Essay Introduction
Sigmund Freud is known as the father of psychoanalysis. (Thornton, n.d.) He was an influential thinker that helped put pieces of the unconscious mind together for simpler understanding studying the small things to find the bigger picture. He went from becoming a noted physician in Austria to a neurologist to the most talked about psychologist. He majored in the study of the unconscious mind, the theory of personality, the theory of psychosexual stages, and the theory of dreaming. Sigmund Freud gave our big complex questions simple answers, and for that, the study of the human mind continues to blossom.
Research Paper on Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was the son of Jacob and Amalia Freud. He was born May 6, 1856, in a small town called Freiburg which is part of what we know now as the Czech Republic. When he was young, his family moved to Vienna, where he began his education and later pursued his medical degree at the University of Vienna. In his life span, he married Martha Bernays and had two children of their own, Anna Freud and Ernst L. Freud. Throughout his life, the studies he completed and shared with us were hated and questioned, but nonetheless genius and extravagant.
Argumentative Essay Examples on Sigmund Freud
The theory of psychoanalysis came into Freud’s perspective when he was working as a neurologist. Other doctors and himself were treating several patients who had different kinds of nervous disorders. While trying to find the cure “or explanation” and looking for physical causes, they were stumped. “Therefore, it was thought the cause must be in the mind, and that is where Freud began to explore. He proposed that there is an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push, or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires” (Ciccarelli & White, 2017). Freud then tied it all together by stressing the importance of childhood experiences and his theory of personality traits.
Thesis Statement for Sigmund Freud
Freud was a believer in “layers.” In fact, he believed the layers of the conscious mind have an impact on how our unconscious mind reacts to things. “Freud came to believe that there were layers of consciousness in the mind. His belief in the influence of the unconscious mind on conscious behavior, published in “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Freud, 1901), shocked the Victorian world” (Ciccarelli & White, 2017). He explained our brain in three sections: the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious, where he believed a part of our brain was always hidden, only expressing itself in things such as dreams or behaviors we make without thinking or hesitating. He was a firm believer that the unconscious mind was the key factor in determining our everyday behavior and personality traits.
Ideas on Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Freud’s theory of personality traits deviated the personality development, which he believed occurred in psychosexual stages. The first stage is called the Oral Stage and is from 0-18 months. This stage basically identifies the erogenous zone as the baby’s mouth. An example Freud gives is weaning the baby off the breast. If weaning the baby off, something happens too early or too late in the stage; it can affect the baby’s personality traits through things like overeating, drinking, or smoking. “(It has the) tendency to be either too dependent and optimistic (when the oral needs are overindulged) or too aggressive and pessimistic (when the oral needs are denied)” (Ciccarelli & White, 2017).
The second stage is called the Anal Stage, referring to children 18-36 months. At this stage, the erogenous zone is in the anus, hence the fact toddlers think farting is funny. In this stage also comes potty training which Freud believed if one was openly willing to not use the restroom that, they were using the messiness as a form of their control, while others may be terrified of the mess and use being neat as a form of control.
The third stage is Phallic Stage from ages 3-6 years. At this age, the erogenous zone is the child’s genitals. In this stage, basically, the boy looks up to the father while the girl looks up to her mother. When cases become same-sex, and there is no same-sex figure to look up to, the child then begins to continue to have immature sexual attitudes as an adult. It can often result in what we know as mommy’s boys and daddy issues.
The last two stages go hand-in-hand. The Latency Stage and the Genital stage are where the child goes from unconsciously knowing the feelings for the opposite sex to expressing them and becoming more allowed into consciousness.
Titles for Freud’s Theory of Dreaming
Freud viewed our dreams as wish fulfillment. “He believed that the true meaning of a dream was hidden, or latent, and only expressed in symbols.” (Ciccarelli & White, 2017). As time progressed, many psychologists didn’t believe or follow Freud’s theories. However, they did believe the dream is interpreted by the person having the dream. “The development of techniques for looking at the structure and activity of the brain has led to an explanation of why people dream that is more concrete than that of Freud” (Ciccarelli & White, 2017). So even though people don’t follow Freud’s theory for dreaming, it opened a window of studies that have uncovered so much more.
Conclusion
Freud, as well as many other psychologists, have opened windows to growth in so many ways it is unbelievable. He gave answers to things people were questioning, such as why we do what we do, and he created more questions when it came to dreaming. He was an overall influential thinker that has made a huge impact on psychology and how we continue to learn about it. Moving forward, I plan to try and figure out why I do the things I “just do” and where they come from. As well as myself watching my kids grow, I want to try and see what they pick up and maybe see the process through the psychosexual stages and how they react to themselves as they grow up. Freud has opened my eyes up to watching my family grow in more ways than I would have known.
