Freud Sigmund
Sigmund Freud was the first major social scientist to propose a unified theory to understand and explain human behavior. No theory that has followed has been more complete, more complex, or more controversial. Some psychologists treat Freud's writings as a sacred text - if Freud said it, it must be true. On the other hand, many have accused Freud of being unscientific, proposing theories that are too complex ever to be proved true or false. He revolutionized ideas on how the human mind works and the theory that unconscious motives control many behaviors. "He applied himself to a new field of study...and struggled with an environment whose rejection of his work endangered his livelihood and that of his family" (Freud 3). His work greatly improved the fields of psychiatry and psychology and helped millions of mentally ill patients.Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia, a region now in the Czech Republic. His father was a wool merchant and was forty when he had Sigmund, the oldest of eight children (Gay 78). When Freud turned four, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. After graduating from the Spree Gymnasium, Freud was inspired by an essay written by Goethe on nature, to make medicine as his
Freud's theories on sexual development led to open discussion and treatment of sexual matters and problems. His stress on the importance of childhood helped teach the value of giving children an emotionally nourishing environment. His insights also influenced the fields of anthropology and sociology. Most social scientists accept his concept that an adult's social relationships are patterned after early family relationships. Freud returned to Vienna in 1886 and began to work extensively with hysterical patients. While discussing the case history of one patient, Freud said: In art and literature, Freud's theories influenced surrealism. Like psychoanalysis, surrealistic painting and writing explores the inner depths of the unconscious mind. Freudian ideas have provided subject matter for authors and artists. Critics often analyze art and literature in Freudian terms (Garcia 119). Freud was always changing and modifying his ideas, and in 1923 published a revised version of his earlier ideas. Freud married and had a daughter named Anna, who grew up and became a leader in the fields of child psychoanalysis (Gay 67). Freud was a cocaine user and a cigar smoker for a big part of his life. In 1923, he learned that he had cancer of the mouth from the cigars. He continued his work, though the cancer made it difficult, along with him not being able to quit the habit of smoking cigars (Gay 67). Another theory that Freud had was that the brain is divided into three parts, the id, the ego, and the superego (Freud 49). He recognized that each person is born with various natural drives that he called natural drives that he called instincts, such as the need to satisfy sexual desires and the need to be aggressive (Freud 49). The id is the source of such instincts. The desire for sexual pleasure, for example, comes from the id. The ego resolves conflicts between instincts and eternal reality. For example, it determines socially appropriate ways to obtain physical satisfaction or to express aggression. The superego is a person's conscience. A person's ideas of right and wrong, learned from parents, teachers, and other people in authority, became part of the person's superego. All people have some conflict among the three parts of the mind, but certain people h
Some common words found in the essay are:
Sigmund Freud, Freud Freud, Martin Charcot, Freud Jewish, Josef Breuer, Jung Garcia, University Vienna, Czech Republic, Gymnasium Freud, mental illness, freud believed, sigmund freud, freud's theories, defense mechanisms, psychiatry psychology, Charcot Austrian, natural drives called, natural drives, painful feelings, drives called, art literature, origin treatment mental, treatment mental illness,
Approximate Word count = 1537
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
