Psychoanalysis Essay

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is considered the father of psychoanalysis, and one of the most influential thinkers of the early 20th century. Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy based on a dialogue between patient and doctor, its purpose to find the repressions in the unconscious mind. Freud insisted that instead of treating neurotic behaviour as incomprehensible, one should rather treat it as behaviour that is meaningful. He came to an explanation to unconscious thoughts and desires that could explain human behaviour and mental states. Hence the significance which he attributed to obsessive behaviour, dreams and slips of the tongue – all of these are determined by reasons hidden in the mind. They reveal themselves in concealed form in which would otherwise not be known to us.
Freud’s theory is best illustrated by his model of the structure of the mind (or personality). There is the first topography of the mind which is the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Following the second topography where he distinguished three structures within, which he called Id, Ego and Super-Ego.
The Id is the initial structural component of Freud’s model of the mind. Urges, desires and impulses comes from this part of the personality and is located in the unconscious part of the mind. By using the imagery of an iceberg, it would be the well below the surface of awareness. It contains the most basic primitive impulses and demands satisfaction driven by our libido, our sexual energy.
The ego is the second apparatus of the mind, and is created by interactions between the id and the super-ego. Again in the iceberg imagery it lays just under the surface in the topography of pre-consciousness – material that can easily be recalled. It has the task of...

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...re, through psychoanalysis, is to help the patient become aware of unresolved conflicts in the unconscious mind and to confront them directly. It may be said to be a form of self-understanding. Research today constantly proves that dreams do contain meaningful information, and that dreams is a gateway to convey deep seeded issues of the mind. The limitations of Freud’s theories are that they state no scientific proof or further evidence, meaning that is difficult to state what counts as a cure for these neurotics. Dreams are individual as certain symbols and images have different meanings to different people. The value of Freud’s theories can be immensely appreciated by the individual as it allows the mind to tell (through conveyed symbols) of its own hidden psyche. Although the question of the effectiveness of psychoanalysis remains till this day open and debated.

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