Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)was a practicing physician and graduate of Vienna Medical School. After becoming well trained in medicine, he became interested in mental disorders. Freud has a wide variety of theories and in the 21st century there is much controversy over whether the theories are credible or not. Although his theories are controversial, his work is significant throughout the world and he has become the father of psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Czechoslovakia, but soon moved to Vienna where he lived for over half his life. In 1938, when Nazis assumed power, Freud took flight to England where he spent the remainder of his life. Freud believed his success and independence was due to his Jewish heritage. He attributed his independent thinking to his experience at schoo ,saying, "when he first encountered anti-Semitism at the University of Vienna, his lack of acceptance by the community drove him into opposition and fostered his independence of judgement" (Storr 1). When he abondoned Vienna he was already in his eighties and had spent a lifetime defying prejudice and illusion--ethnic, religious, sexual, and idealogical--and refused to retreat from the N

Freud's views of consciousness was proposed into three levels, where "thought" was an iceberg that is nearly totally submerged. The top of the iceberg that is emerged out of the water is "thought", as the conscious state in which a person is aware of his or her surroundings and information is readily available. The middle of the iceberg that is just below the surface of the water is the "preconscious" level. The preconscious level is when you are not conscious at any one moment. The bottom of the iceberg is the area of "unconscious". At the unconscious state a person's deepest thoughts, feelings, and memories are stored where the person is unaware, and might lead to anxiety or stress. Freud proposed that at any given time a person is only aware, or conscious, of a few things. With a little effort, ideas or memories can be accessed from the preconscious, whereas others, in the unconscious mind, may be accessed only with great difficulty. When dealing with unconsciousness, Freud believed that dreaming allows a person to engage in a fantasy and wish fulfillment of a sort. These dreams are only engaged in the unconsciousness because it would probably cause an embarrassment or discomfort if these thoughts were being engaged while awake. He saw dreams as a pathway to the discovery of the contents of our conscious mind.

There is much controversy today over his theories. He was well educated and has interesting ideas but who to say that is true. This paper was just a look into his life, his theories, and his impact on society.

Without blaming other people, he succeeded in finding clear solutions for many human problems with the help of psychoanalysis. According to his motto 'Where Id was, Ego will develop' he succeeded in creating harmony to the individual person - the precondition for a relatively free life. According to Freud, failing to achieve self-awareness was not so much caused by the natural impulses as by the bad conscience accumulated. And so Sigmund Freud was also a great critic of many parameters of Europe's cultural traditions. He himself never saw psychoanalysis as a dogmatic but rather as an empiric method. Freud was always open for new insights and theoretical explanations for mental processes- without doubt the central theme of psychoanalysis. (Wollheim)

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