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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Freud and Psychoanalysis



Previous post: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/sigmund-freuds-theories-of-mind.html

Psychoanalysis investigates three things:
the analysis of the unconscious mind, the therapy of neurosis from an investigation of of the mind, and a new method based on the knowledge from applying the investigation method and clinical experiences.
Consequently there is nothing vague in the definition of psychoanalysis.  Psychoanalysis is a specific mind investigation technique and a therapy inspired from this investigation. A therapy, which is mostly composed of psychoanalysis so that is implies no speculation.

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality says that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three main parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego.  This "structural theory" of personality is focused on how conflicts among the parts of the mind shape behavior and personality. These conflicts are mainly held in the unconscious mind.  According to Freud, personality develops during childhood and is critically shaped through a series of five psychosexual stages, which he called his psychosexual theory of development.  During each stage, the child is presented with a conflict between biological drives and social expectations.  When the subject successfully navigates these internal conflicts, they will gain a mastery of each developmental stage, and ultimately lead to a fully mature personality.  Freud's ideas have since been met with criticism, in part because of his singular focus on sexuality as the main driver of human personality development.  Whereas realistically, a person's personality is formed from experiences, and not their sexual drive.

Freud emphasized the structure of the human mind, but paid little to no attention to the impact of environment, sociology, or culture.  His theories were highly focused on pathology and largely ignored "normal," healthy functioning.  He has also been criticized for his view of human sexuality to the exclusion of other important factors.

Source: http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/definition.html

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