A Brief on Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud was the first to talk about psychoanalysis, a technique that allows an individual to recount dreams but what psychologists call free association. Free association is the individual saying whatever comes to mind when something is said. Psychoanalysts encourage the unconscious mind to recall scenes, thoughts, and to reconstruct past experiences that have shaped the patients present behavior.

Freud states that the personality develops in a series of stages. On the same hand, if we resolve our conflicts that arise during our life as they happen, then psychological problems in the future will not occur. That what we believe are spur of the moment decisions etc. are really influenced by the unconscious.

Psychodynamic theories are written in the individual, often outside the conscious mind. Human behavior is based on unconscious instincts. Some are aggressive and destructive while others are thirsting for the necessary tools to survive. In the same breath, he says that sexual instinct is the most critical factor for the development of our personality. According to Freud, personality is formed around these structures: the Id, ego, and the super ego.

The Id or instinctual needs is the only structure present at birth and is unconscious. It is the collection of unconscious urges and desires that continually seek expression. The ego is the part of the personality that mediates between environmental demands, which are reality, conscience or superego, and Id. It contains all the thinking and reasoning. Lastly, the super ego is the social and parental standards the individual has internalized or the moral conscience of the brain. This is not present at birth, but developed over a period of time.

In conclusion, I feel psychoanalysis is a good way to understand why people do what they do, and how to recognize it and have the ability to change it. Although Freud made this discovery at the turn of the century it is still an effective way to deal with current problems some individuals may have.

The article I chose was The Miseducation of the Negro. In this article, the author stated that Negroes are being denied everything relating to black culture in public schools. That they are taught everything from Hebrew to Latin but denied the rest.

This article also determines that when talking to certain “high class” blacks they felt that it was not important to learn about there culture stating that, “he didn’t go to school to waste his time.