Freud's Biography PDF

SIGMUND FREUD  Biography He was born on March 6 or May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia which is now part of Czech Republic. His parents had 7 other He was the firstborn ch...

SIGMUND FREUD  Biography He was born on March 6 or May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia which is now part of Czech Republic. His parents had 7 other He was the firstborn child children within 10 years, but Sigmund remained the favorite of Jacob and Amalie of his young, indulgent mother Nathanson Freud, although When Freud was about a – lifelong confidence. his father had two grown year and a half old, his sons (Emanuel & Philipp) A scholarly, serious-minded mother gave birth to a from a previous marriage. youth, Freud did not have a second son, Julius – that close friendship with his was a significant impact younger siblings. But he did on Freud’s psychic enjoy a warm, indulgent relationship with his mother – development. He was filled mother/son relationship. with hostility toward his younger brother and harbored an unconscious wish for his death.  Biography In 1885, he received a traveling grant from the University of Vienna and decided to study in Paris with the famous French Freud developed a close neurologist, Jean-Martin professional association Charcot, from whom he and a personal friendship learned the hypnotic While using catharsis he with Josef Breuer, from technique in treating gradually and laboriously hysteria. whom he learned discovered the free catharsis – the process association technique. of removing hysterical symptoms through With some reluctance, “talking them out”. Breuer agreed to publish with Freud Studies on Hysteria – psychical analysis and then the following year “psycho-analysis”.  Biography In 1890s, he had begun to analyze his own dreams, and after death of his father, he initiated the practice of analyzing himself daily. Freud completed his greatest work, Interpretation of During his middle-aged and Dreams, On Dreams, He had 33 operations for had yet to achieve the fame Psychopathology of cancer of the mouth. he so passionately desired. Everyday Life, Three Essays on the Theory of Most of his deeply Sexuality and Jokes and emotional relationships Their Relation to the came to an unhappy end, Unconscious. and Freud often felt persecuted by his former friends and regarded them as enemies.  Dynamics of Personality Drives – Freud used the German word “Trieb” to refer to a drive or a stimulus within the person – “instincts” or “drives” or “impulse”. Instincts is the motivating force that drives behavior and determines its direction. It is characterized by an impetus, a source, an aim and an object. Drives originate from the id but they are under the control of ego.  Dynamics of Personality Types of Instincts 1. Life instincts (Sex or Eros) – the aim is pleasure but it is not limited to genital satisfaction. He believed that the entire body is invested to “libido”. All pleasurable activity is traceable to sexual drive. Sex can take many forms” narcissism, love, sadism and masochism. 2. Death Instincts (Aggression, distraction or Thanatos) – aim of this drive is to return to the inorganic state. The final aim is self-destructive. It can take into teasing, gossip, sarcasm humiliation, etc.  Levels of Mental Life 1. Conscious - includes all the sensations and experiences of which we are aware at any given moment. 2. Unconscious Unconscious – contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings and actions. Phylogenetic endowment – Freud believed that a portion of our unconscious originates from the experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on us. Preconscious – contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty. Levels of Mental Life  Provinces of the Mind 1. Id – it has no contact with reality, yet it strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires; pleasure principle. 2. Ego – the region of the mind in contact with reality. It grows out of the during infancy and become a person sole source of communication with the external world; reality principle. 3. Superego – it represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed to the id (pleasure) and ego (reality). It grows out of the ego, and like the ego it has no energy of its own.  Provinces of the Mind Superego Conscience – contains the behaviors for which a child has been punished and where the guilt comes from. Ego-ideal – consists of the goods or correct behaviors for which children have been punished. **The inevitable friction between id, ego and superego, where ego is severely strained; the demands of the real world prevent a direct, covert, unopposed fulfillment of either sex or aggressions – create anxiety. **Sex and aggression share the center of Freudian dynamic theory with the concept of anxiety. Provinces of the Mind  Anxiety It is felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger. 3 Kinds of Anxiety 1. Neurotic Anxiety – apprehension about an unknown danger; originates from the id impulses. 2. Moral Anxiety – (age of 5 & 6), an outgrowth of the conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of their superego. 3. Realistic Anxiety – closely related to fear; unpleasant, non specific feeling involving a possible danger. Defense Mechanism Psychosexual Stage  Psychosexual Stage Anal triad – these are orderliness, stinginess and obstinacy that typifies the adult anal character. Castration complex (castration anxiety) – Common to boys wherein they have feeling of ambivalence to play a role in this evolution that’s why they have anxiety or the feeling of losing the penis. Penis envy – a powerful force in the formation of girl’s personality; it may last for years in one form or another.  Therapeutic Technique Goals: Uncover repressed memories through free association and dream analysis; Transforming what is unconscious to conscious; Strengthen the ego to make it more independent of the superego, to widen its field of perception and enlarge its organization – appropriate fresh portions of the id. Transference – strong sexual or aggressive feelings, positive or negative, that patients develop toward their analyst during the course of treatment. Resistance – a variety of unconscious responses used by patients to block their own progress in therapy, can be a positive sign – therapy has advanced beyond superficial material.  Therapeutic Technique 1. Free Association – patients are required to verbalize every thought that comes to their mind, no matter ho irrelevant or repugnant it may appear. 2. Dream Analysis – to transform manifest content of a dream to the more important latent content. Manifest content – surface meaning or the conscious description given by the dreamer. Latent content – refers to its unconscious material.