Sigmund Freud

Examples of Sigmund Freud in the following topics:

• Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development

  • Sigmund Freud was a Viennese physician who developed his psychosexual theory of development through his work with emotionally troubled adults.
  • For Freud, childhood experiences shape our personalities and behavior as adults.
  • Freud's psychosexual theory is controversial and has been thoroughly criticized.
  • Some critics of Freud believe the memories and fantasies of childhood seduction Freud reported were not real memories but constructs that Freud created and forced upon his patients.
  • Sigmund Freud developed his theory of development based on five psychosexual stages.

• Psychodynamic Psychology

  • During the same year, medical student Sigmund Freud adopted this new "dynamic" physiology and expanded it to create the original concept of "psychodynamics," in which he suggested that psychological processes are flows of psychosexual energy (libido) in a complex brain.
  • Freud also coined the term "psychoanalysis."
  • Freud worked together with Austrian physician Josef Breuer to treat Anna O.'
  • Freud's theories also placed a great deal of emphasis on sexual development.
  • Sigmund Freud developed the field of psychoanalytic psychology and the psychosexual theory of human development.

• Defining Personality

  • Psychodynamic theory, originating with Sigmund Freud, posits that human behavior is the result of the interaction among various components of the mind (the id, ego, and superego) and that personality develops according to a series of psychosexual developmental stages.
  • Neo-Freudian theorists, such as Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney, expanded on Freud's theories but focused more on the social environment and on the effects of culture on personality.
  • Sigmund Freud advanced a psychodynamic view of human personality that implicated the id, ego, and superego as the main determinants of individual differences in personality.

• Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

  • The theory of psychodynamics is often used to refer specifically to the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud and his followers.
  • Freud's theory rested on the existence of a particular structure of the human mind.
  • Freud believed that these drives were universal to humankind.
  • Freud completed the entirety of his research using case studies of pathology in human adults.
  • According to Freud's structural model, the personality is divided into the id, ego, and superego.

• A History of Theories of Consciousness

  • One of the most popular Western theories is that of Sigmund Freud, medical doctor and father of psychoanalytic theory.
  • Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
  • Each of these levels corresponds and overlaps with Freud's ideas of the id, ego, and superego.
  • Freud saw the preconscious as comprised of thoughts that are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but that are not repressed and are therefore available for recall and easily capable of becoming conscious (for example, the tip-of-the-tongue effect).
  • While Freud's theory remains one of the best known, various schools in the field of psychology have developed their own perspectives, which we will explore below.

• Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

  • According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, personality develops through a series of stages, each characterized by a certain internal psychological conflict.
  • Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego.
  • Many critics point out that Freud's theories are not supported by any empirical (experimental) data.
  • According to Freud's structural model, the personality is divided into the id, ego, and superego.
  • Summarize Freud's theories of human personality and psychosexual stages of development as well as common criticisms of his theories

• Neo-Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

  • Neo-Freudian approaches to the study of personality both expanded on and countered Freud's original theories.
  • Although Sigmund Freud contributed a great deal to the field of psychology through his psychoanalytic theory of personality, his work did not go without scrutiny.
  • These theorists, referred to as Neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences are important, but they lessened his emphasis on sex and sexuality.
  • Several of the psychologists who studied Freud's theories worked directly with Freud himself at Clark University.
  • This photograph shows Carl Jung (front row, right) with Freud (front row, left) and other colleagues.

• The Nature and Meaning of Dreams

  • While there has always been great interest in the interpretation of human dreams, it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely-known modern theories of dreaming.
  • Freud's theory centered around the notion of repressed longing or wish fulfillment—the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishes.
  • Freud's theory described dreams as having both latent and manifest content.
  • Carl Jung (who studied under Freud) also believed that dreams had psychological importance, but proposed different theories about their meaning.
  • Jung expanded on Freud's idea that dream content relates to the dreamer's unconscious desires.

• Personality Psychology

  • Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist whose psychodynamic theory holds that personality is formed through early childhood experiences.
  • Freud also developed the psychosexual theory of development, in which personality develops during childhood through a series of psychosexual stages.
  • Freud attracted many followers who modified his ideas to create new theories about personality.
  • These theorists, referred to as neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter, but de-emphasized sex, focusing more on the effects of social environment and culture on personality.
  • According to Freud, the job of the ego, or self, is to balance the aggressive/pleasure-seeking drives of the id with the moral control of the superego.

• Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development