Sigmund Freud - Essay Example

Freud believed that the mind was in fact a complex energy source and should be investigated in a psychological way. Always a bright child and at the head of every class he was in, according to Gregory (1987, page 268), he was educated in Vienna. He began to study for a medical degree in 1873 and undertook research into the vertebrate nervous system and published his first scientific paper on this subject in 1878. On obtaining his medical qualification he decided to specialize in clinical neurology.

His work on aphasia, that is loss of speech, especially with regard to Dr Breuer’s patient Miss O., attracted lots of scientific attention. Physical reasons for her many symptoms could not be found. Both Breuer and Freud wrote about how her condition, described at the time as hysteria, was the result of some psychological trauma in earlier life. When the patient was able, through hypnosis, to understand where her symptoms originated from , she was able to overcome them one by one. Although Freud was not the first person to discuss the idea of the unconcious mind having an effect upon the conscious, it was through his work that the idea became widely known.

Freud moved to Paris, which was then the world centre for neurologists and the study of neurology. At that time he believed strongly in the use of hypnosis in clinical practice. He came to realise that neurosis was much more complex than had been previously realized. After a relatively short time he returned to Vienna where he married and set up in practice as a neuropsychologist. He spent several years searching for causes – concluding that in many cases the origin of problems was the suppression of early bad memories, repressed ideas which caused psychological trauma, especially with regard to sexual matters.

This is something he added to Breuer’s theories. He developed over an extended period the theory that all human have an unconscious mind in which aggressive and sexual impulses are always in conflict with the minds defences against them. His theories seemed to be capable of encompassing and explaining many different types of human behaviour. They seem to provide causal theories for many kinds of human misery. The problem, as described by Thornton ( 2010) is that these causes are not scientifically observable or measurable.

Freud is associated with the Oedipus Complex. This was based upon his hysterical female patients in Vienna, many of whom seemed to have repressed memories about seduction by male relatives in their early childhood. Many of these so called recollections, or repressed memories, obtained under hypnotic conditions, proved to be fantasies, according to Freud. This is what is now often termed ‘False Memory Syndrome’ .Others believe, according to Thornton ( 2010), that there was, even in Vienna’s polite middle class society, a much higher level of child sexual abuse than Freud felt able to acknowledge. . In 1906 he produced ‘Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, a work which shocked many, yet nevertheless had an influence upon modern day ideas about the development of human personality.

Earlier (1900) he had written ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ based to a great deal on his analysis of his own dreams. According to Thornton ( 2010) these dreams had their origins in the huge emotional upset Freud suffered