Psychoanalysis And Freud's Studies example essay topic

Psychology and its evolvement in the U.S. and its culture exploded with the theories and writings of Sigmund Freud. America welcomed psychoanalysis as its new treatment for hysteria and mental illnesses. Society began to rely on psychoanalysts as not only their doctors but their personal consultants. A new outlook on the American culture and its thought began to emerge. Many found psychoanalysts to be aristocrats and others viewed it as a new tool of discovering the mind and how it worked. Psychoanalysis and psychosexual theories of Freud became the target for feminist uprisings during 1920's and 60's that changed American outlook on its culture and social roles.

Freud and the emergence of psychoanalysis in the U.S. served as means of new treatment for the mentally ill, new careers and organizations for the psychology field, as well as the means to change American society and its culture. Psychoanalysis incorporates Freudian concepts of id, ego, and the superego in their relation to repression of human thoughts and emotions. According to Feud, the id represents a portion of the human mind where all the desires and pleasures are sought to be achieved by the individual disregarding the reality. The id is the selfish pleasure seeking device. The ego interacts with the id by bringing a sense of reality to the person's mind that is acquired from an individual's contact with the social world. "The ego attempts to reduce the tensions of the id, and it tries to do so by successfully dealing with the environment" (Nye, p. 13).

The superego makes the final decision of right and wrong. It is associated with morals and ethics most often acquired through parents. The superego represents the values and standards of the parents, incorporated into the individual's own personality (Nye, p. 14). This system of morals represents the conscious level of the person's mind, while the id mostly lies within the unconscious. The ego, when faced with stress and inability to cope with stressful situations creates defense mechanisms that often lead to repression of thoughts, memories, and emotions (Nye, p. 26).

Psychoanalysis aims to discover each sector of personality and mind separately. In order to acquire access to the id, a person's ego has to be penetrated due to the defense mechanisms it creates. By studying the superego, the present person may be revealed as a combination of the morals and values learned in childhood through parents. Whether studying each sector of the personality individually or as a whole, Freud believed them to be vital to the structure of a person, their behavior, and their revelation through psychoanalysis. One of Freud's most famous and controversial theories is the psychosexual stages of development. The emphasis in psychoanalytic theory is on the pre genital or the first three stages (Nye, p. 19).

The oral stage concentrates its attention on the infant's mouth and the need to suck and bite. The anal stage centers on the anus. The phallic stage concentrates on the genital organs as the child begins to masturbate and fantasize. According to Freud, the individual must achieve optimal amount of gratification in each stage to prevent fixation (Riff, p. 57). If there is too much gratification, they may be reluctant to move on, but if there is too little, frustration and anxiety may retard future development (Nye, p. 19). The phallic stage is the most important stage in the first five years of life.

The Oedipus complex that is described in this stage causes boys to develop sexual attraction to their mother and girls to be attracted to their father. The male child wants to displace his father and possess his mother. Girls seek the opposite. The boy possesses jealousy and resentment towards his father and wants to rival with him.

Castration anxiety occurs due to fear of the father as a dominant figure and a threat to the boys' genitals. Resolution to this complex is introduced through identification of the boy with his father (Nye, p. 20). The values and standards of the father are incorporated into the child and anxiety is reduced. In this identification process, the superego undergoes most significant growth because of the adaptation of the father's morals, set of regulations, and values.

The Oedipus complex for females begins with the realization of not having a penis. The girl begins to develop penis envy that incorporates her anger with missing something in her genitals (Nye, p. 21). Hostility towards the mother is developed. The girl wants to rival with the mother for her father's love, but cannot reject the mother. Identification process begins to resolve penis envy in females in order to replace the essence of her mother within herself. According to Freud, females do not resolve Oedipus complex.

Freud believed that since girls do not identify with their mother as do boys with their father, their superego accounts for their feminine traits such as emotionality, a lesser sense of justice, and certain unwillingness to submit to the demands of life (Nye, p. 21). This theory became most controversial in America, causing feminists to criticize Freud and go against his theories about females and their sexual development. According to Alfred Knopf, the author of the book "Freud: Conflict and Culture", Freud influenced greatly the transition in Europe in the 20th century from neuro pathology to psychopathology in the treatment of mentally ill and those who experienced hysteria. In the 19th century, patients who suffered from hysteria were treated with electrotherapy, where their brain would be charged with electrical shock, which often had more negative effects than any solutions. Freud believed in a psychological treatment of these patients. The emergence of psychoanalysis began with hypnosis.

Franz Mesmer introduced a powerful tool to Europe when he "mesmerized" people, or in other words, hypnotized them. Freud believed that hypnosis could reveal the psychological causes of hysteria. Therefore, hypnosis became his first tool in the early stages of psychoanalysis. Freud investigated hypnosis with Josef Breuer in the 1880's using catharsis, or emotional release, which was accomplished by the patient's talking out problems while in a hypnotic state (Nye, p. 26).

"Hypnosis indisputably demonstrated the existence of unconscious mental processes, contributing to Freud's growing understanding of the significance of unconscious motivation and conflict, initially in their relation to psychopathology" (Knopf, p. 95). While Freud noticed the symptoms of hysteria improving, he grew more dissatisfied with hypnosis because not all patients could be hypnotized or enter a deep hypnotic state, as well as the lack of permanent cures. Nevertheless, Freud began working with hypnosis to treat his patients, while studying how the unconscious mind worked. His goal was to reach the unconscious desires and needs in order to treat the conscious state of mind. Freud observed that at many times, after the patient talked about their symptoms, they tended to disappear or extinguish in their extremity (Knopf, p. 100).

However, Freud also found that at many times, the relationship between the patient and the doctor hindered the recovery process due to the presence of attachment and love of the patient towards the doctor (Knopf, p. 100). This led Freud to develop a theory of transference. "Transference is the transfer or displacement of an intra psychic representation of a childhood love (or hate) object to the representation of a current person" (Knopf, p. 100). Transference is most important practice in psychoanalysis because it provides the transfer of the unconscious person to the present person. It helped the patient to understand and resolve childhood conflicts and childish attitudes (Knopf, p. 101).

Transference provided results in form of "transference cure" and the improvements from the practice contributed to the successful outcome from psychotherapy (Knopf, p. 101). Working with such patients as Emmy Von N. and Elizabeth von R... Freud began to study the art of listening to the patient and interacting with the patient in a way to encourage beneficial transference and patient's willingness to free associate (Knopf, p. 102). Freud would ask the patients to concentrate on a particular symptom and try to recall any memories concerning its origin (Knopf, p. 101). This led to Freud's development of the concept of free association. "The technical change to unencumbered waking conversation represented a further transition to free association and from the cathartic method (hypnosis) to psychoanalysis" (Knopf, p. 102).

The development of psychoanalysis led to other forms of therapies such as group therapies. Interaction with the patients through psychoanalysis helped Freud to discover and understand the concept of "resistance". .".. it served to ward off anxiety and the awareness of unpleasant thoughts and feelings" (Knopf, p. 102). Freud understood resistance as the inability of the patient to understand their unconscious desires or guilt in its relation to their present state. This helped Freud to develop procedure of interpretation. Interpretation involved the patient analyzing their past and childhood or unconscious mind to comprehend their resistance to become aware of their thoughts and feelings. The emergence of psychoanalysis became more accepted by society than hypnosis.

During hypnosis, the patient served as mere subject to the psychoanalyst. However, psychoanalysis encouraged the patient to have more freedom and expression of thoughts. In psychoanalysis, the patient did not have to obey the commands of the analyst. They became the center of the therapy and they could control the level of their treatment. Free association provided the patients with new revelations about themselves, their unconscious minds, and their transition from childhood to the present person through constant remembrance of the past experiences. It also enabled the patient to criticize themselves, the analyst, or any authority figure, which provided for further freedom in association and revelation of the unconscious mind.

In the process of psychoanalysis, the influence of the analyst on the patient aimed to be reduced. However, during hypnosis, the outcome was completely dependent on the hypnotist and his influence in the process. Psychoanalysis approached the individual with the outlook on their responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. "The psychoanalytic approach promoted growth and fostered self knowledge and understanding, whereas hypnotherapy achieved its results through transference love and submission to a parental authority" (Knopf, p. 103).

Such transition from hypnosis to psychoanalysis became popular in Europe and became a blueprint for psychology and its practice today. Freud's introduction in the U.S. did not only affect American psychology, it changed an outlook on American society and its culture, from which side effects still remain even today, in the 21st century. When Freud's writings were introduced in the U.S., American psychologists such as Stanley Hall and William James began adapting Freud's psychoanalysis as opposed to hypnosis (Kurzweil, p. 127). The most attention was brought to treating neurosis.

Since Europe and the U.S. were close in the early 20th century, the greatest psychologists like James Jackson Putman came to hear Freud (Kurzweil, p. 128). With many psychologists adapting Freud's techniques, a controversial wave was aroused between the supp or term of Freud and the feminists and radicals. Christian Science and New Thought practitioners believed that Freud was exploiting parents by addressing that all human faults were due to their childhood experiences (Kurzweil, p. 128). Freud had many correspondents in the U.S. such as Putman. Freud wanted the Americans to establish an organization where all of the psychology can be combined and studied further. In 1911 twelve physicians founded the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA) (Kurzweil, p. 129).

"In the same year, fifteen physicians, under the leadership of Brill, formed the New York Psychoanalytic Society (NYP S). In 1914 the Boston Psychoanalytic Society was started, with Putnam as president. These groups, as well as others in were set up as affiliates of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), which had been launched in 1910 in order to facilitate communication among followers who were dispersed throughout Europe". (Kurzweil, p. 129) Psychoanalysis and Freud's studies became very popular in the U.S. In fact, they became so popular that such was all that American society could talk and read about.

Psychoanalysis was taught in summer schools and "girls' colleges" around NY and it was viewed as the new emerging culture. Psychoanalysis and Freud's studies were used to explain politics, crime, and even some of the political leaders underwent psychoanalysis to determine more about their unconscious. It was sought to explain all human behavior, individualistic and group. Nonetheless, many followers of Freud who were members of the APA consistently studied psychoanalysis and were encouraged to come up with new research and travel to Europe to learn from doctors and psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysts invited Europeans as training analysts to keep up with scientific advances in 1930 (Kurzweil, p. 131). By 1938, APA formulated their rules for minimal training physicians that spelled out what it considered proper conduct of members, and prohibited the admission of laymen (Kurzweil, p. 132).

This was caused by the disagreement between the American APA and the European IPA. Since American Freudians did not want untrained psychologists and psychoanalysts to be a part of their research organization, they wanted to separate from the rules and regulations of the IPA. The IPA organization forced APA to admit laymen, or untrained members. This led the APA to separate from IPA. Psychoanalysis grew predominantly in the U.S. By 1952, of the 762 members in the IPA, 64 percent were in the U.S. (Kurzweil, p. 132).

When immigration increased in the U.S., foreigners were financially supported to train and study as psychoanalysts. However, the APA committee became threatened that the immigrants would take over most of the jobs. In addition, many Jews were discriminated against and were not able to participate in the psychoanalysis field. However, they were provided jobs in the hospitals. The practice of psychoanalysis in the hospitals led in 1942 to publication in medical textbooks on the study of the unconscious minds of patients that inspired many doctors to adopt Freudian techniques in the U.S. (Kurzweil, p. 133).

After Freud's death in 1939, many psychologists turned to other factors that made up human behavior and mind. Sociologists and behaviorists studied the interaction between the environment and human behavior. Others studied biological and neurological factors. Nonetheless, psychoanalysis was progressively used and studied by many, if not all scientists, doctors, and even politicians. In 1944 few psychoanalysts were invited by the American government to a top secret conference on reeducating the German populace after the end of the war (Kurzweil, p. 136).

They were asked to cure war neuroses, provide a psychoanalytic portrait of Hitler, assess leadership qualities among American recruits in the armed forces, and contribute to countless symposiac exploring the connection between social phenomena and the psychosomatic symptoms they might produce (Kurzweil, p. 136). This reinforced the great effect that psychoanalysis had in the U.S. and its culture and politics. When psychoanalysis was introduced into the American society, more and more analysts came to the field. It seemed that those who had even a small interest in psychology aimed at the field of psychoanalysis.

This caused American society to consist of so many psychologists and psychoanalysts that their reputation and social status began to decrease in the U.S. People began viewing analysts with less respect because of their rich lives and comparatively easy careers. With the emergence of psychology as a postgraduate career, those analysts who have been in the field for many years were required to acquire additional education to seek for further approval of the committee and to gain superiority over the newcomers in the field. The reason why so many lost their faiths in psychoanalysis was because people relied on analysts to cure and solve problems that were impossible for such field. Psychoanalysis came as a phenomenon into U.S. and acquired power in its popularity and success rapidly. The practice and treatment was only available for the bourgeois class since it was lengthy and very expensive.

Many Americans viewed psychoanalysts as aristocrats. Even the purpose of the treatment itself lost much of its significance. Many were seeking psychological or psychoanalytical help not due to their guilty minds or unsettled emotions, but due to their desire of discovering themselves and their hidden states of minds. This led to a different view of psychoanalysis that made the analysts and the field itself suffer much criticism. In 1990's the image and ridicule of psychiatrists was introduced into the American media.

However, this time, female psychiatrists were the center of the ridicule. This was portrayed in such TV shows as "Ellen" (Kaplan, p. 152). However, the media has always been fascinated with Freud and his influence on the American culture. What fascinated the American public about psychoanalysis was the fact that it opened up something that was unknown to mankind: the human mind and how it worked. Mental illness has always been a case of curiosity in society, which was greeted by fear and shame.

That is why many who have studied mental illness such as psychiatrists were received with strange attitudes, even those of humor. Mental illness became a part of entertainment media related to psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, it proved that people were curious about mental illness and its therapies and treatment, perhaps due to the anxiety about their own mental functioning (Kaplan, p. 154). In such films as "Spellbound" by Hitchcock, American public watched Dali undergo psychoanalysis trough dream interpretation (Kaplan, p. 155).

These films also introduced psychoanalysis to many Americans and brought about their satisfaction with confronting their fears and fascination with how the mind worked. Psychoanalysis in the media became a representation of the whole society. The mental stresses, dysfunctions, and illnesses came to represent the stresses of working-class life and the bourgeois. Since the working class could not afford psychoanalysis, cinema represented their mental hospital (Kaplan, p. 155). Cinema and psychoanalysis are often viewed as the same type of technology. Both provided a place for people to express their fantasies.

That is why both became very important and popular in the American society. With the introduction of the media, many upper class societies and religious societies tried to suppress media. This was due to a new sexuality that took place that many tried to suppress. Freud laid the groundwork for popular culture with his creativity concept. Since society was preoccupied with sex, adultery, violence and abuse, their unconscious fantasies were deployed due to restrictions from family, education, law, and social codes (Kaplan, p 157). With the introduction of Freud and psychoanalysis a wave of feminists began their campaign against Freud's theory of Oedipus complex.

Karen Horney began campaigning in the 1920' to show that penis envy was not a bedrock phenomenon and that femininity is as primary as masculinity (Dimen, p. 209). Horney concentrated on the phallic stage that deployed women by stating that children believe that there is only one sex, that of male, until they realize that there is a lack (of penis). ' "If boys are born boys, girls are born girls", ' Horney stated (Dimen, p. 209). Horney argued that if females in fact think that they are males, then the existence of the vagina is denied.

However, the vagina's sensuality is demonstrably present from infancy onward (Dimen, p. 209). Feminists such as Karen Horney exerted primary pressure on the psychoanalytic thought. The second wave of feminists focused on women's sexuality. They targeted Freud's statement that women wanted and desired sex just as much as men, which would make both sexes equal in their needs and emotions. In the 1960's, power battle began by feminists. It became a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. Truths began to emerge such as that women were not only different from men but were also subordinate to them (Dimen, p. 212).

Their wages and needs were inferior. The reason why feminists turned to psychoanalysis was due to the missing explanations of women's interpersonal lives and desires in the political and social theories. "Psychoanalysis composed the symbolic systems of both psyche and society" (Dimen, p. 213). Feminists believe that Freud's concept of how to achieve sexual health and how boys grow up to be what girls are not serve also as moral recommendations.

Feminists changed the culture of U.S. by proclaiming that women were not only the same as men in terms of their sexual desires, but also in terms of their role in society. They took psychoanalysis and Freud's psychosexual theories to a different level, a level that gained women their power and changed the culture of the whole society, as well as its morality. Freud and psychoanalysis introduced a new era in the American society that opened up new prospects in psychology, captivated the American society and changed its social roles, as well as its culture. Psychoanalysis was viewed as a new way to discover the mind and treat not only patients, but people in general from merely one thing, themselves.

The whole America lay on a big couch, discovering itself and what it has forgotten, or better did not want to remember. And the women turned out to be just that. Psychoanalysis introduced a new way for women to fight for their power and sexuality. The culture that once revolved around traditional male values was altered once and for all with psychoanalysis and psychosexual Freudian stages as its trigger. In today's society psychoanalysis plays a vital role as it incorporated into the culture.

Psychoanalysts became people's personal consultants and no longer specialized doctors needed only in extreme situations. The majority of society goes to see a psychologist or as today's pop culture calls it a "shrink". Many visit psychoanalysts to discover more about themselves, their personality and their hidden desires. Some just want someone to listen to their problems. Whatever the reason may be, psychology has a new meaning in today's society, economics, politics, and culture. It's the new era where the person is looked at from three angles, the mind, the unconscious, and behavior.

Freud introduced the couch while America laid down only to wake up a new nation.