Psychoanalysis :: Psychoanalytic Theory and Methods

analysis is a system of psychology originated by the Viennese physicianSigmund FREUD in the 1890s and then further developed by himself, his students,and other followers. It consists of three kinds of related activities (1) amethod for research into the human mind, especially inner experiences such asthoughts, feelings, emotions, fantasies, and dreams (2) a systematicaccumulation of a body of knowledge about the mind and (3) a method for thetreatment of psychological or emotional disorders.Psychoanalysis began with the discovery that HYSTERIA, an illness with physicalsymptoms that occurred in a completely healthy physical body--such as a numbnessor paralysis of a ramification or a loss of voice or a blindness--could be caused byunconscious wishes or forgotten memories. (Hysteria is now commonly referred toas transmutation disorder.) The French neurologist Jean Martin CHARCOT tried to ridthe mind of undesirable thoughts through hypnotic suggestion, but withoutlasting success. Jose f Breuer, a Viennese physician, achieved better results byletting Anna O., a young woman patient, try to empty her mind by just tellinghim all of her thoughts and feelings.Freud refined Breuers method by conceptualizing theories about it and, usingthese theories, telling his patients through interpretations what was going oninside the unconscious part of their minds, thus making the unconscious becomeconscious. Many hysterias were cured this way, and in 1895, Breuer and Freudpublished their findings and theories in Studies in Hysteria.CLASSIC PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORYTraditional psychoanalytical theory states that all human beings are born withinstinctual drives that are eer active even though a person is usuallynot conscious of thus being driven. Two drives--one for sexual pleasure, calledlibido, the other called aggression--motivate and propel most(prenominal) behavior. In theinfant, the libido first manifests itself by making sucking an activity withpleasurable sensations in the mo uth. Later similar pleasures are experienced inthe anus during bowel movements, and in the long run these erotically tinged pleasuresare experienced when the sexual organ is manipulated. Thus psychosexualdevelopment progresses from the oral through the anal to the phallic stage.(Phallic, in psychoanalytic theory, refers to both(prenominal) male and female sexualorgans.)During the height of the phallic phase, about ages three to six, theselibidinous drives focus on the parent of the opposite sex and lend an eroticcast to the relation between mother and son or between father and daughter, theso-called Oedipus COMPLEX. However, most societies strongly disapprove of thesesexual interests of children. A taboo on incest rules universally. Parents,therefore, influence children to push such pleasurable sensations and thoughtsout of their conscious minds into the unconscious by a process called repression.