Sigmund Freud

Adam Rein
US History Honors/Period 3
Ms. Dirito
January 3rd, 2012
“History Fair – The impact of Sigmund Freud on Psychology”

http://www.stenudd.com/myth/freudjung/freud.htm

One of the most influential and controversial thinkers of our time is Sigmund Freud. He changed our perspective of how we look at our childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Many people have learned from Freud’s work and went on farther with his ideas bringing out new theories contributing to his work. Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, providing the first explanation of the inner forces of the mind involving human behavior. Sigmund Freud impacted psychology through a revolution by his major theories, his discovery of psychoanalysis, and even his works including the many writings and books. Many other individuals and psychologists reacted to Sigmund Freud’s impact on psychology by influencing them. Sigmund Freud had many different theories that were largely influential and revolutionary, though now are considered criticism for the present and during his life. These ideas have become one with our everyday lives showing of what his works impacted on us human beings. An example would be the term Freudian slip, or a misstatement that we might blurt out, revealing unconscious information of our thoughts or feelings. This may happen because Freud would say that the psychoanalytic view shows that within your mind, behavior can be directed by these inner forces. This is but one of Freud’s shocking theories that include his many workings and research. He used the observations of his patients and formed a theory of personality development. Freud believed that the mind was divided into two sections, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is everything in which we are aware of, knowing that we are awake and able to move about. This also includes memory that can be brought about into our awareness at any time. The unconscious mind is the part that we are unable to be aware of, such as our feelings, desires, thoughts, urges, and memory that is out of our awareness. These thoughts in our unconscious mind hold feelings of pain or anxiety that we find unpleasant or uncomfortable. Freud believes that the unconscious mind is a big contributor to change our behavior and experience, all without knowing it. Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality development is made up of three components. The three elements are known as the id, the ego, and the superego, that create defined human behaviors together. The first element, the id, is followed by the pleasure principle that fulfills our most basic desires, urges, and needs. These needs are concerned to be satisfied quickly or there is a state of anxiety. This can be as simple as having an increase of hunger, resulting in more of a desire to eat or drink. The id is very important for personality development during infancy, because it emphasizes the need of the baby, and the baby will cry until the desire of the id is met. However, if we were controlled by the pleasure principle for all human beings, we could become overly disruptive and socially incorrect, for we may find ourselves pleasing our needs by taking what we desire from people’s hands. The id also can satisfy the need constructed by the pleasure principle involving primary process that creates a mental picture of the desired object pleasing our need. The next element of personality development is the ego that deals with reality. Freud believes that the ego comes from the id and makes it so that the desires of the id can be expressed in a respectable manner in reality. The ego is included in the conscious and unconscious mind. The ego is based on the reality principle that pleases the id’s needs in the appropriate manner. This reality principle concludes that the id’s impulses will be satisfied, but only at the acceptable time and place. The ego also releases tension through the secondary process, where the ego attempts to locate the same object in which the mental image represents. The last component of personality development is the superego, which is the piece of personality that holds all of our moral standards and what we believe to be right and wrong. It shows us what can be judged. Freud believes that the superego shows up for us at age five. There are two parts of the superego, one is the ego ideal, that includes rules for good behaviors, such as the proper behaviors accepted by adults and superiors, and following this ideal will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment. The other part of the superego is the conscience that includes the information of things viewed as bad behavior by parents and authority figures. These behaviors are looked as to lead to conflicts, and result in feelings of guilt.