Sigmund Freud and His Influence on Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Sigmund Freud theory and adult conselling 2007 A. Introduction: Sigmund Freud a d his influence on psychotherapy Sigmund Freud,who is often rightfully called the "father of psychoanalysis", as "elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system, the structural investigation of which is proper province of psychology , articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, of infantile sexuality, of repression, and proposed a tri-partite account of the mind's structure, all as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions". (Thornton, 2006) This theory constituted a real breakthrough in the studies of human soul and personality. Before Freudian theory was popularized, there was a belief that the main driving force beyond the actions and thoughts of a human begin was mind, - and then, all of a sudden, there came a concept of the unconscious component being the main direction behind the personality and influencing not only the consciousness but also the physics of a man. Sigmund Freud developed his research in three directions: he created his own personality theory, the theory of society and, finally, the method of curing functional psychic illnesses, the latter being especially important for the development of counseling psychology. Sigmund Freud's method of psychoanalysis is a combination of his theory and a special therapeutic method that can briefly be described as talking to patients and evoking their free associations, thus discovering their problems and curing them. S. Freud's views on human psyche developed with years of research, hence he developed several models of personality that will be discussed in the course of this paper. In 1905 Freud believed that the thoughts and feelings - the mental contents - that are actively barred from access to consciousness - that are repressed, in other words - are sexual wishes of childhood origin. By 1925 he had learned that a need for punishment can be quite as inaccessible to consciousness as a libidinal wish. He had also observed that repression is not the only defense employed in psychic conflict; that a repudiated wish or conflictual memory can be accessible to consciousness and, finally, that defenses and the motives for defense against wishes that give rise to mental conflict are often themselves inaccessible to consciousness. As he put it, it often requires analytic work to help a patient become aware, not only of the instinctual side of the patient's pathogenic conflicts, but of their defensive aspect as well. (Brenner, 2006) S. Freud elaborated the so-called 'metapsychology' - the science "that analyzes the workings of the mind from three perspectives: the dynamic, the economic, and the topographic", and whereas the dynamic perspective "entails probing mental phenomena to their roots in conflict-ridden unconscious forces mainly originating in, but not confined to, the drives", and the economic "attempts to specify the quantities and vicissitudes of mental energies", the topographic perspective "undertakes to differentiate distinct domains within the mind". (Gay 1998, 362) However, the combination of all three perspectives make up psychoanalysis as a genuinely new kind of psychology. B. Key elements of S. Freud's theoretical approach 1. Topographical model Sigmund Freud's topographical model deals with the ties existing between the conscious and unconscious processes of a man, and according to this model, it is possible to single out three spheres of conscious, subconscious, and unconscious, and each of these spheres has certain significance for psychoanalysis. Though these spheres are separated from each other with a border, there is a possibility to penetrate these borders. "Breaking" these borders in normal state is normally controlled by some mechanisms - e.g., certain instincts are not "allowed" from the unconscious to the subconscious sphere, and same happens on the border between the subconscious and the conscious. However, sometimes these borders are broken. Topographical model served as a basis for further investigations of the human personality, and eventually developed into a structural model. However, this model is used in psychological counselling since it correlates with the psychology of perception. Using Freud's topographical model, it is possible to explain in what way an affective impulse, such as e.g. anger, gets into the sphere of the conscious temporarily, and is afterwards repressed out of it first into the subconscious sphere, and then into the unconscious. 2. Structural model Freud's structural model is considered one of the most important theories that influenced the development of psychoanalysis. In this model, Freud described three personal subsystems interacting in each human psyche - "the Id", "Ego", and "Super-Ego". "The Id" is practically identical to the unconscious sphere of the earlier topographical model. "Super-Ego" contains all norms and values that come as a result of the influence of society and upbringing, or as a result of following the examples of parents or guardians (and grown-ups in general). These norms and values are not normally realised by people, same as the instincts, however they still have a most powerful influence on their behaviour and impose certain restrictions on the actions of each individual. Therefore, "Ego" is situated between "the Id" and "Super-Ego", and it is, in fact, is being influenced by both of them. "The Id" tries to actualise the aggressive and sexual instincts contained in this sphere of psyche, whereas "Super-Ego" demands that a person comply with the requirements of the generally accepted moral. At the same time, "Ego" is an interlocutor between the instincts and the morals, and if it is mature and functions normally, it manages to take necessary decisions and correlate the behaviour of a human being efficiently and without any neuroses. "Ego" is able to reach a compromise between "the Id" and "Super-Ego", it controls these spheres and selects an appropriate model of behaviour. These three structures of a human psyche singled out by S. Freud are balanced, however this balance is not stable. The primary instincts aim at being satisfied, and therefore a human being yearns for the things that are often prohibited by the society; 'Super Ego' tries to prevent a personality from satisfying these instinctive desires, and 'Ego' becomes 'the cockpit' of these 'battles' between 'the Id' and 'Super Ego'. (Sigmund Freud) Sigmund Freud's structural model of personality also contains the idelas ("Ideale") that are located either in the sphere of "Super-Ego", or separately. "Ideale" are also controlled and, if possible, actualised by "Ego". All the above mentioned components of a human psyche are separated from each other by certain borders, and if a person does not suffer from any neuroses, these spheres do not have any conflicts between them. However, that does not mean that this balance never changes - in fact, throughout all his life, a man incorporates certain elements contained in "Super-Ego" and "the Id" into "Ego". 3. Conflict model The essence of the conflict model is that in the course of his life, a human being is constantly trapped between two powerful forces -one of these forces is rooted according to Freud, not within the personality, and the other one is immanent to the society. It is necessary to mention that in his research of the human psyche, S. Freud pinpoints the existence of two "basic" instincts - the instincts of life and death (Thanatos and Eros). whereas in the earliest model the repressed was conceived in unspecific, personalistic terms, it is now composed of the psychic manifestations of Eros, the sexual or life instinct on the one hand and Thanatos, the death instinct or its outward manifestation as the aggressive drive on the other. (O'Neill 1996, 27) These two obviously contradict each other, and that creates a powerful fundamental conflict within each personality - however, this conflict is of internal nature, whereas his conflict model is chiefly based on the conflict between an individual and society - or, more precisely, on the opposition of instincts to the morals. For S. Freud, this conflict gets an individual into the state of tension and anxiety, and therefore the main goal is to reduce these negative impacts by means of minimising the conflict. A human life is regarded as a compromise - since it is impossible to subdue or eliminate any of the two forces since they are both important and inevitable. Psychic illness, in accordance with the conflict model, can be viewed as an attempt to exist as if there were only one of the two forces that make up this conflict. For S. Freud, if such a behaviour is actualised in an unrestricted use of instincts (the force immanent to a human being), it results in self-destruction and is considered a psychic pathology; however if a person chooses the other force, the one immanent for the society and revealing itself in the form of Super-Ego, it results in the overwhelming feeling of guilt that is a basis for multiple neuroses. Therefore, in order to preserve mental health, it is impossible to live as if only one of the conflicting forces existed - it is crucial to learn to compromise, and keep these forces in the state of dynamic balance, so that the instincts are satisfied to the fullest extent possible and with the feeling of guilt reduced to the minimum. In fact, in this aspect S. Freud's conflict theory is very close to his structural model that also presupposes achieving a balance between the instincts of "the Id" and the morals of the "Super Ego". In this Freudian model of conflict, where one of the opposing forces belongs to an individual, and the other one - to the society, the latter possesses certain power over the former, since it is able to evoke in an individual the feeling of guilt; therefore, in order to ensure that there is, indeed, a conflict (i.e., opposition), this individualistic, human force has to be protected so that create a proper balance between the forces. According to S. Freud, the ultimate goal of a human being is to adjust to the society in terms of morality, conformity and socially acceptable behaviour. 3) How can Freud's models of personality be applied to the field of adult counselling All in all, according to S. Freud, the unconscious plays a determining role in human actions, behavior, character, mood, complexes - i.e., entire human life. Human unconscious contains some deeply rooted "primary" instincts, which are predominantly of gender character and aggressive nature. All people, Freud claims, aim at satisfying these unconscious instincts immanent to their psyche, in every action that they take. (Sigmund Freud) For Sigmund Freud, instincts present a kind of 'channels' that are able to carry specific 'energy' which eventually determines human thoughts and actions. That is what the psychoanalyst actually called 'libido' - one of the most important terms used by S. Freud in his research. (Boeree) As far as psychoanalysis development is concerned, Freud believes that is it very important to reveal a patient's sublimated memories, thoughts, and experiences that are stored in the unconscious part of psyche and influence life, behaviour and attitudes. Sometimes these sublimates thoughts can be a source for complexes and fears, that is why S. Freud attempts to 'drag' them into the conscious level of a patient so that to further help him understand and get rid of them. For achieving this, S. Freud first used hypnosis; however, later he begins using his famous 'free associations' method, with the patient encouraged to utter whatever he wants to. Therefore, having researched the unconscious, and therefore having discovered the complex mechanism of sublimation in human psyche, Sigmund Freud managed to develop a principally new method of psychoanalysis that is still effectively being used in many European countries and the USA. S. Freud denies an occasional character of any human thoughts, utterances and actions. He considers all slips of the tongue and similar mistakes to be very significant as they reflects certain hidden motives that have not even been recognized by a person: Freud was arguably the first thinker to apply deterministic principles systematically to the sphere of the mental, and to hold that the broad spectrum of human behaviour is explicable only in terms of the (usually hidden) mental processes or states which determine it. Thus, instead of treating the behaviour of the neurotic as being causally inexplicable - which had been the prevailing approach for centuries - Freud insisted, on the contrary, on treating it as behaviour for which is meaningful to seek an explanation by searching for causes in terms of the mental states of the individual concerned. Hence the significance which he attributed to slips of the tongue or pen, obsessive behaviour, and dreams - all, he held, are determined by hidden causes in the person's mind, and so they reveal in covert form what would otherwise not be known at all. (Thornton, 2006) Apart from that, S. Freud pays a considerable attention to studying dreams - according to him, dreams are extremely important because they happen at the period when a human being is in the state of 'reduced consciousness', and therefore are excellent sources for revealing the content of the unconscious and the subconscious. Freud cradled his original theory of dreaming within the framework of his quantitative, neurophysiological, topographic model of the mind, in which pleasure results from discharging from the unconscious a physical substance which he named 'libido'. When discharge of libido is inhibited, it is transformed into anxiety. (McLeod 1992, p. 37) As a result of his research of dreams, S. Freud comes to the conclusion that certain psychic processes never reach the conscious area of psyche, always remaining in the subconscious or unconscious area. Dreams are viewed by Freud as a 'road' to the unconsciousness, and their content is believed to reflects some sublimated desires and thoughts. All in all, dreams were equaled by Freud to free associations, and the researcher claims that dreams always contain some 'hidden' meanings, and having revealed these, a psychoanalyst is able to find the root of the patient's problems. Practically in all of his works Freud considers the problem of neuroses, beginning from their formation to the ways to help the patients get rid of them. The scholar discovered that neuroses mainly come from sublimations in the sexual sphere of human psyche, being the result of some sort of sexual trauma. This trauma can be real or even imaginary, yet the only way to cure the patient's neurosis is to discover this trauma and cure it. The theory of libido that has been mentioned above actually came as a result of S. Freud's research of neuroses, and above all, of their reasons. In fact, the theory of libido is considered quite a controversial one, since it attempts to explain the appearance of neuroses through the development or sexual instinct. Generally, Freud is sure that all unconscious and subconscious instincts and ideas have an influence upon the lives of all people. A completely healthy personality is able of striking a proper balance between 'The Id', 'Ego' and 'Super-Ego', whereas people guided predominantly by their 'Super-Ego' or 'the Id', suffer from neuroses or have different kinds of psychic dysfunctions. In order to cure these diseases, it is crucial to reveal the subconscious and unconscious ideas and bring them to the sphere of the conscious so that a human personality be able to control them, and consequently - his or her own behaviour. Freud attempts to strike a healthy balance between the three components of psyche during the procedure of psychoanalysis, and his method of psychotherapy was actually aimed at minimizing the leading character of 'the Id' making room for 'Ego' to act. The essence of the procedure of psychoanalysis is as follows: the psychoanalyst allows the patient to say aloud all of his or her thoughts and memories, with no censorship whatsoever, no matter how weird or insignificant these thoughts may appear. However, the patients often find it hard to speak about these thoughts and ideas remaining 100% objective, and therefore Freud talks a lot about the opposition that the patients experience in the course of procedure of psychoanalysis, and the ways to overcome this opposition. For example, in S. Freud's conflict model and its implementation to psychoanalysis, a considerable role is played by the concept of working through that denotes analytical work conducted in order to overcome a patient's opposition to the process of psychoanalysis that normally develops after the repressed conflict has been discovered and interpreted. (Moore & Fine, 151) Such a repression is viewed by S. Freud as the repression of "the Id", and the psychoanalyst offers to use the associative method as a catharsis. (Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through 2005) For Freud, repression was "a specific kind of defense mechanism" whose aim was to "retain threatening affects or instincts in the unconscious or to again submerge them there". (Jureit 2000) In the process of achieving catharsis, a patient, according to Freud, undergoes three stages: "remembering and reporting, the analysis of what the patient cannot remember and must repeat in the transference, leading to insight, and the analysis of those remaining resistances which block the insight from leading to change". (Gill 1988, p. 535) Any human being, claims S. Freud, exists in the state of permanent conflict, and therefore there is no such thing as a well-defined 'border' between the norm and neuroses (pathology). All people are potentially neurotic because of this conflict and the stresses that they experience. Yet, the scholar singles out the mechanisms of psychological defense - regression, rationalization, projection and sublimation. (Sigmund Freud - life and work) It has been stated that for the development of modern counselling psychology, Freud's models prove to be of great significance. For example, Shulman & Reiser point out the advantage of his topographical model "which suggests a layering along practical clinical lines: that experience captured in memory which is in consciousness in one way or another; that which can be brought into consciousness with effort (the preconscious); and that which is unconscious or nonconscious", and this "insightful experimental engineering is needed to carefully dissect out what is mind-related, what is brain-related, and exactly how the two intermesh in endless cycles of oscillation, insight, and action". (Levin 2004, 142) Green pinpoints the fact that Freud is certainly compatible with the contemporary counselling, remaining "the most coherent author of psychoanalysis". (cited from: Berstein et. al 2006, p. 1) In Freud's theories, it is always presumed that a human personality is unchangeable throughout its adulthood, and during the adult life, it exists basing on the examples and patterns established in the earlier periods of life; changes that can occur in the personality of a grown-up, if any, are minor. Therefore, for Sigmund Freud, stability of a personality is a more important factor than its changing. As far as his conflict model goes, Freud, same as in his other theories, stresses the importance of early childhood experience for further development of conflict defense mechanisms and abilities. Therefore, Freud's theories do not leave a chance for a human personality to change, basing on the assumption that it is stable, yet they may efficiently be used for penetrating into the depths of person's complexes and neuroses. Freud's models of personality are important for modern psychology and counselling, as they encompass all aspects of human psyche, and there is no wonder that Freudian psychoanalysis, though a bit modified, is still the most popular psychiatric method in the Great Britain and the USA. (Furer, 2006) As Thornton has it: Notwithstanding the multiple manifestations of psychoanalysis as it exists today, it can in almost all fundamental respects be traced directly back to Freud's original work. Further, Freud's innovative treatment of human actions, dreams, and indeed of cultural artefacts as invariably possessing implicit symbolic significance has proven to be extraordinarily fecund, and has had massive implications for a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, semiotics, and artistic creativity and appreciation in addition to psychology. However, Freud's most important and frequently re-iterated claim, that with psychoanalysis he had invented a new science of the mind, remains the subject of much critical debate and controversy. (Thornton, 2006) References 1. Bernstein, J. & Liebea, R. O. (2006), "'Freud and modern psychoanalysis': a summary of Andr Green's presentation", Modern psychoanalysis, 31:1, 2006, 1 - 6. 2. Boeree, G. C., Dr. (1997), Personality theories: Sigmund Freud. Retrieved April 18, 2007 from 3. Brenner, Ch. (1996), Beyond the Ego and the Id. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from: 4. Furer, M. (1996), Changes in psychoanalytic technique: progressive or retrogressive Retrieved April 17, 2007 from: 5. Gay, P. (1998), Freud: a life for our time. Norton, New York. 6. Gill, H S. (1988), "Working through resistances of intrapsychic and environmental origin", International journal of psychoanalysis, 169: 4, 535 - 550. 7. Jureit, U. (2000), Patterns of repetition: dimensions of biographical memory. In: Trauma research newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from: 8. Levin, F. M. (2004), "Commentary on 'Freud's theory of mind and functional imaging experiments'", Neuro-psychoanalysis, 6: 2, 142 - 144. 9. McLeod, M. N. (1992), "The evolution of Freud's theory about dreaming", Psychoanalytic quarterly, 61:1. 10. O'Neill, J. (1996), Freud and the passions, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA. 11. Psychoanalytic terms and concepts. (1990) Ed. by Burness E. Moore, Bernard D. Fine. The American Psychoanalytic Association / Yale University Press, New Haven / London. 12. Remembering, repeating and working-through. (2005), International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Retrieved April 20, 2007 from The Gale Group database: 13. Sigmund Freud - life and work, (2006). Retrieved April 17, 2007 from AROPA database: 14. Sigmund Freud. (2006), From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from: 15. Thornton, S. P. (2006) Sigmund Freud, In: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved April 18, 2007 from: Read More