The Freudian Revolution

and It’s Intellectual

Impact
 WHO IS SIGMUND FREUD?
Sigmund Freud
• Also considered to be the father of psychoanalysis.
• Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of
Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire.
• He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna.
• He was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated
professor in 1902.
• Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there
in 1886.
Freud was a one of a kind thinker. There can be little question that he was influenced by earlier
thinking regarding the human mind, especially the idea of there being activity within the mind at a
conscious and unconscious level yet his approach to these topics was largely conceptual. His
theoretical thoughts were as original as they were unique. It is a testament to Freud’s mind to
know that whether you agree, disagree, or are ambivalent about his theory, it remains as a
theoretical cornerstone in his field of expertise.
Freud’s Major Works
The Interpretation of Dreams

The interpretation of dreams is

royal to a knowledge of the
unconscious activities of the
mind.” According to Freud, our
dreams are one of the
unconscious activities in sleep,
providing a near-direct window
into how a human’s unconscious
mind functions.
https://librivox.org/the-interpretation-of-dreams-by-sigmund-
freud/
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
• Freud examines the psychological
basis for the forgetting of names and
words, the misuse of words in speech
and in writing, and other similar
errors. Freud’s examination of the
subject is extensively discussed
through the use of anecdotes and
examples.

https://www.flipkart.com/psychopathology-everyday-life/
p/itmfbyddgbgmh6m2
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
• The three essays involve sexual
aberrations, infantile sexuality,
and the transformation of
puberty. These three essays
describe the development of the
sexual lives of the child from
infancy to adolescence.
Professionals criticized Freud for
overemphasizing sex in his three
essays on the theory of
sexuality.
https://hudsonkent.com/three-essays-on-the-theory-of-
sexuality-by-sigmund-freud-book-summary-review/
THE FREUDIAN THEORY OF
PERSONALITY
✓ Human Personality: The adult personality emerges as a composite of
early childhood experiences, based on how these experiences are
consciously and unconsciously processed within human developmental
stages, and how these experiences shape the personality.

✓ Not every person completes the necessary tasks of every

developmental stage. When they don’t, the results can be a mental
condition requiring psychoanalysis to achieve proper functioning.
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
• Believing that most human suffering is determined during childhood development, Freud placed emphasis
on the five stages of psychosexual development. As a child passes through these stages unresolved conflicts
between physical drives and social expectation may arise.
• These stages are:
• Oral (0-1.5 years of age): Fixation on all things oral. If not satisfactorily met there is the likelihood of
developing negative oral habits or behaviors.
• Anal (1.5 to 3 years of age): As indicated this stage is primarily related to developing healthy toilet training
habits.
• Phallic (3-6 year of age): The development of healthy substitutes for the sexual attraction boys and girls have
toward a parent of the opposite gender.
• Latency (6 – puberty)The libido is dormant during this stage, and no further psychosexual development
occurs (latent means hidden). In this stage, Freud believed sexual impulses are repressed, leading to a period
of relative calm.
• Genital (Puberty onwards): All tasks from the previous four stages are integrated into the mind allowing for
the onset of healthy sexual feelings and behaviors.
 THREE LEVELS OF AWARENESS
• Conscious
• Preconscious
• Unconscious

https://mausumidutta.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/three-
levels-of-consciousness-by-sigmund-freud-conscious-
preconscious-unconscious/
Conscious
Current contents of your mind that you
actively think of
• What we call working memory
• Easily accessed all the time
Preconscious
• Contents of the mind you are not
currently aware of
• Thoughts, memories, knowledge,
wishes, feelings
• Available for easy access when
needed
Unconscious
• Contents kept out of conscious
awareness
• Not accessible at all
• Processes that actively keep
these thoughts from awareness
Freudian components of Personality
• It is during these stages of development that the experiences are filtered
through the three levels of the human mind. It is from these structures and the
inherent conflicts that arise in the mind that personality is shaped. According to
Freud while there is an interdependence among these three levels, each level
also serves a purpose in personality development. Within this theory the ability
of a person to resolve internal conflicts at specific stages of their development
determines future coping and functioning ability as a fully-mature adult
• Id
• -1st to develop
• -basic instinct (seeking pleasure, avoiding pain and SUFFERING)
• -Pleasure Principle
• -in our unconscious, the part of our mind that we are not aware of
Ego
-Reality Principle
-Mostly in the conscious (we are aware of it) partly unconscious
Superego
-Moral Principle
-conscience (what is right from wrong)
-ego ideal (what and how we want to be)
- both in the conscious and unconscious
References :
• https://iep.utm.edu/freud/#SH8a
• https://librivox.org/the-interpretation-of-dreams-by-sigmund-freud/
• https://www.flipkart.com/psychopathology-everyday-life/p/itmfbydd
gbgmh6m2
• https://hudsonkent.com/three-essays-on-the-theory-of-sexuality-by-si
gmund-freud-book-summary-review/
• https://mausumidutta.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/three-levels-of-co
nsciousness-by-sigmund-freud-conscious-preconscious-unconscious/