The psychoanalytic approach to psychology is based on the system of psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud (1859 - 1939). Freud was interested in studies of the unconscious mind and mental illness

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Zoë Wood

Psychology

Freud’s psychoanalytic approach to psychology

Tutor: N. Warmsley

19th October 2005

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach to Psychology

The psychoanalytic approach to psychology is based on the system of psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud (1859 – 1939). Freud was interested in studies of the unconscious mind and mental illness. He preformed studies to look into human personality, psychosexual development and conducted method of treatments to determine the causes of neurotic mental illness.  

Freud thought that mental illness was caused by early childhood trauma of which treatment for such illness could only be successful when these childhood memories were dealt with and overcome. He developed his own technique to try and remember and overcome the events from their past that had disturbed their development. He made his patients describe anything that came into their mind no matter how silly they thought it may be. This technique helped Freud determine the cause of the mental illness and encouraged the patient to resurface repressed memories. Freud thought this would help them come to terms with the events helping overcome the illness, which was said to be ‘removing the neurosis’.

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According to Freud, everything we do, why we do things, who we are and how we became like this are all related to our sexual drive. Childhood sexual experiences will determine our personality in adult life. Freud outlined 5 stages of sexual development. In each stage the libido, the energy from the love instinct, Eros, fixates on different parts of the body, focusing on sexual pleasure on that specific part. Differences in the way sexual pleasure is obtained in each stage will lead to differences in adult personalities.

Oral Stage – This occurs from birth to 8 months ...

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The Quality of Written Communication is very good. From and English perspective, there is a very good handling of grammar, punctuation and spelling, helping the conveyance of information to be as clear and precise as possible. As well as this, the candidate utilises a variety of psychologically-orientated vocabulary and each is spelt correctly and integrated into the essay appropriately. All this gives the examiner clear indication of a candidate who know who to critically analyse using the specialist language the subject of psychology requires.

The Level of Analysis here is very good. There is a very in-depth analysis of each of the parts to the human psyche plus and good knowledge of when each section of the mind is introduced as a part of the human personality. The understanding of Freudian theory is delicately implemented into an excellently detailed description and understanding and subsequent analysis of the Theory of Psychosexual Stages, and this naturally encourages a brilliantly expressed analysis of the theories.

This is a very succinct essay that reads very well. It is sufficiently-sized for a coursework piece and easily satisfies the question and the mark scheme. The candidate goes to excellent analytical depth with regard to the perspective and confidently. The essay could be more cohesively structured as a full essay with long paragraphs, how this appears to be a project and would therefore have sub-headings as seen here. The sub-headings certainly help guide the essay, cutting up the information to make it more digestible and this shows signs of someone who has made decisions to convey their information as clearly and accurately as possible.