Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis and the Self: Sigmund

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalysis and the Self: Sigmund Freud's Influence in 19th Century Philosophy and Science

Nineteenth century thinking was characterized by the emergence of two revolutionary ideologies that influenced the course of human history for the succeeding centuries: Karl Marx's conflict theory and Sigmund Freud's method of psychoanalysis in psychology. Marx's analysis of the political economy of the capitalist system led to the development of the Socialist movement. Freud's psychoanalytical theory, meanwhile, emphasized the pursuit for self-knowledge and individuality as the key towards personal development.

This paper gives focus on the life of Sigmund Freud, mainly because of his significant contribution towards establishing the kind of contemporary society prevalent in Western societies -- that is, an individualist society, wherein the pursuit of self-knowledge led to social and personal (individual) progress.

Born in the Czech Republic in 1856, Sigmund Freud had led the life of a true scientist and academician. Educated at Vienna University, Freud had earlier planned to pursue a career as a lawyer, although he decided to pursue medicine instead (also at Vienna University) in 1873. As a medical student, he expressed interest in the study of natural sciences, undergoing research work on human biology, particularly neurological research, and remained for six years at the University to obtain his medical degree (the additional three years was spent on conducting extended neurological research work). After obtaining his medical degree, Freud practiced at the General Hospital of Vienna. In 1885, he left his post as a doctor in the hospital to accept work as a lecturer in Vienna University. It was in this year that Freud went to Paris to be under Jean Charcot's guidance in pursuing his studies in neurology. Under Charcot, he experienced working on nervous diseases, particularly hysteria (Microsoft Encarta 2002).

A year after he finished his studies under Charcot in Paris, Freud began pursuing and exploring the nature and development of illnesses such as hysteria and the method of hypnotherapy to alleviate the adverse effects of hysteria on the individual. It was in 1891 that Freud was able to publish his years of research on hysteria and hypnotherapy, and five years after, he identified his findings under the broader term, "psychoanalysis."

Psychoanalysis, as a field of study in psychology, provides a new avenue for individuals to understanding the self in the context of the individual's personal history -- everything that concerns his/her life as a child towards his/her development as an adult. Two important concepts govern Freud's psychoanalytic theory: the psyche and the unconscious. The Psyche is referred to as the soul of the individual. In psychoanalysis, the psyche "is the mental apparatus as it is defined in contrast to the body or soma" (Thurschwell, 2000:4). The Unconscious, meanwhile, is the "storehouse of instinctual desires and needs ... unconscious is ... The great waste-paper basket of the mind -- the trash that never gets taken out" (4). Moreover, in the conceptualization of the unconscious, Freud also explains that the unconscious develops prior to the development of consciousness -- a phenomenon that psychoanalysis synonymously associates with the exploration of the true nature of the human being, where life is primarily based on 'instinctive desires and needs.'

He further develops his study of psychoanalysis by identifying important elements and theses that became the basis for this paradigm. Freud posits that "unlearned biological instincts influence the way individuals think, feel, and behave" (Santrock, 2000:9). By claiming this, psychoanalysis looks into the personal history of the individual to identify how people behave the way they do; ultimately, how individuals develop to become what they are as adults was influenced by experiences they had as a child. Ultimately, psychoanalysis looks into the conflict that emerges within the individual, as s/he tries to reconcile his/her social realities against his/her biological needs and desires.

Using the assertions discussed above, Freud looks into how psychoanalysis is operationalized through a study of the illness, hysteria. According to Levine (1999), psychoanalysis seeks to arrive at the following "truths" concerning human nature: (1) only the psychoanalytic method of interpretation and treatment can yield or mediate for the patient the correct insight into the unconscious causes of his neuroses and (2) the patient's correct insight into the conflictual cause of his condition and into the unconscious dynamics of his character is in turn causally necessary for the durable cure of his neuroses (3). Given these premises, psychoanalysis is illustrated as a path towards attaining self-knowledge through the scientific process of experimentation and methodological analysis. In effect, what emerges in psychoanalysis are concepts of "I" and the self -- self-knowledge resulting from within the psyche of the individual, and as ascertained by external factors (e.g., family, friends, relatives, among others). Further discussion on the function of psychoanalysis to self-discovery and attaining self-knowledge becomes evident in the analysis of one of Freud's seminal work, which is "The Interpretation of Dreams."

In the "Interpretation of Dreams," Freud centers his analysis on the theme it is through dreams that an individual is able to confront the unconscious and discover the real Self. By this, he means that dreaming, or the 'dream-experience,' "appears as something alien interpolated between two divisions of out life which otherwise fit into each other perfectly and continuously" (12). This passage illustrates how dreams act as mirrors or reflections of the other part of the whole, or the individual. By speaking of "two divisions" within the human psyche, Freud believes that the individual is composed of two parts: the Self and the "impersonal one," also identified as unconsciousness and consciousness, respectively.

Apart from establishing the historicity of analyzing the 'dream experience,' Freud also theorized, through review of literature, that "in the dream-life only a fragment of our physical activity finds expression," which describes the existence of the other half of the Conscious Self, which is the Unconscious, or the 'real Self' (64).

Freud discusses how the individual is divided and in conflict with the Unconscious Self, as people tend to be more aware of their conscious selves. According to Freud, " The Unconscious must ... be assumed to be the general basis of the life of the psyche ... The unconscious is the true reality of the psyche, its inner nature just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world ... " (405). Referring to the externality of the unconscious, Freud's discourse illustrates how the Unconscious as an external force that resides 'within' the individual. In effect, Freud illustrates how through dream experiences, the Unconscious is confronted by the individual. Thus, the individual, through his/her dreams, bridges the gap and resolves the conflict between the Conscious and the Unconscious selves of the individual. It is then posited that after an analysis of a dream experience, people become more 'in touch' with themselves, the true nature of the Self, and not the "impersonal one."