Sigmund+Freud+and+Psychoanalysis

=Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis= Harry Seo

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is an influential thinker of 20th century and is called the father of psychoanalysis. He published series of books including //The Interpretation of Dreams//, //The Psychopathology of Everyday Life,// and //Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality//, bringing massive impact on a wide variety of fields and presenting theories that are still under great debate and controversy.




 * Questions:**

1. How did Freud's theory of unconscious affect mental health? 2. How did Freud's theory affect culture, such as art or music? 3. How is Freud's theory different from the previous psychoanalysis? 4. Which stage of life does Freud's theory focuses on? 5. How does Freud divide the human personality? 6. What aspects does Freud's theory define as motives or drives for actions? 7. What is the relationship between a man and a woman, according to Freud? 8. How are Freud's theories related to works such as //The Origin of Species// by Charles Darwin? 9. How did Freud's work go with the philosophy of the time?

and in conclusion (the most important, basic question),

10. How does Freud's theory work with the society?

 * Answers:

1. How did Freud's theory of unconscious affect mental health?**

Freud argued that the influence of subconscious is why people act as they do. For example, one may accidentally call his girlfriend by his ex's name. This is clearly irrelevant to the conscious mind, rather is because of his unresolved feelings toward his ex left in his subconscious. This phenomenon, called the Freudian Slip, and the dream are two ways in which one's subconscious can be read. His theory is widely used today for curing mental illnesses. Before Freud, people did not understand how mind works and made failed attempts including shock therapy or imprisonments, which did not have any positive effects.


 * 2. How did Freud's theory affect culture, such as art or music?**

Perhaps affected by Freud's theory, some artists started styles such as impressionism, surrealism, or automatism. They no longer simply tried to draw the world as it is but rather expressed their innermost feelings and desires, not particularly trying to give their artworks meaning. This goes with Freud's claim that people's actions are determined by their subconscious.

Nowadays, paintings are used as one of the methods to cure mental diseases to draw out the subconscious.

As for literature, critics began to analyze the author and the characters from the psychological view. The authors used Freudian theories to express human emotions in more realistic manner.


 * 3. How is Freud's theory different from previous psychoanalysis?**

Freud started psychoanalysis, the logical study of human behavior: there was no such thing before. He originally studied hypnosis but found its effects to be limited. His theories are different from the general thoughts about human mind of the time in that they emphasize the subconscious.


 * 4. Which stage of life does Freud's theory focuses on?**

Freud's theory mainly focuses on the childhood stage of life. He argues that this is when one's subconscious is made, so influences on children's minds are significant (they can affect the actions children make even after they grow up).




 * 5. How does Freud divide the human personality?**

Freud divides one's personality into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the innate, unconscious personality that always wants to fulfill desires and avoid pain. If the desires are not fulfilled, anxieties are formed. The ego deals with the reality, making sure that id's desires are fulfilled in appropriate manners. The superego, formed around age of five, holds moral standards and ideals acquired from parents and the society. It gives illusion of pleasure when someone does 'good behavior' (suggested by the superego). Freud also used the term 'ego strength' to refer to ego's power to turn away from impulses and make moral decisions.



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 * 6. What aspects does Freud's theory define as motives or drives?**

Freud divided the 'drives' for actions into life instincts (Eros) and death instincts (Thanatos). Life instincts include sexual instincts and basic survival instincts, and is therefore important for specie survival. Death instincts include unconscious desire to die possessed by people and can induce aggressiveness or violence.


 * 7. What is the relationship between a man and a woman, according to Freud?**

"The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?" - Sigmund Freud

Freud "believed that women's lives were dominated by their sexual reproductive functions" - Donna Stewart, M.D.

Although Freud stated that all people are driven by sexual instincts, he claimed that women are especially so. He also claimed that girls around age 3-5 realize that they do not have penises and hold their mothers responsible. Of course, his work has been greatly criticized by many psychoanalysts including Karen Horney and Sophie Freud.

"His ideas grew out of society. He mirrored in his theories the belief that women were secondary" -Sophie Freud


 * 8. How are Freudian theories related to works such as //The Origin of Species// by Charles Darwin?**

Freud's work can be related to works of Nicolas Copernicus, Issac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx, about the absence of the supernatural, the God. With Darwin's work and Marx's one, Freudian theories abolished belief that humans are the ultimate creation of the God or the final product of evolution. Freud suggested that human minds are not perfect at all, but they are rather driven by sex instincts, can be easily harmed in the subconscious, and are dangerously balanced between desires and morals.



He renders religion that it was simply an attempt to control people and give structure to society with delusion- to set up morals so people get the illusion of pleasure when doing something 'good'.

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires" - Sigmund Freud, //New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis,// 1933.


 * 9. How did Freud's work go with philosophies of the time?**

During the 19th century, the dominant trend in Western thought was positivism, a belief that people could accumulate real knowledge about themselves and the real world and control both. However, Freud went against it by suggesting the unconscious, stating that people can not even be aware of what they think. Along with Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, Freud helped to diminish the supernatural: the belief that humans are perfect, to be specific


 * 10. How does Freud's theory work with the society?**

In Freud's time, people simply believed that one's social class and place in society superficially determined one's goals and one's actions. However, Freud focused on learning more about individuals' subconscious and their inner drives. The later-day psychoanalysts, including Abram Zaleznik of Harvard Business School, would apply his theory to social class in order to explain declines in some companies and countries.
 * I. Social Classes**

To the statement given in class "It is not the consciousness of men which determines their existence. But on the contrary, it is their existence which determines their consciousness", Freud would say '1' for 'strongly agree', since he believed that one's actions are determined by the subconscious, which can be influenced by the environment.

Freud believed that women are driven by sex instincts. It is not hard to assume that he believed women to be inferior to men. Very likely he was influenced by the society of the Industrial Revolution in which women had to stay home and take care of family.
 * II. Man vs. Woman**

Freud lived in an era in which many scientific breakthroughs were being made. The popular philosophy was positivism, the belief that one can know about themselves and the real world. This is why the Freudian work brought turmoil: it introduced the subconscious, the unfathomable side of the mind that controls actions. Freudian theory claimed that human minds are imperfect, easily damaged in the subconscious and driven by sex instincts. Therefore, it worked with Charles Darwin's theory to further diminish the supernatural: the belief that humans were created by God, or they are the final products of evolution.
 * III. vs. Positivism and supernatural**

I could find no evidence that Freud had an opinion about child labor, which was quite popular at the time. However,his theories could have been used to eradicate it, since it emphasize the importance of the influences on subconscious one receives as a child.
 * IV. Miscellaneous**

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