Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is based on the observation that individuals are often unaware of the factors that determine their emotions and behavior and because these factors are coming from the unconscious mind. Because of this, advice of friends and family, reading webpages or self-help books, even the most determined efforts will often fail to provide enough reasoning and relief. This is why psychoanalysis can be used as a clinical method for treating psychopathology. This is done through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Sigmund Freud was probably the single most influential psychologist who made the theory of psychoanalysis so famous. He believed unconscious thoughts, feelings and experiences influence people’s thoughts and actions immensely. Essentially, he believed that psychoanalysis seems to play a huge part in what motivates, inspires and sometimes cripples people. Unconscious occurrences may include, an individual's vulnerabilities, motives, tensions, impulses, guilt, fantasies, or urges even if the person is completely unaware of them in reality. Psychoanalysis opened up a new view on mental illness, suggesting that talking about problems with a professional could help relieve symptoms of psychological distress. Freud believed that this theory of treatment would help patients bring traumatic memories and their accompanying affect into the consciousness in ways that would allow them to form a connection with other conscious thoughts so that the patient can begin to ‘heal’ and accept the things that are affecting them in their unconscious mind. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that there are three levels of awareness. These are the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. The preconscious mind is the