Freud Essay
...nervous diseases. Emmert 2 There was aggressive opposition within the medical profession because of Freud’s support of Charcot’s unconventional view on hypnotherapy and hysteria (Muckenhoupt, 49). By 1897, Freud was largely occupied with psychological rather than physiological explanations for mental illness. His writings were devoted to this field, he named Psychoanalysis. One of the key transformations that psychoanalysis made in thinking about mental illness was to shift focus from a physical to a psychological form. Freud believed people could become mentally ill because of their past histories, such as; a traumatic event under stressed circumstances that had been repressed. He gathered a list of case histories with his colleague, Joseph Breuer, and had them published in 1895, called Studies on Hysteria (Jones, 164). Freud continued his case studies and wrote about his findings. He traced the operation of unconscious processes, using the free associations of the patient to guide him in the interpretation of dreams and slips of speech. Dream analysis led to his discoveries of infantile sexuality and of the so-called Oedipus complex, which constitutes the erotic attachment of the child for the parent of the opposite sex, together with hostile feelings toward the other parent. Freud kept a record of his dreams for three years, and analyzed them in his book, Interpretations of Dreams. In this book, Freud wrote: “A dream is the (disguised) fulfillment of a (suppressed, repressed) wish.” Freud did not believe that all dreams were the result of sexual wishes. Only later did he conclude the all dreams without obvious meaning were sexual in nature (Muckenhoupt, 85). In 1923, Freud began to rework his theory of the conscious and unconscious. He replaced those names with id and ego. He then broke the ego into separate parts; the ego and the superego. The id is the source of instincts and desires. When I think of the id, I think of an Emmert 3 impatient child saying, “I want it and I want it right now!” as if the only answer they understood was yes. The ego is the conscious portion of the mind that is a mediator between the id and the superego. The superego controls the primitive impulses of the id and represents moral ideals. All of this makes up the human psyche (Thurschwell, 82). Freud continually expanded on his theories in psychoanalysis. There have always been followers of Freud as well as people who think Freud had no basis. One thing that has been said is, whether you believe in his work or not, was that he opened the door to a new way of thinking. His work is still being used today for education purposes. As for me, I first heard about him in my sophomore Psychology class back in high school. I have studied him two quarters ago in my Psychology 101 class. I’ve been reading about him all week to prepare for this pap...