There are four main schools of thought in psychology and each has a different view of the mind and our behaviour. One of these schools is Psychoanalysis.
The psychoanalytical approach was founded by Freud and focuses on the unconscious mind and how it affects our behaviour. It aims to make the unconscious, conscious to help cure people of depression or anxiety. In 1882, Freud worked in Paris with Jean Charcot and studied hysteria in women. Hysteria is emotional excessive behaviour that many believed, at the time, to be the cause of sexual organs. Charcot and Freud did not agree with this as many sufferers had previous traumatic experiences. In 1892, Freud was working with Breuer on his first case study with a patient known as Anna O. Anna …show more content…
Freud introduced ‘the talking cure’ which allowed people to vent about whatever they wanted until it led to catharsis. Many people benefit from gaining an explanation about themselves just from talking it through or even undergoing dream analysis. The patient explains their dream and tries to gain meaning from it.
There are also weaknesses that go with psychoanalysis. One of the main criticisms of psychoanalysis is that it is based on case studies and not scientific research. Each case study is on one person however it is argued that everyone is different and the therapies may not work effectively for every patient. Freud tended to generalise from his case studies and therefore it cannot be right for everyone and they may not be accurate.
Another weakness is the overemphasis on the unconscious mind and childhood memories. Although the unconscious mind and childhood experiences are a good way of explaining behaviour, there are other factors such as emotions and not all patients will have had a traumatic childhood but may have experienced something in their adulthood which is causing them to act a certain way. Most of the psychoanalytic therapies rely on childhood and the unconscious mind for
The psychoanalytical approach was founded by Freud and focuses on the unconscious mind and how it affects our behaviour. It aims to make the unconscious, conscious to help cure people of depression or anxiety. In 1882, Freud worked in Paris with Jean Charcot and studied hysteria in women. Hysteria is emotional excessive behaviour that many believed, at the time, to be the cause of sexual organs. Charcot and Freud did not agree with this as many sufferers had previous traumatic experiences. In 1892, Freud was working with Breuer on his first case study with a patient known as Anna O. Anna …show more content…
Freud introduced ‘the talking cure’ which allowed people to vent about whatever they wanted until it led to catharsis. Many people benefit from gaining an explanation about themselves just from talking it through or even undergoing dream analysis. The patient explains their dream and tries to gain meaning from it.
There are also weaknesses that go with psychoanalysis. One of the main criticisms of psychoanalysis is that it is based on case studies and not scientific research. Each case study is on one person however it is argued that everyone is different and the therapies may not work effectively for every patient. Freud tended to generalise from his case studies and therefore it cannot be right for everyone and they may not be accurate.
Another weakness is the overemphasis on the unconscious mind and childhood memories. Although the unconscious mind and childhood experiences are a good way of explaining behaviour, there are other factors such as emotions and not all patients will have had a traumatic childhood but may have experienced something in their adulthood which is causing them to act a certain way. Most of the psychoanalytic therapies rely on childhood and the unconscious mind for