberty in both males and females. Part four of this essay focuses on the differentiation between male and female sexuality. Freud states in this part that 'as far as the autoerotic and masturbatory manifestations of sexuality

Sigmund Freud is a very known psychologist from the early scholars of the psychology world. One of His most significant outlooks and study was in the sexology field. Sexology had already been constituted as a separate form of enquiry some time before the appearance of Freud’s most important contribution, The three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905) and many of the terms that we tend to identify with Freud, such as libido, component instincts, erotogenic zones, catharsis, autoerotism and narcissism were already in circulation. (Akroterion. 58, 79-96, Dec. 2013) Some have argued that Freud did not acknowledge the contribution of sexology to psychoanalysis sufficiently in his studies and findings. But others may find this statement as overstated. Further in my research you will read how Freud’s work contributed greatly to the sexology dialogue and psychosexual development.

Freud was known for having the inclinations to follow every mental issue back to sexual issues. Despite the fact that lone parts of his hypothesis of psychosexual advancement are being acknowledged by standard analysts, Freud's hypothesis of the Oedipal Complex has turned out to be extremely well known in the way of life. That hypothesis is the critical for sexual association with the parent of the inverse sex and a corresponding feeling of contention with the parent of a similar sex. Sigmund Freud acquainted us with the idea in his "Interpretation of Dreams" in 1899. Psychoanalysis is a system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements. Freud developed this theory all because of his study of the unconscious mind. And that the unconscious mind will govern your mind and behavior to a greater than anyone would ever think would be done. The whole purpose of of the psychoanalysis theory is to to turn the unconscious conscious. That's what psychoanalysis is and how it was developed (McLeod, 2014).

Freud mostly based his theory from his therapy sessions with his adult patients consisting of many with various psychosomatic disorders. According to Freud’s theory these patients were experiencing physical symptoms because there was a psychosexual stage which they had not fully fulfilled. “He believed that our most basic instinct is to derive pleasure by giving in to our innate aggressive and sexual impulses.” (Mossler, 2011 section 1.5)

The history of mental illness in the United States as for other parts of the world is ever-changing. Mental illness have been seen as insanity, source of sorcery, treated through the church, seen as genetic based etc. through the centuries. For example, due to the belief that mental illness was caused by evil spirit during the stone age, the cure was trepanation (History of mental illness lecture).We no longer see the use of trepanation because over time, knowledge of mental illness has evolved. In the twentieth century, there were three revolutions in the United States that initiated highly influential patterns of treatment for the mentally ill: psychoanalysis and the theories of Sigmund Freud, the widespread use of psychoactive drugs to treat

Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. Freud believed that early childhood experiences provide unconscious motivation for actions later in life (Freud, 1960). The basis of Freud’s psychosexual theory is certain parts of the body assume psychological significance as the focus of sexual energy throughout the development of the child (James, et al, 2013, p. 57). “Freud’s work may help to explain normal behavior that parents may confuse with abnormal behavior, and it also may provide a good foundation for sex education” (James, et al, 2013, p. 57). The stages of this theory include oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital (James, et al, 2013, p. 57).

The Unconscious, Nothing Comes “Out of the Blue”: Freud discovered that there are no accidents and no coincidences. Even “random-seeming” feelings, ideas, impulses, wishes, events and actions carry important, often unconscious, meanings. Anyone who has ever made a “Freudian Slip” that has left them embarrassed or baffled will attest to the importance of the unconscious meanings of the things we do and say.

After two busts, Freud was not worried and felt that he was on the brink of finding a method with lasting effects. This is when he developed the method called free association. Free association was a method he developed that allowed him to tap into the patient's unconscious mind while the patient was still conscious (Alexander 15). Free association involves the doctor using different techniques or games so the patient responding with the first thing that comes to their mind. This includes word association, ink blots, and just meaningless conversation to catch grammar habits or anything else that could be used to key into an emotional or mental problem. It is used to help dig into a patient’s inner thoughts because the patient wasn’t thinking but letting their unconscious express itself.

Historically, hysteria has been linked with sexuality. According to Freud, his patient Dora experiences a vast number of symptoms that all relate back to her sexuality in some way. For years the 18 year old patient had experienced symptoms of physical and mental hysteria; difficulty breathing coughing, loss of voice, migraines, antisocial behaviour and depression. Freud states “causes of hysterical disorders are to be found in the intimacies of the patients’ psycho-sexual life.” Evidently her first recollection of trauma is when Herr. K, a middle-aged man and friend to her father made an indecent approach to her. He grabbed and kissed her. Her reaction was disgust. Freud deems this as an example of the hysterical symptom of displacement. Instead

Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychoanalysis, seems to be keen on what sexuality truly is. In his passage, Infantile Sexuality, he attributes ones sexuality coming from the development in the first stages of life. He avoids the simple definition of sexuality as whole, genital intercourse between two people, and delves deeper into how sexuality has its roots in the first stages of life. Freud disagrees with sexuality being absent from a child’s life until puberty, and attributes this sexual instinct to the earlier stages of life. Sigmund states that sexuality cannot truly be understood without looking back at the infantile stage. During this stage, although never remembered due to amnesia, sexual life is developed, and one’s true sexuality comes into form.

From a Freudian perspective human development is based on psychosexual theory. From a psychosexual perspective maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). Ultimately, Freud believed that sex was the most important instinct and any mental disturbance revolved around sexual conflicts that were suppressed from childhood. Furthermore, Freud believed that parents permitting too much or too little gratification of sexual needs led

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