SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

Life:
Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia in 1856; Freud had been a heavy cigar smoker all his life. In 1939,
after his cancer had been deemed inoperable, Freud asked his doctor to help him commit suicide. The doctor
administered three separate doses of morphine and Freud died September 23, 1939.
Freud's body was cremated; his ashes were placed in an ancient Greek urn.
Career and Works:
. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna. Freud was an atheist who fought against religion, which he
considered an obstacle to human intelligence and its development. Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis.
Freud distinguished himself by giving the world a new medical discipline, psychoanalysis. Breaking with the choice
between physical causes and simulation to understand hysteria, Freud developed an innovative approach to the
human mind by providing a fundamental role to the unconscious.
As a result of a general lack of scientific evidence of its effectiveness and due to sectarian behaviors deemed of its
supporters, psychoanalysis has been subject to much criticism over the 100 years or so of its existence.
BOOKS:

WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS?
Depth psychology or Psychoanalysis is a description of the human mind in general as well as a therapy for
nervous and mental disorders. His theory of the unconscious is necessary to an understanding of what a
human being is.
Freud's develop psychoanalysis took place during a period in which he experienced heart irregularities,
disturbing dreams and periods of depression, a "neurasthenia" which he linked to the death of his father in
1896 and which prompted a "self-analysis" of his own dreams and memories of childhood.
Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three
elements of personality--known as the id, the ego and the superego--work together to create complex human
behaviors.. Freud wrote and theorized about a broad range of subjects including sex, dreams, religion, women
and culture.

According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements.
These three elements of personality--known as the id, the ego and the superego--work together to create complex
human behaviors.
Id: Meeting Basic Needs
The id is the most basic part of the personality, and wants instant gratification for our wants and needs. If these needs
or wants are not met, a person becomes tense or anxious.
Ego: Dealing with Reality
The ego deals with reality, trying to meet the desires of the id in a way that is socially acceptable in the world. This
may mean delaying gratification, and helping to get rid of the tension the id feels if a desire is not met right away.
The ego recognizes that other people have needs and wants too, and that being selfish is not always good for us in
the long run.
Superego: Adding Morals
The superego develops last, and is based on morals and judgments about right and wrong. Even though the superego
and the ego may reach the same decision about something, the superegos reason for that decision is more based on
moral values, while the egos decision is based more on what others will think or what the consequences of an action
could be.
There are two parts of the superego:
1.

The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviours. These behaviours include those which are
approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value and
accomplishment.
2.
The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These
behaviours are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.
Concept:
The id acts as a pleasure principle: if not compelled by reality it seeks immediate enjoyment.
The id stands in direct opposition to the super-ego.
The Super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The Super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner,
whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The Super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and
guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways
The ego is the mediator between the id and the super-ego, trying to ensure that the needs of both the id and
the super-ego are satisfied.

Freud compared himself to an archaeologist digging away layers of the human mind, and identified three separate
areas of the mind.

Conscious and Unconscious Mind

Freud (1915) described conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware.
The unconscious mind contains our biologically based instincts (eros and thanatos) for the primitive urges for
sex and aggression. While we are fully aware of what is going on in the conscious mind, we have no idea of what
information is stored in the unconscious mind.

How can we understand the unconscious mind?

1) Rorschach ink blots
The ink blot is known as a projective test as the patient 'projects' information from their unconscious mind to
interpret the ink blot.
2) Freudian Slips
Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the form of parapraxes, popularly
known as Freudian slips or slips of the tongue. We reveal what is really on our mind by saying something we
didnt mean to.
3) Free Association
A simple technique of psychodynamic therapy is free association in which a patient
talks of whatever comes into their mind. This technique involves a therapist reading a list of
words (e.g. mother, childhood etc.) and the patient immediately responds with the first word
that comes to mind. It is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the
course of free association.
Subconscious/Pre-conscious Mind
The pre-conscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily
be brought to consciousness. It exists just below the level of consciousness before the unconscious mind.
Defence Mechanisms
Sigmund Freud (1894, 1896) noted a number of ego defences which he refers to throughout his written works. His
daughter Anna (1937) developed these ideas and elaborated on them, adding five of her own.
Many psychoanalysts have also added further types of ego defences.

Why do we need Ego defences?

Memories banished to the unconscious, or unacceptable drives or urges do not disappear. They continue to
exert a powerful influence on behavior. The forces, which try to keep painful or socially undesirable thoughts and
memories out of the conscious mind, are termed defense mechanisms.

"Dreams are the Royal Road to the Unconscious."

- Sigmund Freud
Freuds Perspective about DREAMS
With his psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud opened the door for dreams to become a subject of scientifically
research. He became interested in dreams when dealing with his patients because they were telling dreams
spontaneously. He soon systematically included interpretation of dreams in psychoanalysis right beside hypnosis and
free association.
In the end of 19th century he eventually researched the mechanism of dreaming. The analysis of dreams is
indispensable tool in therapy for each psychoanalyst since then, and for Freud, dreams are even the key to theoretical
understanding of subconscious.
He explained also dreams of people, who did not suffer from mental illness, in psychoanalytic way and so he
was changing his psychotherapy in theory in the very beginning.

Dream Symbolism
Freud derived dream symbols from the resistance of dream interpretation. He noticed that resistance regularly
occurred with certain elements of dreams even in dreams of mentally healthy people. He claimed that formation of
visual answer on stimulus (dream) is not coincidental. He figured out that some parts of manifest content typically
correspond with certain latent content. Freud called these manifest elements symbols - to which he ascribed constant
meaning. The dream symbols are in his opinion more or less sexual.
Dream Interpretations
Freud also emphasized the wish-fulfilment hypothesis. Freud believed all dreams are fulfilments of wishes. He
believed dreams depict our sexual needs and fantasies. The objects in our dreams are symbols for something sexual.
While awake our conscious represses sexual desires. But, when our unconscious is in operation (while sleeping)
these repressed thoughts are released in our dreams.