Running head: SIGMUND FREUD CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENTAL FIELD 1

Sigmund Freud Contribution to the Developmental Field

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Introduction

Sigmund Freud is classified as one of the most influential Austrian neurologists of his

time. During the 20th century, he came up with a theory named psychoanalysis. This method

was used to treat mental illness and provided a theory that explained more about human

behavior. Starkstein et al. (2018) explain that Freud believed that childhood events and

experiences greatly influence adult life. For instance, anxiety that originates from traumatic

experiences in an individual's past life is hidden from consciousness and may cause adult life

problems. This theory was considered one of the most important breakthroughs, necessarily

in understanding the human mind. However, this theory also aroused protests among its

critics and supporters.

Biography of Sigmund Freud

In May 1856, Sigmund Freud was born in Freiburg near a small town called Moravia.

Today, this town is called the Czech Republic. Nonetheless, at the age of three years, his

family migrated to Leipzig due to Anti-Semitism. Later, his family was forced to move back

to Vienna, where he lived until 1938 (Starkstein et al., 2018). During his tenure at high

school, Freud was considered one of the best in his year. Afterward, in 1873, he joined the

University of Vienna, where he took eight years to study medicine.

In 1880, he joined the military service, where he was instructed to work under his

supervisor Ernst Wilhelm von Brucke. He left the laboratory in 1882 due to the lousy

promotion prospects (Starkstein et al., 2018). In August, he fell in love with Martha Bernays,

who he married later and became his wife in the same year. In the years that preceded, he

worked at the Vienna General Hospital, where he was later offered a lecturing job position in

Neuropathology at the University in 1885.

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Nonetheless, in the same year, he was offered a scholarship to study for several

months in Paris. This is the place he met the famous neurologist named Jean Charcot. He was

a professor of Neuropathology. Freud successfully studied hysteria and understood the

Charcot extraordinary methods such as hypnosis (Emde et al., 2016). This made him curious

and created more interest in psychopathology. At this point, Charcot initiated the idea of a

link that existed between neurosis and sexuality. This concept became the core foundation for

Freud's theory of psychoanalysis.

The Case of Anna O

Before Freud started to work together with Josef Breuer, Josef was treating a patient

called Anna O. Her real name was Bertha Pappenheim. The literature portrays her to be

suffering from a variety of hysterical symptoms. Some of the signs that she was experiencing

are convulsions, paralysis, loss of speech, and hallucinations (Emde et al., 2016). She had no

apparent physical cause. This created a lifetime opportunity for Freud's profession as a

neuropathologist. As a mode of treatment, Josef Breuer instructed her to recall forgotten

memories of traumatic events. During their discussions, it was recognized that she feared

drinking when a dog she disliked sipped from her glass. The other symptom that she

portrayed was caring for her sick father (Emde et al., 2016). She was not willing to express

herself due to anxiety, but later she did after persuasion. However, to everyone's

astonishment, sooner she could covert her unconscious thought to conscious all her

symptoms, including the paralysis, disappeared.

Breuer explained all that happened to his friend Freud. Out of these discussions,

Freud generated the germ idea that he pursued for the rest of his life. In 1895 he published his

first article, "Studies of Hysteria," which stated that physical symptoms are often a result of
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surface manifestations of deeply repressed thoughts (Cicchetti et al., 2017). This was an

explanation to an individual pointing towards a particular illness.

The Psychoanalytic Theory

From 1900 to 1905, Freud came up with a topographical model of the human brain

that elaborated on the mind function and structure features. He applied the analogy of an

iceberg to illustrate the three levels of the mind. They are the conscious, subconscious, and

unconscious minds. A conscious mind or active mind is mostly comprised of thoughts that a

person implements to get attention at any time (Cicchetti et al., 2017). Moreover, the

preconscious or subconscious mind consists of all thoughts that can be retrieved from the

memory. In the case of the unconscious mind lies the cause of Bertha Pappenheim's

problems. Cicchetti et al. (2017) elaborate that the most crucial part of the mind is the one

you cannot see. It is like a repository or a cauldron of primitive wishes kept at bay and

mediated by the preconscious area.

Freud provided more emphasis on the importance of the unconscious mind. He

illustrates that the unconscious mind controls people's behavior to a more considerable extent

more than they suspect. He states that his main goals are helping people suffering from this

type of disorder to convert their mind from unconscious to conscious mind.

The Psyche

In 1923, Freud initiated a more precise and elaborate structured model of the mind

that comprised entities such as the ego, id, and superego. More specifically, he illustrated

these entities to be hypothetical conceptualizations of critical mental functions. They are the

most significant parts of the human personality. Freuds elaborates the id is operated at the

unconscious level with reference to the pleasure principle (Cicchetti et al., 2017). It is

comprised of two biological instincts which are Thanatos and Eros.

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Eros primarily assists an individual to survive. It facilitates life-sustaining activities

such as eating, respiration, and sex. The energy created by these life activities is known as

libido. In contrast, Thanatos is the opposite of Eros. It is viewed as a destructive force that is

present in all human beings. An example is a violence and aggression. Freud's view is that

Eros is stronger than Thanatos, facilitating people to survive rather than destroy themselves

(Armstrong et al., 2016). The ego is developed during the early stages of infancy. Its ultimate

objective is to satisfy all the demands of the Id in a more acceptable manner. It is found in

both the unconscious and conscious mind. Finally, the early stages of childhood facilitate the

development of the superego. Its main aim is to ensure that moral standards are adhered to

(Armstrong et al., 2016). Its operations are mainly anchored on the morality principle, and it

motivates individuals to behave in a socially responsible and acceptable manner.

Dream Analysis

In 1900, Freud considered dreams to be a component of the unconscious mind. He

explained that dreams perform crucial functions on behalf of the unconscious mind and help a

person with valuable clues to how the unconscious mind operates. Freud experiences his

vision in July 1895 that became the basis of his theory. The dream was about his patient

Irman who was not recuperating well as he had wished (Armstrong et al., 2016). He was

worried and blamed himself for her troubles. During the dream, a flash of images came to his

mind. He saw another doctor administering a chemical formula for a drug using a dirty

syringe. It was at this point he realized that the other doctor was the cause of Irma's problems.

Freud interpreted the dream as wish fulfillment. He pointed out that the dream illustrated

scenarios or situations that had happened in the past.

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References

Starkstein, S. (2018). Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalytical concept of fear and anxiety.

In A Conceptual and Therapeutic Analysis of Fear (pp. 231-257). Palgrave

Macmillan, Cham. Emde, R. N. (2018). Individual meaning and increasing

complexity: Contributions of Sigmund Freud and René Spitz to developmental

psychology. American Psychological Association.

Emde, R. N. (2016). Individual meaning and increasing complexity: Contributions of

Sigmund Freud and René Spitz to developmental psychology. American Psychological

Association.

Cicchetti, D. (2017). The emergence of developmental psychopathology. Child

Development, 55(1), 1-7.

Armstrong, S. (2016). The disposition to obsessional neurosis, a contribution to the problem

of the choice of neurosis. In the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological

Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XII (1911-1913): The Case of Schreber, Papers on

Technique and Other Works (pp. 311-326).