The Role of Sigmund Freud in the Development of Psychology as a Science

Well, what do you think is the job of a potter? Yes, it is mould the distorted piece of clay into a pot. This is what Freud’s analysis did to psychology. The theories were already stated but it was Freud who moulded those theories and made it relevant. The dawn of psychology is associated with Freud’s theories.

Sigmund Freud is known as the father of modern Psychology. He was born in Czech Republic (1856-1939). He was an Austrian neurologist but he is known for his famous psychoanalysis theory. There are various theories stated and analysed by Freud and we will discuss each theory in detail to get a complete overview.

Psychodynamic Perspective

Proponents of the psychodynamic perspective believe that behaviour is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which we have little awareness or control. The psychodynamic perspective believe is based on the idea that childhood experience greatly influence the development of later personality traits and psychological problems. Its also stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires and motivation on thoughts and behaviours. Dreams and slips of tongue are views as indication of what a person is truly feeling within a seething cauldron of unconscious psychic activity.

The true proponent of this perspective are:

• He speaks of id, ego and super ego and their interaction in making a personality

• He speaks of the pre conscious, sub conscious and unconscious and the use of defence mechanism in pushing things into the unconscious.

• Lastly, he talks about the psycho sexual stages of development : oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage and the genital stage, and the over satisfaction and under satisfaction experienced in each stage which causes personality patterns.

Although some of the original principles of psychodynamic thinking have been roundly criticised, contemporary use of perspective has provided a means not only to understand and treat some psychological disorders, but also to understand everyday phenomena such as prejudices and aggression.

Psychosexual Analysis

Freud believed that life was the element and the source of stress and anxiety. He thus formulated that this stress was the cause of accumulation of libido(sexual pleasure) and believed that discharge of libido helps in releasing stress from the body. In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud meant to convey that what develops is the way in which sexual energy of the id accumulates and is discharged as we mature biologically. Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation of adult personality. The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated wishes and social norms. The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct the need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratification centres in different areas of the body at different stages of growth, making the conflict at each stage psychosexual. The subsequent stages of Psychosexual Analysis are:

Dream Analysis

Freud wrote about symbolism of dreams in his book “The Interpretation of dreams”. It takes many years to comprehend the real meaning of his analysis. For him dreams are a portrayal of everyday life and thoughts. The character of a man is highlighted by what he dreams is according to Freud’s analysis. It is also extremely difficult to comprehend. He categorizes each human or organs into daily usable goods. He categorizes man as house with smooth walls are men and house with projecting balconies are women. Parents are categorized as kings and children are categorized as small animals. He symbolised each and every element of daily life and compared them with concepts seen in dreams. He symbolised birth with reference to water and death is replaced by journey

He also held the notion that majority of the dreams is associated with sex symbols. Male genitals is symbolised in the dream as projecting objects like stick, umbrella, etc. Or any kind of thing that can penetrate the body like dagger, knife or sword. Where as female genitals are represented as spaces which can be filled like holes, boxes, baskets. Objects like fruits are used in symbolizing breast of a women. Masturbation can be symbolised with tearing of branches. According to his analysis the interpretation of dreams are associated with our life. But it is extremely difficult to decipher as Freud himself said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.

Psychoanalysis of Unconscious mind

A renewed interest in consciousness and physiology developed in the 1950s and 1960s. However this renewed interest in consciousness expanded the idea of mental process to include feeling, thinking, remembering, learning, problem solving and other such processes. These mental processes are called cognition. So, the psychoanalysis of Freud says that mental processes influences the way the people behave and they believe that these mental processes can be studied scientifically. Though we cannot se thinking processes directly, we can see behaviours and develop idea about what is probably happening in thinking process. In addition, new brain imaging equipment and techniques are providing information about different neurological processes that underlie processes like emotion, learning and memory.

This approach examines the nature of the mind and how mental processes influence behaviour. This is the approach that focuses on how people think, understand and know about the world. In this view, humans are information processors whose actions are governed by thought. This approach emphasizes on the mental processes involved in knowing :

• How we direct our attention

• How we remember

• How we think and solve problems

• How we solve algebraic equation

• Why we remember somethings for only a short term, but remember others for a lifetime

The mind is an active and aware problem solving system. This positive view contrasts with the behavioural view, which portrays behaviour as being controlled by environmental forces.

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