Psychotherapy Successes and Not So Successful Bucks County Community College Freudian Psychotherapy Successes and Not So Successful Sigmund Freud was born May 6th 1856 in Freiberg, in Czech Republic.
Freud began his career immediately after graduating college in 1881 with a Doctorate. By 1884 Freud was working with one of the lead doctors, Josef Breuer. While he was working with Breuer he worked on cases for hysteria and treating it with hypnosis. Now a day’s many people still study and practice hypnosis, and believe it works, and continue to use hypnosis.
He quickly moved on to other cases with another doctor, Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist. Years later Freud discovered the “Mystery of Dreams” and by 1896 he was finally recognized by many as psychoanalysis. Freud had many theories, and he was very popular for them. One of his theories was the conscious and unconscious mind.
In this theory the “Freudian Slip” was invented. The “Freudian Slip” is an unconscious misstatement, for example accidently calling your current boyfriend by the name of you ex-boyfriend. Typically you would claim that it was mere accident, but Freud’s psychoanalytic theory says this is no accident.The psychoanalytic theory claims that these misspoken words are because of unresolved feeling or possibly because of misgivings about the current boyfriend.
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is broken down in two parts, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is all the things we are aware of. This is part of a mental process that allows us to think and talk rationally. The unconscious mind is where all our feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories are all kept out of our conscious awareness.
Usually the feelings of your unconscious mind are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as pain, anxiety, or conflict.Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind is that, even though we are unaware of it, the unconscious mind is the influence of our behavior and experience. Freud has many other theories, for example the id, ego, and superego. This psychoanalytic theory is broken down in to three elements of personality which work together creating human behaviors.
The id part of this theory is achieved at birth. Id is unconscious behaviors of personality that are instinctive and primitive. According to Freud the id is psychic energy, which he believes makes it the primary part of personality.The ego is the part of the personality that deals with reality.
From Freud’s psychoanalytical view the ego develops from the id making sure that the impulses of the id are expressed in a proper manner in the real world. The ego functions in the conscious and unconscious mind. Finally the third part of the personality is the superego. The superego is our internalized moral standards and ideals that we learn from society and our parents, giving us a sense of right and wrong.
The superego is broken down in to two parts, the ego ideal and the conscience.The ego ideal is good behavior that is approved by parents and authority figures. By showing good behavior and following rules you get a feeling of pride and accomplishment. The conscience is behavior that is viewed as bad by parents and society.
Behaviors that are bad typically lead to consequences such as punishment, guilt, and remorse. The superego works to civilize our behavior and is present in the conscious and unconscious mind. Freud called all of these contradicting forces “ego strength” because of the ego’s ability to function even with all the contradictions.This theory is also still considered in modern day.
Many of us who are around someone who is selfish or ignorant we refer to them as being “egotistical” or having a “big ego. ” This means that these people have an unbalance of the id, ego, and superego, causing them to act differently and sometimes inappropriately as opposed to those who have good “ego strength. ” Finally I will discuss one of Freud’s theories, which is psychosexual development. In this theory there are five stages in psychosexual development.
This theory is one of Freud’s best-known, but also one of the most controversial. Freud believes that if these stages are not successfully completed it may result in an unhealthy personality. Also his theory is that if issues are not resolved at the time of the stage fixation will occur. A fixation is a focus that is stuck on one of the psychosexual stages.
The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, which begins at birth. The oral stage consists of dependency through the mouth, such as eating, tasting, and sucking. This biggest issue with thisstage is the weaning process, causing the child to be less dependent on its caretaker. Getting fixation at this stage can cause problems with smoking, drinking, and nail biting.
The next stage is the anal stage. The anal stage focuses on potty training and controlling bladder and bowel movements. Freud believed that this stage is very critical for how a parent teaches the child. He believed that if a parent used praise and rewards for the child using the toilet, there would be a better outcome, and the child would grow into being a productive and creative adult.
If this were to go the other way and parents were negative with their teaching, such as punishing or ridiculing the child, Freud believed this would send the child down an obsessive or even wasteful path. A child who gets fixated on this stage my develop habits like being messy destructive. The third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage. According to Freud this stage is the stage when children discover their genitals and the difference between boys and girls.
At this stage children begin to see the same-sex parent as possessive and controlling towards the other parent.Freud claims girls never outgrow “penis envy” and become somewhat fixated in this stage. Today this theory is strongly disputed because this study is demeaning and inaccurate towards women. The fourth stage of Freud’s psychosexual development theory is the latent period.
In this stage the libido suppresses the interests, and the ego and superego contribute strongly to this. This stage typically begins when the child enters school and starts to become concerned with relationships, hobbies, and other interests. In the latent stage a child’s sexual energy is still present but dispersed through social and intellectual interactions.This stage is most important for social skills and self-confidence.
Finally the fifth stage of the theory is the genital stage. During this stage the child develops sexual interest in the opposite sex. In the genital stage you begin to have interest in other’s well-being and not just focused on your own needs. By the end of this stage you should hopefully have a caring and strong-willed child, as long as all stages were successfully completed.
As always there were many flaws with the theory, and is strongly disputed today. A few conflicts with this theory is that its main focus is mostly on men and somewhat demeaning towards women.Also this theory cannot be tested scientifically because the libido cannot be measured, therefore cannot be tested. Most of Freud’s theories are based on case studies and not actual research.
On top of this, Freud did not do actual research and observational studies on children; he based his findings solely on the recollection of his adult patients. In modern day much of Freud’s work is disputed and not used. Many current practices believe Freud’s conclusions are not scientific due to lack of research and observational study. There are a few clinical psychologists who use related methods of Freud’s, but not in a whole.
Some utilize talk therapy to get information from their patient, but do not base their conclusions solely on the word of the patient. Today we have psychiatrists who are trained as medical doctors just as Freud was. The difference between modern day psychiatrists and Freud is that, modern day psychiatrists treat patients with drugs for a quick fix rather than follow Freud’s theory of the mind. By most, psychoanalysis is rejected as a pseudoscience, and humanistic psychology rejects psychoanalysis and claims it to be demeaning and incorrect about human beings.
Freud’s methods are still used to an extent and also rejected at the same time, depending on the field of practice, it is difficult to say if Freud’s theories are correct or not. Today Freud is still studied and remembered as a strong influence in the world of psychology. References Kendra Cherry (2011) The Conscious and Unconscious Mind; The Structure of the Mind According to Freud psychology. about.
com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon. htm Kendra Cherry (2011) Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development (7 Pages) psychology.about. com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/psychosexualdev.
htm Kendra Cherry (2011) The Id, Ego, and Superego; The Structural Model of Personality psychology. about. com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/personalityelem. htm Richard Webster (2004) Freud, Charcot and Hysteria: lost in the labyrinth www.
richardwebster. net/freudandcharcot. html University of Phoenix (2011) Sigmund Freud Psychology Blog www. freud-sigmund.
com Unknown (1995) Psychotherapy Sigmund Freud; Updated: October 27th 2005 www. mentalhelp. net/poc/view_doc. php? type=doc&id=8200&cn=91
