One of the primary beliefs psychoanalysis is founded upon is that all humans possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories. Although the concept of Psychology began to be experimented with and researched by Ancient Greek thinkers Aristotle and Plato, the branch known as psychoanalysis emerged during the late 19th Century. Psychoanalysis is a highly abstract concept which often results difficult to comprehend. Oxford Learner’s Dictionary provides a simplified definition of psychoanalysis as being “a method of treating somebody with mental problems by asking them to talk about past experiences and feelings in order to try to find explanations for their present problems.”
In order to understand psychoanalysis we must think of it as an attempt to promote awareness of unconscious and recurrent emotional or behavioural patterns. In other words, when applied in practice, its aim is to allow previously unconscious aspects of oneself to become integrated in order to reach, or get closer to, optimal functioning. Psychoanalysis aims to gradually heal a patient through creative expression. However, it is a largely complex and sensible therapeutic method which is often very difficult for both the psychoanalyst and for the patient.
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud is often referred to as the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud was born in 1856 and qualified as a medical doctor in the University of Vienna in 1881. He conducted a large amount of research in the nearby Vienna General Hospital, was appointed a university lecturer in 1885, and became a professor in 1902. Freudian theory describes how essentially, people can be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations in order to gain “insight.” The main objective of psychoanalysis would be to release suppressed emotions and experiences in order to advance the process of healing. Also, he argued that a person’s cognitive and behavioural processes emerged from tension generated by unresolved childhood conflicts and unconscious motives. In addition, he created the concept of organizing the human mind into three identifiable structures: the id, ego and superego. Thus, he argued our personality emerged from these three fundamental components. His works include: Studies on Hysteria (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1917). These have been incredibly remarkable resources throughout the journey of psychoanalysis and in the understanding of the human mind.
Joseph Breuer was a distinguished physician who made significant discoveries in the area of neurophysiology. One of his most remarkable discoveries was through his patient Bertha Pappenheim, most commonly known by the pseudonym of Anna O. She suffered from symptoms such as “paralysis of her limbs… as well as disturbances of vision and speech.” She had experienced traumatic events in her childhood in relation to her father and, later on, these were associated with the symptoms she had developed during her adult life. Breuer observed how these hysterical symptoms began to fade as she started to describe them to him. His patient, Anna O., called this therapeutic procedure “talking cure.” In the mid 1880s, Breuer began to refer to the concept of verbal therapy as the “cathartic method.” This was a radical advance as it demonstrated the effects psychotherapy could have on patients, which, at that time, highly defied how society perceived the human mind. As a result, the concept and role of the unconscious mind was finally brought to light.
Sources:
Norman, Jeremy. “The Origin of Psychoanalysis.” Jeremy Norman’s History of Information, 2021, https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2628.
Jay, Martin Evan. “Sigmund Freud”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Oct. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud. Accessed 14 November 2021.