Sigmund Freud - Essay Example

He along with his mentor devoted considerable time to study one of the patients called Anna who was suffering from paralysis and other psychosomatic disorders. During the course of treatment he came to the conclusion that several traumatic experiences that Anna had in the past had really contributed to her illness. His study on hysteria was published in the year 1895 (Cherry 2012a). The Interpretation of Dreams In 1900, Freud's book on dream interpretation got published and it is considered one of the best-known treatises on dream interpretation; however, it should be noted that many of Freud's ideas as mentioned in the book have received little support from current dream findings.

In his book, Freud has mentioned that dreams are symbolic and they expose our unconscious thoughts. According to Freud, our unconscious wishes that fail to find a way in real word manifest in our dreams. The psychoanalysis in human history, in true sense, begins with Freud’s book – The Interpretation of Dreams. At times, his work lacked scientific evidence to support his theories; however, his viewpoints pertaining to psychoanalysis always remained important in the world of psychology (Brills 1913).

The Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory casts a strong influence on myriad of disciplines that includes sociology, psychology, literature, anthropology, and art. As per Freud, the human mind can be divided into two parts – conscious and unconscious mind. The conscious mind consists of everything that we are aware of. Our rational mental thinking and processing is a part of this mind. Our memory too is a part of our conscious mind as it can be retrieved at our wish and can be made the use of.

Anything outside our conscious awareness such as thoughts, urges, feelings are the part of unconscious mind and that is the unconscious mind that influence us most in our life (Cherry 2012b). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ is the book that details about how unconscious thoughts and impulses decide about human actions unknowingly. He proposed in this book that psychological disorders are mainly due to inner conflicts in our subconscious mind. He discussed different types of Freudian slips in the book and he concluded that all these slips or errors are due to our unconscious thoughts and wishes (Cherry 2012c).

Id, Ego, and Super-ego In a structural model to interpret human personality, Freud divided it in three parts –Id, Ego, and Super-ego. According to this, we all are born with primitive urges such as hunger, sex, pleasure called id. In early life, our personality revolves around id. It is an id part in the child that makes child cry when he or she feels hungry. That is how small babies satisfy their basic needs. The id simply cares about its own satisfaction without giving any consideration to others.

As the child grows and interacts with others, ego starts developing gradually. Ego takes into consideration the real situation while meeting the needs of the id. The superego takes care about the moral part of our thinking. It decides about right and wrong and many equate it with our conscience. According to Freud, usually, the ego is the strongest part in anybody's personality and that keeps check on id and superego part in us. A person with high superego would stress rigidly on morals and ethics while