Psychoanalysis is one of the most popular theories in the study of the human mind and in the treatment of emotional conditions; a theory that has been as reviled as its author Sigmund Freud for his study and interest in the structuring of the psyche, psychosexual development and in-depth analysis of the moral influence on human health. This is why in this Psychology-Online article we explain what is psychoanalysiswhat are its treatment methods, its history and some of the most recognized authors in its study.
Definition of psychoanalysis in psychology
Psychoanalysis is a theory about the human mind that serves to understand the unconscious, a therapeutic practice for mood problems, a research instrument and a profession. At the same time we could say that it is a very complex intellectual, sociological, and medical phenomenon.
Psychoanalysis has been so reviled for its proposal on the existence of the unconscious and the psychosexual implication in human behavior. , the neurologist who pioneered psychoanalysis, proposed that human behavior and personality come from a constant interaction of psychological forces that operate at different levels of consciousness: unconscious, preconscious and conscious.
Although for several years psychoanalysis, as well as its author, has been pointed out as inoperative or ineffective by its own disciples and by other health professionals, it has managed to sustain and preserve its character. essential in mental healthin social research and in medicine (especially in idiopathic physical symptoms).
Psychoanalysis proposes the investigation and treatment of emotional conflicts from a perspective of the early life (childhood) of the person as well as failed acts, free association and .
History of psychoanalysis
The scientific career of neurologist Sigmund Freud began in a waning era for the philosophy of nature, which conceived the universe as an organism consisting of forces and movements in perpetual contradiction. A principle of the metaphysical vision of reality was the well-known law of polarities, which proposed the existence of antithetical forces such as heat and cold, night and day, sleep and wakefulness. Freud then showed great enthusiasm for philosophy of nature, and his desire to study medicine was determined by listening to Carl Brühl’s lecture on comparative anatomy, where he also had the opportunity to read a fragment of Nature by the theologian C. Tobler. This occurred in 1873, before Freud finished high school.
Joseph Breuer appears deeply associated with the beginning phase of psychoanalysis due to his collaboration with Sigmund Freud in the hysteria researchfor this same reason his name is avoided as a symbol of a notable researcher
The word as a treatment method as the beginning of psychoanalysis
It cannot be avoided that determinism and the mechanism of Helmholtz school They had a constant and permanent influence on Freud’s psychological theories, both in his pre-psychoanalytic phase and throughout his career. This influence is evident in the research he conducted with Breuer.
Josef and Sigmund met in the late 1870s and between 1882 and 1885 a fairly close friendship was formed where they shared various common scientific interests. In 1890, due to the economic situation he was going through and due to resistance to Jews occupying important positions in academia, Freud retired from his academic career, dedicating himself from now on as a salaried doctor of brain physiology and neurology in the clinic. prestigious award from Dr. Theodor Meynert. That is where Freud specialized in diseases of the nervous system and because of his practice in the treatment of patients with mental pathologies. He began to become interested and dedicate himself more and more to the study of these phenomena, especially the symptoms of hysteria. This is where he discovers that in the word are the fundamental principles to reach the unconscious and thus achieve a cure for relieve the discomfort of your patients (beliefs, fantasies, memories, conflicts, thoughts, ideals, desires, feelings and purposes). The more he delved into the depths of the patient’s psyche, the closer he got to the source of his problems.
In this way, through his interpretations Freud helped put into words what was in his unconscious, starting from the hypothesis: where everything that is experienced in childhood leaves deep traces, being stored in our unconscious without us realizing it and so on. It determines our adult behaviors.
When the patient realizes what the origins of his conflicts are, he can begin to change his ideas about himself.
Early influences of Sigmund Freud
Freud receives a scholarship to study in Paris with the famous neurologist Jean Martín Charcot. J. Charcot, the most influential French neurologist of the time, gave importance of scientific interest to the hysterical symptoms which until then had been considered simulation products. Charcot affirmed that hysteria was the product of a hereditary degeneration of the brain and for this he used hypnosis methods in your treatment. He also demonstrated that hysterical symptoms could be provoked and eliminated by hypnotic suggestion, thereby establishing a relative nature to the causal neurological factors.
At that time, any symptom that could not be explained was attributed to some type of hysteria and since there was no apparent cure, doctors recommended electrotherapy, massages, thermal baths or rest. This is also where Freud proposes that neurosis is a personality disorder and not a disease of the nervous system, so neurosis for Freud arose from conflicts, unresolved situations or frustrations and manifests itself in our behaviors.
Knowledge of Charcot intensified Sigmund Freud’s interest in hysterical phenomena, but he was also disappointed when he realized that Charcot had no interest in the study of the psychological mechanisms underlying the symptoms.
In 1882 Breuer and Freud discovered a variant of the hypnotic method. Charcot and Liébault used hypnosis to make conscious psychic content that until then had been inaccessible. Breuer and later Freud used hypnosis to interrogate the sick subject about the history of the emergence of his symptom, which he could not communicate completely but only partially in a waking state. Since then, Sigmund’s interest in addressing the central structuring of his therapeutic interventions was evident: the elaboration of the subject’s life history.
In 1886 Freud returned from France to Vienna, and met Breuer again, who confessed that he had treated a case of hysteria by hypnotizing a patient, Berta Pappenhem (Anna O), a young woman whose legs and arms were paralyzed, she saw bad, he coughed and did not understand when they spoke to him. Freud prefers not to hypnotize her and let her speak whatever comes to her mind. (fantasies, dreams, memories that were freely associated) and at the end of the story Anna O felt relieved, through the word her healing process – free association – began.
The beginning of theories of free association, dream interpretation and psychosexual development
Freud discovers that free association is not the only way to reach the unconscious, but that dreams also express unmanifest desires. It is when in 1896 he wrote his book “Interpretation of Dreams.” In this study he also explains that through dreams it is also possible address situations rooted in the unconscious.
In 1905 Freud published his research in three essays on sexual theory. Here he links pleasure with sublimation; Sexual desires are impulses that seek the first joys we had. It is for this reason that Freud separates the genital from the sexual (men and women obtain sexual pleasure not only from the stimulation of the genital area but all surfaces of the body are erogenous zones).
Stages in psychosexual development
Freud proposed that people partially satisfy these desires in sexual life and in dreams, this is how he distinguishes three:
- The oral stage where the baby’s greatest satisfaction is provided by food, therefore the pleasure is obtained by sucking but when the mother removes the breast (weaning) the baby feels displeasure.
- The anal stage: In the second stage the baby feels pleasure when releasing and retaining.
- The phallic stage or stage three appears at three or four years old when the child discovers that by placing their hands in the genital area they obtain pleasure and the curiosity, anguish and confusion that cause the difference in the sexual anatomy of the boy and girl begins. Freud then proposes that it is not until the ages of 5 and 6 that the child enters the phase of the Oedipus complex (the feelings of the boy towards the mother and the girl towards the father come into conflict) feeling love and jealousy, rivalry and dependence. These feelings Freud proposes will influence the formation of his character, his individualism and his sexual orientation.
The structure of the mind
During the First World War Sigmund Freud continued searching for answers to a basic neurotic conflict: what we want vs what we do. It is here that Freud proposes that all our behaviors were at the service of reducing this tension (raising psychic energy), postulating at the same time its model of the psyche:
- The it: primary impulses.
- The I: acts as a guide to reality, an inhibitor of unconscious impulses, which is what constitutes a defense mechanism.
- The superego: it is the parents’ gaze above one’s own.
Also during the First World War, Freud exposed the difference between morality and moral conscience: he thus demonstrated that his theory could also be applied to the behavior of society. Freud said that morality had a superego charge (an imposition) and that moral conscience had roots in the repressed part of society.
Authors of psychoanalysis
To understand psychoanalysis it is essential to know its main representatives
1. Sigmund Freud (1859-1939)
Austrian neurologist of Jewish origin, precursor of psychoanalysis. He studied in Paris with the famous and renowned neurologist Jean Charcot, the use of hypnosis as a treatment for hysteria. Upon returning to Vienna with the support of his former friend Joseph Breuer They develop the cathartic method. Through subsequent research, the use of hypnotic suggestion (catharsis) was replaced by free association and the interpretation of dreams.
2. Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Psychiatrist and psychologist, important collaborator and disciple of Sigmund Freud. Founder of the deep psychology; His theory is interested in the functional relationship between the psyche and its products (its culture). Therefore, he leans towards the use of methodology of anthropological, philosophical,…