A Bit Longer Description

Borrowing heavily from the terminology of physics and other sciences, Sigmund Freud proposed a self-contained system of psychical energy. Behavior is a result of conscious and unconscious processes which oppose and counteract each other. Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood, the usefulness of dreams, and that we are not always aware of our own motives. In 1891, shortly before obtaining his medical degree, Freud was befriended by Joseph Breuer, a respected, successful, and sophisticated physician in Vienna. They discussed at great length Breuer’s finding that his patient, Bertha Pappenheim (referred to as Anna O in his writings), seemed to improve just from talking about her problems while under hypnosis. Although the symptom set changed, the treatments (which the girl called "chimney sweeping" or "the talking cure") appeared to be effective in helping her deal with emotionally-charged events from her past. Freud tried the “talking cure” and found that it also worked when patients were not hypnotized. Based on their collaboration, Freud and Breuer co-wrote a book entitled Studies in Hysteria which was published in 1895, and marked both the end of their friendship and the founding of psychoanalysis. Freud theory has become part of our everyday language. He introduced us to life instincts, death instincts, castration anxiety, Electra complex, Oedipus complex, and penis envy. Freud and his followers gave us defense mechanisms (such as displacement, projection, and rationalization) and multiple levels of consciousness (conscious, unconscious, and pre-conscious). We learned that we are expulsive, fixated or retentive, and that we suffer from reaction formation, reality anxiety or the influence of our mind's secondary processes. Freud described psychosexual stages of development (i.e., oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital), depicted instincts as having aim, and introduced us to concepts such as conflict, identification, and regression.