History of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

When people think of psychoanalysis, usually one name comes to mind. This would be Sigmund Freud. Freud, along with Carl G. Jung and Alfred Adler, has impacted the history of psychoanalysis. Further, he has influenced the lives of the men and women during the early 1900s. In today's society, the history of psychoanalysis is continually being discussed among many scholars. Paul Roazen, author of Encountering Freud: The Politics and Histories of Psychoanalysis, has dedicated his professional career to researching the "impact of Freud and his followers not only on politics but on the cultural and intellectual life of this century" (Chodoff 132). One main theme that Roazen emphasizes is the relationship between history and psychoanalysis. In the United States, the term psychohistory has become increasingly popular since about 1945. Psychohistory is the blending of history with the psychoanalytical theories (Gilderhus 129). This idea has raised many questions among scholars and is still a controversial discussion piece at this time.

Sigmund Freud:

One may question Freud's ideas and wonder what made him so popular during the early 1900s. Many attribute this to the idea that Freud, along with Charles Darwin, is viewed as a critical contributor to our concepts of present day man. Freud saw man as am incomplete product of nature. Further, he proposed that "man at his best and man at his worst is subject to a common set of explanations: that good and evil grow from a common process" (Roazen 24). Many scholars feel that Western society was ready for something to fill the gap that had been formed between religion and the sciences at that time. During the late 1800s, there was extreme controversy o...

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...world. Lastly, by 1926, there were psychoanalytic societies in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, London, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Moscow, Calcutta, and two in the United States. At the same time, three journals had been formed that focused on psychoanalysis.

Works Cited

- Brill, A.A., ed. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. New York: Random House, 1938.

- Chodoff, Paul. "Psychoanalysis: Encountering Freud: The Politics and Histories of

Psychoanalysis by Paul Roazen." American Journal of Psychiatry 149.1 (1992): 132-

133.

- Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction. 3rd

ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.

- Lauzun, Gerard. Sigmund Freud: The Man and His Theories. Trans. Patrick Evans. New

York: Fawcett, 1962.

- Roazen, Paul, ed. Sigmund Freud. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1973.