Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most important thinkers of the entire twentieth century. Learn here about its history and most famous theories.
Psychoanalysis (from the Greek psykhḗ; soul and analysis; research) isa set of theories and therapeutic techniques used to study the unconscious part of the mind, that is, those mental processes that occur automatically and are not available in the examination of oneself (introspection). The “unconscious mind” includes thought processes, memories, interests, and motivations that develop inadvertently.
In a psychoanalysis session, the patient (known as analysand in the jargon) lies on a couch for about 50 minutes (best if it is 4 to 5 times a week), with the analyst normally sitting behind and out of range. In this time period, analysand expresses everything that comes to mind, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams. From here, the analyst is able to infer the unconscious conflicts that give rise to the external symptomatology that leads to the consultation.
In the following lines we further dissect what psychoanalysis is, but first we must pay special attention to his father and lord, one of the neurologists who set a chair as far as human desires and the subconscious are concerned. Immerse yourself with us in the biography of Sigmund Freud.
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Early life
Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia, in what was then considered the Austrian Empire. Sigmund’s father, Jakob, was a fur merchant and, as his biographies tell, appeared to be an authoritarian and aloof figure. On the other hand, his mother (Amalie Nathansohn, 20 years younger than his father) seemed to show little Sigmund the kindest, most motherly face of life.
In 1859, the Freud family left Freiberg for Leipzig and ended up settling permanently in Vienna, where Sigmund had the opportunity to begin his university career at the age of 17. He wanted to study law, but ended up enrolling in medical school, a discipline in which he began to have his first contacts with the world of psychology.
During his student training, Sigmund worked with one of the most renowned physiologists of the time, Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke. He also had the opportunity to receive psychology classes from the famous Franz Brentano, who defended the thesis of intentionality as a characteristic feature of psychological phenomena. Undoubtedly, the knowledge of these geniuses in each of their fields drew the figure of genius and thinker that we know today.
Oddly enough, Sigmund devoted his university years above all to the study of the nervous system of animals. In 1877 he moved to the laboratory of Ernst Brücke, where he spent six long years comparing the anatomy of the human brain and other vertebrates with the nervous systems of frogs, reptiles and other evolutionarily simpler beings, such as lampreys and freshwater crabs.
His studies in the field of biology showed promising results and are believed to have been one of the many bases for the subsequent discovery of the neuron, but unfortunately, Freud had to abandon his duties to attend the one-year compulsory military training dictated by the time.
Leaving university and studying psychoanalysis
In 1882, Freud entered the Vienna General Hospital as a clinical assistant, under the command of psychiatrist Theodor Meynert and professor of internal medicine Hermann Nothnagel, where he conducted multiple studies on human brain anatomy. Beyond his discoveries about the anatomy of the marrow, Sigmund was known for advocating for the palliative effects of cocaine on medical patients.
Although some of its results were positive, the general consensus on the therapeutic use of cocaine proved disastrous. His studies led to a fatal addiction of one of his best friends (Ernst Fleischl von Marxow), but they also severely damaged his reputation as a physician for a time. The interpretation of these data is its own and unique but, of course, it highlights the groundbreaking, innovative personality and lack of fear that Sigmund showed with respect to human suffering and the limits of medicine.
We could continue to cite during paragraphs and paragraphs some of the particularities of the life of this pioneering psychoanalyst (his addiction to tobacco, marriage and controversies in the field), but we see interest in moving directly towhat is attributed as his greatest work and contribution to society: the theory of psychoanalysis. Let’s get to it.
Freud and the theory of psychoanalysis
In 1885, Freud traveled to Paris as a student under the tutelage of neurologist Jean Charcot, who specialized in the study of hypnosis. According to his own testimony, “this stay was the catalyst that led him to the study of medical psychopathology and took him away from a less promising career in the field of neurological research.” On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud founded a private practice, specializing in emotional and nervous disorders. Here, he began to treat patients using hypnosis techniques.
The inconsistent results at the clinical level in relation to hypnosis made Freud look for other less explored fronts in the treatment of emotional symptoms. He decided to take another path: let patients talk freely, without self-consciousness, about any ideas and/or memories they came up with. Through this procedure (called “free association”), Freud discovered that patients’ dreams could be analyzed in detail to describe underlying mechanisms and demonstrate the functioning of repression mechanisms.
By 1896, Freud began to use the word “psychoanalysis” to baptize the clinical mechanisms he put into practice. This wonderful thinker held that human beings have a subconscious, in which sexual desires and aggressive impulses are in constant struggle with the mechanisms that repress them. Based on these premises, in 1899 he wrote what is now conceived as his most famous work: The Interpretation of Dreams.
In this work, Freud explores the limits of daydreaming and the subconscious, giving rise to the primordio that today is known as “the theory of the Oedipus complex”. This well-known concept refers to a set of emotions and childhood feelings characterized by the simultaneous (and opposite) presence of loving and hostile desires towards parents. This is one of the essential pillars of psychoanalytic theory.
The foundations of psychoanalysis
Describing such a complex discipline in a few lines is a real challenge, but in the following list, we show you some of the most general brushstrokes on which psychoanalysis is based. Don’t miss:
- A person’s development is influenced, mostly, by events during childhood that are normally forgotten. Inherited traits don’t carry as much weight.
- Human behavior and cognition are determined, to a large extent, by instinctive motors that are meshed in the subconscious.
- When trying to bring out these instincts, different defense mechanisms are set in motion in the patient, highlighting repression above all.
- Conflicts between our conscious and subconscious side can lead to mental pathologies, such as chronic anxiety and depression.
- Subconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts.
- The release of the effects of the subconscious is achieved by bringing these contents to the conscious mind of the individual through the therapy of psychoanalysis.
The centerpiece of the psychoanalysis process is “transference,” that is, the ability to transport the patient to the feelings he or she developed toward a figure or situation (usually parents) in the past so that he or she can regain that emotion in the present. In the context of therapy, the analyzed redirects the feelings he has towards a particularly conflictive figure, personifying them in the therapist.
Summary
Sigmund Freud died in 1939, at the age of 83, from oral cancer stemming from his addiction to tobacco. Still, his legacy lives on with us at all times, from the clinic to popular culture. Who hasn’t joked about the Oedipus complex? Don’t we all suspect that we have a “dark” side that we don’t know? Have we ever had a dream that we have designated ourselves as Freudian?
Sigmund Freud is, without a doubt, a standard-bearer in the field of psychology, the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most important intellectual figures that the twentieth century could leave us. We will let his work speak for itself, because in the next section, we cite part of his bibliography that you can not miss if you have been left wanting more.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.