Personality Course - Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

source

Probably no theory of personality is as widely known or as frequently criticized as that proposed by Sigmund Freud. Freud compared his theory to those of Copernicus, who claimed that humans do not live at the center of the universe, and of Darwin, who discredited the idea that humans are a separately created species.

Humanity was further humbled by Freud’s assertion that reason does not rule behavior. He proposed that unconscious psychological forces powerfully affect human thought and behavior. These forces originate in childhood and continue their influence throughout life.

Freud portrayed humans as driven by instincts that “in themselves are neither good nor evil” but have both kinds of effects, not only fueling the positive achievements of culture but also leading to war, crime, mental illness, and other human woes.

Psychoanalytic theory has transformed our understanding of sex and aggression and has led people in the post–Freudian era never to quite trust their conscious experience.

BIOGRAPHY

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 into a Jewish family in predominantly Catholic Freiberg, Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic). By the time he was 4 years old, his family moved to Vienna, which remained his home until near his death.

Freud was one of eight children, including two older half brothers by his father’s first marriage. Sigmund was the oldest and by all accounts the favorite of his mother. She expected him to be great, gave him the only oil lamp in the house, and did not permit his sister to disturb him by practicing the piano when he was studying. His father was a strict authority figure within the family.

Freud studied medicine at the University of Vienna, specializing in neurology. He intended to become an academician and had published five research studies by the age of 26. Realistically, though, academic medicine did not pay well, and discrimination against Jews made it unlikely that he would achieve a high position. Thus Freud turned to private practice as a clinical neurologist, and soon married his fiancée of 4 years, Martha Bernays. The union produced five children, including a daughter, Anna, who followed her father’s footsteps as a psychoanalyst.

In his practice, Freud saw a variety of psychiatric patients, including many diagnosed as suffering from hysteria, a psychological disorder that produces physical symptoms without physical damage to the body. He developed new ways of thinking about these disorders, formulating the theory of psychoanalysis. His explorations were also turned to an understanding of his own symptoms; for example, he suffered a fear of travel and especially of flying, interpreted by one commentator as evidence that Freud feared women and sexuality, despite his psychoanalytic sophistication.

His reputation grew beyond Vienna. He was well received in the United States, especially after his lecture series in 1909 at Clark University in Massachusetts. His theory was controversial because of its emphasis on childhood sexuality. It was also criticized as a Jewish science, dealing with psychiatric disturbances, then thought to affect Jews particularly. Undoubtedly, the anti-Semitism of his society greatly influenced both Freud and his patients. The Nazis burned the works of Freud and other Jews in 1933, and they raided his house in Vienna frequently in the years prior to World War II. Freud’s personal health was failing at this time; he had cancer of the mouth, aggravated by his addiction to cigars. He finally fled Vienna in 1938, at the age of 82, and went to London, where he died in 1939.

OVERVIEW OF FREUD'S THEORY

Individual Differences
People differ in their ego defense mechanisms, which control expression of primitive forces in personality.

Adaptation and Adjustment
Mental health involves the ability to love and to work. Psychoanalysis provides a method for overcoming unconscious psychological conflict.

Cognitive Processes Culture
Conscious experience often cannot be trusted because of distortions produced by unconscious defense mechanisms.

Culture
All societies deal with universal human conflicts and lead to repression of individual desires. Traditional religion is challenged as a shared defense mechanism.

Biological influences
Psychiatric symptoms are explained in psychodynamic terms, instead of in biological terms. Biological drives, in particular sexual motivation, provide the basis of personality. Hereditary differences may influence level of sexual drive (libido) and phenomena such as homosexuality.

Development
Experience in the first 5 years is critical for personality formation. The oral, anal, and phallic (Oedipal) psychosexual conflicts are central. Adult personality changes very little.

IN A NUTSHELL

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory proposes that behavior is caused by psychological forces, according to the assumption of psychic determinism. Unconscious forces often overpower consciousness, producing symptoms of neurosis, dreams, and mistakes in everyday life.

Dreams can be interpreted by seeking their symbolic meanings (latent content). The unconscious develops from repression of unacceptable thoughts.

Personality can be described in terms of three structures: id, ego, and superego. The id functions according to primary process and the pleasure principle, unconsciously seeking immediate satisfaction of biologically based drives, and it is the source of psychic energy (libido). The ego functions according to secondary process and the reality principle; it adapts to reality by using defense mechanisms to cope with intrapsychic conflict. The superego represents society’s restrictions and produces guilt and an ego ideal.

Personality develops through five psychosexual stages. The first three stages are most influential. These are the oral, anal, and phallic stages, which occur from birth to age 5. The latency stage provides a lull before the final, genital, stage of adulthood. Fixation, especially at the first three stages, impedes development and may produce symptoms treatable by psychoanalysis.

The basic technique of psychoanalysis is free association, which permits the discovery of unconscious material.

Other key elements of treatment are dream interpretation, catharsis, and insight.

Memory recovery in therapy is a controversial technique that may result in false memories.

Although many psychoanalysts share Freud’s belief that the observations of psychoanalytic treatment provide sufficient evidence for the theory, others have attempted empirical verification through research, with mixed results.

Reference
Theories of Personality - Understanding Persons, Susan Cloninger, The Sage Colleges, 6th edition

Follow me and my stories