Theories of Sigmund Freud

Theories of Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was a Viennese doctor who was responsible for the

introduction into the basic principles of psychology. He was born in

1856 and died in 1939 so lived through the Victorian era. He pioneered

the investigation of psychological states through the investigating

the patient's childhood. He believed that the basis of many

psychological problems was sexual. Freud's theories and approaches

were influenced by the ideas and society of his time, nobody in the

Victorian era would have even said the word sex let in lone come up

with some of the theories that Freud did. He was the first person of

his time to come up with theses ideas, and is seen as the founder of

Psychoanalysis.

Freud believed and that people developed in stages. Each stage was

linked to physical development. He believed that one part of the body

would experience excitement due to need called excitation, and then

once need is met the person feels gratification. Then the body would

experience excitation again, this will carry on through out the

persons life, like a circle.

Excitation

Gratification Excitement due to need

Need is meet

Freud proposed that we are driven or motivated by are instinctual

drives. He saw the instinct and sex drive as exerting the most

influence in the early years of life and therefore childhood as a time

of key importance in personal development. Freud proposed that

children are able to receive sexual pleasure from any part of their

bodies, but as they grow older the sexual drive becomes focused upon

different parts of the body. There are five different stages of

development they are; the ora...

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... by the end of the

phallic stage, the three main aspects of the mind would have developed

meaning that there would be no more fixations.

The last stage that is from puberty onwards is called the genitals

stage which focuses on the genitals, this is where the person can

carry out a normal sexual relationship outside of the family. The

person gains sexual gratification from the act of sex.

This is one of Sigmund Freud's main theories, which looks at the

development of a child from birth to an adult. Freud's ideas made a

large impact on psychology and are still discussed and used today,

around 100 years after he started developing them.

Bibliography

Grahame (H) 2001, A level Psychology through diagrams, Oxford, Great

Britain

www.freudfile.org -17/9/04

www.bbc.co.uk/education/asguru/english -17/9/04