Psychological Theoretical Positions of Sigmund Freud Essay

Psychology is a social science that involves the study of human or animal behaviors and mental functions. A researcher in the field of psychology is referred to as a psychologist. We have two types of psychologists: behavioral scientists and social scientists. Topics covered in the study of psychology including but are not limited to personality, perception, motivation, brain functioning, and behavioral changes. Psychology knowledge can be applied in many aspects of human activity such as education, family, employment, and in solving mental problems (Eysenck, 1994).

Sigmund Freud is one of the ancient psychologists. He was born in 1856 in Moravian town Freiberg. His family was full of confusion and complexity which inspired him to study the individual mind. His mother was the third wife to his father and was twenty years younger. In 1900, his father died. This was the time he had involved himself in intense work and was inspired to publish the books called The Interpretation of Dream and Psychopathology of Everyday life (Eysenck, 1994). Freud is often referred to as the father of psychology because of his research in the area of psychology. Freud carried out researches to study people’s thoughts concerning the world and themselves. The aim of his research was to “agitate the sleep of mankind”. He was successful in his research and founded a new field of psychology and managed to create a new individual’s scientific conception.

Freud developed a theory describing the organization and internal operations of human minds. He established clinical procedures that would be used to treat mentally ill persons. According to him, individual personality is developed from childhood experiences. He introduced a clinical treatment procedure referred to as psychoanalysis. The aim of this therapy was to convey reserved thoughts and mindset into consciousness in order to free the patient from suffering recurring fuzzy emotions. These reserved thoughts and feelings are brought to consciousness by encouraging a conversation between the doctor and the patient. Patients are encouraged to talk freely and express their dreams and experiences.

According to Freud, psychoanalysis is a procedure used to treat medically ill individuals. “The doctor’s ‘treatment’ involves eliciting repressed memories from the patient by interpreting the responses to his questions” (Asiado, 2007). He noted that a sick individual would be persuaded to re-live the earlier experience, a thing that would always be employed in treating individuals. Psychoanalysis is a direct involvement between the analyst and the patient. This procedure assists victims in establishing as well as determining solutions for any form of conflict that they may find themselves in. In the psyche, the interpretation of Dreams, Freud proposed that dreams can be used to demonstrate the judgment of the unconscious mind. He described dreams as the noble road to the unconscious. In the unconscious mind, painful memories are repressed but can be accessed through psychoanalysis treatment.

The validity of Freud’s procedure is questionable and has been criticized by another psychologist. The doctor’s treatment as defined by Freud seems to be strange because the doctor and the patient hold conversations only with nothing passing between them. Moreover, the doctor’s interpretation is not objective or testable. However, Freud’s treatment has been popular and has some logic in it. For example, he observed that individual personality is understood by interpreting a description of childhood experiences (Asiado, 2007). There have been claims that such interpretation has some truth about the patient. Claims have also been put forward that the aforementioned process can be employed successfully in taking care of nervous infirmities.

References

1. Asiado, T. (2007). Sigmund Freud and His Couch.
2. Eysenck, M. W. (1994). Perspectives on psychology, principles of psychology. New York: Psychology Press.