The Contribution of Sigmund Freud to the Psychological Theory - Assignment Example

Leticia Gudino of 16 November Sigmund Freud The world of psychology has seen tremendous growth over the past century. And one of the proponents that have contributed much to this was an Austrian-born man by the name of Sigmund Freud. He is considered Psychology’s most famous figures and one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. In fact, many of the modern proponents of psychology have contributed work that grew out of Freud’s legacy. His works and theories are profound in that they helped shape our views of childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiburg in Moravia, a small market town one hundred and fifty miles north of Vienna, the capital of modern-day Austria. Freiburg was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, a vast region that included parts of what later became Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, and present-day Austria. Of the 4500 inhabitants of Freiburg at that time, only 130­­—about 3 percent--- were Jews like the Freuds, although there were an equally small number of Protestants. The rest of the townsfolk, over 4000, were Czech Catholics. Freud’s father was a wool merchant. As a kid, had two older half-brothers from his father’s previous marriage and six younger siblings from his mother. Freud inherited his sense of humor from his father, and his tendency for deep emotional feelings from his mother, who was indulgent with him. His father, on the other hand, kept reproving him for bedwetting and said that nothing good would become of him (Gay 2). When he was four years old, the family moved to Vienna, the capital, where he lived most of his life. He was always a brilliant child in school, always at the top of his class. It was here that a physiology professor named Ernst Brucke recognized his talents and invited him to get more involved in research. Sigmund soon proved to be bright at it. He came up with his own inventions, one being a special cell-staining technique. Professor Brucke then helped him to get a grant to study, first with the great French Psychiatrist Charcot in Paris, then with his rival Bernheim in Nancy. Both these gentlemen were investigating the use of hypnosis with hysterics. But he only spent a short time as a resident in neurology. He soon returned to Vienna and married Martha Bernays, his fiancée. Then he set up a practice in neuropsychiatry there (Breger 14). Freud worked with an older colleague, Josef Breuer, Freud formulated and developed the idea that many neuroses had their origins in deeply traumatic experiences which had occurred in the past life of the patient but which were now forgotten. His method was one of remembering what was hidden, to confront it both intellectually and emotionally. This process was believed to lead to the discharging of the ill and thus, to remove the underlying causes of the neurotic symptoms. However, as with others later, Breuer did not agree with Freud’s over-emphasis on the sexual origins and content of neurosis and their collaboration ended. Freud then worked on to refine his theory and practice producing his most important work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which was published in 1900. Preceding this book’s publication Freud undertook a self-analysis which seems to have been largely prompted by his father’s death in 1896. In that analysis, he discovered not only feelings of love for his father but also hostility. Secondly, he found that he had sexual-like feelings for his mother! These observations from his dreams laid the foundation for the oedipal theory: the triangle father, mother and child, in this case, a male child (Gay 19). This is one of many of Freud’s theories that we learn in colleges all around the world, especially in degrees that concern social contact with humans. However, before developing the oedipal theme further we must ask, ‘Why did Freud have need of an unconscious part of the mind for his theories?’ According to Thornton, Freud moved in this direction because he insisted against tradition that symptoms had to have causes. For example, hysterical symptoms did not seem to have obvious conscious causes. Therefore, the cause is hidden elsewhere. This elsewhere we call ‘the unconscious.’ He applied the same reasoning to ‘slips of the tongue and pen, obsessive behavior, and dreams’. Hence, the mind [psyche] is more than the conscious realm but also contains the exceedingly much larger unconscious (Kramer 32). Freud contributed much to the field of Psychology and Psychiatry. Like Charles Darwin, Freud regarded humans as primarily primates driven by instincts. The instincts are buried in the unconscious and energize the mind’s functions. Although many instincts exist, Freud divided them all into ‘two broad generic categories, Eros (the life instinct), which covers all the self-preserving and erotic instincts, and Thanatos (the death instinct), which covers all the instincts towards aggression, self-destruction, and cruelty’. Thanatos is the irrational urge to destroy the source of all sexual energy (libido) by the annihilation of the self (Thornton 58). Hence, according to Thornton, Freud did not contend that all behavior originates from sexual motivation because he also viewed behavior (e. g., the compulsion to repeat self-destructive practices) as stemming from the thanatos instinct. But, it is believed that Freud came to this two-instinct formulation later in life because of the tragic family deaths of his daughter and grandson, and also the devastation from World War 1 that he witnessed first-hand. Nevertheless, Freud did give the sexual drive a centrality in human life, arguing both that the ‘sexual drives exist and can be discerned in children from birth, and that sexual energy . . . that it is the single most important motivating force in adult life’. However, Freud defined the sexual instinct very broadly to mean general bodily pleasure. Hence, the sexual drive is the desire to promote pleasure rather than simply the desire to be genitally active (Thornton 59). Freud also studied much into the behavior of human beings and the common mannerisms manifested by all. And one of the most famous of his theories is that of the Id, Ego, and Superego. He began with the assumption that humans are organisms directed towards the goals of survival and reproduction. To fulfill these goals, they are guided by their needs revealed in the experiences of ‘hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex’. Psychically we are born as centers of unconscious desire, as instinctive beings yearning for satisfaction and pleasure. This unconscious center he termed the ‘Id’; this center operates on the pleasure principle: ‘I see it, I like it, I want it, I am going to get it’. We are and remain essentially Id throughout our lives. This is something that we all are familiar with (Hall 25). However, the Id ‘realizes’ that in order to cope with the demands of the outside world it must take steps to protect itself from itself by compromising with the world’s dictates. Hence, a conscious Ego is generated out of the Id. The Ego acts to protect the individual by mediating between the laws of society and the pressures of the Id. The Ego acts according to the reality principle as Freud termed it. The Id says, ‘I want that’, but the Ego says, ‘If you have that you will be punished and suffer’. Ego is formed at about the age of 2-3 years. The Ego has at its disposal a number of defenses against attacks of the Id to restore order and harmony (Hall 26). At about 5 years of age, the Superego appears, formed out of the ego. This aspect, also unconscious, includes conscience and ego ideals (usually parental models but also other leaders plus racial and cultural values). The Superego judges much of the strivings of the Id to be dangerous and morally bad. Consequently, the Ego is called on to regulate the transactions between the Id and the Superego and between the person and the outside world so that a reasonable degree of pleasure and reality are achieved. Id, Ego and Superego are together an energy system. Libido, sexual energy, is what drives the system. Ego operates to maintain a balance among the competing elements. When balance is tipped too far towards one element (for example, the superego) then anxiety occurs. In that instance, the person would attempt to side with the Ego and the Id against the Superego to reduce the latter’s influence. If the Id forces are too firmly in power, the person will side with the Ego and the Superego against the Id (Hall 28). Another of Freud’s widely used theories is his developmental theory. Most college graduates, especially those in health fields, have gone through this lesson in most instances. In this theory, Freud believed that humans pass through a number of psycho-sexual stages from infanthood to adulthood. When we fail to completely pass through a stage we can remain stuck with certain characteristics relating to the stage even into adult life. In the oral stage, pleasure centers on the mouth. We observe young children in their first year particularly putting everything into their mouths. Freud believed that some people did not come through this stage successfully and remained dependent and prone to depression. Such people also find it hard to make intimate friends with others and fear loss. In the anal stage (1-3 yrs.), the focus is on the anus and its products as children struggle to gain control over their excretory functions. In the Phallic stage (3-5 yrs.), the focus is the genitals, where the oedipal complex in boys and the Electra complex in girls develop. After this, the latency stage sets in (6-12 yrs.), children become even more social, developing same-sex and cross-sex friendships. The final is the genital stage, where adolescents become interested in the opposite sex and often begin to experiment sexually. This is also the stage where unnatural sexual behaviors develop (Freud, Gay 39). Although many other proponents have come up with their own theories of development, like Erickson and Havighurst, Freud’s theory has always been on the forefront and it has greatly benefited health care providers in family counseling sessions as well as in the care of patients of different ages. All these theories and principles Freud formulated and developed while in Vienna practicing his Neuropsychiatry. He also wrote many books and gave many lectures that brought him both fame and hate from much of the medical community. Nonetheless, he had many sympathizers and supporters. But Freud always had a tendency of rejecting people who disagreed with him. Some of them separated from him in friendly terms, but those who didn’t went on to develop works that were against him (Szasz 12). Freud migrated to England just before the onset of World War 2, because Austria became an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, especially famous ones like him. The following year, he died of cancer. He had championed the world of knowledge in his day and his works went on to form the backbone of modern psychology. Much of the ideas that theorists come up with today are first compared with Freud’s before being published. This shows that even though one can hail from an ordinary, broken home, he may yet make a contribution that may affect the world in more ways than imagined. Works Cited Breger, Louis. Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 2000. Freud, Sigmund & Peter Gay. The Freud Reader. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1989. Gay, Peter. Freud: A Life for Our Time. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc. 1998. Hall, Calvin S. A Primer of Freudian Psychology: Freuds Great Discoveries on Human Behavior. New York: Mentor Publishers. 1954. Kramer, Peter D. Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind. New York: Harper-Collins Publisher. 2006. Szasz, Thomas. Anti-Freud: Karl Krauss Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry. New York: Syracuse University. 1990. Thornton, Stephen P. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Read More