Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

Decent Essays
Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalytic is a very well known concept that was created by a psychologist named Sigmund Freud in the eighteenth century. Psychoanalysis focuses on personality development and effects within the unconscious and conscious mind on behavior and development. Freud also believed that the number one motivator came from our sexual desires and urges. Freud believed that our personality is fully developed by the end of adolescence. Psychoanalysis is used to help treat disorders like depression, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety. Anna Freud, Sigmund’s daughter, had a major contribution to the psychoanalysis theory was her work with children. Psychoanalytic therapy still stands day, even though some
…show more content…
First it the structure of personalities that deals with id, ego, and superego. Your id is the devil on your shoulder, where your drives and impulses take over. Your ego is the middleman, where it mediates between your id and superego to find balance, and your superego is the angel on your shoulder wanting you to do good. The ego has the reality principle while the id is driven by your pleasure principle. Freud’s psychosexual stages include oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages. The oral stage is your first year of life where you are discovering the world through your mouth. Anal stage is where your personality first starts to develop between the ages of one and three. In this stage the child begins to get potty trained and realizes they can start to do things on their own without their parents. Phallic stage happens between the ages of three and six where you start to notice a sexual attraction to someone. This realization develops the Oedipus and Electra Complex. Although Freud coined the theory behind these words, Jung was the one who actually named this. Oedipus Complex derives from a boy with his mother being his object of affection and vise versa with the Electra Complex where the father becomes the object of the daughter’s affection. The genital stage is where all motivation comes from sexual drive, your interest peaks with flirting, and exploring nature. The ego defense-mechanisms help the individual cope with their …show more content…
Maintaining this framework refers to making sure sessions end on time (page 73). One limitation of Freud’s therapy is saying that our personality ends at adolescence. That is false, due to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development. Although, Erikson’s psychosocial development is based off of Freud’s psychosexual stages, Erikson extends on Freud’s ideas. Personality is still being developed until the day we take our last breath on this earth. Free association analysis’s listen not only to the hidden meaning of their words, but also the literal words that are being said. In fact, the areas that you don’t talk about are just as important as the areas you do discuss while in

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Psychologists have created different theories to explain and determine what it means to have a healthy personality. Sigmund Freud was one of them. It was Freud’s belief that personality characteristics should be fully developed by early childhood. His theories contained the idea that unconscious conflicts and motivations in childhood are the basis for personality and that if a child’s needs are not met; it will result in difficulties in adulthood. Freud created this theory, now referred to as the psychodynamic theory of personality, out of his experiences with patients with conversion disorder, a mental condition that provides physical symptoms with no medical explanation.…

    • 1593 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although psychoanalysis is moderately related to Sigmund Freud, it has been extended and customized since his premature formulations. Psychoanalytic therapies have a well-built research base verifying their efficacy. Next, there is behavior therapy, which focuses on learning's role in developing both normal and abnormal…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to Funder (2016) Freud’s psychosexual stages are ‘’the story of how life energy, libido, becomes invested and then redirected over an individual’s early years (Funder, 2016, p. 361). Freud believed that the personality development of an individual is pretty much completed by ages five or six. This biologically based theory has five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage. His theory was focusing on the flow of libido energy through individual’s development. Tan (2011) states that oral, anal and phallic stages occur by age of five or six, and after that latency stage comes, which last for about six years.…

    • 2318 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychology Everyday Life

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Psychology is the study of behavior and, embracing all aspects of human experience. Psychology is a science that works toward understanding an individual or group’s mindset. Learning the different aspects in psychology can help one to understand why an organism functions the way it does. Some of these aspects include human development, social behavior, health, and etc. Psychology relates to my everyday life because it involves negative reinforcement/negative punishment, introversion/extraversion, and Freud’s pyschosexual stages of develeopment.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sexuality- Research Paper Sexuality is a person?s sexual curiosity and desire for other people; their ability to have sexually stimulating occurrences and responses (Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality). In this paper, we will explore the different theories that have tried to explain the concept of sexuality. Those theories are the psychoanalytic theory, the learning theory, the social exchange theory, and the cognitive theory. Sexual dysfunctions will be talked about as well (Theorectical Perspectives on Sexuality). Sigmund Freud started research in the psychoanalytic field and created the psychoanalytic theory (Greene).…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By doing this, “Freud divided the mind into three parts that interacted within the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious: id, ego, and superego”…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stalker Behavior Research

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Rather than seek the causes in biological processes or anomalies, it attempts to look deep into the mind of the individual”, (Akers, p. 68). Psychoanalysis, broken down, is just basically an approach in which a therapist helps a patient better understand using examination of deep personal feelings, relationships, and events that have shaped motivations and behavior. It dives deeper into the mind and the unconscious of the individual. Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) is considered to be the father of Psychoanalysis.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Anti-social Personality Disorder New Jersey City University Introduction to Psychology Gabrielle Napoleon 12/12/16 Abstract Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a mental illness that is characterized by impulsive behavior, a reckless disregard for social norms, and an inability to experience guilt. Individuals with ASPD exhibit an inflated sense of self-worth and possess a superficial charm, traits that often aid their attempts to violate the rights of other individuals.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The psychosexual stages of development are: oral (0-18 months), anal (18 months to 3 years), phallic (3-6 years) Latency (6 years – puberty), and genital (puberty – death). In the oral stage infants, will gain sexual pleasure…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freud’s theory was based on the retrospective accounts of his patients’ childhood. He got these retrospective accounts through two distinctive and extensive processes, over a long period of time. One method was known as transference: the analyst, usually Freud, and his patients would develop a parent-child relationship (Ethan R. Plaut, 2001). The patient would be the child and Freud, the parent. The analyst would usually have an enormous impact on the patient, which Freud used to access the patient’s unconscious.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In a series of lectures from 1915-1917, Sigmund Freud argued not only that psychoanalysis was a medical science, but, also, he provided the opportunity to make psychoanalysis and his theories concerning its origins more accessible to the audience. Freud’s lectures included his theories on dreams, the unconscious, and the formation and treatment of neurosis. Given the fact that these were a series of transcribed lectures given by Freud, there exists a certain degree of both approachability and accessibility to a difficult subject matter. Moreover, the structure creates a rapport between the audience and Freud, easing some of the controversy of some of Freud’s more extreme claims. What this also allows for Freud to take his audience on the journey of psychoanalysis, ultimately ending with the treatment.…

    • 2171 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Psychodynamic therapy originated as a divergence from psychoanalytic therapy and theory when Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung disagreed on multiple elements of theory and how therapy should be conducted. Jung did not agree with Freud’s belief that sexuality was the main motivational principle for human beings. Jung also felt Freud was mistaken regarding a lack of importance based on spiritual and transpersonal elements of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory (Safran & Kriss, 2014, p. 28). These disagreements led to the emergence of a psychoanalytic-type therapy without certain characteristics that define psychoanalysis, including the extensive time spent in therapy and the traditional on-the-couch model (Safran & Kriss, 2014, p. 35). In psychodynamic…

    • 1836 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freud’s theory of development vs. Bronfenbrenner’s theory of development What Is Freud’s Theory? Sigmund Freud, known for his development of the psychoanalytical theory of childhood development. In Freud’s theory there five stages that are called psychosexual stages.…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    3 Erik Erikson psychosocial development of personality Erikson (1950) psychosocial development theory of personality states that personality development is a process that takes place across the lifespan of an individual. Erikson believed that every individual experiences a psychological crisis that results in a positive or negative outcome of personality. Erikson’s theories were influenced by Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. His theory focuses on the influence of external factors such as society and parenting on personality development from young age to adulthood. Erikson believes that personality develops as people pass through eight interrelated stages across the entire lifespan.…

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective reality, and is selfish and wishful in nature. Ego Once experiences are processed through the superego and the id they fall into the ego to interpose a satisfactory outcome. Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as verdict or judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, and defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics