My Free Association According to the Theories of Freud
Freud is a world-famous psychologist, who made a great contribution to the science of psychology and implemented the theory of psychoanalysis. His personality theory became the basis for many theories and teachings. The focus on the unconscious first introduced by Freud had a great influence on the development of psychology and psychoanalyses. It can be found plenty of different opinions concerning this subject expressed by different psychologists but it’s hard to find anybody, who would be indifferent when talking about unconsciousness. Freud stressed the important role of childhood memories and their big influence on all further life of the human. After I first read this theory I spent much time making an effort to recollect things from my childhood. What is notable, I soon understood that there are a lot of things I though I forgot forever but these memories were still hidden in the depth of my memory. I did not remember much unpleasant things from my childhood. I realized that mechanisms of regression did not let me to remember these things. Freud defined repression as the most powerful defensive mechanism. Its main function is the repression of the unconscious id impulses when they become conscious by some reasons. The main reason that turns on this mechanism is anxiety. The impulses can be so frightening that conscious is not able to deal with them so they are suppressed and kept in the subconscious part of our personality. Freud believed that childhood memories contain a lot of information, which the person doesn’t want to remember and that is why they become repressed. Repression can be voluntary and involuntary. Repression takes place in the cases of multiple personality disorder. These are cases when one part of personality has no access to another part. The possible explanation of these disorder reasons is that bad memories are so hard to accept that they are completely repressed to the consciousness of “another” person. Post-traumatic disorder and
References: Freud, S. (1960). The ego and the id. J. Riviere (Trans.), J. Strachey (Ed.). New York: W. W. Norton J. Nevid, S.Rathus, B.Greene. (2006) Abnormal Psychology In a Changing World, 6th edition. Freud, S. (1925), Some psychical consequences of the anatomical distinction between the sexes, in Strachey, J. (Eds), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmond Freud, Vol. 19. London: The Hogarth Press, pp.241-60.