Sigmund Freud Essay Example

Sigmund Freud Essay In the early twentieth century, Freuds contribution in the domain of neurology and psychotherapy changed the worlds perception of the medical scene. Known for his inventive mind and his will power to define the helms of science, Sigmund Freud was a living legend in his own right. He articulated the science behind unconsciousness, repression and infantile sexuality. He went on to discover the tripartite version of the mind and designed various mechanisms and frames that would ultimately help in studying the balance and the psychological development of the human mind. Nearly all of his works exist and are recognizable today. He also had massive influence over the fields of anthropology and semiotics. Apart from being a neurologist and a psychoanalyst, he was a fluid essayist and explained dreams and the discovery of transference. Although there have been countless critics who disowned Freuds work for being highly sexist and unrealistic, there were many positive remarks about his discoveries and some even compared his works to those of Aquinas and Plato. Childhood And Early Life Sigmund Freud was born in the town of Freiburg, Moravia on 6th  May 1856 to Jacob Freud and Amalie, who were Jewish by descent. He was the first of the eight children and that made him a favorite with his parents. Despite being wool merchants, the Freud family was fairly impoverished. From a very young age, Junior Freud was always displeased with the fact that he was born a Jew and did not pay too much respect to his religious practices. Freud’s parents decided to give the boy schooling and a good education but eventually move to Vienna after suffering huge business losses. We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Sigmund Freud enrolled at a school in 1865 and later, went on to graduate from Matura in 1873 with accolades and recognition from the institute. Freud took a particular liking towards language and literature and was already a multi-linguist at an early age. He could proficiently converse, read and write in a variety of languages such as Italian, Spanish, German, French and Hebrew to name a few. He was greatly moved and influenced by the works of Shakespeare and this is how he was said to have inculcated an interest for psychology from a tender age. The underlying concepts and theories of Shakespearean plays got him to ponder over various aspects that he would later identify and relate to psychology. At the age of 17, he enrolled at the University of Vienna where he studied medical sciences under prominent names such as Karl Claus, Ernst Brucke and Franz Brentano. Zoology, physiology and philosophy became an inevitable part of his life. He enjoyed science and acquired a taste for Zoology after dissecting a couple of Eels at his research station situated in Trieste. He successfully graduated from the University of Vienna in the year 1881, and went on to begin his career. Career His career commenced with the â€Å"Theodor Meynert† psychiatric clinic at Vienne Hospital right after he graduated with an MD. After a brief stint at the general hospital, he decided to start his own venture that focused primarily on ‘mental and nervous disorders’. Freud had studied ‘hypnosis and psychopathology’ in the year 1885 and he began to practice the art of ‘hypnosis’ on his patients in his clinic. He was greatly influenced by the methods used by his former colleague and friend Joseph Breuer in the process of hypnotism. He successfully administered hypnosis on one of his celebrated patients known as ‘Anna O’. History states that Freud was able to cure her of her mental illness while setting her in a state of trance and getting her to talk about her illness. Following this success, Freud often practiced hypnotism on his patients and got his patients to talk freely on anything that crossed their mind during the hypnotic process. This sort of practice would later be known as ‘the free association’ method. By 1896, Freud discovered a more complex system of studying a psychotic condition and the complex structure of brain material during a patient’s dream. He coined a new word called ‘psychoanalysis’ and went on to establish new clinical practices and theories in this year. Freud defied all norms of science and studied repressed sexual thoughts that occurred in children which led to a new theory based on infantile sexuality known as ‘Freud’s seduction theory’. He believed that the repressed fantasies and sexual thoughts at a young age were responsible in the aggravation of another mental condition called ‘neurosis’. At a time when Freud was discovering these theories, he went into a state of great depression, and even faced a personal loss of his father’s death the subsequent year. This led him to believe in superstitious omens and believing that he would die at the age of 51, Freud explored his own childhood and some of his deep, dark memories in the form of dreams. Owing to this ‘self-analysis’ he remembered seeing his mother nude once and that caused him to develop sexual feelings towards his mother. He published a detailed ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ in the winter of 1899. Most of his theories post ‘self-analysis’ began to take a more sexist form and he faced countless cruelty from pupils of other departments of sciences. Later, a small group of Viennese physicians slowly began to admire Freud’s work and were instrumental in his promotion to professor at the University. His second publication was also produced around this time known as the ‘Jokes and their Relation to the Unconsciousness† in the year 1905. Many of Freud’s students went on to translate Freudian works in different parts of the world that attracted widespread media interest and also caused a breakthrough in the field of Psychoanalysis in the United States of American. One of the close followers of Freud, called Jung, began to devise his own concepts and theories of Psychology, a little different from Freudian concepts, and he went on to launch it as analytical psychology. Later Years In 1930, Freud was awarded with the coveted Goethe Prize for his significant contributions to German medicine, literature and psychology. After the invasion of the Nazi’s in Germany, Hitler and his ‘Reich’, who were purely anti-Freudian, destroyed all his works, collections and books. Although the Nazi threat began to grow, Freud decided to stay on in the country before Ernest Jones, then president of The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), persuaded him to go to England. Although Freud decided to leave, he was stalled by the Nazi Reich. After much persuasion and deliberation, he was finally allowed to leave on the Orient Express on the 6 June 1938. Personal Life Sigmund Freud married Martha Bernays, the granddaughter of a Rabbi, in 1886. Although accused of having an extra marital affair with his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, he went on to have six children with his wife in the subsequent years. Freud was said to have fought a long battle with cancer which he detected as Leukoplakia in 1923. Although he declared it benign, the tumor was actually malignant and worsened during his career. He wasn’t told that he had cancer, but he eventually faced the fact. He was under tremendous stress because of Nazis, and the death of his four beloved sisters at various Nazi Concentration camps during the Holocaust only made things worse for him. Death And Legacy Towards the end of his life, Freud persuaded his doctor to help him die. After the family decided that it would be pointless to watch him suffer with cancer, they put an end to his misery with substantial doses of morphine. Thus, Sigmund Freud perished on 23rd  September 1939, and was cremated three days later. Although his theories were some of the most complex to crack during his time and age, many followers agreed that they were highly testable and theories on psychoanalysis could never be proved wrong. Some of his famous works related to paranoia, unconsciousness, repressed sexuality, verbal psychotherapy, the libido, the pleasure principle, displacement of ego principles and his theories of psychological sexual development took the world by a storm and still studied under modern psychological aspects. ttp://www. thefamouspeople. com/profiles/sigmund-freud-425. php The work of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, marked the beginning of a modern, dynamic psychology by providing the first well-organized explanation of the inner mental forces determining human behavior. Freuds early life Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic). Sigmund was t he first child of his twice-widowed fathers third marriage. His mother, Amalia Nathanson, was nineteen years old when she married Jacob Freud, aged thirty-nine. Sigmunds two stepbrothers from his fathers first marriage were approximately the same age as his mother, and his older stepbrothers son, Sigmunds nephew, was his earliest playmate. Thus, the boy grew up in an unusual family structure, his mother halfway in age between himself and his father. Though seven younger children were born, Sigmund always remained his mothers favorite. When he was four, the family moved to Vienna (now the capital of Austria), the capital city of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (the complete rule of Central Europe by Hungary and Austria from 1867 to 1918). Freud would live in Vienna until the year before his death. Youth in Vienna Because the Freuds were Jewish, Sigmunds early experience was that of an outsider in an overwhelmingly Catholic community. However, Emperor Francis Joseph (1830–1916) had liberated the Jews of Austria, giving them equal rights and permitting them to settle anywhere in the empire. Many Jewish families came to Vienna, as did the Freuds in 1860, where the standard of living was higher and educational and professional opportunities were better than in the provinces. They lived in an area that had a high concentration of Jewish people, called the Leopoldstadt slum. The housing was cramped and they had to move often, sometimes living with his fathers family. By his tenth year, Sigmunds family had grown and he had five sisters and one brother. Freud went to the local elementary school, then attended the Sperl Gymnasium (a secondary school in Europe that students attend to prepare for college) in Leopoldstadt, from 1866 to 1873. He studied Greek and Latin, mathematics, history, and the natural sciences, and was a superior student. He passed his final examination with flying colors, qualifying to enter the University of Vienna at the age of seventeen. His family had recognized his special scholarly gifts from the beginning, and although they had only four bedrooms for eight people, Sigmund had his own room throughout his school days. He lived with his parents until he was twenty-seven, as was the custom at that time. Pre-psychoanalytic work Freud enrolled in medical school in 1873. Vienna had become the world capital of medicine, and the young student was initially attracted to the laboratory and the scientific side of medicine rather than clinical practice. He spent seven instead of the usual five years acquiring his doctorate. Freud received his doctor of medicine degree at the age of twenty-four. He fell in love and wanted to marry, but the salaries available to a young scientist could not support a wife and family. He had met Martha Bernays, the daughter of a well-known Hamburg family, when he was twenty-six; they were engaged two months later. They were separated during most of the four years which preceded their marriage, and married in 1887. Of their six children, a daughter, Anna, would become one of her fathers most famous followers. Freud spent three years as a resident physician in the famous Allgemeine Krankenhaus, a general hospital and the medical center of Vienna. He spent five months in the psychiatry (the area of medicine involving emotional and mental health) department headed by Theodor Meynert. Psychiatry at this time was rigid and descriptive. The psychological meaning of behavior was not itself considered important; behavior was only a set of symptoms to be studied in order to understand the structures of the brain. Freuds later work changed this attitude. Freud, during the last part of his residency, received some money to pursue his neurological (having to do with the nervous system) studies abroad. He spent four months at the Salpetriere clinic in Paris, France, studying under the neurologist (a person who studies the nervous system and treats people with neurological problems) Jean Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Here, Freud first became interested in hysteria (an illness in which a person complains of physical symptoms without a medical cause) and Charcots demonstration of its psychological origins. Beginning of psychoanalysis Freud returned to Vienna, established himself in the private practice of neurology, and married. He soon devoted his efforts to the treatment of hysterical patients with the help of hypnosis (the act of bringing about a change in a persons attention which results in a change in their bodily experiences), a technique he had studied under Charcot. Joseph Breuer (1857–1939), an older colleague (a partner or an associate in the same area of interest), told Freud about a hysterical patient whom he had treated successfully by hypnotizing her and then tracing her symptoms back to traumatic (emotionally stressful) events she had experienced at her fathers deathbed. Breuer called his treatment catharsis and traced its effectiveness to the release of pent-up emotions. Freuds experiments with Breuers technique were successful. Together with Breuer he published  Studies on Hysteria  (1895). At the age of thirty-nine Freud first used the term psychoanalysis, (a way to treat certain mental illnesses by exposing and discussing a patients unconscious thoughts and feelings) and his major lifework was well under way. At about this time Freud began a unique project, his own self-analysis (the act of studying or examining oneself), which he pursued primarily by analyzing his dreams. A major scientific result was  The Interpretation of Dreams  (1901). By the turn of the century Freud had developed his therapeutic (having to do with treating a mental or physical disability) technique, dropping the use of hypnosis and shifting to the more effective and more widely applicable method of free association. Development of psychoanalysis Following Freuds work on dreams, he wrote a series of papers in which he explored the influence of unconscious thought processes Sigmund Freud. Courtesy of the Library of Congress . on various aspects of human behavior. He recognized that the most powerful among the unconscious forces, which lead to neuroses (mental disorders), are the sexual desires of early childhood that have been shut out from conscious awareness, yet have preserved their powerful force within the personality. He described his highly debatable views concerning the early experiences of sexuality in  Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality  (1905), a work that first met violent protest, but was gradually accepted by practically all schools of psychology (the area of science involving the study of the mind). After 1902 Freud gathered a small group of interested colleagues on Wednesday evenings for presentation of psychoanalytic papers and discussion. This was the beginning of the psychoanalytic movement. Swiss psychiatrists Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung (1875–1961) formed a study group in Zurich in 1907, and the first International Psychoanalytic Congress was held in Salzburg in 1908. Later years In 1923 Freud developed a cancerous (having to do with cancer cells that attack the healthy tissues of the body) growth in his mouth, which eventually led to his death sixteen years and thirty-three operations later. In spite of this, these were years of great scientific productivity. He published findings on the importance of aggressive as well as sexual drives (  Beyond the Pleasure Principle,  1920); developed a new theoretical framework in order to organize his new data concerning the structure of the mind (  The Ego and the Id,  1923); and revised his theory of anxiety to show it as the signal of danger coming from unconscious fantasies, rather than the result of repressed sexual feelings (  Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety,  1926). In March 1938 Austria was occupied by German troops, and that month Freud and his family were put under house arrest. Through the combined efforts of many influential friends who were well connected politically, the Freuds were permitted to leave Austria in June. Freud spent his last year in London, England, undergoing surgery. He died on September 23, 1939. The influence of his discoveries on the science and culture of the twentieth century is limitless. Read more:  http://www. notablebiographies. om/Fi-Gi/Freud-Sigmund. html#b#ixzz2HjVRqiG5 http://www. freudfile. org/biography. html Early work Freud began his study of medicine at the University of Vienna in 1873. [83]  He took almost nine years to complete his studies, due to his interest in neurophysiological research, specifically investigation of the sexual anatomy of eels and the physiology of the fish nervous system. He entered private practice in neurology for financial reasons, receiving his M. D. degree in 1881 at the a ge of 25. 84]  He was also an early researcher in the field of cerebral palsy, which was then known as cerebral paralysis. He published several medical papers on the topic, and showed that the disease existed long before other researchers of the period began to notice and study it. He also suggested that  William Little, the man who first identified cerebral palsy, was wrong about lack ofoxygen  during birth being a cause. Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom. Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique. The goal of Freudian therapy, or psychoanalysis, was to bring repressed thoughts and feelings into  consciousness  in order to free the patient from suffering repetitive distorted emotions. Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging a patient to talk about dreams and engage in free association, in which patients report their thoughts without reservation and make no attempt to concentrate while doing so. 85]  Another important element of psychoanalysis is  transference, the process by which patients displace on to their analysts feelings and ideas which derive from previous figures in their lives. Transference was first seen as a regrettable phenomenon that interfered with the recovery of repressed memories and disturbed patients objectivity, but by 1912 Freud had come to see it as an essential part of the ther apeutic process. [86] The origin of Freuds early work with psychoanalysis can be linked to Josef Breuer. Freud credited Breuer with opening the way to the discovery of the psychoanalytical method by his treatment of the case of  Anna O. In November 1880, Breuer was called in to treat a highly intelligent 21-year-old woman (Bertha Pappenheim) for a persistent cough that he diagnosed as hysterical. He found that while nursing her dying father, she had developed a number of transitory symptoms, including visual disorders and paralysis and contractures of limbs, which he also diagnosed as hysterical. Breuer began to see his patient almost every day as the symptoms increased and became more persistent, and observed that she entered states of  absence. He found that when, with his encouragement, she told fantasy stories in her evening states of  absence  her condition improved, and most of her symptoms had disappeared by April 1881. However, following the death of her father in that month her condition deteriorated again. Breuer recorded that some of the symptoms eventually remitted spontaneously, and that full recovery was achieved by inducing her to recall events that had precipitated the occurrence of a specific symptom. 87]  In the years immediately following Breuers treatment, Anna O. spent three short periods in sanatoria with the diagnosis hysteria with somatic symptoms,[88]  and some authors have challenged Breuers published account of a cure. [89][90][91]  Richard Skues rejects this interpretation, which he sees as stemming from both Freudian and anti-psychoana lytical revisionism, that regards both Breuers narrative of the case as unreliable and his treatment of Anna O. as a failure. 92] In the early 1890s Freud used a form of treatment based on the one that Breuer had described to him, modified by what he called his pressure technique and his newly developed analytic technique of interpretation and reconstruction. According to Freuds later accounts of this period, as a result of his use of this procedure most of his patients in the mid-1890s reported early childhood sexual abuse. He believed these stories, but then came to believe that they were fantasies. He explained these at first as having the function of fending off memories of infantile masturbation, but in later years he wrote that they represented Oedipal fantasies. [93] Another version of events focuses on Freuds proposing that unconscious memories of infantile sexual abuse were at the root of the psychoneuroses in letters to Fliess in October 1895, before he reported that he had actually discovered such abuse among his patients. 94]  In the first half of 1896 Freud published three papers stating that he had uncovered, in all of his current patients, deeply repressed memories of sexual abuse in early childhood. [95]  In these papers Freud recorded that his patients were not consciously aware of these memories, and must therefore be present asunconscious memories  if they were to result in hysterical symptoms or obsessional neurosis. The patients were subjected to considerable pressure to reproduce infantile sexual abuse scenes that Freud was convinced had been repressed into the unconscious. 96]  Patients were generally unconvinced that their experiences of Freuds clinical procedure indicated actual sexual abuse. He reported that even after a supposed reproduction of sexual scenes the patients assured him emphatically of their disbelief. [97] As well as his pressure technique, Freuds clinical procedures involved analytic inference and the symbolic interpretation of symptoms to trace back to memories of infantile sexual abuse. [98]  His claim of one hundred percent confirmation of his theory only served to reinforce previously expressed eservations from his colleagues about the validity of findings obtained through his suggestive techniques. [99] The unconscious Main article:  Unconscious mind The concept of the unconscious was central to Freuds account of the mind. Freud believed that while poets and thinkers had long known of the existence of the unconscious, he had ensured that it received scientific recognition in the field of psychology. However, the concept made an informal appearance in Freuds writings. It was first introduced in connection with the phenomenon of repression, to explain what happens to ideas that are repressed; Freud stated explicitly that the concept of the unconscious was based on the theory of repression. He postulated a cycle in which ideas are repressed, but remain in the mind, removed from consciousness yet operative, then reappear in consciousness under certain circumstances. The postulate was based upon the investigation of cases of traumatic hysteria, which revealed cases where the behavior of patients could not be explained without reference to ideas or thoughts of which they had no awareness. This fact, combined with the observation that such behavior could be artificially induced by hypnosis, in which ideas were inserted into peoples minds, suggested that ideas were operative in the original cases, even though their subjects knew nothing of them. Freud, like Breuer, found the hypothesis that hysterical manifestations were generated by ideas to be not only warranted, but given in observation. Disagreement between them arose, however, when they attempted to give causal explanations of their data: Breuer favored a hypothesis of hypnoid states, while Freud postulated the mechanism of defense. Richard Wollheim  comments that given the close correspondence between hysteria and the results of hypnosis, Breuers hypothesis appears more plausible, and that it is only when repression is taken into account that Freuds hypothesis becomes preferable. [108] Freud originally allowed that repression might be a conscious process, but by the time he wrote his second paper on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence (1896), he apparently believed that repression, which he referred to as the psychical mechanism of (unconscious) defence, occurred on an unconscious level. Freud further developed his theories about the unconscious in  The Interpretation of Dreams  (1899) and in  Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious  (1905), where he dealt with condensation and displacement as inherent characteristics of unconscious mental activity. Freud presented his first systematic statement of his hypotheses about unconscious mental processes in 1912, in response to an invitation from the London Society of Psychical Research to contribute to its  Proceedings. Freud in 1915 expanded that statement into a more ambitious metapsychological paper entitled The Unconscious. In both these papers, when Freud tried to distinguish between his conception of the unconscious and those that predated psychoanalysis, he found it in his postulation of ideas that are simultaneously latent and operative. [108] Dreams Main article:  Dream Freud believed that the function of dreams is to preserve sleep by representing as fulfilled wishes that would otherwise awaken th e dreamer. [109] [edit]Psychosexual development Main article:  Psychosexual development Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient  mythology  and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the  Oedipus complex  after the famous  Greek tragedy  Oedipus Rex  by  Sophocles. I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood, Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification (cf. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality). He used the Oedipus conflict to point out how much he believed that people desire  incest  and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. He also turned to  anthropological  studies of  totemism  and argued that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal Oedipal conflict. [110]  Freud also believed that the Oedipus complex was bisexual, involving an attraction to both parents. [111] Traditional accounts have held that, as a result of frequent reports from his patients, in the mid-1890s Freud posited that psychoneuroses were a consequence of early childhood sexual abuse. [112]  More specifically, in three papers published in 1896 he contended hat  unconscious memories  of sexual abuse in infancy are a necessary precondition for the development of adult psychoneuroses. However, examination of Freuds original papers has revealed that his clinical claims were not based on patients reports but were findings deriving from his analytical clinical methodology, which at that time included coercive procedures. [113 ][114][115][116][117]  He privately expressed his loss of faith in the theory to his friend Fliess in September 1897, giving several reasons, including that he had not been able to bring a single case to a successful conclusion. 118]  In 1906, while still maintaining that his earlier claims to have uncovered early childhood sexual abuse events remained valid, he postulated a new theory of the occurrence of unconscious infantile fantasies. [119]  He had incorporated his notions of unconscious fantasies in  The Interpretation of Dreams  (1899), but did not explicitly relate his seduction theory claims to the Oedipus theory until 1925. [120]  Notwithstanding his abandonment of the seduction theory, Freud always recognized that some neurotics had experienced childhood sexual abuse. Freud also believed that the libido developed in individuals by changing its object, a process codified by the concept of  sublimation. He argued that humans are born polymorphously perverse, meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development—first in the  oral stage  (exemplified by an infants pleasure in nursing), then in the  anal stage  (exemplified by a toddlers pleasure in evacuating his or her bowels), then in the  phallic stage. In the latter stage, Freud contended, male infants become fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the Oedipus Complex), a phase brought to an end by threats of castration, resulting in the  castration complex, the severest trauma in his young life. [121]  (In his later writings Freud postulated an equivalent Oedipus situation for infant girls, the sexual fixation being on the father. Though not advocated by Freud himself, the term Electra complex is sometimes used in this context. )[122]  The repressive or dormant  latency stage  of psychosexual development preceded the sexually mature  genital stage  of psychosexual development. The child needs to receive the proper amount of satisfaction at any given stage in order to move on easily to the next stage of development; under or over gratification can lead to a fixation at that stage, which could cause a regression back to that stage later in life. [123] Freud felt that masturbation was unwise and harmful. He and his colleague Fliess wrote about the topic during a period in which views on the topic were becoming more liberal due to the influence of doctors such as Havelock Ellis. Freud remained an opponent of masturbation, seeing it as having partially caused the neuroses. He stated a priori  one is forced to oppose the assertion that masturbation has to be harmless; on the contrary there must be cases in which masturbation is harmful. Since the aetiology of the neuroses is given by way of the conflict between infantile sexuality and the opposition of the ego (repression) masturbation, which is only an executive of infantile sexuality, cannot  a priori  be presented as harmless. [124] [edit]Id, ego and super-ego Main article:  Id, ego and super-ego In his later work, Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego and super-ego. Freud discussed this model in the 1920 essay  Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and fully elaborated upon it in  The Ego and the Id  (1923), in which he developed it as an alternative to his previous topographic schema (i. e. , conscious, unconscious and preconscious). The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, childlike portion of the psyche that operates on the pleasure principle and is the source of basic impulses and drives; it seeks immediate pleasure and gratification. [123] Freud acknowledged that his use of the term  Id  (das Es, the It) derives from the writings of  Georg Groddeck. 125]  The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, which takes into account no special circumstances in which the morally right thing may not be right for a given situation. The rational ego attempts to exact a balance between the impractical  hedonism  of the id and the equally impractical moralism of the super-ego; it is the part of the psyche that is usually reflecte d most directly in a persons actions. When overburdened or threatened by its tasks, it may employdefense mechanisms  including  denial,  repression, and  displacement. This concept is usually represented by the Iceberg Model. 126]  This model represents the roles the Id, Ego, and Super Ego play in relation to conscious and unconscious thought. Freud compared the relationship between the ego and the id to that between a charioteer and his horses: the horses provide the energy and drive, while the charioteer provides direction. [123] [edit]Life and death drives Main articles:  Libido  and  Death drive Freud believed that people are driven by two conflicting central desires: the life drive (libido or Eros) (survival, propagation, hunger, thirst, and sex) and the death drive. The Sigmund Freud Essay Example Sigmund Freud Essay After years of observation and the discovery of an alternate domain of human unconscious, the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud decided to take a chance and appeared before medical professionals to tell them what he had discovered.   He modestly revealed some facts that would continuously occur in his patients’ dreams and awaited his colleagues’ acceptance.   This acceptance did not surface; rather Freud’s colleagues found extreme humor in his concepts and then labeled him as a crank.   The words â€Å"dream interpreation,†Ã‚   a phrase coined by Freud are still met with skepticism.   â€Å"They remind one of all sorts of childish, superstitious notions†Ã‚   and those who believe that these mental pictures have meaning are often met with an opposing view.  Ã‚   (Freud Tridon, 1920, p. 2) Dreams and their relationship with mental functioning is a study that challenges professionals and the inability to thoroughly study these unconcious occurances has led many researchers to deem them â€Å"random neuro activity.†Ã‚   (Franklin Zyphur, 2005)  Ã‚   However, looking at the characteristics of dreams it is not surprising that some professionals take this stance.   We all have different experiences when dreaming, for example, some have dreams that are filled with vivid imagry and emotional intensity, others have dreams that contain confusing events, while many experience smooth story lines.   Many individuals can control their dreams while others are merely by standers.   It is this variation of experiences that feeds the view opposing the psychological importance of dreaming.   (Franklin Zyphur, 2005) We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Sigmund Freud specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Sigmund Freud, often called father of Psychology, opened the door to the study of dreams during his career.   As he delved into the research prior to his studies he found of course the medical theories that defined dreaming as merely a physical reaction without any psychological meaning as well as the various superstitious theories.   After spending a lengthy amount of time studying the dreaming process he came to believe that â€Å"the popular view grounded in superstition, and not the medical one, comes nearer to the truth about dreams.†Ã‚   (Freud Tridon, 1920, p. 9) Freud believed that dreams were the attempt of the unconscious to forcefully impose its desires on the upper consciousness and that these mental pictures are vehicles of the human thoughts and desires.   (Pillsbury, 1927, p. 448)   Sigmund also believed that dreams could be interpeted and that this process could be difficult because the desire could be expressed directly or in reverse as well and mean something different than what it might seem.   (Pillsbury, 1927, p. 450)   Because Freud believed that the dreamer was not often aware of the dream’s meaning and that often events of the dream were confusing. Interpretation could take place if you â€Å"break up the dream into its elements† and â€Å"search out the ideas that link themselves to each format.†Ã‚   (Freud Tridon, 1920, p. 11) Carl Gustav Jung, another psychologist who actively persued the study of dreams,   conducted his research under Sigmund Freud until their opposing views caused tension within their relationship and they parted ways.   Jung believed that dreams were a â€Å"manifestation of psychic activity† and that they should â€Å"be regarded with due seriousness as an actuality that has to be fitted into the conscious attitude as a codetermining factor.†Ã‚   (Fordham, 2002)   Jung’s theory was similar to Freud’s however the ultimate difference was that Carl saw the unconcious as spiritual.   Identical to Freud, Jung believed that dreams were not entirely cut off from our consciousness and that dreams have â€Å"their origin in the impressions, thoughts and moods of the preceding day or days.†Ã‚   (Jung, 2001, p. 26) Jung took his theory of the psychology of dreams to another level, however.   He believed that even though dreams surfaced from a past experience that they also have a â€Å"continuity forwards.†Ã‚   In other words, dreams â€Å"exert a remarkable influence on the concious mental life even of persons who cannot be considered superstitious or particularly abnormal.†Ã‚   (Jung, 2001, p. 26) Carl believed that dreams were difficult to understand because they express themselves in symbols and imagry and he developed a method of interpretation in an attempt to understand the â€Å"dream language.†Ã‚   (Fordham, 2002)   The first step to interpreting the psychological meaning of a dream in Jung’s theory was to establish the context, or discover the significance of the images presented and the relationship with the dreamer’s life.   Each image must be carefully studied and associated with the dreamer as nearly as possible before the dreamer is in a position to fully understand what the dream might mean.   A series of dreams offers a more satifactory interpretation than a single dream, as the important images are identified by their reptition and any mistakes can be corrected when the next dream manifests.   Jung believed that every dream should be taken as â€Å"a direct expression of the dreamer’s unconscious, and only to be understood i n this light.†Ã‚   (Fordham, 2002) Research has been conducted since Freud and Jung created their original theories that support the fact that dreams are a state of consciousness that has continued throughout the development of the human species; therefore, this process is a necessary aspect to the human congnitive development. (Franklin Zyphur, 2005)   Though contemporary research exists, the theory developed by Sigmund Freud in the early 1900s holds true.   In his book The Interpretation of Dreams Freud stated in its opening that dreams were â€Å"a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state.†Ã‚   (Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, 1931) Sleep is made up of â€Å"behavioral, functional, physiologic and electrophysiologic traits.†Ã‚   (McNamara, 2004)   The human body has a biological need for sleep and the physical process of sleep takes place through stages.   This need accumulates the longer we are awake and can also be determined by the amount of energy used while we are awake.   The process of sleep begins with the body’s signal that sleep is required, this signal is realized when the brain releases a neurochemical substance.   Once asleep the next cycle is activated, which is the control function that allows the human body to alternate between REM and NREM sleep stages.   Upon sleep, an adult will usually experience sleep onset through NREM and sleep offset through REM.   The NREM predominates the first third of the night and REM predominates the last third of the night.   (McNamara, 2004) Researchers have attempted to study the brain’s physiological reaction during the act of sleep through a variety of methods, many of which set out to prove that dreaming was merely the body’s reaction to specific chemical and brain activity.   The EEG and the H2150 PET scan have been used to measure brain activity during the process of sleep and scientists have determined the brain’s physcial reaction as it transitions to REM sleep as well as other stages.   While dreaming, the brain is controlled by the â€Å"meditating influence of the cholinergic system.†Ã‚   (Barbee nd, p. 2)  Ã‚   Researchers were also able to determine that the visuo-motor systems were activated as well as the limbic system. (Barbee nd, p. 2)  Ã‚   Even though these studies proved the brain’s physical reaction to the stages of sleep, it was determined that the â€Å"mind is a mysterious dimension of the self and when coupled with biochemical fulctuations and alteratio ns it becomes an unfamiliar domain.†Ã‚   (Barbee nd, p. 2) Antti Revonsuo’s hypothesis about the psychology of dreaming is that â€Å"Dreaming is a state of consciousness consisting of complex sequences of subjective experience during sleep.†Ã‚   (Revonsuo Valli, 2000)   He believes that the biological function of dreaming, when experiencing nightmares, is the human’s ability to simulate threatening events and repeatedly rehearse the threat perception and avoidance responses.   In other words, we choose threatening waking events and rehearse these events again and again – even years after the original trauma was first experienced.  Ã‚   (Revonsuo Valli, 2000)   Revonsuo performed and in depth study of 52 students that produced 592 dream reports that were created and analyzed in two stages.   Upon completion of the study he concluded that his theory of nightmares was correct.   He also concluded that â€Å"dreaming as a phenomenal experience causually contributes to a complex biological process.†Ã‚   (Revonsuo Valli, 2000) Dream psychologists N. H. Pronko and J. W. Bowles believe that dreams are images that are â€Å"being constantly replenished from current experience.†Ã‚   (Pronko Bowles, 1999, p. 4)   This replenishing process is unobserved in the dream state and is illustrated by the fact that dreams reproduce elements of our own experiences.   Bowles and Pronko believe that in infancy we learn to define our lives through the rapid accumulation of images coupled with emotions.   Through this process we develop the tendency to â€Å"create dramatic situations which express past emotional situations.†Ã‚   (Pronko Bowles, 1999, p. 20)   Nightmares are merely the expression of someone who disregards anxiety in the waking world.   If a person ignores anxiety issues while awake, then upon sleep the â€Å"emotions we can not project meet us in dreams.†Ã‚   (Pronko Bowles, 1999, p. 32) Many theories surrounding dreams exist and those supporting the psychological importance of dreams are contemporary theories built upon the foundation of psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.   These studies have sparked many others that focus on the physiological reaction of the brain during the dreaming state and though a physical reaction can be found within the human brain while sleep and dreaming occurs – researchers can not say for certain that dreams are merely a manifestation of some physiological experience.   The study of dreams must continue as evidence exists that provides proof of the fact that dreams are a key to our mind’s unconcious state.   Sigmund Freud stated in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, â€Å"If I were asked what is the theoretical value of the study of dreams, I should reply that it lies in the additions to psychological knowledge and the beginnings of an understanding to the neuroses which we thereby obtain.†Ã ‚   (Freud, 1931, p. 325)