Freud V. Erikson

Freud v. Erikson

Cheryl Glover

Sigmund Freud is known to be the Father of Psychology. Though I have heard Wilhelm Wundt should hold this title, I will never stop thinking of Freud as the Father of Psychology. Freud is the one who introduced psychoanalysis and gave psychology a new name. Psychoanalysis is the method of understanding how the mind works and the stages of growth and development I believe psychoanalysis is a general theory of our individual human behavior and experience. Psychoanalysis helps to explain the complex relationship between the body and mind, which furthers the understanding of the role of emotions and the unconscious. It goes on to explain how and why we behave. Psychoanalysis has paved the way for all other approaches to therapy and psychiatric practices.

Let’s move on to Freud’s theory of hypnotism: a technique that Freud used to produce a state of consciousness that allows the patient to bring to the surface feelings or emotions that would otherwise be repressed. During Freud’s time this was the standard treatment for hysteria. In the text it states that Freud later questioned this form of therapy. Initially you want to accept Freud’s theory, because it makes sense and seems to be an effective method of dealing with our feelings that are repressed. To think that the behaviors associated with the disease could be removed then restored under hypnosis with a physician’s suggestions, seems logical. I do believe that hypnotism adjunct to catharsis could be one way to help. I do concur with what Freud later realized; all patients could not be hypnotized or could not achieve the trancelike state of somnambulism so necessary to relieving and releasing the strangulated emotion of the forgotten traumatic event. He also concluded that the treatment would depend on the personal relationship between the physician and the patient; which I would say applies to all therapies and treatments. Over the years, Freud was criticized as well as praised regarding psychoanalysis and his other methods. However, when taking into account both the positive and negative aspects, Freud still shows that psychoanalysis is certainly a "great idea" in personality and should not be overlooked or ignored. We also need to consider how at the time Freud came up with these methods they were the first and only real treatments available to victims of hysteria. It only seems expected that the medical community would have accepted and welcomed any treatment to offer these patients.

Another theory Freud is recognized for is his dream analysis. Freud suggests that dreams represent a fulfilled wish and will argue that those wishes are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires. The anxiety surrounding these desires turn into nightmares. Freud also states that dreams are the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious mind. I am torn in between Freud’s theories and interpretations of dreams. I do see how on some level our dreams tie into our unconscious, but I can not understand the way Freud interprets dreams. It seems like taking a long shot in the dark. For example, his interpretation of his bird beaked people dreams. He associated the dream with a particular edition of the Bible called Phillippsons. Philip was the first person to reveal Freud the word for sexual intercourse, which the bird people fit in and explain why Freud dreamed this particular dream. Freud basically just throws out an interpretation. It

is my opinion that it is not possible to rely on this way of interpreting dreams. There is no way to test the accuracy of his statements to be true or false.

Sigmund Freud was a product of his own time and it is certain that he suffered from his own neurosis. This helped Freud to dig deeper into his own self and shine a new light on Psychology. Freud raised the bar and brought a new understanding to Psychology. The thing that we need not to forget is that Psychology is a much more difficult science/art; it is challenging if not impossible to escape one’s own mind and time.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg (now Pribor, Czech Republic). Freud was educated at Vienna University. Then him and his family moved to Leipzig from the anti-Semitic riots. His ambition in his childhood had been a career in law but then he decided to be medical student before he entered to Vienna University in 1873. After this he desire to study natural science and to solve challenging problems that confronted contemporary scientist. In his three year at Vienna University Freud began his research in central nervous system in the physiological lab under the direction of German Physician Ernst Wilhelm Von Brucke.

In 1881 after completing a year compulsory military service he receive his medical degree. After he received his degree he remained at the university as a demonstrator in the physiological laboratory. Freud spent three years at the General Hospital of Vienna devoting himself to psychiatry, dermatology, and nervous disease. In 1885 after appointed as lecturer in neuropathology at the university he decided to leave his post in the hospital. Later that same year Freud studies under Jean Charcot in which centered largely on hysteria, influenced Freud greatly in channeling his interest to psychopathology. Freud than established a private practice in Vienna specializing in nervous disease.

In 1891, Freud’s first published work, On Aphasia, it was the study of neurological disorder in which the ability to pronounce words or to name common objects is lost as a result of organic brain disease. His final work in neurology was an article, Infantile Cerebral Paralysis, was written in 1897 for an encyclopedia. His consecutive writing were devoted entirely to that field, which he had named psychoanalysis in 1896. Sigmund Freud developed the technique of psychoanalysis and much of the psychoanalytic theory based on its application. The first of Freud's innovations was his recognition of unconscious psychiatric processes that follow laws different from those that govern conscious experience.

A basic assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious conflicts involve instinctual impulses, or drives, that originate in childhood. His work concerning the structure and the functioning of the human mind had far-reaching significance, both practically and scientifically, and it continues to influence contemporary thought. Freud’s new orientation was an indication by his collaborative work on hysteria with the Viennese physician Josef Breuer. His work was presented in 1893 in preliminary paper, and two years later in expanded form under the title Studies on Hysteria. In his work