Introduction to Psychoanalysis: An Historical Overview

Assignment on
History of Psychoanalysis
BY
IMRAN AHMAD SAJID
M.Phil/PhD-1st
semester
Session: 2009
Submitted To:
Dr. Rahat Sajjad
Department of psychology
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
UNIVERSITYOF PESHAWAR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All praises to ALLAH, the most Merciful, Kind, and Beneficent, and source of all
Knowledge, Wisdom within and beyond our comprehension. all respects and possible
tributes goes to our Holly Profit MUHAMMAD (Swal Allaho Alaihy Wasallam), who is
forever guidance and knowledge for all human beings on this earth.
Thanks to Dr. Rahat Sajjad, Chairperson Psychology department, and the course
instructor, who has contributed enthusiasm, support, sound advice, particularly her
supportive attitude was always a source of motivation for me. She guided me in a polite
and cooperative manner at every step.
I am also in debt to all those writers who has written such informative and thought
provoking books and other material.
Imran Ahmad Sajid
i

SUMMARY
To many minds there have been four great scientific revolutions in the recent history of
man. These are the revolutions wrought by Darwin, Marx, Einstein, and Freud. It is
impossible nowadays, however much one may disagree with the tenets of
psychoanalytic theory, to deny the enormous influence of Sigmund Freud on so many
facets of everyday life.
To many people who have never taken a psychology course, psychology begins and ends
with psychoanalysis. Proponent of psychoanalysis believe that behavior is motivated by
inner forces and conflicts over which the individual has little awareness and control.
Dreams and slips of the tongue are viewed as indications of what a person is truly
feeling within a seething cauldron of unconscious psychic activity.
Psychoanalysis has its roots in hypnosis. The first contributor was Franz Mesmer, who
is known for inducing a Trans like state called Mesmerism. He has presented the idea of
animal magnetism. He also presented the thesis that the planets and moon has an effect
on the body. He used magnets for the treatment of paralysis, later he claimed that he
could treat paralysis without magnets by directing his own magnetic fluid to the
patient’s body.
Liebault and Bernheim introduced Mesmerism in the Nancy school, France. They drew
significant attention there. Jean Martin Charcot was a French Neurologist and he used to
treat hysterical patients through the use of hypnosis. In 1885 Charcot introduced Freud
to hypnosis. It was under Charcot’s influence that Freud began developing his own
theory of psychoanalysis. Josef Breuer introduced Freud to Cathartic method of
treatment of hysteria.
ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...........................................................................................................................i
SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................1
A.Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1
B.Psychology..........................................................................................................................................1
C.Psychoanalysis....................................................................................................................................2
a.History of Psychoanalysis....................................................................................................................3
I.Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer........................................................................................................3
1.The Advent of Animal Magnetism..............................................................................................4
2.Procedure...................................................................................................................................5
3.Investigation...............................................................................................................................5
II.The Nancy school—Liebault and Bernheim....................................................................................6
III.Charcot, Jean-Martin.....................................................................................................................7
IV.Breuer, Josef- (1842-1925)............................................................................................................8
V.Sigmund Freud...............................................................................................................................9
1.Life of Freud ...............................................................................................................................9
2.Freud’s Work-in brief................................................................................................................10
D.Conclusion........................................................................................................................................16
References...........................................................................................................................................17
Books...............................................................................................................................................17
Electronic Source.............................................................................................................................17
DVD Encyclopedia........................................................................................................................17
Internet Source............................................................................................................................17

A. Introduction
A college student was intent on sounding smooth and making a good first impression on an
attractive woman whom he had spotted across a crowded room at a party. As e walked
toward her, he mulled over a line he had heard in an old movie the night before: “I don’t
believe we’ve been properly introduced yet.” To his horror, what came out was a bit
different. After threading his way through the crowded room, he finally reached the woman
and blurted out, “I don’t believe we’ve been properly seduced yet.”
Although this statement may seem to be merely an embarrassing slip of the tongue, according
to psychoanalytic theory such a mistake is not an error at all. Rather, it is an indication of
deeply felt emotions and thoughts that are harbored in the unconscious, a part of the
personality of which a person is not aware. According to psychoanalyst our behaviour is
triggered largely by powerful forces within our personalities of which we are not aware.
These hidden forces shaped by childhood experiences, play an important role in energizing
and directing our everyday behaviour.1
Psychoanalysis is a very significant perspective in the field of psychology. This assignment is
dedicated to the history of psychoanalysis. Therefore our main emphasis will be the
historical roots and events before the formal psychoanalysis, and we will also discuss about
Freud’s life and his work in brief but first, let us see what psychology it self is.
B. Psychology
Psychology is the branch of social sciences, which study human behavior in relation to his or
her internal or external environment.
“Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and the mind”. 2
This definition contains three elements. The first is that psychology is a scientific enterprise
that obtains knowledge through systematic and objective methods of observation and
experimentation. Second is that psychologist’s study behavior, which refers to any action or
reaction that can be measured or observed—such as the blink of an eye, an increase in heart
rate, or the unruly violence that often erupts in a mob. Third is that psychologists study the
1
Feldman, S. R. (1999). Understanding Psychology: International Edition. 5th
ed. New York: McGraw Hill
College. The division of the McGraw Hill Companies. P. 473
2
Kassin, Saul. (2008). Psychology. Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
1

mind, which refers to both conscious and unconscious mental states. These states cannot
actually be seen, only inferred from observable behavior.
Many people think of psychologists as individuals who dispense advice, analyze personality,
and help those who are troubled or mentally ill. But psychology is far more than the treatment
of personal problems. Psychologists strive to understand the mysteries of human nature—
why people think, feel, and act as they do.3
Now that we have become a little familiar with psychology, psychoanalysis is a very
significant perspective in psychology. Let us know what psychoanalysis is, and how it is
defined.
C. Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a method of analyzing psychic phenomena and treating emotional disorders
that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely about
personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams4
Psychoanalysis is both a theory of mental functioning and a specific type of psychological
treatment philosophy.
It is generally known as a theory of human behavior. Usually it can be any theory of human
behavior but particularly it is referred to Sigmund Freud theory. 5
It has three applications:
• a method of investigation of the mind;
• a systematized set of theories about human behaviour;
• a method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness.
Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand"
(analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from
which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and
3
Kassin, Saul. (2008). Op cit.
4
Psychoanalysis. 2009. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved May 7, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychoanalysis
5
Psychoanalysis. (2009). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 May, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis
2

character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the
problems. 6
a. History of Psychoanalysis
How psychoanalysis got started in history? When it was started it was not in the shape of
psychoanalysis. When it began, it was in the shape of hypnosis. When we look at the history
of psychoanalysis, we find a few major influential figures- before Sigmund Feud-who
contributed significantly to the development of psychoanalysis: viz Franz Anton Mesmer,
The Nancy School- Liebault and Bernheim, Jean Martin Charcot, and Josef Breuer. We will
be discussing each one separately and we will see- in the coming pages- what they has
contributed to psychoanalysis.
I. Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer (born Friedrich Anton Mesmer; May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) was a
German physician and astrologist, who discovered what he called magnétisme animal (animal
magnetism) and other spiritual forces often grouped together as mesmerism. The evolution of
Mesmer's ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid to develop hypnosis in 1842.
Mesmer's name is the root of the English verb "mesmerize".7
Early Life
Mesmer was born in the village of Izang, on the shore of Lake
Constance in Swabia, Germany. After studying at the Jesuit
universities of Dillingen and Ingolstadt, he took up the study of
medicine at the University of Vienna in 1759. In 1766 he
published a doctoral dissertation with the Latin title De
planetarum influxu in corpus humanum (On the Influence of
the Planets on the Human Body), which discussed the influence
of the Moon and the planets on the human body and on disease.
This was not medical astrology—relying largely on Newton's
theory of the tides, Mesmer expounded on certain tides in the
human body that might be accounted for by the movements of
the sun and moon. Evidence assembled by Frank A. Pattie suggests that Mesmer plagiarized
6
7
Franz Mesmer. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved 20 June, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Friedrich_Anton_Mesmer
3
Franz Anton Mesmer
Source: wikipedia encyclopedia

his dissertation from a work by Richard Mead, an eminent English physician and Newton's
friend. That said, in Mesmer's day doctoral theses were not expected to be original. 8
1. The Advent of Animal Magnetism
In 1774, Mesmer produced an "artificial tide" in a patient by having her swallow a
preparation containing iron, and then attaching magnets to various parts of her body. She
reported feeling streams of a mysterious fluid running through her body and was relieved of
her symptoms for several hours. Mesmer did not believe that the magnets had achieved the
cure on their own. He felt that he had contributed animal magnetism, which had accumulated
in his work, to her. He soon stopped using magnets as a part of his treatment.
In 1775, Mesmer was invited to give his opinion before the Munich Academy of Sciences on
the exorcisms carried out by Johann Joseph Gassner, a priest and healer. Mesmer said that
while Gassner was sincere in his beliefs, his cures were due to the fact that he possessed a
high degree of animal magnetism. This confrontation between Mesmer's secular ideas and
Gassner's religious beliefs marked the end of Gassner's career as well as, according to Henri
Ellenberger, the emergence of dynamic psychiatry.
The scandal which followed Mesmer's unsuccessful attempt to treat the blindness of an 18-
year-old musician, Maria Theresia Paradis, led him to leave Vienna in 1777. The following
year Mesmer moved to Paris, rented an apartment in a part of the city preferred by the
wealthy and powerful, and established a medical practice. Paris soon divided into those who
thought he was a charlatan who had been forced to flee from Vienna and those who thought
he had made a great discovery.
In his first years in Paris, Mesmer tried and failed to get either the Royal Academy of
Sciences or the Royal Society of Medicine to provide official approval for his doctrines. He
found only one physician of high professional and social standing, Charles d'Eslon, to
become a disciple. In 1779, with d'Eslon's encouragement, Mesmer wrote an 88-page book
Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal, to which he appended his famous 27
Propositions. These propositions outlined his theory at that time.
According to d'Eslon, Mesmer understood health as the free flow of the process of life
through thousands of channels in our bodies. Illness was caused by obstacles to this flow.
Overcoming these obstacles and restoring flow produced crises, which restored health. When
Nature failed to do this spontaneously, contact with a conductor of animal magnetism was a
8
Franz Mesmer. (2009). Op cit.
4

necessary and sufficient remedy. Mesmer aimed to aid or provoke the efforts of Nature. To
cure an insane person, for example, involved causing a fit of madness. The advantage of
magnetism involved accelerating such crises without danger.9
2. Procedure
Mesmer treated patients both individually and in groups. With individuals he would sit in
front of his patient with his knees touching the patient's knees, pressing the patient's thumbs
in his hands, looking fixedly into the patient's eyes. Mesmer made "passes", moving his
hands from patients' shoulders down along their arms. He then pressed his fingers on the
patient's hypochondrium region (the area below the diaphragm), sometimes holding his hands
there for hours. Many patients felt peculiar sensations or had convulsions that were regarded
as crises and supposed to bring about the cure. Mesmer would often conclude his treatments
by playing some music on a glass armonica.[7]
By 1780 Mesmer had more patients than he could treat individually and he established a
collective treatment known as the "baquet". An English physician who observed Mesmer
described the treatment as follows:
In the middle of the room is placed a vessel of about a foot and a half high which is called
here a "baquet". It is so large that twenty people can easily sit round it; near the edge of the
lid which covers it, there are holes pierced corresponding to the number of persons who are to
surround it; into these holes are introduced iron rods, bent at right angles outwards, and of
different heights, so as to answer to the part of the body to which they are to be applied.
Besides these rods, there is a rope which communicates between the baquet and one of the
patients, and from him is carried to another, and so on the whole round. The most sensible
effects are produced on the approach of Mesmer, who is said to convey the fluid by certain
motions of his hands or eyes, without touching the person. I have talked with several who
have witnessed these effects, who have convulsions occasioned and removed by a movement
of the hand...10
3. Investigation
In 1784, without Mesmer requesting it, King Louis XVI appointed four members of the
Faculty of Medicine as commissioners to investigate animal magnetism as practiced by
d'Eslon. At the request of these commissioners the King appointed five additional
9
10
5

commissioners from the Royal Academy of Sciences. These included the chemist Antoine
Lavoisier, the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and the
American ambassador Benjamin Franklin.
The commission conducted a series of experiments aimed, not at determining whether
Mesmer's treatment worked, but whether he had discovered a new physical fluid. The
commission concluded that there was no evidence for such a fluid. Whatever benefit the
treatment produced was attributed to "imagination." In 1785 Mesmer left Paris. In 1790 he
was in Vienna again to settle the estate of his deceased wife Maria Anna. When he sold his
house in Vienna in 1801 he was in Paris. Mesmer was driven into exile soon after the
investigations on animal magnetism. His exact activities during the last twenty years of his
life are largely unknown. He died in 1815.11
II. The Nancy school—Liebault and Bernheim
The Nancy School was an early French suggestion-centred school of psychotherapy founded
in 1866 by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904), a follower of the theory of Abbé Faria,
with the collaboration of Dr. Hippolyte Bernheim (1840–1919), a renowned professor at the
Medical School in Nancy, in the city of Nancy.
It is referred to as the Nancy School to distinguish it from the antagonistic Paris School that
was centred on the hysteria-centred hypnotic research of Jean-Martin Charcot at the
Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.12
Liebault was convinced that
hypnotized subjects could be
given suggestions which would
help cure their ills. Bernheim, as a
noted physician, came to the
11
Ibid
12
Nancy School. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved 20 June, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_School
6
Dr. Hippolyte Bernheim (1840–1919)
Source: Wikipedia encyclopedia
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904)
Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia

conclusion that hypnotized subjects were more suggestible and varied in the hypnotized
condition.
Liebault and Bernheim draw considerable attention in France due to their work on hypnosis
at the Nancy School. Hypnosis, they conceptualized, results from and is being a part of a
suggestibility created by having a person focus on the idea of sleep. During the special sleep
of hypnosis the person was in a unique rapport with the hypnotist. Critical mental faculties
were seen to be temporarily abandoned, resulting in increased amenability to suggestions
made by the hypnotist. The hypnotized person had to obey the requests of the hypnotist.
Hypnotic treatment in this tradition consisted of the induction of hypnotic sleep, followed by
verbal suggestions given in a tone of supreme authority and confidence. This approach to
hypnosis has been called the authoritarian approach.13
III. Charcot, Jean-Martin
Charcot (1825-1893) is said to be the founder (with Guillaume
Duchenne) of modern neurology and one of France's greatest
medical teachers and clinicians.
Charcot took his M.D. at the University of Paris in 1853 and
three years later was appointed physician of the Central
Hospital bureau. He then became a professor at the University
of Paris (1860–93), where he began a lifelong association with
the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris (1862); there, in 1882, he
opened what was to become the greatest neurological clinic of
the time in Europe. A teacher of extraordinary competence, he attracted students from all
parts of the world. In 1885 one of his students was Sigmund Freud. Freud was awarded a
government grant in 1885, enabling him to spend 19 weeks in Paris as a student of Jean M.
Charcot. Charcot, at time, was the director of the clinic at the mental hospital, the Salpêtrière,
and was then treating nervous disorders by the use of hypnotic suggestion. Fascinated by the
apparent success of these treatments, Freud met and studied with several of the leading
figures in the field.
13
J. F. Turne. (1996). Social Work Treatment. 4th
ed: New York. The Free Press. Simon and Schuster Inc. p.264
7
Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893)
Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia

Charcot’s group had been tackling the problem of hysteria, a term derived from the Greek
word for “womb.” Hysteria traditionally was seen as a condition of women and was
characterized by unexplained fainting, paralysis, loss of sensation, tics, and tremors. In time,
Charcot came to see that men could also be so troubled. Although the mechanism of hysteria
was not understood, Charcot and his contemporaries showed that its symptoms could be
cured by hypnosis. Freud’s studies under Charcot influenced him greatly in channeling his
interests to psychopathology (the study and treatment of disorders of the mind).
In his practice in Vienna, Freud met many patients with nervous disorders for which there
was no apparent physical cause. Their symptoms included paralyzed limbs, tics, tremors, loss
of consciousness, memory impairment, and numbness that could not be explained. These
unexplained cases were labeled as “neurotic,” meaning that they were similar to neurological
conditions. In time they became known collectively as “neuroses.”
Freud’s observation of Charcot’s use of hypnosis in the treatment of similar disorders led him
to conclude that there could be powerful mental processes operating that remain hidden from
conscious understanding. He began to employ hypnosis in his own practice, publishing
articles on the subject in 1892. Freud came to understand hysterical neurotic symptoms as the
product of a conflict between opposing mental forces. Conscious forces representing “will”
were balanced by unconscious opposing forces representing “counterwill.” He understood
hypnosis to act on the side of will to subjugate the counterwill, thus obliterating the symptom.
The idea of conflict proposed in the 1892 paper “A Case of Successful Treatment by
Hypnotism: With Some Remarks on the Origin of Hysterical Symptoms Through
‘Counterwill’” was to become a fundamental principle of psychoanalysis.14
IV. Breuer, Josef- (1842-1925)
Breuer concluded that neurotic symptoms result from unconscious processes and will
disappear when these processes become conscious.15
Breuer introduced Freud to the cathartic method-talking
therapy. It was the next important development in Freud’s
theory of psychology. Breuer, who was a Viennese
14
Charcot, Jean-Martin. (2008). Britannica Encyclopedia 2009 [DVD]. Chicago: Britannica Encyclopedia
Foundation Inc.
15
Breuer, Josef. (2008). Britannica Encyclopedia 2009 [DVD]. Chicago: Britannica Encyclopedia Foundation Inc.
8
Josef Breuer
Source:
http://www.herreros.com.ar/breuer.htm

physician and a colleague of Freud, was involved in the treatment of a young woman Anna
O. who was distressed while caring for her dying father. The patient had developed a number
of hysterical symptoms, which Breuer initially treated by hypnotic suggestion. Initial success
gave way to disappointment when on her father’s death her symptoms returned with
increased severity. Somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed, Breuer had continued to talk to
his patient on a daily basis and in time she began to talk about various reminiscences from the
past and about her daydreams. Remarkably, as her narrative revisited memories from the past,
which were associated with the onset of a particular symptom, each symptom disappeared
when accompanied by an emotional outburst. Breuer made use of this discovery to eliminate
her symptoms one at a time. He called the treatment the cathartic technique (from the Greek
katharsis meaning “purgation”). The treatment was time consuming and required
considerable effort to reach dimly recalled and otherwise inaccessible memories.
Freud and Breuer published the case and several others in 1895 under the title Studies on
Hysteria. Their view was summed up in the statement “Hysterics suffer mainly from
reminiscences.” They proposed that when faced with emotionally traumatic memories,
hysterics subjugate them from conscious appreciation to prevent the unbearable emotional
pain and suffering that they cause. Rather than being driven out of the mind, however, these
memories are driven into an area of the mind that is unconscious and inaccessible. Here the
memories may be redirected from the emotional system into the somatic (bodily) system and
appear as apparently unexplained physical symptoms. The cases that constitute Studies on
Hysteria outline the transition from treatment by hypnotic suggestion to the earliest
descriptions of what is now known as psychoanalysis. 16
V. Sigmund Freud
1. Life of Freud
Freud was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Freiberg, Moravia (now Příbor, Czech
Republic), on May 6, 1856. When he was three years old his family, fleeing from the anti-
Semitic riots then raging in Freiberg, moved to the German city of
Leipzig. Shortly thereafter, the family settled in Vienna, where Freud
remained for most of his life.
16
Sigmund Freud. ( 2008). Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
9
Sigmund Freud
Source: Psyche Web Resources-
www.psywww.com

Although Freud’s ambition from childhood had been a career in law, he became intrigued by
the rapidly developing sciences of the day after reading the work of British scientist Charles
Darwin. Freud decided to become a medical student shortly before he entered Vienna
University in 1873. Inspired by the scientific investigations of the German poet Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, Freud was driven by an intense desire to study natural science and to
solve some of the challenging problems confronting contemporary scientists.
In his third year at the university Freud began research work on the central nervous system in
the physiological laboratory under the direction of German physician Ernst Wilhelm von
Brücke. Neurological research was so engrossing that Freud neglected the prescribed courses
and as a result remained in medical school three years longer than was normally required to
qualify as a physician. In 1881, after completing a year of compulsory military service, he
received his medical degree. Unwilling to give up his experimental work, however, he
remained at the university, working in the physiological laboratory. At Brücke’s urging, he
reluctantly abandoned theoretical research to gain practical experience.
Freud then spent three years at the General Hospital of Vienna, devoting himself successively
to psychiatry, dermatology, and nervous diseases. In 1885, following his appointment as a
lecturer in neuropathology at Vienna University, he left his post at the hospital. Later that
year he worked in Paris with French neurologist Jean Charcot.
On his return to Vienna in 1886 Freud began private practice in neurology. Also that year
Freud married Martha Bernays, to whom he had become engaged four years earlier. The first
of their children was born the following year. Their family would become complete with the
birth of Anna in 1895, who herself would become an important psychoanalyst.
In 1902 Freud was appointed professor of neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post
he held until 1938. In 1923 he developed cancer of the jaw. Although repeated operations and
prosthetic appliances in his mouth made his life most uncomfortable, he continued working
incessantly until his death. When the Germans occupied Austria in 1938, Freud was
persuaded by friends to escape with his family to England. He died in London on September
23, 1939.17
2. Freud’s Work-in brief
Freud divided the personality into the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Conscious,
as Freud defined the term, corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning. It includes all
17
Sigmund Freud. (2008). Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
10

sensations and experiences of which we are aware at any given moment. As you read these
words, for example, you may be conscious of the feel of your pen, the sight of the page, the
idea you are trying to grasp etc.
2.1. The Levels of Personality
Freud considered the conscious as limited aspect of personality because only a small portion
of our thoughts, sensations, and memories exists in conscious awareness at any time. He
likened the mind to an iceberg. The conscious is the portion above the surface of the water-
merely the tip of the iceberg. The unconscious is the larger invisible portion of personality
which is below the surface of psychological iceberg. This unconscious is the focus of
psychoanalysis. Its vast, dark depths are the home of the instinct, those wishes and desires
that direct our behaviour. The unconscious contains the major driving power behind all
behaviors and is the repository of forces we cannot see or control.
Between these two levels is the preconscious. This is the storehouse of memories,
perceptions, and thoughts of which we are not consciously aware at the moment but that we
can easily summon into consciousness. For example, if your mind strays from this page and
you begin to think about a friend or about what you did last night, you would be summoning
up material from your preconscious into your conscious. We often find our attention shifting
back and forth from experiences of the moment to events and memories in the preconscious.18
2.2. Structure of Personality
Freud further presented what is called structural hypothesis. This hypothesis holds that mind
can be divided into three basic forces: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the raw,
unorganized and inborn part of personality. The sole purpose of id, from time of birth, is to
reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational
impulses. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is the
immediate reduction of tension and the maximization of satisfaction.19
The ego provides a
buffer between id and the realities of objective, outside world. The ego operates according to
reality principle, in which instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of
the individual and help integrate the person into society. The ego is the executive of
personality. The superego, the final personality structure to develop, represents the rights and
wrongs of society as handed down by a person’s parents, teachers, and significant others. The
superego actually has two components, the conscious, and the ego-ideal. The conscience
18
Schultz, P. D., & Schultz, E. S. (2005). Theories of Personality. 8th
ed. Belmont: Thompson Wadsworth. P. 46
19
Feldman, S. R. (1999). Understanding Psychology: International Edition. 5th
ed. New York: McGraw Hill
11

prevents us from doing morally bad things, while the ego-ideal motivates us to do what is
morally proper.20
Both id and superego do not take reality into consideration. The superego
pushes the person toward greater virtue if left unchecked; it would create perfectionists,
unable to make the compromises that life requires. The unrestrained id would create a
primitive, pleasure-seeking, thoughtless individual, seeking to fulfill every desire without
delay. The ego must compromise between the demands of the id and superego, thereby
enabling the person to resist some of the gratification sought by the id wile at the same time
keeping the moralistic superego in check so that it does not prevent the person from obtaining
any gratification at all. 21
2.3. Defense Mechanism
According to Freud, anxiety is a danger signal to the ego. Anxiety is an intense, negative
emotional experience. Although anxiety may arise from realistic fears-such as seeing a
poisonous snake about to strike-it may also occur in the form of neurotic anxiety, in which
irrational impulses emanating from the id threaten to burst through and become
uncontrollable. The three types of anxiety are reality anxiety or object anxiety, moral anxiety
and neurotic anxiety.
Because anxiety, obviously, is unpleasant, Freud believed that people develop a range of
defense mechanisms to deal with it. Defense Mechanisms are unconscious strategies that
people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves and others22
. the
major defense mechanism are as following;
2.3.1. Repression
Repression is the primary defense mechanism, in which unacceptable or unpleasant id
impulses are pushed back into the unconscious. Repression is the most direct method of
dealing with anxiety; instead of handling an anxiety producing impulse on a conscious level,
on simply ignores it. 23
2.3.2. Denial
The defense mechanism of denial is related to repression and involves denying the existence
of some external threat or traumatic event that has occurred. 24
20
Ibid
21
Ibid
22
Feldman, S. R. (1999). Understanding Psychology: International Edition. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill
23
Ibid p. 477
24
ed. Belmont: Thompson Wadsworth. P. 59
12

2.3.3. Displacement
If an object that satisfies an id impulse is not available, the person may shift the impulse to
another object. This is known as displacement-the expression of an unwanted feeling or
thought redirected from a more threatening powerful person to a weaker one.
2.3.4. Rationalization
Rationalization is defense mechanism that involves reinterpreting our behavior to make it
seem more rational and acceptable to us. We excuse or justify a threatening thought or action
by persuading ourselves there is a rational explanation for it.
2.3.5. Sublimation
Whereas displacement involves finding a substitute object to satisfy id impulses, sublimation
involves altering the id impulses. The instinctual energy is diverted into other channels of
expression, ones that society considers acceptable and admirable. 25
2.4. Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
Freud also provided us with a view of how personality develops throughout a series of stages
during childhood. What is especially noteworthy about the sequence he proposed is that it
explains how experiences and difficulties during a particular childhood stage may predict
specific sorts of idiosyncrasies in adult personality. The theory is also unique in focusing
each stage on a major biological function, which Freud assumed to be the focus of pleasure in
a given period. 26
2.4.1. Oral Stage
The first stage is called the oral stage. In this stage the baby’s mouth is focal point of
pleasure. During the first 12 to 18 months of life, children suck, tongue, and bite anything
that will fit into their mouths. To Freud, this behavior suggested that the mouth was the
primary site of a kind of sexual pleasure. If infant s were either overly indulged or frustrated
in their search for oral gratification, they might become fixated at this stage. Displaying
fixation means that an adult shows personality stemming from the earlier period. Fixation at
oral stage might produce an adult who was unusually interested in overly oral activities-
eating, talking, smoking-or who showed symbolic sorts of oral interest: being either
“bitingly” sarcastic or very gullible.
25
Schultz, P. D., & Schultz, E. S. (2005). Op cit. p. 60
26
Feldman, S. R. (1999). Op cit. p. 474
13

2.4.2. Anal Stage
From around 12 to 18 months until 3 years of age-where the emphasis is on toilet training-the
child enters the anal stage. At this point, the major source of pleasure changes from the mouth
to the anal region, and children derive considerable pleasure from both retention and
expulsion of feces. If toilet training is particularly demanding, the result may be fixation. If
fixation occurs during the anal stage, Freud suggested that adults might show unusual
rigidity, orderliness, punctuality-or extreme disorderliness.
2.4.3. Phallic Stage
At about age 3, the phallic stage begins, at which point there is another major shift in the
primary source of pleasure for the child. This time, interest focuses on the genitals and the
pleasures derived from fondling them. This is also the stage of one of the most important
points of personality development, according to Freudian theory; the Oedipal Conflict. As the
children focuses their attention on their genitals, the differences between male and female
anatomy become more salient. Furthermore at this stage, Freud believed that male begins to
develop sexual interests in his mother, starts to see his father as rival, and harbors a wish to
kill his father. But because he views his father as too powerful, he develops fear of retaliation
in the form of “castration anxiety.” Ultimately, this fear becomes so powerful that the child
represses his desires for his mother and instead chooses identification with his father, trying
to be as much like him as possible.
For girls, the process is different. Freud reasoned that girls begin to experience sexual arousal
toward their fathers and-in a suggestion that was later to bring serious accusations that he
viewed women as inferior to men-that they begin to experience penis envy. They wish they
had the anatomical part that, at least to Freud, seemed most clearly “missing” in girls.
Blaming their mothers for their lack of penis, girls come to believe that their mothers are
responsible for their “castration.” As wit males, though, they find that in order to resolve such
unacceptable feelings, they must identify with the same-sex parent by behaving like her and
adopting her attitudes and values in this way, a girl’s identification with her mother is
completed.
At this point the oedipal conflict is said to be resolved, and Freudian theory says that both
males and females move on to the next stage of development.
14

2.4.4. Latency Stage
Following the resolution of the Oedipal conflict, typically at around age 5 or 6, children move
into the Latency period, which lasts until puberty. During this period little of interest is
occurring, according to Freud. Sexual concerns are more or less put to rest, even in the
unconscious. Then, during adolescence, sexual feelings reemerge, making the start of the
final stage.
2.4.5. Genital Stage
It begins at puberty. The body is becoming physiologically mature, and if no major fixations
have occurred at an earlier stage of development, the individual may be able to lead a normal
life. Freud believed that the conflict during this period is less intense than in other stages. The
adolescent must conform to societal sanctions and taboos that exist concerning sexual
expression, but conflict is minimized through sublimation. The sexual energy pressing for
expression in the teenage years can be at least partially satisfied through the pursuit of
socially acceptable substitutes and, later, through a committed adult relationship wit a person
of the opposite sex. The genital personality type is able to find satisfaction in love and work,
the latter being an acceptable outlet for sublimation of the id impulses.
2.5. Freud’s Therapy
Freud considered the unconscious to be the major motivating force in life; our childhood
conflicts are repressed out of conscious awareness. The goal of Freud’s system of
psychoanalysis was to bring these repressed memories, fears, and thoughts back to the level
of consciousness. How can the psychoanalyst evaluate or assess this invisible portion of the
mind, this dark arena that is otherwise inaccessible to us? Over the course of his work with
patients, Freud developed two methods of assessment: free association and dream analysis.
2.5.1. Free Association
In free association, the patients are told to say aloud whatever comes to mind, regardless of
its apparent irrelevance or senselessness. In fact, they are urged not to try to make sense of
things or impose logic upon what they are saying, since it is assumed that the ramblings
evoked during free association actually represent important clues to the unconscious, which
has its own logic. It is the analyst’s job to recognize and label the connections between what
is being said and the patient’s unconscious.
2.5.2. Dream Analysis
Dream analysis is an examination of patient’s dreams to find clues to the unconscious
conflicts and problems they are experiencing. According to Freud, dreams provide a close
15

look at the unconscious because people’s defenses tend to be lowered when they are asleep.
But even in dreaming there is a censoring of thought; events and people in dreams are usually
represented by symbols. Because of this phenomenon, one must move beyond the surface
description of the dream, and consider its underlying meaning, which reveals the true
message of the dream.
D. Conclusion
Pointing to the conclusion, psychoanalysis has its roots in hypnosis. Personality theory has
been influenced more by Sigmund Freud than by any other individual. His system of
psychoanalysis was the first formal theory of personality and is still the best known. Freud’s
influence has been so profound that more than a century after is theory was proposed it
remains the framework for the study of personality, despite its controversial nature. Not only
did Freud’s work affect thinking about personality in psychology and psychiatry, but it also
made a tremendous impact on our view of human nature. Few ideas in the history of
civilization have had such a broad and profound influence.
Many of the personality theories proposed after Freud are derivatives of or elaborations on
his basic work. Others owe their impetus and direction in part to their opposition to Freud’s
psychoanalysis.
16

References
Books
Bootzin, R. R., & Acocella, R. J. (1988). Abnormal Psychology. 5th
ed. New York: McGraw Hill Inc.
Feldman, S. R. (1999). Understanding Psychology: International Edition. 5th ed. New York:
McGraw Hill College. The division of the McGraw Hill Companies.
Sarason, G. I. (1966). Personality: An Objective Approach. 2nd
ed. Washington: John Wiley & Sons
Inc.
ed. Belmont: Thompson Wadsworth.
Turner, J. F. (1996). Social Work Treatment. 4th ed: New York. The Free Press. Simon and Schuster
Inc.
Electronic Source
DVD Encyclopedia
Breuer, Josef. (2008). Britannica Encyclopedia 2009 [DVD]. Chicago: Britannica Encyclopedia
Foundation Inc.
Charcot, Jean-Martin. (2008). Britannica Encyclopedia 2009 [DVD]. Chicago: Britannica
Encyclopedia Foundation Inc.
Kassin, Saul. (2008). Psychology. Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft
Corporation.
Sigmund Freud. ( 2008). Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
Internet Source
Franz Mesmer. (2009). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 June, 2009 from
Nancy School. (2009). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 June, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_School
17

Psychoanalysis. 2009. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychoanalysis
18

Introduction to Psychoanalysis: An Historical Overview

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