Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Most people think of psychoanalysis when they hear the term psychology. Therapy and counseling are the most frequent careers in psychology. Sigmund Freud’s work on psychoanalysis has been described as an assemblage of psychological theories and therapeutic methods. Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that everyone has a collection of unrecognized ideas, wants, memories, and emotions. The medical and psychiatric professions have a long history of treating and curing patients with mental diseases. We all have ideas and sentiments that we don’t even know we have. Some of the things that happen in our lives remain with us as we grow and mature. Good or terrible, these experiences shape our minds.
Working with Teenagers
Providing therapy to teens is a tough endeavor. People who are still in the process of discovering who they are and what they want to become. Many of the problems in teenagers have been traced back to their formative years. Understanding the teen’s subconscious ideas may be achieved via procedures such as psychoanalysis. According to Erikson’s research, a person’s growth may be stunted if a developmental stage is handled incorrectly. Using this approach, he demonstrates how crucial the adolescent years are in transitioning to maturity. The adolescent years are characterized by a struggle between developing a sense of self and becoming more disoriented. For the rest of their lives, their behavior and development will be influenced by their identity at this period. Psychologists and therapists can better assist adolescents with their struggles with interpersonal conflict
major Events and Milestones That Influenced Development of psychoanalysis
The most well-known and widely regarded father of psychoanalysis is Sigmund Freud. Freud is credited with introducing the concept of an unconscious mind to the psychological community. Wilhelm Wundt’s influence on psychology may still be seen today. He was the former founder of a research laboratory solely dedicated to psychology studies. He is widely considered the founder of modern psychology, and he was the primary drawer of a line between philosophy and the study of the mind and behavior. The workings of the mind fascinated him. Wundt was agnostic about the existence of the subconscious.
Psychophysics Influences
GW Leibnitz was somewhat of a wonder child. The philosopher, lawyer, mathematician, and diplomat, he was a German. At 13, he created a gadget that could compute numbers since he was so intelligent. Leibnitz came up with the concept of monadology in the early era of the seventeenth century. Monads are the scientific term for what this school of thought refers to as psychic beings. Monads, like perceptions, are highly similar. He concluded that there were varying degrees of awareness for mental events. These levels of consciousness varied from absolute oblivion to a high degree of awareness.
To begin with, this is when we began to research the unconscious. The evolution of unconsciousness became a study topic because of his ideas. It was a significant step forward in the study of the unconscious.
Psychiatrist William James was a firm believer in will, attention, and faith. As for him, he was a firm believer in the power of the unconscious. Although his book Principles in Psychology led some to assume he was against the unconscious, this was a misunderstanding. James was a firm believer in the power of our will to influence our subconscious. The mind can only understand what we teach it to. In his opinion, there is no such thing as an unconscious mind. His publications demonstrated how people’s actions might be altered by their subconscious awareness. It was so strong that it pierced the mind—a major influence on our understanding of how our subconscious influences our conscious mind was James’ work.
Wilhelm Wundt is, extensively viewed as the founder of psychology, was the first to establish a laboratory solely for psychology studies. Wundt’s mission was to keep a journal of his thoughts and feelings. Afterward, he’d assess them and look at their basic structure. Voluntarism is the name given to Wundt’s psychological school. He believed that our brains are capable of processing mental organization. Wundt made use of self-reflection and reductionism. His theory was that it was possible to reduce the mind to its simplest form without sacrificing any mental content. In his research, he came up with the concept of conscious thinking. Wundt rejected the notion that awareness of the unconscious influence. He mentored more than 180 graduate students over his tenure. Edward Titchener was one of the students mentored. His thesis, named Structuralism, was derived from the voluntarism idea he had previously studied.
Structuralism was developed by Titchener when he was a professor of psychology at Cornell University. He did not share Wundt’s opinions. He borrowed the concept of reflection from Wundt. We were doing introspection with more specific goals in mind. He only cared about the conscious. According to Titchener’s studies on introspection, the conscious consists of three main components. Images, sensations, and emotions all fall under this category. Many of Titchener’s ideas departed with him when he died. Although he studied under Wundt, he did not always agree with him. Titchener was more concerned with establishing the field of psychology as a legitimate scientific discipline.
Other Schools of Thought That Affected the Development of Psychoanalysis
Structuralism
Structuralism was regarded as the first major school of thought in psychology. The objective was to reduce the mental process to its most fundamental components. They aspired to grasp the fundamentals of the conscious mind, and this school of thought helped them get there. Because of its emphasis on deconstructing the conscious mind, structuralists contributed significantly to the development of psychoanalysis. Others observed how an unconscious portion of their mind influences a person’s thoughts and beliefs. Introspective thinking on the mind’s inner workings does cause people to reflect on past occurrences. Also, this raises the issue of whether or not the events of our lives impact our general conduct, anxieties, and desires. When people focus on themselves, they reflect on their previous behaviors and emotions. As a result of these experiences and sentiments, a person’s actions are shaped. These memories may not be accessible to the conscious mind. A trigger may lead a person to change their behavior even if they don’t think about the specific incident that prompted them to feel that way. To give you an example, a dog bit a child. Dogs did not appeal to these individuals when they were a child. A person’s anxiety would spike if they overheard the barking of a dog. That’s because this individual subconsciously remembers getting bitten, and that’s what’s causing the uneasy sensation.
Behaviorism
As a behaviorist, you believe that people’s behaviors are influenced by their environment. When conduct is observed or analyzed, it is assumed that one’s internal mental state has no impact on it. Free will and interior characteristics such as emotions, feelings, and cognition are not considered. In this study, psychologists and researchers were aided by this concept in their studies of the probable subconscious effects. The absence of personal volition in this sort of approach in psychology increased the concept that the unconscious might play a role in the process. The dog would be summoned by a human, who would reward him for his obedience. In time, the dog realized that he would be given a reward each time he performed the order. The dog completes the instruction every time because of the dog’s subconscious incentive. When you call the dog, he’ll come when you reward him.
Cultural Influences on Psychoanalysis
Historical and Geographical
The aristocrats and commoners of Germany and France had a strong impact on the two countries. In Vienna, Freud’s liberal middle class convened to discuss their views on the human condition. Inspired by German ideas, physicians, intellectuals, and academics comprised the bulk of the upper-middle class in the second part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, which helped shape psychoanalysis’s growth.
Historical and social
Freud’s first interest was in the relationship between morality, education, and crime and delinquency, which he believed were due to an individual’s unconscious feeling of guilt. Neglect, abuse, humiliation, narcissism, and other psychological and neurological difficulties started to take precedence over this aspect. The dynamics of guilt and self-punishment play an important part in psychopathology and treatment in Freud’s study of the superego. Another psychoanalyst continued to explore Freud’s core psychoanalytic ideas until they reached the ego-id contradiction that causes neurotic behavior. People experience guilt and shame as a result of cultural and social change. Families that adhere to a particular religious belief system may subject their children to feelings of guilt and shame when they engage in previously banned behavior. If a youngster keeps their involvement secret, their unconscious mind will remember it. As a result, the youngster will exhibit neurotic behaviors. Anxiety, anger, shyness, or acute self-consciousness may come from this psychoanalytic idea developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Our mental health suffers due to the increased emphasis given to traumatic experiences like abuse and neglect by caregivers. Dissociation and repression are two mechanisms used by psychoanalysis to protect patients from traumatic memories. The revelation that trauma and abuse impact our subconscious paved the way for more research on these topics. This notion transformed the superego, ego, and id conflict.
How psychoanalysis informs Professional Behaviors
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical school of thinking emphasized the unconscious mind and behavior. According to Freud, the id, the ego, and the superego are the three parts of our brains. The psychology field has benefited from this information. The primitive drives were embodied in the id, which was thought to be a component of the intellect. The ego was the place where the mind interacted with life facts. Your childhood values and beliefs are stored in your superego, which is a component of your mind. Human behavior results from a combination of several areas of the brain. Complex behaviors might be the result of a combination of these three factors.
Psychoanalysis has had a significant impact on modern psychology. For optimum functioning, healing, and creative expression, psychoanalysis helps to uncover previously unrecognized and maladaptive emotional and behavioral patterns that have recurred repeatedly. Thoughts on psychoanalysis have influenced the way psychologists handle their patients. Freud’s thoughts have influenced the techniques used in therapy. Psychologists evaluate cognitive and emotional functioning. In their work, they pay attention to boundary problems, address current and previous relationships, and pay attention to the symbolic significance of emotional and psychical symptoms. A patient with significant abandonment concerns, for example, might have behavioral abnormalities. The patient’s fear of someone breaking up with them prevents them from becoming close to any of the people in their life. As a result, the patient suffers from feelings of loneliness and depression. Psychoanalysis would need the therapist going back in time to examine the patient’s past. Investigate the patient’s early life and adolescence. Analyze how they feel and think about things. Examine the patient’s connection with their family. After a long treatment period, the patient has revealed that her father abandoned her mother. After seeing her mother’s gradual descent into despair, the patient was changed forever. The patient was also mourning her father’s death and felt abandoned by the world. The patient’s father’s absence had a profound effect on her, and she realized this via a series of conversations that resulted in the patient developing a phobia of intimate relationships. In psychoanalysis, the patient learns to identify the source of their anxieties and how they have affected them in the present. When it comes to adolescence, teens must open up about their anxieties and concerns. To help them speak about and express their emotions, we work with them one-on-one in therapy sessions as mental health professionals. Having a better understanding of why they’re afraid can help them discover solutions to overcome it.
Summary and Conclusion
Psychoanalysis is a branch of psychology that encompasses several other subfields of research. Psychiatry is neither a single product nor a pure science. It’s a blend of philosophies, medical traditions, and psychiatric practices. A struggle between the conscious and unconscious mind is frequently at the foundation of emotional and psychological issues like despair and anxiety. One of the most effective ways for people to deal with mental health issues is through psychotherapy. In therapy, self-reflection has been shown to aid in developing long-term emotional maturity.