The term psychoanalysis has three meanings: 1) a theory of personality with an emphasis on motivation, or why we behave the way we do; 2) a method of treatment for various psychological problems; and 3) a group of techniques used to explore human nature or the mind.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) lived in an era rich with groundbreaking scientific discoveries in physics, biology, and medicine. He studied medicine with the goal of being a scientist and doing research, not of seeing patients, and as a medical student he performed laboratory research on the nervous system. For financial reasons Freud was forced to practice medicine and see patients, and because of hi…
Personality is composed of three interacting systems—id, ego, and superego. They are not structures or things; they are simply names for different psychological processes, and in normal circumstances they work together harmoniously. The id, present at birth, is the foundation of personality containing all of the instincts and receiving its energy from bodily processes. Id operates according…
Freud believed human behavior and thought are ruled by numerous instincts that fall into two groups—those that further life and those that further death. We know little about the death instincts, but aggression and destructiveness come from them. Life instincts further survival and reproduction. Sexual instincts are the main life instincts and they are very important in the psychoanalytic t…
Freud believed the foundation of personality is formed during early childhood and mental illness occurs when unpleasant childhood experiences are repressed, or kept from consciousness, because they are painful. Psychoanalytic therapy tries to uncover these repressed thoughts; in this way the patient is cured. Freud's primary method of treatment was free association, in which the patient is …
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