Theories have defined many natural occurrences in the human life today. There seems to be a theory for every single experience that humankind has had. Every one of them from their origin, their past lives, and the present day activities are all defined in theories. These theories are invented and fuelled by some individuals who engage in doing extensive research on a certain area of study and thus come up with certain conclusions on the same. One such individual is Sigmund Freud, a very prominent theorist within the confines of psychology, who came up with very fundamental theories that redefined the world’s view of psychological interactions. This paper looks at Freud’s life, his theory, its implications, and the current trends influenced by the same.
Personal Biography of Sigmund Freud and his Background
Sigmund Schlomo Freud was born on the 6th of May 1856 to Jakob and Amalie Freud. He was born in the Moravian town of Freiberg, which was his parent’s living place. His father, Jakob owned a textile business which later on failed thus forcing them to move to Vienna. Freud was a far-reaching child and was very sharp. His mother initially schooled him from home before joining the Sperl Gymnasium where his academic excellence was further experienced. Later on in 1873, Freud graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium. He was only seventeen years old at this time, and he successively joined the University of Vienna where he enrolled as a medical trainee (BBC, 2014).
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Freud’s medical training took a long eight years for him to receive a degree. This was caused by his medical research activities which he used to engage in. He had found interest in studying the anatomy of the brain in which he was assisted by his mentor Ernst Bruke. Before completing his studies, Freud became engaged to Martha Bernays in 1881 (Husman, n.d.). Upon graduation, Freud moved from Bruke’s laboratory and started working at the Vienna General Hospital. He transversed through many departments in the hospital before finally settling for the Theodor Meynert’s department of psychiatry. He, later on, got married to Martha in 1886 through a civil marriage which was by then unaccepted in Germany thus forcing them to remarry in a Jewish one (BBC, 2014).
From then, Freud became more concerned with developing himself as a private practitioner. It was in this endeavours that he, later on, met Josef Breuer who was a Jewish neurologist and then build a strong relationship with him. Together they published a series named ‘Studies on Hysteria’ which was based on studies they conducted on their patients. Freud contributed four studies in this publication where else Breuer gave only one. Breuer's case study, however, became more populous amongst the people and was much approved by most professionals. It shadowed theories presented by Freud as they were overlooked even by Breuer himself (Husman, n.d.).
He became isolated for the largest part of his professional life, but this did not hinder him from writing more publications. Most of this writings were poorly received. For instance, his 1899 publication ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ was not received as he had expected. He had invested too much time and resources in compiling it and was disappointed by its poor reception. However, his continued writing saw his breakthrough from isolated professionalism in the early 1900s. His fellow psychologist friends started attending meetings in his home to discuss on various issues. His techniques also began being applied by other psychologists. This kind of new relationship between Freud and other psychologists gave birth to the Wednesday Psychological Society which later on became the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society (Husman, n.d.). His writings became more populous over the years, and most of them became the referral position of many psychologists. Freud died of mouth cancer on the 23rd of September 1939.
Freudian Theory
This theory emanated from the case study from Breuer on Anna O. The study triggered him to come up with his theory that stated that the mind had at least three levels. In 1905, he came up with a topographical model of the mind. To explain his new finding, Freud resorted to the use of an iceberg as a way to illustrate his theory (McLeod, 2013). He said that the tip of the iceberg represented consciousness. This level, according to Freud, is the one that consists of an individual’s thoughts and where their attention is directed towards (McLeod, 2013). The second level is the preconscious level which is characterized by the surface of the water. Freud described this level as able to retrieve things from the memory of an individual (McLeod, 2013). Freud then described the third level of the brain as the unconscious mind. He described this part of the mind as the most important part of the brain of an individual as it contributes to the behavior of the individual (McLeod, 2013). This theory became named the psychoanalysis theory.
Freud said that the unconscious mind acts as a repository in that most impulses are stored here (Jacobson, 2013). In light of this, Freud said that he had found out that most of his patients had some desires that were utterly painful of frightening to a state they could not acknowledge them. This, as he said, are contained in the unconscious mind. He further said that this unconscious mind owned control over a colossal part of a person’s behavior (McLeod, 2013).
Later on, Freud furthered his theory on the levels of the mind by introducing other sublevels of the mind namely; id, ego, and superego (McLeod, 2013). These new structures were not physical like the first three, but as Freud explained, they formed a central base of the hypothetical translation of the mentality of a person (Jacobson, 2013). The id as he explained was the unconscious part that brought about the pleasure principle and was consistent of Eros and Thanatos. Freud described Eros as the life instinct which ensures the survival of a being through the coordination of activities like breathing, eating, and sex. On the other side, he said Thanatos was a death instinct that was consistent of a multitude of destructive forces. However, he said that the Eros was dominant over the Thanatos (McLeod, 2013). The ego comes in as a supplement of the id in that it tries to justify activities of the id. It is located in both the conscious and the unconscious mind. The superego is seen in the early stages of a child’s growth especially when they start identifying with the parent of the same sex (McLeod, 2013).
Application of the Theory
Freud’s theory can be applied in the psychological study of an individual by understanding first how their brain functions. It is essential for a psychologist to know what part of the brain does what so that they may be able to assess where exactly is affected in case of mental illness (Dvorsky, 2013). It is also essential in psychotherapy as a psychologist has to know which part of the brain to target so as to successfully address a patient. Most patients are affected by fears and worries located in the unconscious mind, but this can only be undone by making this conscious (Dvorsky, 2013). The best way of doing this is through psychoanalysis. In the application of Freud’s allusions, it is possible to do away with the physically notable complications in a person’s by addressing their mental state (Dvorsky, 2013).
Current Findings Concerning Freudian’s Theory
Over the past years, a lot of other studies in psychology have significantly shown that Freud’s theory was relatively right and with some critical implications. For instance, the onset of cognitive psychology greatly supports the idea of the unconscious mind (Bornstein, 2016). It found out that there are unconscious processes in a person’s brain like procedural memory, automatic processing, and social psychology. These key elements of cognitive psychology illustrated the influence of the unconscious mind in the molding of one’s behaviour.
A further evolution of his works is seen in the newer psychological inventions like the object relations theory (Bornstein, 2016). The object relations theory presents a claim that people especially young children find certain kind of satisfaction in objects. This objects become part and parcel of their lives as they result in a certain kind of comfort that they cannot obtain from another object. This kind of relation of a child to an object is considered psychological, and this notion is described to be as an effect of the conscious mind.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think Freud’s theory was quite a mind opening discovery that has led to the enormous developments experienced in the psychological world today. Had he not made some quite intrusive writings on the findings from the study of his patients, psychology today would be a step back in identifying the different functionalities of the separate parts of the brain. However, a lot of Freud’s work was mostly self-oriented. He only valued any information that supported his theories and this limited him from an ultimately conclusive theory. Again, he only focused on his patient studies, most of whom were women. This aspect makes it difficult for the general population to find relation in his findings.
References
BBC. (2014). History: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml.
Bornstein, R. (2016). The Psychodynamic Perspective. NOBA . Retrieved from http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-psychodynamic-perspective.
Dvorsky, G. (2013). Why Freud still matters, when he was wrong about almost everything. Gizmodo . Retrieved 21st November 2016 from http://io9.gizmodo.com/why-freud-still-matters-when-he-was-wrong-about-almost-1055800815.
Husman, A. (n.d.). Psyography: Sigmund Freud . Retrieved from http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/sigmundfreud1.html.
Jacobson, S. (2013). Sigmund Freud’s main theories in psychoanalysis: a summary. Harley Therapy . Retrieved from http://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/freuds-main-theories-psychoanalysis.htm.
McLeod, S. (2013). Sigmund Freud. SimplyPsychology . Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html.
