Psychoanalysis

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

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 ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

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 ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: