Sigmund Freud, Research Paper Example

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, currently called Pribor, Czech Republic, in 1856. As a child, Freud wanted to become a lawyer, but later decided that he wanted to go into the medical field instead. It was in medical school that he discovered that he had a great interest in natural science and took great pleasure in solving difficult problems. Freud received his education from Vienna University. While at Vienna University Freud did extensive research on the central nervous system in a physiological lab directed by German Physician Ernst Wilhelm Von Brucke. Freud received his medical degree in 1881. Yet, he remained at Vienna University as an assistant in the lab. Later, Freud took a job at the Genera Hospital of Vienna, where he remained for three years. During his time at the hospital, Freud spent much time studying psychiatry, nervous disorders, and dermatology. Freud worked with numerous patients who were suffering from mental illness, and it is believed that is what sparked his interest in the human psyche.

For many years, there have been daunting questions about how siblings can sometime have such different personalities. According to Freud, children developed in five distinctive stages regardless to the environment in which they are growing. One of Freud most renowned examples is the Oedipus Complex. In this diagram, Freud depicts how repression is a dominating role in one’s personality. The diagram shows that boys and girls develop sexual orientation to the opposite sex by age six. Ironically, Freud believes that these desires are directed to their mothers and fathers respectively. Consequently, there is a rivalry between male children and their fathers and female children and their mothers. If this theory is correct, all human beings are born with instincts that are apparent when a want or need needs satisfying (Meissner,2000).  Likewise, a person can be neither good nor evil, but merely reacting to environmental stimuli. Freud explains the concept of reacting to instinct by saying:

“In reality, there is no such thing as ‘eradicating’ evil tendencies. Psychological – or, more strictly speaking, psycho-analytic – investigation shows instead that the deepest essence of human nature consists of instinctual impulses which are of an elementary nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain primal needs. These impulses in themselves are neither good nor bad. We classify them and their expressions in that way, according to their relation to the needs and demands of the human community. It must be granted that all the impulses which society condemns as evil – let us take as representative the selfish and the cruel ones – are of this primitive kind” (Freud, 1957).

Freud believed that most people were equipped with an intellect, which was intended to balance instinct and reaction. He also conveyed that humans could use their rationality to suppress negative instincts. People who commit these hideous crimes, According to Freud, do not have a balance instinct and reaction and are unable to suppress these desires like most members of society. Likewise, According to the reading, “An unrestricted satisfaction of every need presents itself as the most enticing method of conducting one’s life, but it means putting enjoyment before caution, and soon brings its own punishment” ( Pdf, 3) Research has shown that serial killers and rapists have certain parts of the brain that do not function as people who are able to suppress these evil desires.

Sigmund Freud theories have greatly affected and influenced the mental health field. According to one of the readings, “The impact of the new psychology was felt throughout Europe. Freud’s theories, and particularly his pessimistic view of human nature, intensified the mood of uncertainty produced by the startling revelation of the atomic physics and the outbreak of World War I” (pdf, 6 ). Freud is famous for several theories: Id, ego, super ego, the conscience and unconscious, psychosexual development, and defense mechanism Freud is known for psychoanalysis Freud believed that each person’s mentality was made up of two levels-he called them the conscious and unconscious. Freud said that the unconscious was made up of the instincts and urges to satisfy desires (Freud, 1953). The conscious was made up of that intellect that served as a gate keeper to suppress the desires of the unconscious. The unconscious mind is never present with the conscious mind. However, humans are aware that the unconscious exists because of dreams, slips of the tongue, and other forms of repression (Freud, 1957).  Yet, Carl Jung, a colleague of Freud believed that Freud’s theory was too narrow, and spent his life researching and adding to what Freud has proposed.  Jung coined the term collective unconscious ( Pdf, 5). Eventually, Jung abandoned Freud’s theories and began developing his own theories on psychology (Pdf, 1).

Freud’s  research on childhood, memory, sexuality, and personality has shaped the way people view it even today. Over the years, psychologists have been unable to define personality by just one definition. Freud was interested in what determines a person’s personality and how that personality affected the way he or she interacted with society. The unconscious is also known as the id-meaning “the it” or the “not yet owned”. Freud believed that the id had no direct contact with the conscious or reality. The id’s sole purpose is to satisfy needs and seek pleasure. Babies are a great example of the id at work. A baby is led by pleasure impulses. However, the ego does have contact with the conscious and reality. When a baby transforms from and infant to a toddler, the id also transforms into the ego. Freud believed that the ego was one’ s only way to communicate with society. As a child ages, the ego governs their behaviors using what Freud called the “reality principle”. If a person is developing correctly, the reality principle replaces the id. When a person has the reality principle, if he/she desires to do something that pleasurable to self, but might hurt others, the ego reminds him/her what real consequences he/she may face. Nonetheless, all humans do not progress through the stages at the same time. Consequently, some adults may still be functioning in the id stage. For example, one author has linked the three parts of Freud’s psyche to a popular cartoon, The Simpsons(http://hdl.handle.net/1946/13785 ).

Freud found dreams very interesting. He believed on a person dreamed it was the body’s way of disconnecting from reality by eliminating external stimuli. According to Freud’s dream theory, dreams served the purpose of protecting or serving as a defense mechanism to protect (http://homepages.rpi.edu/~verwyc/defmech.htm) the person from both internal and external stimuli. Freud believed that dreams were made up of two distinctive parts-the manifest and latent. The manifest is what the person remembers when he/she wakes up from the dream. The latent were those forbidden desires that is regulated by the intellect when one is awake. Freud believed dreams were rooted in sexuality. For example, if a person dreamed of weapons, tree-trunks, and any other elongated objects they symbolized the male’s erect penis. Whereas boxes, ovens, and any hollowed objects represented the female’s vagina.

Freud proposed that dreams were also a type of wish-fulfillment. In late 1895, Freud was treating a patient named Irma who was experiencing bouts of hysteria. According to, Freud believed that the cause of hysteria repressed sexual desires ( Ahmed, 2012).  He recalls that he was extremely worried about Irma because she was not making the progress he had hoped she would. Secretly, he blamed himself for her lack of progress. Freud analyzed a dream he had about Irma. He had dreamed that he was at a party and Irma showed up there as well for him to treat her. As he examined her, he saw a chemical formula for a medicine flash before his eyes as on a projector screen. In his dream, Freud then realized that Irma lack of progress was due to a dirty syringe that had been used by another doctor. Freud interpreted his dream as a form of wish-fulfillment. He had wished that Irma’s lack of progress was not his fault. His underlying wish was made manifest in a dream.  Dream analysis is the process of translating distorted images and conversation into meaningful form.

The contributions of Freud’s work can be seen around the world. The most significant portion of his work was the therapeutic approach. Prior to Freud, person’s suffering from hysteria and other mental illness were subject to various forms of cruel tactics. His theories are not universally accepted, but they are universally known. His theories are changing and evolving as other researchers add to his life’s work. His life’s work has provided society with insight into human behavior. He identified and defined what is called personality today. Of all his work, Freud was the most proud of sexual theories. He believed that nearly everything in the world could be related to sexuality and most issues that people suffered from stemmed from sexual repression. A great deal of research has been done since Freud, but it is important to remember that Freud laid the foundation for many of the practices used in mental health professions today. Freud interests in the human mind and behavior was practically unheard of in his day. Freud crossed a boundary that most people of his time dared not cross or were just unable to comprehend  the complexity of the human mind. Freud was especially baffled by the way the human mind was separated into distinctive parts. Prior to this, people were not aware of conscious and unconscious thought. Freud, indeed, was way before his time.

Works Cited

Ahmed, S. (2012). Sigmund freud’s psychoanalytic theory Oedipus complex: A critical study with reference to d.h. lawrence’s “Sons and lovers”. Internal Journal of English and Literature, 3(3) 60-70.

Freud, S. (1957). The unconscious. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The Standard Edition (Vol. 14, pp. 159-215). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1915)

Freud, S. (1953). The interpretation of dreams and on dreams. In the standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. J Strachey (ed). Hogarth Press.

Meissner, W. W. (2000). The self as structural. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 23(3), 373-416.