1. Introduction
“Now he is seen as the greatest originator of all, the agent of the Zeitgeist who accomplished the invasion of psychology by the principle of the unconscious process […] It is not likely that the history of psychology can be written in the next three centuries without mention of Freud’s name and still claim to be a general history of psychology. And there you have the best criterion of greatness: posthumous fame” (Boring, 1950, pp. 743,707).
Sigmund Freud is considered widely as one of the most influential thinkers of the 21st century. He is one of the few psychologists who are famous even beyond their discipline, in his case psychology. Not only does every person in the Western world know his name, even some of his concepts
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He was always praised and critiqued simultaneously. His work splits psychologists in two camps: the supporters and the opponents of Sigmund Freud.
With this essay, I will analyse if Sigmund Freud really is “Psychology’s man of genius”, like some commentators have referred to him as, or if this is far-fetched.
To answer this question, first this essay will inform about the life and work of Sigmund Freud, including his most important theories. Next, I will assess Sigmund Freud’s impact on today 's Discipline of Psychology as well as some criticism of him as a person and his work. Finally, the essay concludes with my own opinion on the topic.
2. Sigmund Freud’s Life and Work
The information in this section is mostly taken from the book “A history of modern psychology” by Duane P. Schultz and Sydney Ellen Schultz
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“The conditions under which Freud collected data are unsystematic and uncontrolled” (Schultz and Schultz, 2004, p.430). He did not take notes while he talked to the patients but took his notes in the evening after his work just by his memory. With a high probability, he could not remember everything in the evening. Moreover, it is not certain if he really used what the patients said or if he maybe reinterpreted their words, led by the wish to find auxiliary material, as noted by Schultz and Schultz (2004).
They further state that “there are discrepancies between Freud’s notes on the therapy sessions and the published case histories supposedly based on those notes. Researchers have found differences involving the length of the analysis and the sequence of events disclosed during analysis as well as unsubstantiated claims of cures” (Schultz and Schultz, 2004, p.430).
Not only opponents of Freud criticize his work, even Freudians believe “that he often contradicted himself and that his definitions of key concepts are unclear” (Schultz and Schultz, 2004, p.431). Freud even justified his writings earlier and tried to answer their questions and explain what might have
Originally from Austria, Sigmund Freud was a trained neurologist who was particularly interested in the human psyche. Over many years, Freud developed a theory to explain human behavior, what we refer to now as “Freudian Psychology.” First, he divided the mind into three levels, and used the analogy of an iceberg to help others understand it. On the surface, Freud identified the Conscious. It is here that most of our decision making and ideas are processed.
Whereas, “The Behaviourist perspective focuses on the role of the external environment in governing our actions” (Passer, 2009, p13) Sigmund Freud developed the extremely influential and controversial theory of psychoanalysis. Despite the controversy, he had a huge impact on the field of psychology
Notable psychologists namely Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and
Who was the American philosopher who authored a textbook in 1890 for the emerging discipline of psychology? D. “William James was a legendary teacher-writer who authored an important 1890 psychology text”.(P. 5) 6. The personality theorist, Sigmund Freud, was an Austrian B. According to online sources such as Guide Top Psychology and The Atlantic, Sigmund Freud was a physician and professor of medicine, developed his theories about psychoanalysis while studying hysteria and compulsion neurosis.
Sigmund Freud- Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud was in the center of the debate he was getting more knowledge about nurture but he was also giving some credibility to nature. Although Freud was at the center of the debate through nurturing he showed us how this theory truly does work with a person and how it makes us who we are. This was after years of research and study in psychoanalysis.
Anthropologists have argued that Freud’s theory is culture bound. Freud’s theory centralised on the structure of the psyche, which is included within the inner models of reality of the individual in biological and social aspects. The unconscious is a psychic
Villa 1 Jesus Villa Professor Carrera World Class Literature 4351 27 October 2015 Essay 2 In order to properly begin this essay I thought that it would be in my best interest to get a better understanding of Sigmund Freud. I looked up Sigmund Freud and discovered that he was quite the man everyone paints him to be. Everyone that I know says what great things that he has done in his lifetime and without me really knowing I thought they were all full of it. Well after reading up on him I now see that he was really impressive.
Introduction This essay is based on the comparison of psychosexual theories of Sigmund Freud and psychosocial theory of Erik Erikson. In this essay, similarities and the differences between these two theories are explained and outlined. The two famous theories of development are Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory and Erik
The overabundance of clinically rooted concepts begin to put threat onto the clinical field as such excess of clinical strategies and techniques are mutually incompatible will create a nearly impossible issues in the conduction of psychoanalytic knowledge and skills. (Nunberg, NCBI, 1943) According to Nunberg, NCBI, (1943) the last 30 years; advancements in every aspect of the field in neuroscience have invalidate the basis for the earlier psychoanalytic which result to neglecting this field. Neuroscientists are not anymore troubled with mental disabilities or even organic disorders. Current evaluations of neuroscientific work approve that most of Freud original studies in this field including his works on the universal influence of non-conscious processes and the organizing function of emotions for thinking, have been discovered validity in scientific
Greenberg (1986) believes Freud’s case studies do not place enough stress on revealing the outcome of the treatment and that Freud’s aim was more to illustrate his theoretical points (p.240). In cases, Greenberg asserts that many of the presented cases would not even be considered acceptable examples of psychoanalysis and, in short, that virtually all of the cases studies had basic shortcomings (p.240). Furthermore, many other powerful criticisms about Freud inaccurate and subsequently flawed evidence have been published. These critics contend that Freud’s evidence is flawed due to the lack of an experiment, the lack of a control group, and the lack of observations that went unrecorded (Colby, 1960, p.54).
Freud spent a short residency, studying and researching neurology, in Berlin. After that he returned to Vienna to marry and practice neuropsychiatry. As part of his studying and research, Freud developed many theories. However, all of Freud’s theories revolved around the conscious and unconscious mind.
In 1923, Sigmund Freud proposed his theory that the make-up of an individual’s personality is largely governed by three fundamental components: the id, the ego, and the superego. Working through the unconscious and shaping behavior according to psychological fixations and conflicts or lack thereof, these elements evolve through five levels of psychosexual development (Freud, 1962). However, in spite of its compelling approach to the phenomenon, Freud’s structural theory of personality is riddled with limitations and as such, is subject to much criticism. The mind is layered into three states: the conscious, referring to the thoughts currently in our forefront; the preconscious, idle thoughts that can be easily accessed and brought to the conscious; and the unconscious, which houses the more instinctual drives that are repressed because it threatens the conscious’ equilibrium (Cloninger, 1996).
Introduction Sigmund Freud is the great theorist of the mysteries of the human mind and a founder of the psychoanalysis theory which was formed in the 1800s, the theory is well known for accessing self-identity and the self in different ways in order to discover their different meaning, (Elliott, 2015). Buss (2008) states that Sigmund’s theory of Psychoanalysis offers a unique controversial insight into how the human mind works in a way that, this theory provided a new approach to psychotherapy, thus it means that it provided a new treatment for psychological problems that even highly qualified doctors couldn’t even cure. (Buss, 2008) According to Cloninger (2013), Erik Erikson on the other hand is the founder of the psychoanalytic-social Perspective which is mostly referred to as psychosocial development theory, Erikson became interested in child development when he met Anna Freud and he trained in psychoanalysis and with his Montessori diploma, he become one of the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.
Sigmund Freud is Psychology’s most famous psychoanalysis. His work and theories have helped shape our views of personality, levels of consciousness and unconsciousness mind, the structure of personality and the development of personality. There are three aspects to Freud’s theory of personality structure and fives stages through the psychosexual development. The psyche
You also cannot generalize the results Freud got from the experiences he made with individuals to a large number of people. This is one reason of why the use of models in human sciences can be extremely difficult and untrustworthy and therefore can hinder the gaining of knowledge. In response to the counter claim, even though the results from Freud’s experiments cannot be fully generalized, the model can still be useful. Still nowadays it’s used in patient analysis.