when did freud come up with psychoanalysis

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What was Freud's first psychoanalytic work?

In this book, Freud and Breuer described their theory that the symptoms of hysteria were symbolic representations of traumatic, and often sexual, memories. By 1896, Freud had abandoned hypnosis and started ...

What did Freud do with his hypnosis?

Out of these experiments in hypnosis, and in collaboration with his colleague Josef Breuer, Freud developed a new kind of psychological treatment based on the patient talking about whatever came to mind – memories, dreams, thoughts, emotions – and then analysing that information in order to relieve the patient’s symptoms. He would later call this process ‘free association’. Early forays into this new ‘talking cure’ by Breuer and Freud yielded promising results (notably in the famous case of ‘Anna O.’) A year before marrying his fiancée Martha Bernays, Freud published Studies on Hysteria (1895) with Breuer, the first ever ‘psychoanalytic’ work. In this book, Freud and Breuer described their theory that the symptoms of hysteria were symbolic representations of traumatic, and often sexual, memories. By 1896, Freud had abandoned hypnosis and started using the term ‘psychoanalysis’ to refer to this new clinical method and its underlying theories. The following year, Freud embarked upon a self-analysis, which he deemed necessary both as a means of expanding and testing his theory of the mind, and as an exercise in honesty and self-knowledge. This self-investigation led him to build upon his and Breuer’s original theory that neurosis was caused by early trauma, and to develop substantially his ideas about infantile sexuality and repression. In the coming years and decades, Freud’s clinical work with his patients – among them the famous ‘Dora’, ‘Rat Man’, and ‘Little Hans’ – would remain the basis and core of his work, and would provide the vital material for his continual advancement and refinement of his theory of the mind.

What did Freud believe in the interpretation of dreams?

Freud believed these dream symbols were far from simple to interpret, often embodying several meanings at once. It was also in The Interpretation of Dreams that Freud introduced perhaps his most famous concept of the Oedipus Complex, and it was here that he first mapped out his topographical model of the mind.

Why did Freud have a growth in his jaw?

In this year Freud also discovered a pre-cancerous growth in his jaw, certainly caused by his regular and liberal consumption of cigars. He nonetheless found himself unable to give them up, and likened his addiction to them to his obsessional collecting of antiquities.

What did Freud see in his dreams?

He saw the preconscious mind as a kind of censor or bodyguard, only allowing unthreatening thoughts into the conscious mind. According to Freud, in dreams this censorship becomes weaker, and forbidden wishes can become visible to our sleeping minds, albeit in some kind of symbolic disguise or code.

Where did Sigmund Freud study?

He excelled academically, developing a passion for literature, languages and the arts that would profoundly influence his thinking about the human mind. Freud became very interested in medical and scientific research, and went on to study medicine at the University of Vienna. While studying, Freud developed a particular fascination with neurology, and later trained in neuropathology at the Vienna General Hospital. In 1885, Freud travelled to Paris to study at the Salpêtrière Hospital with Jean-Martin Charcot, a famous neurologist studying hypnosis and hysteria. Freud was deeply affected by Charcot’s work, and upon returning to Vienna he started using hypnosis in his own clinical work with patients.

How did Freud's daughter die?

In 1920 Freud suffered a personal tragedy when his daughter Sophie died from the influenza eviscerating an already war-damaged Europe. She was aged only twenty-seven when she died, pregnant, and a mother of two. Three years later Freud would also lose Sophie’s son Heinerle, his grandson, at the age of four.

Why is psychoanalysis so hostile to the medical community?

The reasons for this hostility are to be found, from the medical point of view, in the fact that psychoanalysis lays stress upon psychical factors, and from the philosophical point of view, in its assuming as an underlying postulate the concept of unconscious mental activity; but the strongest reason was undoubtedly the general disinclination of mankind to concede to the factor of sexuality such importance as is assigned to it by psychoanalysis. In spite of this widespread opposition, however, the movement in favour of psychoanalysis was not to be checked. Its adherents formed themselves into an International Association, which passed successfully through the ordeal of the World War, and at the present time comprises local groups in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, London, Switzerland, Holland, Moscow and Calcutta, as well as two in the United States. There are three journals representing the views of these societies: the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Imago (which is concerned with the application of psychoanalysis to non-medical fields of knowledge), and the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.

What is the purpose of the mental apparatus?

From the economic standpoint psychoanalysis supposes that the mental representations of the instincts have a cathexis of definite quantities of energy, and that it is the purpose of the mental apparatus to hinder any damming-up of these energies and to keep as low as possible the total amount of the excitations to which it is subject. The course of mental processes is automatically regulated by the “ pleasure-pain principle ”; and pain is thus in some way related to an increase of excitation and pleasure to a decrease. In the course of development the original pleasure principle undergoes a modification with reference to the external world, giving place to the “ reality-principle ,” whereby the mental apparatus learns to postpone the pleasure of satisfaction and to tolerate temporarily feelings of pain.

How does psychoanalysis work?

The therapeutic results of psychoanalysis depend upon the replacement of unconscious mental acts by conscious ones and are operative in so far as that process has significance in relation to the disorder under treatment. The replacement is effected by overcoming internal resistances in the patient’s mind. The future will probably attribute far greater importance to psychoanalysis as the science of the unconscious than as a therapeutic procedure.

When did the psychoanalytic movement start?

The Psychoanalytic Movement. The beginnings of psychoanalysis may be marked by two dates: 1895 , which saw the publication of Breuer and Freud’s Studien über Hysterie, and 1900, which saw that of Freud’s Traumdeutung.

What are the two groups of instincts?

An empirical analysis leads to the formation of two groups of instincts: the so-called “ego-instincts,” which are directed towards self-preservation and the “object-instincts, ” which are concerned with relations to an external object. The social instincts are not regarded as elementary or irreducible.

What are the three points of view of psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis, in its character of depth-psychology, considers mental life from three points of view: the dynamic, the economic and the topographical.

What is hysterical symptom?

A hysterical symptom would thus be a substitute for an omitted mental act and a reminiscence of the occasion which should have given rise to that act. And, on this view, recovery would be a result of the liberation of the affect that had gone astray and of its discharge along a normal path (“ Abreaction ”).

What was Freud's initial impulse to accept these as having happened?

At first, however, Freud was uncertain about the precise status of the sexual component in this dynamic conception of the psyche. His patients seemed to recall actual experiences of early seductions, often incestuous in nature. Freud’s initial impulse was to accept these as having happened. But then, as he disclosed in a now famous letter to Fliess of September 2, 1897, he concluded that, rather than being memories of actual events, these shocking recollections were the residues of infantile impulses and desires to be seduced by an adult. What was recalled was not a genuine memory but what he would later call a screen memory, or fantasy, hiding a primitive wish. That is, rather than stressing the corrupting initiative of adults in the etiology of neuroses, Freud concluded that the fantasies and yearnings of the child were at the root of later conflict.

What was Freud's method of free association?

Freud, still beholden to Charcot’s hypnotic method, did not grasp the full implications of Breuer’s experience until a decade later, when he developed the technique of free association. In part an extrapolation of the automatic writing promoted by the German Jewish writer Ludwig Börne a century before, in part a result of his own clinical experience with other hysterics, this revolutionary method was announced in the work Freud published jointly with Breuer in 1895, Studien über Hysterie ( Studies in Hysteria ). By encouraging the patient to express any random thoughts that came associatively to mind, the technique aimed at uncovering hitherto unarticulated material from the realm of the psyche that Freud, following a long tradition, called the unconscious. Because of its incompatibility with conscious thoughts or conflicts with other unconscious ones, this material was normally hidden, forgotten, or unavailable to conscious reflection. Difficulty in freely associating—sudden silences, stuttering, or the like—suggested to Freud the importance of the material struggling to be expressed, as well as the power of what he called the patient’s defenses against that expression. Such blockages Freud dubbed resistance, which had to be broken down in order to reveal hidden conflicts. Unlike Charcot and Breuer, Freud came to the conclusion, based on his clinical experience with female hysterics, that the most insistent source of resisted material was sexual in nature. And even more momentously, he linked the etiology of neurotic symptoms to the same struggle between a sexual feeling or urge and the psychic defenses against it. Being able to bring that conflict to consciousness through free association and then probing its implications was thus a crucial step, he reasoned, on the road to relieving the symptom, which was best understood as an unwitting compromise formation between the wish and the defense.

What did Freud believe about dreams?

The mind’s energy—which Freud called libido and identified principally, but not exclusively, with the sexual drive—was a fluid and malleable force capable of excessive and disturbing power. Needing to be discharged to ensure pleasure and prevent pain, it sought whatever outlet it might find. If denied the gratification provided by direct motor action, libidinal energy could seek its release through mental channels. Or, in the language of The Interpretation of Dreams, a wish can be satisfied by an imaginary wish fulfillment. All dreams, Freud claimed, even nightmares manifesting apparent anxiety, are the fulfillment of such wishes.

What is the interpretation of dreams?

The Interpretation of Dreams provides a hermeneutic for the unmasking of the dream’s disguise, or dreamwork, as Freud called it. The manifest content of the dream, that which is remembered and reported, must be understood as veiling a latent meaning.

What was Freud's work on hysteria?

Freud’s work on hysteria had focused on female sexuality and its potential for neurotic expression. To be fully universal, psychoanalysis—a term Freud coined in 1896—would also have to examine the male psyche in a condition of what might be called normality. It would have to become more than a psychotherapy and develop into a complete theory of the mind. To this end Freud accepted the enormous risk of generalizing from the experience he knew best: his own. Significantly, his self-analysis was both the first and the last in the history of the movement he spawned; all future analysts would have to undergo a training analysis with someone whose own analysis was ultimately traceable to Freud’s analysis of his disciples.

What is the meaning of dreams?

Or, in the language of The Interpretation of Dreams, a wish can be satisfied by an imaginary wish fulfillment. All dreams, Freud claimed, even nightmares manifesting apparent anxiety, are the fulfillment of such wishes. More precisely, dreams are the disguised expression of wish fulfillments.

What is Freud's mind energy?

The mind’s energy—which Freud called libido and identified principally, but not exclusively, with the sexual drive—was a fluid and malleable force capable of excessive and disturbing power. Needing to be discharged to ensure pleasure and prevent pain, it sought whatever outlet it might find.

What did Freud believe about psychology?

Freud believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions that it makes on the basis of psychological drives. The id, ego, and super-ego are three aspects of the mind Freud believed to comprise a person's personality. Freud believed people are "simply actors in the drama of [their] own minds, pushed by desire, pulled by coincidence. Underneath the surface, our personalities represent the power struggle going on deep within us".

Why did Freud believe that religion is an illusion?

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires." Freud believed that people rely on religion to give explanations for anxieties and tension they do not want to consciously believe in. Freud argued that humanity created God in their image. This reverses the idea of any type of religion because he believed that it is constructed by the mind. The role of the mind is something that Freud repeatedly talked about because he believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions based on drives and forces. The idea that religion causes people to behave in a moral way is incorrect according to Freud because he believed that no other force has the power to control the ways in which people act. Unconscious desires motivate people to act accordingly. Freud did a significant amount of research studying how people act and interact in a group setting. He believed that people act in different ways according to the demands and constraints of the group as a whole. In his book Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Freud argued that the church and organized religion form an "artificial group" which requires an external force to keep it together. In this type of group, everything is dependent on that external force and without it, the group would no longer exist. Groups are necessary, according to Freud in order to decrease the narcissism in all people, by creating libidinal ties with others by placing everyone at an equal level. The commonness among different people with different egos allows people to identify with one another. This relates to the idea of religion because Freud believed that people created religion in order to create these group ties that they unconsciously seek for.

What did Freud believe about the unconscious desires?

Unconscious desires motivate people to act accordingly . Freud did a significant amount of research studying how people act and interact in a group setting. He believed that people act in different ways according to the demands and constraints of the group as a whole.

How does the mind respond to anxiety?

When anxiety occurs, the mind's first response is to seek rational ways of escaping the situation by increasing problem-solving efforts and a range of defense mechanisms may be triggered . These are ways that the ego develops to help deal with the id and the superego. Defense mechanisms often appear unconsciously and tend to distort or falsify reality. When the distortion of reality occurs, there is a change in perception which allows for a lessening in anxiety resulting in a reduction of tension one experiences. Sigmund Freud noted a number of ego defenses that were noted throughout his work but his daughter, Anna Freud, developed and elaborated on them. The defense mechanisms are as follows: 1) Denial is believing that what is true is actually false 2) Displacement is taking out impulses on a less threatening target 3) Intellectualization is avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on the intellectual aspects 4) Projection is attributing uncomfortable feelings to others 5) Rationalization is creating false but believable justifications 6) Reaction Formation is taking the opposite belief because the true belief causes anxiety 7) Regression is going back to a previous stage of development 8) Repression is pushing uncomfortable thoughts out of conscious awareness 9) Suppression is consciously forcing unwanted thoughts out of our awareness 10) Sublimation is redirecting ‘wrong’ urges into socially acceptable actions. These defenses are not under our conscious control and our unconscious will use one or more to protect one's self from stressful situations. They are natural and normal and without these, neurosis develops such as anxiety states, phobias, obsessions, or hysteria.

What is the id in Freud's theory?

The id according to Freud is the part of the unconscious that seeks pleasure. His idea of the id explains why people act out in certain ways when it is not in line with the ego or superego. The id is the part of the mind, which holds all of humankind’s most basic and primal instincts.

How is the ID compared to the ego?

Freud compared the id and the ego to a horse and a rider. The id is compared to the horse, which is directed and controlled, by the ego or the rider. This example goes to show that although the id is supposed to be controlled by the ego, they often interact with one another according to the drives of the ego.

Why did Freud reverse the idea of religion?

This reverses the idea of any type of religion because he believed that it is constructed by the mind. The role of the mind is something that Freud repeatedly talked about because he believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions based on drives and forces.

Who Was Sigmund Freud?

Sigmund Freud, often known as the father of psychoanalysis , is one of the most important figures in the early development of the field of psychology. An Austrian neuroscientist, he was one of the most important thinkers of the early twentieth century and pioneered many psychological concepts, including the idea of the unconscious, repression, psychoanalysis and talk therapy.

Why do we discuss dreams in psychoanalysis?

During psychoanalytic sessions, dreams can often be discussed to analyze them for possible unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires. Freud widely popularized the practice of psychotherapy throughout the western world, including talk therapy in general, as well as psychoanalysis in particular.

What did Freud study?

Freud was a groundbreaker in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, pioneering the scientific study of the mind, repressed thoughts and memories, and the influence of sexual development on a psychological disorder.

What books did Freud write?

A prolific writer, Freud published numerous books and essays throughout his career, including The Interpretation of Dreams, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Ego and the Id, and Civilization and its Discontents.

What did Freud do for his patients?

Freud was a practicing psychoanalyst for much of his career, often treating high- profile patients, and writing about their symptoms using pseudonyms. Freud's treatment included therapies such as free association, during which patients were encouraged to speak freely in a stream of conscious style with direction from Freud, as well as the interpretation of dreams, in which Freud listened to accounts of remembered dreams and subsequently analyzed their unconscious significance.

What is the task of a psychoanalyst?

The task of the psychoanalyst is often to uncover these buried experiences and feelings, to reduce the tension between the conscious and unconscious minds. The Unconscious. One of the significant concepts in the study of psychoanalysis is unconscious. According to Freud, certain ideas, thoughts, and memories are repressed ...

Why are dreams so veiled?

For this reason, dreams are often veiled in symbolism and imagery that is difficult to interpret on a literal level. While Freud characterizes dreams as a sort of wish fulfillment, the manifest content of the narrative of the dream often seems unrelated, while the latent content of unconscious desires is difficult to uncover.

What is the most influential thinker of the twentieth century?

Psychology's most famous figure is also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud's theories and work helped shape our views of childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Other major thinkers have contributed work that grew out of Freud's legacy, ...

What did Freud's patients do?

These patients helped shape his theories and many have become well known in their own right. Some of these individuals included.

Why was Freud criticized?

Both during his life and after, Freud was criticized for his views of women, femininity, and female sexuality. One of his most famous critics was another psychologist named Karen Horney, who rejected his view that women suffered from "penis envy.". She instead argued that men experience "womb envy" and are left with feelings ...

How to understand Freud's legacy?

In order to understand his legacy, it is important to begin with a look at his life. His experiences informed many of his theories, so learning more about his life and the times he lived in can lead to a deeper understanding of where his theories came from.

What are Freud's theories?

Freud's theories were enormously influential , but subject to considerable criticism both now and during his own life. However, his ideas have become interwoven into the fabric of our culture, with terms such as " Freudian slip ," "repression," and "denial" appearing regularly in everyday language.

How did Freud's ideas impact psychology?

Freud's ideas had such a strong impact on psychology that an entire school of thought emerged from his work. While it was eventually replaced by behaviorism, psychoanalysis had a lasting impact on both psychology and psychotherapy.

What is Freud's personal favorite?

Freud's writings detail many of his major theories and ideas, including his personal favorite, "The Interpretation of Dreams .". " [It] contains...the most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my good fortune to make. Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once in a lifetime," he explained. 3.

What did Sigmund Freud believe about psychology?

Freud believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality.

Why are dreams important?

Freud (1900) considered dreams to be the royal road to the unconscious as it is in dreams that the ego's defenses are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to awareness, albeit in distorted form. Dreams perform important functions for the unconscious mind and serve as valuable clues to how the unconscious mind operates.

What did Freud describe in his model of the mind?

Freud (1900, 1905) developed a topographical model of the mind, whereby he described the features of the mind’s structure and function. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind.

How did Freud understand the nature and variety of these illnesses?

Freud sought to understand the nature and variety of these illnesses by retracing the sexual history of his patients. This was not primarily an investigation of sexual experiences as such. Far more important were the patient’s wishes and desires, their experience of love, hate, shame, guilt and fear – and how they handled these powerful emotions.

What did Freud believe about childhood?

Freud believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. For example, anxiety originating from traumatic experiences in a person's past is hidden from consciousness, and may cause problems during adulthood (in the form of neuroses). Article Content.

How many levels of the mind did Freud propose?

This theory emerged “bit by bit” as a result of Freud’s clinical investigations, and it led him to propose that there were at least three levels of the mind.

What was Freud's life work?

Freud's life work was dominated by his attempts to find ways of penetrating this often subtle and elaborate camouflage that obscures the hidden structure and processes of personality. His lexicon has become embedded within the vocabulary of Western society.

What does it mean to get stuck in Freud's theory?

What It Means to Get Stuck in Freud’s Theory. Freud’s ideas about individualized personality development are dependent on the progression of the individual. Freud believed that are different stages that occur based on how a person’s libido is focused on specific, but different body parts.

What is Freudian slip?

It may also come out in the form of a Freudian Slip, which would show evidence of the ego or superego not working properly. This, in turn, would affect an individual’s personality because no progression could be made until the communication from the unconscious mind was addressed. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality does have ...

Why is Freud's theory of personality so controversial?

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality often comes under criticism because of its primary focus on individualized sexuality identification. This emphasis then led to an importance on the dreams that a person has, what the interpretation of that dream might be, and the defense mechanisms that an individual might use to protect their ...

What is the ego in psychology?

It is the balance between the instinctual form of personality and the moral form of personality. The ego, according to Freud, rationalizes the urges and instincts of the individual and separates what is real from the restrictions that societal groups place upon individuals. SUPEREGO: This personality element is driven by morality principles.

What are the stages of psychosexual development?

Freud identified five different stages of psychosexual development which he believed would influence the outcomes of the conflicts occurring through the id, ego, and superego. 4. Social expectations and biological drives must be integrated.

What are unconscious conflicts?

Most of the conflicts are unconscious. People are not aware of how their three internal components are in conflict with each other, despite the fact that this conflict shapes the mind in terms of personality and even behavior. 3. Sexual identification can influence this conflict. Freud identified five different stages of psychosexual development ...

What is Freud's theory of personality?

The Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality is an idea that the personality of an individual will develop in a series of stages. Each stage is characterized by certain and very specific internal psychological conflicts. It is a theory that can be characterized by 4 key points.

Who was the first psychoanalyst?

The origin of Freud's early work with psychoanalysis can be linked to Joseph Breuer. Breuer who became famous after treating a young woman, diagnosed with what was called female hysteria, Anna O, with kindness and allowing her to talk. He said his patients all reported being sexually abused or had fantasised about it. Freud's said he had uncovered ‘unconscious’ memories of early childhood sexual abuse for every single one his patients from the mid-1890s, who all showed the symptoms of 'hysteria' and obsessional neurosis derived from in infancy. However, a close reading of his papers and letters from this period indicates this was untrue – instead, he analytically inferred the supposed incidents by a procedure heavily dependent on the symbolic (subjective) interpretation of somatic symptoms.

Who did Freud credit with the discovery of the psychoanalytical method?

Freud did actually credit Breuer with the discovery of the psychoanalytical method.

Who invented psychoanalysis?

Freud is not the true father of psychoanalysis; it was invented by Joseph Breuer.

Overview

Psychoanalytic theory

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that people could be cured by making their unconscious
The id according to Freud is the part of the unconscious that seeks pleasure. His idea of the id explains why people act out in certain ways when it is not in line with the ego or superego. The id is the part of the mind, which holds all of humankind's most basic and primal instincts. It is the i…

Religion

Greek Theory

The unconscious

Psychosexual stages

Anxiety and defense mechanisms

Totem and Taboo