Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) the developer of psychotherapy had originally trained to be a doctor.

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Kristy Mullowney

Understanding Helping Relationships

Freud

        Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) the developer of psychotherapy had originally trained to be a doctor.  He became interested in explaining and curing things such as paralysis with no known medical cause and phobias. The theory that he developed expanded and he eventually developed a therapy used to cure these illness’ his theory also started of what is called the psychodynamic approach in psychology.  He developed his theory by looking at his life and childhood experiences and at case studies such as that of ‘Little Hans.’ His practices are still widely used today and his terms used by many psychologists.  

        Freud believed that there were three levels to the human mind; the unconscious, conscious and pre-conscious.

  • The conscious - every action thought or feeling which we are aware of.
  • The pre conscious – things we are aware of  only at certain times when they are made readily available
  •  The unconscious is the underlying part of our psyche that we are not aware of and is difficult if not impossible to retrieve.

He believed that all these levels are active at all times and that we are very much affected by what lies in our mind at these levels. He stated that the most important of the three was the unconscious.

        Freud believed that there were two innate drives that play a big role in everything we do and those are;

  • Eros- the urge to carry on the species and reproduce, the sexual instincts
  •  Thanatos- the urge to protect ourselves as individuals’ mainly through aggression.

His theory states that these drives are held or demanded of by one of the three aspects of personality; the id, ego and super ego.

The Id is in the unconscious mind and holds the innate drives stated above, Freud believed this was with us from birth and works on an instant gratification principle e.g. in babies the Id will demand to be nourished if this need is not met, babies will cry until the need is gratified.  The Id stays throughout our lives and is known as the pleasure seeking principle as it only demands things which cause pleasure. It is very animalistic and its main aim is to preserve the species.  

The super ego and ego appear as we develop. The Super Ego exists partly in the unconscious and partly in the pre-conscious, and is developed in opposition to the Id. It is known as the reality principle, its main aim is to highlight morals and show the Id it cannot always be gratified. It develops as we grow to take on morals and demands from society and is almost like a set of rules e.g. When the Id demands a drink, the super ego states that the child ask in a civil manner and wait patiently.  

As these two things are constantly in conflict, similarly to opposing sides in a debate, some measure needs to be put in place to make sure the debate doesn’t get out of hand. An example of this would be the debate mediator-the ego. This is developed to act as a mediator and the main aim is to balance the two views. It acts as a go between, is based on common sense and is concerned with controlling any conflict to preserve the individual.

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The id, ego and super ego develop as we progress through what Freud called The Psychosexual stages. Freud believed that childhood provided the key to all people and this is where these psychosexual stages occur, in childhood from when we are born up until we finish puberty. There are five stages within our development:

The Oral Stage- This occurs in the first year of our lives. Much focus is placed on the mouth. The Id demands food and other oral gratification such as a dummy/ thumb. Problems arise when these demands are not met or are oversubscribed. This in later ...

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