Sigmund Freud

Essay by pootieUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, July 2009

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Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physician who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology (Greenfield ,1994). Freud was psyoanalytical is his approach and his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression are still studied today. He created the clincal pratice psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through by using a between a patient and a psychoanalyst technic. He is also know for his theory of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life and how it is directed toward a wide variety of objects, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires (Greenfield ,1994).

Later in his life Freud had numerous psychosomatic disorders as well as exaggerated fears of dying and other phobias. In this part of his life Freud took it upon himself to explore his own dreams, memories, and the dynamics of his personality development (Greenfield ,1994).

He came to the conclusion that lead him to favor certain clinical techniques for attempting to help cure psychopathology. He theorized that personality is developed by the person's childhood experiences. Freud was an early researcher on the topic of neurophysiology and cerebral palsy (Greenfield ,1994). Freud's intent with his form of thearpy, or psychoanalysis, was to bring to consciousness repressed thoughts and feelings in order to free the patient from the suffering caused by the repetitive return of distorted forms of these thoughts and feelings (Greenfield ,1994). The goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger ego by encouraging the patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams (Greenfield ,1994). Another important element of psychoanalysis is that there is no direct involvement on the part of the...