Sigmund Freud is not a Fraud
Each event in history has in some way shaped the way the world is today. Although events were based on environmental forces, most were the result of people’s actions and reactions to their surroundings. Where do actions come from? The mind. It is what everyone has and uses (to the best of their abilities) to function physically, socially, and emotionally. But the main theory to remember is that everyone is different, meaning different minds and different actions from all, and that what happens to you in your earlier years will effects the decisions you make later in life.
Says who? Austrian psychologist born 1856, Sigmund Freud. His famed psychoanalytical theories have told the story of the unconscious mind. Freud is the father of free association (the most common form of therapy today), dream analysis, the theory that sexuality is the primary motivation for humans, and neurological research of cerebral palsy. Despite the controversy around Freud’s theories and studies, he set the stepping stones to understanding why people are the way they are, thus why events happen.
Sigmund Freud, 1920.
Despite the economic crisis experienced by the majority of European families in 1857, the Freud family focused solely on giving Sigmund the greatest education possible. From the start he excelled in school, and was interested in a variety of subjects from law to medicine. Zoology was his first course of study at the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. After being the first to study the life of an eel and discover the reproductive organs, Freud decided to switch his focus to medicine. Using his background knowledge of chemistry and biology, he swiftly shifted into psychology and development of theories of the ‘unconscious mind’. Although not the first to come up with the concept, Freud explored the deeper realms which we know today such as the thought that our unconscious consists of knowledge which we are unaware of. Everything which we experience is forever installed into our minds, but not necessarily used all the time. He has given us our knowledge of intuition, “The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition,” (dictionary.com). We also have knowledge of sleep, dreams, and the power of hypnosis. After his studies in psychology, Freud decided to use many of his theories for psychiatry. Freud hypnotized his neurotic patients in hopes of retrieving information from the depths of their unconscious. Hypnosis, as we now know, is a difficult form of therapy, because many people are unable to let go and relax; the only way for something such as hypnosis to work is if the patient is willing to accept the hypnosis. With his neurotic patients, Freud also used what is known as the “talking cure”, going back to my comment on what is known as ‘free association’. He allowed the patient to speak about what they were experiencing instead of adding his input on what could be the problem.
When the patient is given the liberty to speak without interruption and with encouragement to expose information about themselves, much can be uncovered.
And with this form of therapy (what is know as psychoanalytic), Freud came up with the human ‘defense mechanisms’:
- Repression: defensiveness; we remember what we want to in order to protect ourselves/denial of emotions.
- Denial: refusal to believe or acknowledge the truth.
- Projection: claiming that your unpleasant thoughts are truly those of someone else.
- Rationalization: allows for logical reasons for actions which are inexcusable.
- Intellectualization: detaching emotion for difficult events, and realizing them in rational terms.
- Regression: giving up maturity for childlike actions and decision making.
- Displacement: taking anger from a certain event/person, and taking anger out upon someone else who is not of fault.
Also from Freud, we have knowledge of the Id (containing basic drives), Ego (our conscious awareness), and Superego (personality structure, where our aims for perfection are), which are the levels of the human psyche. Each person is believed to have each level, and depending upon which one is “stronger” or more apparent will determine actions.
Defense mechanisms? The unconscious mind? Psychoanalytic research and therapy?; these commonly visited concepts may be unimportant to the everyday person, but are in fact all major basis’ of thinking. From the beginning of time, thoughts have turned into actions, actions have turned into events, and events have made up the history of today. It is my belief that people are the cause of history, even when history pertains to environmental factors because of the way people react. Sigmund Freud has given us a way to examine thoughts and understand why the past happened based on psychological factors.
Information Credits:
“Psychology; 7th Edition”. David G. Myers, 2003.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Interesting.
Unlike many (myself included), you focused more upon the ideas and less upon the person.
This is good because it provides more information about WHY that person is great.
However, you didn’t provide as much information about Freud and the origin of his ideas.
Also, did he have any ideas besides the development of psychotherapy? I’m not undermining your main idea, but other ideas would give a wider scope of his ideas (Unless these will be in your presentation?)
Overall, good job!
June 9th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Freud was a brilliant man and thinker. Modern psychology is based off of his theories, which have helped and saved many people. Many people would be lost in todays world without freud and his theories
June 10th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Very good information and structure. You were certainly very convincing. Freud definately contributed a lot to the modern understanding of the human mind. I am, however, curious as to why you didn’t mention is contributions to the fiels of zoology.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hey marie I really liked the blog (can tell your a psych AP student). The information was all relevant and well articulated which is sometimes very difficult to do when discussing Freudian thought. I also enjoyed the conclusion, that connected psychoanalytic thought to modern day events/actions (thus affecting history), However, I would like to see this section expanded. If you were able to site some examples on how specific events occured due to psychoanalysis that would be extremely helpful.