Final Report- Sigmund Freud Posts; Spring Garner; Section 12, Group 2

Sigmund Freud (3 of 3) Spring Garner, Section 12
Later Life, More Accomplishments, and Death

The Id, Ego, and Superego

Freud developed a complex explanation to personality, which drives how individuals interact.

The Id: Based on the pleasure principle. The id disregards the needs and wants of others and focuses on satisfying his/her own needs and wants. Freud’s theory says we are born with the id
The Ego: Based on the reality principle. According to allpysch.com, the ego’s job is “meet[ing] the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.” The ego develops within three years after birth.
The Superego: Based on a moral principle. Develops around age five.

According to Freud, the ego is strongest in a healthy person.



Works
Some of Freud’s works include:
Studies on Hysteria (1895)
The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)
The Future of an Illusion (1927)

In addition, Freud has published more than 320 different books, articles, and essays.

Awards
1930: Goethe Prize- Germany

Death
Nazis did not appreciate Freud’s views, especially since he was Jewish. Acts against him by the Nazis include the burning of his works. Sickly with jaw cancer and fear of rising anti-Semitism, he left for London in 1938. On September 21^st, 1939, a doctor and his daughter, Anna, helped him commit suicide. They injected him with two centigrams of morphine, which put him in a coma. He died two days later on September 23^rd, 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II.

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Sigmund Freud (2 of 3) Spring Garner, Section 12

Importance and Contributions

Sigmund Freud is known as the father of psychoanalysis. He was also a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early 20^th century.

He enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1873. He took up the study of medicine and specialized in neurology. Freud was a trained neurologist. He had many patients who complained of ailments, but had nothing physically wrong with them. Around 1886, Freud spent time in Paris with Joseph Breuer. Alongside Breuer, Freud came up with the idea that many neurosis (phobias, paralysis and pains, some forms of paranoia, etc.) correlated with traumatic experiences that had occurred in the patient’s past, such as physical or sexual abuse, but they had forgotten and was now hidden from their consciousness. His treatment was known as psychoanalysis, which was therapy of neurosis of the unconscious mind.



Freud and the Oedipus Complex 
Freud developed the concept of the Oedipus Complex, which Freud defined as, “the complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and a wish to exclude the parent of the same sex”. This is typically accompanied by repressed feelings due to fear of punishment by the other parent. Freud’s Oedipus Complex Theory correlates with his stages of Psychosexual Development. Freud’s Psychosexual Development belief outlines that all humans are sexual beings from the minute they’re born and that completion of these stages are important to become a healthy human developmentally. This was a somewhat unpopular idea. The stages are as followed:

Birth to 1 Year: The Oral Stage
Erogenous Zone: Mouth

1 to 3 years: The Anal Stage
Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control

3 to 6 Years: The Phallic Stage
Erogenous Zone: Genitals
**This is when the Oedipus Complex begins for males. Freud did not believe in the Electra Complex, but believed all girls have “penis envy” and never fully get over this stage.

6 to Puberty: The Latent Period
Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings Are Inactive

Puberty to Death: The Genital Stage
Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual InterestsFreud believed if one stage hadn’t fully been completed, a person would be fixated in that stage until the fixation had resolved. The fixation would lead to their neurosis. All stages successfully completed resulted in a healthy personality. 

Sigmund Freud recognized the conflicts between society, customs, sex, and survival.

Sigmund Freud Biography

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Sigmund Freud (1 of 3)

Early Life 

Freud was an Austrian Jew born in Frieberg, Moravia in 1856.  His father’s textile business in Freiberg had supported himself and his family, but eventually failed. At four, due to his father’s failed business alongside increasing prejudice against Jews, he and his family moved to Vienna, where he would spend the rest of his life. 

Painted Portrait of Freud As An Adolescent

Amalia Freud was said to favor her first child, Sigmund Freud, who she called her “golden Sigi". Sigmund Freud took notice of the favoritism and went on to say, “when you were incontestably the favorite child of your mother, you keep during your lifetime this victor feeling, you keep feeling sure of success, which in reality seldom doesn't fulfill". Freud would fear being replaced by his multiple siblings, but would remain the family favorite.

Not much is known of Freud’s early life, but during Freud’s childhood he would have two significant memories of resentment from his father that would shape his philosophy. One when he was 8 and had urinated in his parents' bedroom. His father humiliated him and claimed, "There will come nothing of this boy!" From that moment, Freud claimed he wanted to prove his father wrong. Another time when Sigmund and his father were taking a walk and someone yelled at him, "You, Jew - get down from the sidewalk!" and Sigmund took offense when his father didn't defend him.



I believe these early childhood experiences would help him develop his neurosis theory and his belief that the Oedipus Complex was implicit in normal human development, which I'll talk about in my next blog post.