Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was born in Austria and spent most of his
childhood and adult life in Vienna (Gay, 2006). He entered medical school and trained as a
neurologist, earning a medical degree in 1881.

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis is a talking therapy that aims to
treat a range of mental health issues by investigating the relationship between the unconscious
and conscious elements of psychological experience
Freud believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions that it
makes on the basis of psychological drives. The id, ego, and super-ego are three aspects of the
mind Freud believed to comprise a person's personality. Freud believed people are "simply actors
in the drama of [their] own minds, pushed by desire, pulled by coincidence. Underneath the
surface, our personalities represent the power struggle going on deep within us.

Freud argued that people could be cured by making their unconscious a conscious thought and
motivations, and by that gaining "insight". The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release
repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make the unconscious conscious. Psychoanalysis is
commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorders. It is only by having a cathartic (i.e.
healing) experience that a person can be helped and "cured".

The Parts of Mind:

Id

The id is the most primitive part of the personality that is the source of all our most basic urges.
His idea of the id explains why people act out in certain ways when it is not in line with the ego
or superego. The id is the part of the mind, which holds all of humankind's most basic and primal
instincts. It is the impulsive, unconscious part in the mind that is based on the desire to seek
immediate satisfaction. The id does not have a grasp on any form of reality or consequence.
Freud understood that some people are controlled by the id because it makes people engage in
need-satisfying behavior without any accordance with what is right or wrong. Freud compared
the id and the ego to a horse and a rider. The id is compared to the horse, which is directed and
controlled, by the ego or the rider. This example goes to show that although the id is supposed to
be controlled by the ego, they often interact with one another according to the drives of the ego.
The Id is made up of two biological instincts, Eros and Thanatos.

Freud also believed that much of human behavior was motivated by two driving instincts: life
instincts and death instincts.

 Life instincts (Eros) are those that relate to a basic need for survival, reproduction, and
pleasure. They include such things as the need for food, shelter, love, and sex.
 Death instincts (Thanatos) are the result of an unconscious wish for death, which Freud
believed all humans have.5 Self-destructive behavior was one expression of the death
drive, according to Freud. However, he believed that these death instincts were largely
tempered by life instincts.

Ego

In order for people to maintain a realistic sense here on earth, the ego is responsible for creating
a balance between pleasure and pain. It is impossible for all desires of the id to be met and the
ego realizes this but continues to seek pleasure and satisfaction. Although the ego does not know
the difference between right and wrong, it is aware that not all drives can be met at a given time.
The reality principle is what the ego operates in order to help satisfy the id's demands as well as
compromising according to reality. The ego is a person's "self" composed of unconscious
desires. The ego takes into account ethical and cultural ideals in order to balance out the desires
originating in the id. Although both the id and the ego are unconscious, the ego has close contact
with the perceptual system. The ego has the function of self-preservation, which is why it has the
ability to control the instinctual demands from the id.
"The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego; it is not merely a surface entity but is itself the
projection of a surface. If we wish to find an anatomical analogy for it we can best identify it
with the ‘cortical homunculus’ of the anatomists, which stands on its head in the cortex, sticks up
its heels, faces backward and, as we know, has its speech-area on the left-hand side. The ego is
ultimately derived from bodily sensations, chiefly from those springing from the surface of the
body. It may thus be regarded as a mental projection of the surface of the body, representing the
superficies of the mental apparatus."
The superego

The superego, which develops around age four or five, incorporates the morals of society. Freud
believed that the superego is what allows the mind to control its impulses that are looked down
upon morally. The superego can be considered to be the conscience of the mind because it has
the ability to distinguish between reality as well as what is right or wrong. Without the superego,
Freud believed people would act out with aggression and other immoral behaviors because the
mind would have no way of understanding the difference between right and wrong. The
superego is considered to be the "consciousness" of a person's personality and can override the
drives from the id. Freud separates the superego into two separate categories; the ideal self and
the conscience. The conscience contains ideals and morals that exist within a society that prevent
people from acting out based on their internal desires. The ideal self contains images of how
people ought to behave according to society's ideals.
The Unconscious

Freud believed that the answers to what controlled daily actions resided in the unconscious mind
despite alternative views that all our behaviors were conscious. He felt that religion is an illusion
based on human values that are created by the mind to overcome inner psychological conflict. He
believed that notions of the unconsciousness and gaps in the consciousness can be explained by
acts of which the consciousness affords no evidence. The unconscious mind positions itself in
every aspect of life whether one is dormant or awake. Though one may be unaware of the impact
of the unconscious mind, it influences the actions we engage in. Human behavior may be
understood by searching for an analysis of mental processes. This explanation gives significance
to verbal slips and dreams. They are caused by hidden reasons in the mind displayed in
concealed forms. Verbal slips of the unconscious mind are referred to as Freudian slips. This is
error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of
an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought. Classical examples involve slips of the
tongue, but psychoanalytic theory also embraces misreadings, mishearings, mistypings,
temporary forgettings, and the mislaying and losing of objects.