Psychoanalysis

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by conceptualizing theories about it and,
using these theories, telling his patients through interpretations what was
going on inside the unconscious part of their minds, thus making the
unconscious become conscious. Many hysterias were cured this way, and in
1895, Breuer and Freud published their findings and theories in Studies in
Hysteria.

CLASSIC PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

Traditional psychoanalytical theory states that all human beings are born
with instinctual drives that are constantly active even though a person is
usually not conscious of thus being driven. Two drives--one for sexual
pleasure, called libido, the other called aggression--motivate and propel
most behavior. In the infant, the libido first manifests itself by making
sucking an activity with pleasurable sensations in the mouth. Later similar
pleasures are experienced in the anus during bowel movements, and finally
these erotically tinged pleasures are experienced when the sexual organ is
manipulated. Thus ...

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and wishes in the id, thereby guaranteeing efficient
functioning and socially acceptable behavior. During sleep the boundaries
weaken; disturbing wishes may slip into the ego from the id, and warnings
may come over from the superego. The results are intrapsychic conflicts,
often manifested in dreams (see DREAMS AND DREAMING), sometimes even in
frightening NIGHTMARES. Freud elucidated this concept in his first major
work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900; Eng. trans., 1913). Something
very similar to the weakening of boundaries during sleep sometimes happens
during ordinary daytime activities when some impulses from the id manages
to cross the repression barrier to invade the ego and ...

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