Sigmund Freud Theory

Of the copious number of topics in the world today, nothing captivated Sigmund Freud’s attention like psychology did. Known as the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud laid the foundations for comprehending the inner workings that determine human behavior (1). Through his involvement with the hypnosis, dream analysis, psychosexual stages, and the unconscious as a whole, Freud began a new revolution that faced its own conflict but eventually brought the harvest of new knowledge and clarity to the concept of the mind.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Frielberg, Moravia which is today known as Czechoslovakia (1). His family has been deemed unusually structured, mainly due to the fact that his mother was relatively the same age as

Freud believed that one’s sex instinct was the most determining factor of his or her personality; however, instead of relating sex to the mature class of humanity, he instead targeted infants and children (4). He generated a process of psychosexual stages in which each stage focuses in on a sensual body part and a corresponding time period in life (4). The stages are as followed, starting from birth: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital (4). Furthermore, each stage comes with its own conflict that arises when one is in this stage. He correlates that if this conflict is not solved during the set period of time, it can cause a fixation, thus bringing on personality traits in their adulthood relating back to that certain stage (4). For example, for one who is in the Anal stage (1 to 3 years) the conflict is toilet training. If the child remains too long or too briefly in this stage, later on in the future they could be more excessively cleanly or even destructive and rebellious (4). Perhaps the stage that was targeted with the most criticism, was the Phallic Stage or the Genitals stage occurring from 3 to 5 or 6 years (4). This stage mainly declared that young boys are more drawn to their mother and become more hostile towards their fathers, hinting to the underlying ideas that the young boys are sexually drawn to their mother. In a vice versa scenario,

He took a toll of countless operations over a span of sixteen years, and unfortunately passed on in 1938 after emigrating to London (2). Despite this tragedy, Freud’s work remains in place today. Coming from a Jewish background, there is no doubt that finding work and fitting in were problems in his life he had to overcome, but he did not let these factors deter him from achieving success. Freud stands today as a role model for everyone willing to bring about new ideas that might not sit well in today’s society but need to be addressed. During his time, his ideas and theories about the mind were critically rejected but Freud did not just give up. He kept producing new theories and new ways to understand how the mind works and behaves, despite the criticism he got. Sigmund Freud’s life shows that by taking that leap to express one’s own ideas, it can reap great success and eventually inspiring