Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Introduction

In order to make judgments and identify accounts of the vast and global platform of Psychology as we see it today, we need to identify those pioneers and work contributed by these pioneers that we use as reference in our work or relate to for reference in terms of making amends in delivering righteous and justified treatments suffering from dismantled psychological functioning and who require mental assistance.

Ivan Pavlov, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, Erik Erikson, Alfred Adler and many others were vital paragons of excellence in their viewpoints and the work they have done in order to serve others. Out of these, the most prominent figure that has come across and whose work has been effectively and repeatedly undertaken for referencing and consideration is Sigmund Freud, a renowned Austrian neurologist who came up with Psychoanalysis aimed towards the improvement of the human psyche. His popularity and works viewed him as father of psychology (Mazzeno 1998, pp.1). Born in Freiberg, Moravia on 6th May, 1856, Freud's biography is no more, and no less important to understanding the development and the contribution he made to social thought than the biography of any other social scientist is to assessing their contributions.

Psychoanalysis

Initially patients were treated with hypnosis in order to trace the impact of the disease that it had on the patient, but after Freud's arrival, he was the first one to mark it as ineffective and insufficient since it did not provide or intend any effective results. Freud described psychoanalysis as the third great blow to human narcissism. The first was Nicolas Copernicus's refutation of the centrality of the earth; the second was Charles Darwin's refutation of the centrality of mankind to creation.

The Psychoanalytic theory, as defined by Freud, classifies the concept and the dynamics of personality development, which underlie and direct the psychodynamic and the psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The concept of psychoanalysis deals with the working of the sub-conscious mind, and the affect it has on humans (Bergamann 2011, pp. 665-686). The basic concept of Psychoanalysis maintains that the influence of the experiences related to sexuality in the childhood, which are stored in the unconscious mind, have the ability to escort to the development of emotional problems, when the child becomes an adult. The principal method of treatment in the psychoanalysis involve the free connection of different ideas in the mind, and their explanation by the analyst and the patient, to find out the events that occurred long ago and to determine the importance of these events for the patient. The psychoanalyst also links the aspect of the history of the patient with the present scenario. This treatment makes efforts to release the patient from some particular symptom.

Despite the fact that psychoanalysis has been exposed to deep and profound changes since the inception of the theory by Freud, it continues to remains an elegant mode of listening to a patient or reading a text. Contrary to other psychotherapeutic techniques, the analyst does not ask the patient to change, to give ...