Sigmund Freud

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Freud on the Austrian 50-Schilling Note

Sigmund and Anna Freud 1913

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Front row: Sigmund Freud, Granville Stanley

Hall, Carl Jung. Freud leaves Vienna for exile in London, 1938
Back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones,
Sandor Ferenczi.

Sigmund Freud, 1907 Memorial plaque of Sigmund Freud

Biography: a life

 Sigmund Freud (Sigismund Scholomo Freud )

was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish
family in Freiberg in May 6, 1856 at
Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic), grew
up in Vienna, Austria, and became a doctor of
psychiatry after graduated from the University of
Vienna in 1881
 In 1938 he left Austria for England to escape
Hitler's government with the help offered by the
National Socialist occupation of Austria.
Place of birth and life career
Biography: Personal Characteristic

 Freud battled mouth cancer the last several

years of his life, but continued to smoke
cigars, his trademark, and later died in
September 23, 1939 in London, (having
mouth-cancer), he is known as a father of
Psychoanalysis
 Freud, it appears, was obsessional, extremely
neat, firm (a barber attended him daily), he
was also superstitious about numbers (for
many years convinced he would die between
61 and 62). He was also a compulsive cigar-
smoker and collected antique statuettes
Biography: an early career

 His medical career began with an apprenticeship (1885–86)

under J. M. Charcot in Paris, and soon after his return to
Vienna he began his famous collaboration with Josef Breuer
on the use of hypnosis in the treatment of hysteria. Their
paper, On the Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena
(1893, tr. 1909), more fully developed in Studien über
Hysterie (1895), marked the beginnings of psychoanalysis in
the discovery that the symptoms of hysterical patients—
directly traceable to psychic trauma in earlier life—represent
undischarged emotional energy. The therapy, called the
cathartic method, consisted of having the patient recall and
reproduce the forgotten scenes while under hypnosis.
 The work was poorly received by the medical profession, and
the two men soon separated over Freud's growing conviction
that the undefined energy causing conversion was sexual in
nature.
Biography: a new wave
 Freud then rejected hypnosis and devised a technique
called free association, which would allow
emotionally charged material that the individual had
repressed in the unconscious to emerge to conscious
recognition.
 Further works, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900, tr.
1913), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904,
tr. 1914), and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
(1905, tr. 1910), increased the bitter antagonism (hate)
toward Freud, and he worked alone until 1906, when
he was joined by the Swiss psychiatrists Eugen
Bleuler and C. G. Jung, the Austrian Alfred Adler,
and others.
Biography: psychoanalysis founder

 In 1908, Bleuler, Freud, and Jung founded the journal

Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische
Forschungen, and in 1909 the movement first received public
recognition when Freud and Jung were invited to give a series
of lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., USA
 In 1910 the International Psychoanalytical Association was
formed with Jung as president, but the harmony of the
movement was short-lived: between 1911 and 1913 both
Jung and Adler resigned, forming their own schools in protest
against Freud's emphasis on infantile sexuality and the
Oedipus complex.
 Although these men, and others who broke away later,
objected to Freudian theories, the basic structure of
psychoanalysis as the study of unconscious mental
processes is still Freudian. Disagreement lies largely in the
degree of emphasis placed on concepts largely originated by
Freud (sexual desire).
Biography: a landmark
 The last Freud's contribution to psychoanalytic theory is
The Ego and the Id (1923, tr. 1927), after which he reverted
to earlier cultural preoccupations. Totem and Taboo (1913,
tr. 1918), an investigation of the origins of religion and
morality, and Moses and Monotheism (1939, tr. 1939) are
the result of his application of psychoanalytic theory to
cultural problems.
 Freudian theory has had wide impact, influencing fields as
diverse as anthropology, education, art, and literary
criticism. His daughter, Anna Freud, was a major proponent
of psychoanalysis, developing in particular the Freudian
concept of the defense mechanism. Other works include A
General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910, tr. 1920) and
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis (1933).
Freud’s international influence

 He simultaneously developed a
psychoanalysis:
 a theory of the human mind and human
behavior
 clinical techniques for attempting to help
neurotics (a mental or personality
disturbance not attributable to any known
neurological or organic dysfunction) by
bringing to consciousness repressed
thoughts and feelings
Psychoanalytic school: elements
 The theories distinctive of this school generally
included hypotheses that:
 human development is best understood in terms of changing
objects of sexual desire
 the psychic apparatus habitually represses wishes, usually of
a sexual or aggressive nature, whereby they become
preserved in one or more unconscious systems of ideas
 unconscious conflicts over repressed wishes have a tendency
to manifest themselves in dreams, parapraxes ("Freudian
slips"), and symptoms
 unconscious conflicts are the source of neuroses
 neuroses can be treated through bringing the unconscious
wishes and repressed memories to consciousness in
psychoanalytic treatment.
Psychoanalysis: method & theory

 a method for learning about the mind

 a theory, a way of understanding the
processes of normal everyday mental
functioning and the stages of normal
development from infancy to old age.
 Furthermore, since psychoanalysis seeks to
explain how the human mind works, it
contributes insight into whatever the human
mind produces, from great works of art to
weapons of mass destruction
Psychoanalysis: therapy's tool
 As a therapy, psychoanalysis is
based on the observation that
individuals are often unaware of
many of the factors that
determine their emotions and
behavior
 These unconscious factors may
create unhappiness, sometimes
in the form of recognizable
symptoms and at other times as
troubling personality traits,
difficulties in work or in love
relationships, or disturbances in
Freud's couch used during
mood and self-esteem psychoanalytic sessions
Psychoanalysis: a procedure
 Analysis is an intimate partnership, in the course of which
the patient becomes aware of the underlying sources of his
or her difficulties not simply intellectually, but emotionally -
by re-experiencing them with the analyst.
 Typically, the patient comes four or five times a week, lies
on a couch, and attempts to say everything that comes to
mind. These conditions create the analytic setting, which
permits the emergence of aspects of the mind not
accessible to other methods of observation
 As the patient speaks, hints of the unconscious sources of
current difficulties gradually begin to appear - in certain
repetitive patterns of behavior, in the subjects which the
patient finds hard to talk about, in the ways the patient
relates to the analyst. The analyst helps elucidate these for
the patient, who refines, corrects, rejects, and adds further
thoughts and feelings.
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s Dynamic Unconscious
 During the 19th century, the dominant trend in Western
thought was positivism, the belief that people could
ascertain real knowledge concerning themselves and
their environment and judiciously exercise control over
both. Freud, however, suggested that such declarations
of free will are in fact delusions; that we are not entirely
aware of what we think and often act for reasons that
have little to do with our conscious thoughts, by which he
later introduces a inner force called as dynamic
unconscious.
 The concept of the unconscious was groundbreaking in
that he proposed that awareness existed in layers and
that there were thoughts occurring "below the surface."
Dreams, which he called the "royal road to the
unconscious", provided the best access to our
unconscious life and the best illustration of its "logic",
which was different from the logic of conscious thought.
Freud’s Mind exploration
 Freud developed his first topology of the psyche in
The Interpretation of Dreams in which he
proposed the argument that the unconscious exists
and described a method for gaining access to it.
 The Preconscious was described as a layer
between conscious and unconscious thought—that
which we could access with a little effort. Thus for
Freud, the ideals of the Enlightenment, (vs.
positivism & rationalism), could be achieved
through understanding, transforming, and mastering
the unconscious, rather than through denying or
repressing it, because the dynamic unconscious
mind often affects conscious thoughts and produces
conscious behavior.
Freud’s Id, Ego & Super-Ego
 The ego, super-ego, and id
are the divisions of the
psyche according to
psychoanalyst Sigmund
Freud's "structural theory".
 The id contains "primitive
desires or instinct" (hunger,
rage, and sex)
 the super-ego or conscience
contains internalized norms,
morality and taboos
 the ego mediates between
the id and super-ego, and
may include or give rise to
the sense of self “Tip of the Iceberg” -
Structural & Topographical Models of Mind
Let go my ego!
Freud’s defense mechanism
 Defense mechanisms are unconscious mechanisms
aimed at reducing anxiety that arises from three
different scenarios:
 When the id impulses are in conflict with each
other;
 When the id impulses conflict with superego
values and beliefs;
 When an external threat is posed to the ego.
 For example, when the id impulses (e.g. desire
to have sex with a stranger) conflict with the
superego (e.g. belief in societal conventions of
not having sex with unknown persons), then the
feelings of anxiety come to the surface. To
reduce these negative feelings, defense
mechanisms are employed.
The use of defense mechanism

 The use of defense mechanisms may weaken the

conflict between the id and super-ego, but their
overuse or reuse rather than confrontation can
lead to either anxiety or guilt which may result in
psychological disorders such as depression.
 The defense mechanisms include: denial, reaction
formation, displacement, repression/suppression,
projection, compensation, sublimation and
regression.
Defense Mechanism
Defense Mechanism
Beware of Defense Mechanism

 Ego defenses are not necessarily

unhealthy as you can see by the
examples above. In face, the lack of
these defenses, or the inability to use
them effectively can often lead to
problems in life. However, we
sometimes employ the defenses at the
wrong time or overuse them, which can
be equally destructive.
Freud’s Psychosexual development

 Freud also believed that the libido

developed in individuals by changing its
object, a process designed by the concept
of sublimation.
 He argued that humans are born
"polymorphously contrary“
(morph=change), meaning that any number
of objects could be a source of pleasure.
 He further argued that, as humans
developed, they become fixated on different
and specific objects through their five
stages of development
Freud’s Psychosexual development
five-stages

(penis)

(Potential)
Freud’s psychology of religion
 According to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory which is
found in his totem and taboo, a male child early in life has
sexual desires for his mother – the Oedipus Complex –
which he held to be universal. The father is protective, so
his sons love him, but they are also jealous of their father
for his relationship with their mothers.
 Finding that individually they cannot defeat the father-
leader, they band together, kill and eat him in a ritual meal,
thereby ingesting the substance of the father’s hated power
– but their subsequent guilt leads the sons to elevate their
father's memory and to worship him
 The super-ego then takes the place of the father as the
source of internalized authority. A ban was then put upon
incest and upon marriage within the clan, and symbolic
animal sacrifice was substituted for the ritual killing of a
human being.
Freud’s future of an illusion
 Freud describes religion as an illusion, wishes that are
the "fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent
wishes of mankind" (Ch. 6 pg. 30). To differentiate
between an illusion and an error, he lists scientific beliefs
such as "Aristotle's belief that vermin are developed out
of dung" as errors, but "the assertion made by certain
nationalists that the Indo-Germanic race is the only one
capable of civilization" is an illusion, simply because of
the wishing involved. Put forth more explicitly, "what is
characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from
human wishes." (pg. 31)
 He adds, however, that, "Illusions need not necessarily
be false." (p.39) He gives the example of a middle-class
girl having the illusion that a prince will marry her. While
this is unlikely, it is not impossible. The fact that it is
grounded in her wishes is what makes it an illusion.
Freud’s Dream Interpretation
 In his book The Interpretation of Dreams,
Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all
dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious
or not. The theory explains that the split between
ego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams. The
unconscious would "like" to depict the wish fulfilled
wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it —
the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised
 Freud argues, only an understanding of the
structure of the dream-work can explain the dream.
In every dream in which he attempts to do so, he is
able to establish a multitude of wishes on a variety
of levels — conscious wishes for the immediate
future
Critique of Freud
 Freud's theories of psychology can never be
"verified"; no type of behavior could ever falsify
them, thus not a scientific, said Karl Popper
 Some have attacked Freud's claim that infants
are sexual beings
 Others have accepted Freud's expanded
notion of sexuality, but have argued that this
pattern of development is not universal, nor
necessary for the development of a healthy
adult
Critique of Freud
 Popper analyzed that Freud examined the "rationality"
to be found even in material regarded as thoroughly
inscrutable, irrational and meaningless, such as
dreams, slips, neurotic symptoms, and the verbal
productions of psychotics. Conversely, he discovered
"irrationality" (i.e., purely arbitrary and idiosyncratic
elements) even in material that is manifestly "rational"
(i.e., work activities, political philosophy, conventional
social behavior)
 Dr. J. Von Schneidt was the first to propose that most
of Freud's psychoanalytical theory was a byproduct of
his cocaine use. Cocaine enhances dopaminergic
neurotransmission increasing sexual interest and
obsessive thinking. Chronic cocaine use can produce
unusual thinking patterns due to the depletion of
dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex.
Term

 Hysteria: extreme fear, excitement,

anger, etc. which cannot be controlled
 Catharsis: the process of releasing
strong emotions through a particular
activity or experience, such as writing or
theatre, which helps you to understand
those emotions
Term
 Positivism: a doctrine contending that sense
perceptions are the only admissible basis of human
knowledge and precise thought; the form of empiricism
that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience
(not on intuition or revelation); an approach to
philosophy frequently found in the twentieth century.
Positivists (Auguste Comte) usually hold that all
meaningful statements must be either logical
inferences or sense descriptions, and they usually
argue that the statements found in metaphysics, such
as “Human beings are free” or “Human beings are not
free,” are meaningless because they cannot possibly
be verified by the senses.
Term

 Rationalism: (philosophy) the theory that

the exercise of reason, rather than
experience, authority, or spiritual
revelation, provides the primary basis for
knowledge
 Libido: a person's sexual energy
Term

 Sublimation: (psychology) to divert the

energy of (a sexual or other biological
impulse) from its immediate goal to one
of a more acceptable social, moral, or
aesthetic nature or use
Freud’s Position

Mind/Psyche

Freud

Internal External
Factor Factor

Body/Physical
Freud’s Writing & Publication
 Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (Studien über Hysterie, 1895)
 The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung, 1899)
 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Zur Psychopathologie des
Alltagslebens, 1901)
 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Drei Abhandlungen zur
Sexualtheorie, 1905)
 Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of
Savages and Neurotics (Totem und Tabu, 1913)
 On Narcissism (Zur Einführung der Narzißmus, 1914)
 Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Jenseits des Lustprinzips, 1920)
 The Ego and the Id (Das Ich und das Es, 1923)
 The Future of an Illusion (Die Zukunft einer Illusion, 1927)
 Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1929)
 Why War (with Albert Einstein)
 Moses and Monotheism (Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistische
Religion, 1939)
 An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (Abriß der Psychoanalyse, 1940)
reference

 Allpsycho online:
[Link]
 Olive Benjamin:
[Link]