Sigmund Freud Essay -- Freud Psychologist Biography Essays

Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud was the first major kindly scientist to propose a unified theory to understand and explain human being behavior. No theory that has followed has been more complete, more complex, or more controversial. few psychologists treat Freuds writings as a sacred text - if Freud state it, it must be true. On the other hand, many have charge Freud of being unscientific, proposing theories that are too complex ever to be proved true or false. He revolutionized ideas on how the human mind kit and caboodle and the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. He applied himself to a new field of studyand struggled with an environ handst whose rejection of his determine endangered his sustenance and that of his family (Freud 3). His work greatly improved the fields of psychiatry and psychology and helped millions of mentally ill patients.Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia, a component part now in the Czech Republic. His father wa s a wool merchandiser and was forty when he had Sigmund, the oldest of eight children (Gay 78). When Freud turned four, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. After graduating from the crack Gymnasium, Freud was inspired by an essay written by Goethe on nature, to possess medicine as his career. After graduating from the medical school of the University of Vienna in 1881, Freud decided to specialize in neurology, the study and treatment of disorders of the nervous system (Gay 79). In 1885, Freud went to Paris to study under Jean Martin Charcot, a far-famed neurologist. Charcot was working with patients who suffered from a mental illness called hysteria. Some of these people appeared to be blind or paralyzed, but they actually had no physical defects. Charcot appoint that their physical symptoms could be relieved through hypnosis (Garcia 209). Freud returned to Vienna in 1886 and began to work extensively with hysterical patients. While discussing the case history of one patient, Freud said, In the study of hysteria, local diagnosis and electrical reactions do not acclaim into picture, while an exhaustive account of mental processes, of the kind we were accustomed to having from visionary writers, enables me, by the application of a few psychological formulas, to obtain a kind of insight into the origin of a hysteria (Freud 15).He step by step formed ideas about the origin and treatment of mental illness. He apply t... ...ia 119).Since the 1970s, many scholars and mental health professionals have questioned some of Freuds theories. Feminists attacked Freud beca commit he seemed to look at that in some respects women were inferior to men. For example, he thought that women had weaker superegos than men and were driven by resent. He also thought that women had penis envy and were jealous of men. Other people challenged the theory that patients memories of early sexual ill-use reflected fantasies rather than actual experiences.As a result of such critic ism, most scholars and psychoanalysts now take a more balanced approach to Freuds theories. They use the ideas and techniques from Freud that they find most useful without strictly following all of his teachings. No one, however, disputes Freuds enormous influence. Works CitedClark, David. What Freud Really Said. Scholden, N.Y 1995.Freud, Sigmund. The Origin & Development of Psychoanalysis. Henry Regnay, atomic number 49 Press, N.Y 1965.Garcia, Emanuel. Understanding Freud. NYU Press, N.Y 1992.Gay, Peter. Freud, A Life Of Our Time. W.W. Norton, N.Y 1988.Macionis, John. Society The Basics. Prentice-Hall, N.J 2000.