Sigmund+Freud+and+Psychoanalysis

= __Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis__ **By Jack Biggs** =

=The World of Freud= Sigmund Freud was born in Austria on May 6, 1856. A famous neurologist, he is most well-known for his use of psychoanalysis for the use of treating mental illnesses. At the time, very little was known about the inner workings of the human brain and people were just beginning to theorize about it; one of the first speculations on the psychology of the mind, described as “psychodynamics,” was proposed in the paper //Lectures on Physiology//, published by physiologist Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke. In this publication, Brücke theorized that all living things were systems of energy to which the laws of physics and chemistry apply. After spending time in France with Jean Charcot, Europe’s most famous neurologist, Freud decided to move into the field of psychopathology instead of pursuing his current career in research neurology, upon which he was to make great discoveries in the study of the conscious and subconscious of the human mind.

=Freud's Theories= Freud’s theories are widely considered to have been based on Brücke’s work in //Lectures on Physiology//, as well as on the research conducted by scientists Theodor Meynert, Josef Breuer, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Johann Friedrich Herbart. While his theories today have been either modified or discarded in favor of more modern explanations, Freud’s theories had an enormous impact on the development of the field of psychopathology. ==The id, the ego, and the superego== One of Freud’s most famous theories is his analysis of the psyche. The mind, Freud claims, is based on three different components: that is, the id, the ego, and the superego. Each portion has a different functionality and a different behavior, each decision we make is based upon an interaction between these three.

The id
The id, Freud claims, is a childish manifestation of the person’s personality, and makes its decisions based upon the “pleasure principle,” simply making decisions based on what will avoid displeasure or pain. By definition, the id is our subconscious. A newborn child, Freud says, is completely “id-ridden,” acting solely on the various drives and impulses that it experiences. The id is the cause of our basic drives such as food, water, and others. Freud divided the id into two different sections of life and death drives: Eros, or the life instincts that drive us to experience a pleasurable lifestyle, and Thanatos, our subconscious wish to die in order to avoid the struggles we experience every day to achieve happiness. Thanatos manifests itself in our emotions through destruction and aggression.

The ego
The ego is a rationalized form of the id; its task is thought of as balancing the drives of the id and the suggestions of the super-ego, which is to say it balances our drives and our morals to reach the proper decision. The ego contains our common sense; however it is devoid of morality. The ego is capable of exercising defense mechanisms such as repression when the id’s behavior either conflicts with reality and either the individual’s expectation of social norms or society’s social norms. Freud’s analogy of the ego-id behavior is that of a horse and rider: the ego is the rider and the id is the horse. The horse provides the power and strength to get somewhere while the rider determines the horse’s destination. However, Freud adds, the horse may act independently from its rider while trying to navigate over rocky terrain. The ego is said to favor the id, however the super-ego is constantly watching over the ego and punishes the ego with feelings of guilt and anxiety should it make a wrong decision.

The superego
The superego can be thought of as the individual’s morals, spiritual goals, and/or life lessons that he/she has been taught throughout their life. The superego matures as the individual matures; all morality and lessons that the individual learn are stored in the superego, and affect the individual’s life decisions as a result. The superego is the opposite of the id, composed and unselfish, and punishes the ego with feelings of anxiety or guilt should the ego succumb to the drives of the id. It wishes to act in a socially acceptable way, as opposed to the id, which only wants immediate satisfaction. The super-ego and id are in a way constantly fighting over the ego, however the superego has the power to punish the ego whereas the id does not, thus the ego simply represses the id’s desires should the superego declare the id’s wishes morally or socially unacceptable. The superego is said to be the individual’s conscious.

=Impact of Freud on the 19th Century= Freud’s impact on the 19th century was enormous, specifically in the field of psychotherapy. Instead of using hypnosis to treat mental illnesses such as hysteria, Freud was famous for “talk therapy,” in which he attempted to discover the feelings repressed by the person’s ego and make them ‘unrepressed,’ thus no longer manifested by the id as the illness that the patient was experiencing. While Freud’s theories have spread across the western culture, he has been criticized for over-exaggerating subconscious sexual motivations, and his theories on female sexuality have been all but deprecated. This being said, many psychologists follow Freud’s methods to some degree, even if they do not support any of his theories. In conclusion, while some of Freud's theories have been since dismissed, his enormous impact on the field of psychotherapy cannot be. Freud's huge list of theories and cases have been monumental in the development of his field (psychoanalysis) as well as several others. Many people cite Freud's work, many people still study and argue over his theories, and many still use his methods. Were it not for Freud, psychotherapy would be incredibly different from how we know it to be today.

=My Primary Source: "The Interpretation of Dreams"= This source was helpful in determining the setting that Freud was in at the time. His theories were interesting, while an essay on the Id, Ego and Superego would have been more helpful as a primary source considering that this was the one theory that I chose to study. If I had more time, further research could be done concerning his other theories and patients, and I could elaborate into the analysis of "Wolf-Man" and friends. In short, while reading a few passages from the book helped me understand Freud, it didn't give me much information on the id-ego-superego relationship.

=Citations=
 * "Sigmund Freud." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. 21 Sep 2009, 10:40 UTC. Accessed 24 Sep 2009. <[]>.
 * "Freud, Sigmund." //The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. Web. Accessed 24 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * Boeree, George. "Sigmund Freud." //Personality Theories//. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <[]>
 * Sigmund, Freud,. //Interpretation of Dreams (Classics of World Literature) (Classics of World Literature)//. Boston: NTC/Contemporary Company, 2000. Print.
 * "Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - College Edition//. Gale. MARY INSTITUTE & ST LOUIS DAY SCHOOL. 24 Sep. 2009 <[]>
 * "Overview of Sigmund Freud." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - College Edition//. Gale. MARY INSTITUTE & ST LOUIS DAY SCHOOL. 24 Sep. 2009 <[]>

Image Citations
Images are cited in the order that they appear in this article.
 * "Sigmund Freud LIFE.jpg." //Wikimedia Commons//. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * "Structural-Model1.png." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. 4 Jul 2009, 23:44 UTC. 4 Jul 2009 <[]>.