Historical contributions of a Sigmund Frued to the field of psychology - Term Paper Example

? Project 2 Outline PSY 440 History and Systems Known as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud is best known for his tendency to tracenearly all psychological problems back to sexual issues. His former friends became his fiercest critics and eventually turned their backs on him because of the overemphasis of sexuality in his theory. As such, Freudian concepts, which were widely debated among his followers and scholars, were deemed to be controversial yet remained to be worthy of our examination and understanding. This paper will look back at the historical contributions of a Sigmund Freud to the field of psychology. By examining his early life, one can explore his childhood and its influence on his understanding of human behavior. Also, his theories on dream interpretation, psychosexual development, the id and the ego, psychological repression, and transference will be explored to know more about his controversial theories in psychology. Moreover, by taking a look at three of Freud’s notable followers, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and his daughter Dr. Anna Freud, one can explore on how Freud’s ideas have influenced his followers to develop their own theory of the mind. Finally, discussion of Freud’s legacy and contribution to psychology will seal his achievements as one of the most important thinkers in the 20th century. Early Life On May 6, 1856, Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia - a small town which was then part of the Austrian Empire, now known as the Czech Republic. His father, Jacob was a textile dealer and had two children by previous marriage. His mother Amala, who was 20 years younger than his father, gave birth to his first son Sigmund at age 21. Being the first child of eight siblings and in accordance to Jewish tradition, young Sigmund became the favorite in the family. He grew up "partially assimilated, mostly secular Jew”. Soon, Freud would become loyal follower of 19th century positivists in which he pointed the distinction between religious faith (which is not checkable or correctable) and scientific inquiry (which is both). For himself, this meant the denial of truth-value to any religion whatever, including Judaism.  A. Life & Education in Vienna When he was four years old, his father met a business failure and this made his family to move from the mountains of Moravia to a cosmopolitan metropolis in Vienna. A bright boy, Freud was admitted to a gymnasium in Leopoldstadt a year ahead of his time in 1865. By the time he graduated in 1873, he was awarded with honors. Initially, Freud intended to study law, but then decided to enter Medical School after having attended a lecture on Goethe's essay On Nature. He then joined the medical faculty at the University of Vienna where he obtained his doctorate in medicine. As early as from 1876 to 1882, Freud worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Physiology under Ernst Brucke, with neurology as his main focus.   In 1885 Freud received a one-year scholarship with Charcot at the "Salpetriere" in Paris. In 1886 Freud opened his first neurologist's office in Vienna, Rathausstrasse 7. Under Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud practiced and observed hypnosis as a clinical technique, and began to formulate the beginnings of his theory on the mind. Freud went on to make nervous ailments his specialty, concentrating on hysteria. B. Published Works By 1895, the year he published Studies on Hysteria with Josef Breuer, he had made significant progress in mapping out and defining his own theory of the mind. A period of intense work and self-analysis, further inspired by the death of his father, led Freud to his publication of The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 and of Psychopathology of Everyday Life in 1901. The latter work, offering amusing and easily applicable anecdotes of Freudian slips, found a wide audience for his theories of the mind. By 1902 he finally gained the position of associate professor at the University of Vienna. In 1908 Freud established a Psychoanalytic society in Vienna, and thus his new field began to gain wider acceptance. Also in this period Freud published papers on religion, literature and more importantly his introductory lectures, which secured him a wide and popular audience. In 1920, inspired by the death of his daughter Sophie, Beyond the Pleasure Principle was published. Soon after in 1923 the book, The Ego and the Id, was published. This work contained a final formulation of his structural theory of the mind. Development of Psychoanalysis Thousands of pages have been written about the history of psychoanalysis – a therapy of neurosis inspired from a method of mind investigation, especially of the unconscious mind. Freud’s self-analysis represented the biggest contribution to the birth of psychoanalysis. Because of this, he was known as the father of the psychoanalysis having discovered it by systematizing ideas and information coming from different, theoretical and clinical directions. A. The Interpretation of Dreams In his book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud integrated his theory of the unconscious with dreams interpretation. Through psychoanalysis, he opened the door for dreams to become a subject of scientific research. He became interested in dreams when dealing with his patients because they were telling dreams spontaneously. By 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. In sleep, he said, we are somewhat less resistant to our unconscious and we will allow a few things, in symbolic form, to come to awareness. Because of this, our dreams provide clue to psychoanalysts about one’s personality. Freudian interpretation to dreams analysis tends to find mostly sexual meanings in our dreams. For instance, all dream ideas which consist of three parts can mean the man's sexual organ. Phallus is symbolically substituted with all things that are similar to it by their form, namely long things: mountains, rocks, sticks, umbrellas, poles, and trees. Moreover, female genitalia are symbolically represented with hollow objects that can contain things: shafts, boxes, suitcases, tins, pockets, closets, stoves. The same holds for house with entrances, passages and doors: mansions, fortresses, churches, and chapels. All kind of playing (playing instruments also), sliding, slipping and breaking branches are said to be symbols of masturbation. The teeth falling out and extraction of them are symbols of castration as a punishment for masturbating. Various rhythmical activities such as dance, riding, raising and threatening with weapon symbolize sexual intercourse itself. Typical activities that symbolize sexual intercourse are also climbing and going down the ladder or stairs and running inside a house. The fall into water or rising out of it symbolizes birth. B. Psychosexual development Another development in Freudian psychology was the introduction of psychosexual development. Early on, Freud noted that at different times in our lives, different parts of our skin give us greatest pleasure. It appeared to him that the infant found its greatest pleasure in sucking, especially at the breast. In fact, babies have a penchant for bringing nearly everything in their environment into contact with their mouths. A bit later in life, the child focuses on the anal pleasures of holding it in and letting go. By three or four, the child may have discovered the pleasure of touching or rubbing against his or her genitalia. Only later, in our sexual maturity, do we find our greatest pleasure in sexual intercourse. In these observations, Freud had the makings of a psychosexual stage theory. Freud then categorized the theory in five stages — the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital — claiming that human beings from birth already possess sexual appetite that develops in these growth phases. The oral stage, from birth to about 18 months, is focused on the pleasures in the mouth for biting and sucking. The anal stage, which lasts from 18 months to three or four years old, is concerned with the pleasure in the anus that is felt when defecating. The phallic stage, which lasts from three or four to five, six, or seven years old, identified the genitalia as the focus of pleasure with masturbation. During the latent stage, which lasts from five, six, or seven to puberty, Freud believed that the sexual impulse was suppressed in the service of learning. The genital stage begins at puberty, and represents the resurgence of the sex drive in adolescence, and the more specific focusing of pleasure in sexual intercourse. C. The id and the ego In his later work, Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego – a concept which he developed as an alternative to his previous topographic schema (i.e., conscious, unconscious, and preconscious). "The Ego and the Id" is a prominent paper by Sigmund Freud which is of fundamental importance in the development of psychoanalytic theory. The study was conducted over years of meticulous research and was first published in 1923. The id is said to be the impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the "pleasure principle" and only takes into account what it wants and disregards all consequences. The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to the instincts. However during the first year of a child's life, some of the "it" becomes "I," some of the id becomes ego. The ego, unlike the id, functions according to the reality principle and to a considerable extent, reason. The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, which takes into account our internalization of punishments (conscience) and positive models (ego-ideal). Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain but unlike the id the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure. D. Psychological Repression The concept of psychological repression is another contribution to Freud’s work in psychology. It is an attempt of a person to repel his/her own desires and impulses towards pleasurable instincts. In the mind, desires can be represented as thoughts, images and memories. Repression works by virtue of the idea that traumatic episodes in a person's life are thrust deeply into their subconscious because the person becomes incapable of dealing with the emotional uncertainty and instability that those memories produce. Over the course of the development of modern psychology, repression became one of the foundations of the field and extended from being related to specific traumatic events and mental illness. The phases of repression include primary phase, secondary phase, and complex repression. Primary repression happens as infants learn some aspects of reality are pleasant, and others are unpleasant; that some are controllable, and others not. It is during this phase that one can determine what is self, what is other; what is good, and what is bad. At the end of this phase, the child can now distinguish between desires, fears, self, and others. Secondary repression begins once the child realizes that acting on some desires may bring anxiety. This anxiety leads to repression of the desire. Lastly, abnormal repression, occurs when repression develops and/or continues to develop, due to the internalized feelings of anxiety, in ways leading to behavior that is illogical, self-destructive, or anti-social. E. Transference Also relevant to the development of psychoanalysis is the introduction of the phenomenon called transference or the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. Transference occurs when a client projects feelings toward the therapist that more legitimately belong with certain important others. Freud felt that transference was necessary in therapy in order to bring the repressed emotions that have been plaguing the client for so long, to the surface. He acknowledges its importance for psychoanalysis for better understanding of the patient's feelings. According to him, transference was necessary in therapy in order to bring the repressed emotions that have been plaguing the client for so long, to the surface. Followers Three of the most notable followers of Sigmund Freud were Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Dr. Anna Freud, his daughter. All three believed that Freud had overemphasized sexuality in his theory and each sought to develop a theory of mind that offered a different interpretation of life force. A. Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of the "Analytical Psychology", was once a co-worker of Freud until they had a falling out. The two met in 1907 and worked together until about 1912 when Jung decided to start his own school of psychology in Zurich.  Jung's emphasis in the field in psychology had to do with dreams. He developed many theories about dreams, a lot of them disagreeing with Freud. Mainly, his disagreement with him stemmed from their differing concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negative. Because of this, the gap between the two led to a separation of the core theoretical and tighter framework of psychoanalysis. B. Alfred Adler Alfred Adler, a former pupil of Sigmund Freud, was one of the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement and a core member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. He was the first major figure to break away from Freud’s psychoanalysis to form an independent school of psychotherapy and personality theory. As the father of individual psychology, he supported a holistic view of human nature.  Unlike Freud, who believed that behavior is determined by drives and unconscious forces, Adler believed that human beings are goal-directed, and that social relationships have a significant impact upon behavior. C. Anna Freud Freud's daughter Dr. Anna Freud followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis. Compared to her father, her work emphasized the importance of the ego and its ability to be trained socially.   She became, at very least, her father's symbolic successor. Unlike Jung and Adler, she remained faithful to the basic ideas her father developed.  However, she was more interested in the dynamics of the psyche than in its structure, and was particularly fascinated by the place of the ego in all this. Her interests were more practical, and most of her energies were devoted to the analysis of children and adolescents, and to improving that analysis.  Eventually, she influenced research in Freudian psychology.  She standardized the records for children with diagnostic profiles, encouraged the pooling of observations from multiple analysts, and encouraged long-term studies of development from early childhood through adolescence.  She also led the way in the use of natural experiments, that is, careful analyses of groups of children who suffered from similar disabilities, such as blindness, or early traumas, such as wartime loss of parents Legacy and Contribution to Psychology Sigmund 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 the rise of behaviorism, psychoanalysis had a lasting impact on both psychology and psychotherapy. As the founder of psychoanalysis, his theories such as The Structural Theory of Personality, Ego Defense Processes, and the Theory of Psychosexual Development remain to be among the important theories in psychology. In the field of psychotherapy, Freud provided the basis for the entire field of individual verbal psychotherapy. He is also noted for developing psychoanalytic assessment techniques. Jacques Lacan, a renowned French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, believed that Freud's essential work had been done prior to 1905, and concerned the interpretation of dreams, neurotic symptoms, and slips, which had been based on a revolutionary way of understanding language and its relation to experience and subjectivity. Although Freud's work introduced and popularized a number of concepts and techniques that are still in use today, the work of peers like Adler and Young and of later theorists like Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, Wilhelm Reich, and Erich Fromm -- to name but a few -- have dramatically altered the role of Freud's theories within the overall field of psychology. But his most enduring contributions have been the use of talk therapy and the notions of the unconscious. More recent understandings of child development, gender issues, and the other drives -- beyond sex -- that shape human behavior have drastically overhauled our understanding of psychology and the formation and treatment of dysfunction. Of course, just as in Freud's day, there is still no single point of view. And some schools of thought continue to incorporate more of Freud’s ideas than do others. References Benjamin, L. T. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Personality Theories: Sigmund Frued. George Boeree (2009). Retrieved May 1, 2011 from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html. Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalyst TIME magazine. Peter Gay (1999). Retrieved May 1, 2011 from http://elvers.us/hop/index.asp?m=3&a=70&key=98. Sigmund Freud. Wikipedia (2011). Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud. Sigmund Freud. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2011). Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/. Read More