Psychoanalysis: What is Freud’s theory and whether his methods work

All that is worth knowing about the controversial, but very influential concepts of the Austrian psychologist.

Everyone probably heard about the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. But few people understand that this is really.

What is psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory and the method of psychiatric treatment based on it. The main provisions of the concept and the term “psychoanalysis” itself were created by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries.

Psychoanalysis is based on faith in the existence of unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories. As therapy, it is often used to treat depression, phobias, panic attacks, obsessive -compulsive and post -traumatic stress disorders. Psychoanalysis is closely related to psychodynamic therapy.

Also, psychoanalysis can be understood any of a number of theories about the human person, which, on the basis of an analysis of the unconscious in the mind of a person, try to find the deep causes of mental problems. The most simply can describe this method as “deep psychology”.

The general psychoanalytic theory of treatment does not exist.

Psychoanalysis can also be considered a form of self -knowledge, a source of new spiritual experiences. If a person for years shares the most intimate with those who help him interpret this information, then he can look at himself from a completely different side.

And finally, psychoanalysis is often considered as a scientific and philosophical concept. Freud himself believed that psychoanalysis is neither psychology nor philosophy. He called his theory of metapsychological and believed that one day it would become a science. But this was not destined to come true.

In many ways, psychoanalysis was an attempt to reconcile the dispersed directions in the psychology of that time: philosophical and scientific. In the end, he turned into a complex set of ideas and ideas looking for an alternative answer to the question “what is a person?”

How psychoanalysis appeared

The founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Austria and spent most of his life in Vienna. He entered the Medical Institute and received the education of a neurologist in 1881. Soon discovered private practice and began to treat people with psychological disorders.

Freud’s attention attracted the case described by his colleague – the Austrian doctor and physiologist Joseph Breer. Patient Breyer named Berte Pappenheim, known in the literature as “Anna about.”, Suffered from physical ailments for no visible reasons. But she felt better when Breyer helped her remember the traumatic experiences experienced. This case will then be described more than once by Freud and other authors.

Freud became interested in the unconscious and in the 1890s, together with Breer, he began to study the condition of neurotic patients under hypnosis. Colleagues came to the conclusion that the condition of the patients improved when they learned with the help of hypnosis about the real sources of their problems.

Freud also noted that many patients feel the effect of such therapy and without hypnosis. Then he developed the technique of free associations: the patient told the psychoanalyst everything that came to him the first when he hears words, such as “mother”, “childhood”.

Freud also saw a pattern: most often the most painful experiences of his patients were related to sex. He suggested that these alarming sensations were a consequence of suppressed sexual energy (libido), manifested in various symptoms. And those, according to Freud, are mechanisms of psychological protection.

With the help of the technique of free associations, Freud began to study the meanings of dreams, reservations, forgetfulness. He believed that injuries and conflicts of childhood give rise to sexual desires and aggression in a person in adulthood.

Freud’s psychoanalytic therapy was the release of these suppressed emotions and experiences, that is, an attempt to make an unconscious conscious. Such a cure is called “catharsis”.

Freud insisted that reducing symptoms was not enough, the problem would not be solved until it eliminates its cause.

During the sessions of psychoanalytic therapy, the patient lay on a special couch, and Freud himself sat behind, making records. This helped both get free from social restrictions. To achieve a positive result, sometimes I had to spend from two to five sessions per week for several years. Sometimes patients, according to Freud himself, experienced memories and associations as brightly as if they were actually returning to the past. Although in fact psychoanalytic therapy is just a frank conversation.

Freud’s couch. Image: Robert Huffstutter / Wikimedia Commons

How psychoanalysis influenced the development of psychology

During the XX century, psychologists borrowed many ideas and observations of Freud. This is especially true for the concept of levels of consciousness, protective mechanisms and stages of psychological development.

So, before Freud, dreams were considered not worthy of attention of science of a phenomenon. However, his book “Interpretation of dreams” and the concept presented in it aroused a stormy interest in this area of human life, which is still preserved.

Freud’s development was used in the future, for example, to create the theory of child psychoanalysis. The pioneers in this area were Melanie Klein and Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud.

In a slightly different form, Freud’s business was continued by his student Karl Jung, the creator of analytical psychology. He dispersed with the teacher in matters of the nature of libido (energy underlying human aspirations and actions) and the unconscious, as well as the causes of human behavior.

Freud considered libido only as a source of sexual energy, while Jung argued that it was much wider and includes motives from sex to creativity.

Also, Jung did not share Freud’s idea that human behavior was dictated only by the experience of the past. He believed that future aspirations also play a significant role.

Jung’s works underlie most modern psychological theories and concepts. For example, he introduced into circulation such terms well -known today as “archetypes of personality” and “collective unconscious”.

In the middle of the last century, psychoanalysis entered into close interaction with art, humanities and philosophy. For example, he had a great influence on German expressionism, and he, in turn, largely determined the appearance of a cinema horrors. Freud’s concept greatly influenced the work of such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Paolo Pazolini. Freudianism also plays a significant role in the films “Basic Instinct”, “Eternal Light of Clean Mind”, “Antichrist”, “Island of the Damned”.

Look 📽😱🔪

• Why do we like to watch a terrible movie and is it normal

What provisions underlie psychoanalysis

Consciousness and unconscious

Freud proposed a model of the human mind, consisting of three layers:

1. Consciousness – Our current thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
2. Subconscious (or premature) – everything that we remember or is able to recall.
3. Unconscious – the vault of what controls our behavior, including primitive and instinctive desires.

Freud considered the unconscious of a special area of the psyche, completely unlike reality. According to him, the unconscious is divorced from moral attitudes and prejudices, it is a storage of secret desires and hidden experiences. Freud later clarified, complemented and structured this three -part model. So the concept of “it”, “I” and “super -me” appeared.

“It”, “I” and “Super -I”

The study and interpretation of free associations led Freud to a new concept of personality structure from three components: “it”, “I” and “super -I”.

• “It” (ID) – these are impulsions and impulses associated with instinctive desires to continue life and destroy. ID exists only at the level of the unconscious.
• “I” (ego) – This is the part of the personality that is most closely related to reality and helps a person to perceive the world around him, learn new things and satisfy the needs. She works at conscious and pre -knowledge levels and is formed in infancy.
• “Super -I” (Superego) – These are the ideals and values of the person that he learned from the family, the environment and the outside world. Supergo acts the censor of the functions of the ego, indicating what to do morally acceptable. For the most part it acts at the level of consciousness.

Within the framework of the Freudian concept, conflicts between these components of the individual lead to anxiety. To protect himself from her, a person has special mechanisms learned from a family or culture.

Protective mechanisms

Freud believed that the components of the mind are in constant conflict, because each has its own purpose. When the conflict goes beyond some limits, the ego of a person launches protective mechanisms, among which there are the following:

• Suppression – the ego displaces anxious or dangerous thoughts from consciousness. A person can simply “forget” about the real reason for his anxiety – for example, about a traumatic event in childhood.
• Negation – the ego makes a person not believe in what is happening or refuse to recognize him. So, parents who have lost their child often do not want to believe in the reality of what happened.
• Projection – Ego attributes the thoughts and feelings of a person to someone else. For example, tolerates hidden fantasies and socially unacceptable desires to other people.
• Bias – A person redirects his reaction and changes an object that causes stress, to another – safer. The simplest example is an employee that the boss shouted at is anger at the weaker – subordinate, child or dog.
• Regression – a person rolls back in development in response to negative emotions. For example, a shocked adult behaves like a child.
• Sublimation – Like displacement, replaces the unconscious aspirations of a person with work or hobby. The most famous example is to redirect sexual energy to creativity classes.

When these mechanisms interfere with the normal life of a person in society, they, according to psychoanalysis, become pathological.

Interpretation

Psychoanalysis avoids assessment, its essence is in the explanation, and not in condemnation or approval. The psychoanalyst is not a mentor, he is an “empty screen”. This is necessary so that the client can work on his unconscious without someone else’s intervention.

To obtain data on hidden experiences and their interpretation, the analyst can use various tools:

• Rorshah test (“Ink spots”). The blots on the images are abstract and mean nothing. It is important that he will see in them by projecting his unconscious, every specific person.
• “Freudian reservations” (paracapons). In psychoanalysis, it is believed that our hidden unconscious desires appear in reservations. For example, a mistake in the name of a sexual partner gives out a real object of fantasies of a agreed.
• Free Association of Ideas. Freud used this method to analyze the first (unconscious) reaction of a person to words.
• Dream analysis. Freud recognized this method very important, since he believed that consciousness is less vigilant in a dream and misses the “outside” suppressed experiences. Dreams, according to Freudianism, have a clear (what we remember or think) and hidden (as this actually is talking about) values).

After receiving the data, the client and analyst jointly express hypotheses about symbols and conflicts hidden behind them and experiences. Typically, the therapist’s task is to indicate the patient to protective mechanisms in his mind and the reasons because of which they appeared.

Psychosexual development

Freud suggested that the development of the child is associated with a change in the sources of pleasure. Based on this, he identified five stages of psychosexual development.

1. Oral: the child is looking for pleasure with his mouth (for example, from sucking).
2. Anal: the child enjoys the anus (for example, tolerate needs or emptying).
3. Phallic: the child receives satisfaction from the penis or clitoris (for example, during masturbation).
4. Latent (hidden): The sexual motivation of the child in receiving pleasure is weakly expressed or completely absent.
5. Genital: development is suitable for logical completion;Boys and girls enjoy the penis or vagina (for example, from sex).

According to Freud, to become a psychologically healthy person with fully formed ego and superego, you need to go through all these stages. Otherwise, you can “get stuck” on one of them, and this will lead to emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood.

Complexes

Children’s problems, which, according to Freud, became the causes of difficulties in adulthood, the Austrian psychologist structured in the concept of complexes. The most famous among the described by Freud was the Oedipus complex when the son unconsciously wants to take the place of his father. Analogue of the Edipov complex in girls – the Electra complex.

What areas of psychoanalysis exist today

There are significant differences between Freud’s theories and modern psychoanalysis. For example, today in psychology there is no such strong emphasis on sex and associated behavior. But at the same time, much attention is paid to the experience of early childhood.

In the second half of the 20th century, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan called to return to the concept of psychoanalysis, proposing her new reading. He looked at the unconscious and, unlike the founder of psychoanalysis, paid more attention to the tongue.

Lacan came to the conclusion that it was real, and not the unconscious, it is necessary to recognize the main level of the human mind. Anxiety, according to Lacan, occurs due to the fact that a person cannot control the reality surrounding him.

Since psychoanalysis had a huge impact on mass culture, some leading representatives of neo -Freedism (Jacques Lacan, Glory of Zizhek) conduct psychoanalytic research on its works. For example, one of the books of Zizhek is called “What you always wanted to know about Lacan (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock)”.

As another example, an interpersonal psychoanalysis can be given by a neo -fraudian concept. It is associated with the names of such researchers as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. They take a special place in the formation of personality to the environment of the child: parents and other people, especially peers.

Another modern direction of Freudian theory is neuropsychialism. He seeks to combine a psychoanalytic concept with the achievements of neurobiologists in the study of the human brain. Thus, researchers are trying to find the basics of emotions, fantasies and unconscious.

Why psychoanalysis is criticized

Initially, Freud’s developments were taken into hostiles, and his concept was accompanied by scandalous glory. In particular, Karl Yaspers, Arthur Kronfeld, Karl Popper and Kurt Schneider spoke out against her.

Although today the concept of psychoanalysis has many supporters, it is subjected to serious criticism. Opponents of psychoanalysis doubt its effectiveness, and some researchers completely declare the Freudian concept of pseudo.

The acute topic of criticism was the concentration of psychoanalysis on sexual motives. For example, a number of researchers believe that “rough digging in sexual life” of patients can lead to adverse consequences for the psyche.

The concept of the Edipov complex Freud is disputed.

There are also doubts about the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy. In 1994, a group of German scientists conducted a study by 897 psychoanalysis works. Scientists came to the conclusion that a long -term visit to a psychoanalyst is ineffective for the patient and that psychoanalytic therapy increases the risk of deterioration. Only some mild disorders, according to the article, partially retreat after psychoanalysis sessions. At the same time, behavioral therapy was twice as effective.

It is also noted that the hypotheses and the position of psychoanalysis are difficult to test with an experimental way, since this approach pays too little attention to conscious in human behavior.

The psychoanalytic theory is also criticized by its roots that go into Freud’s sexist views, the inapplicability in cultures that are different from the Western, and excessive passion to reduce everything to pathologies.

Opponents also criticize psychoanalysis methods. For example, psychologist Berres Frederick Skinner considered the method of “ink spots” subjective and unscientific.

In addition, Freud himself is reproached with facts. In 1972, the Canadian psychiatrist and medicine historian Henry Ellenberger found out that Anna o.” Did not happen. That is, the very first case of cure with the help of psychoanalysis in reality turned out to be a fake. Subsequent studies found that Breyer was stuffed the patient with morphine and chloral hydrate, making it an drug addict ultimately. Because of this, she departed from the consequences of “Catharsis” for three more years.

Today it is known that “Anna o.’Suffered from the disease of the teeth. The patient of Freud himself was the same ailment – “Cecilia m.”(Anna von Liben), which he stubbornly diagnosed with hysterical neurosis. Here it is also worth mentioning the indicative case of “Dora” (Ida Bauer). Freud believed that her pains are associated with nervous experiences, although in fact I was going to tormented the rectum cancer.

There are subjective factors, due to which it is difficult to determine whether psychoanalytic therapy is effective or not.

• It requires a lot of time, money and motivation and does not guarantee a quick “recovery”.
• A person during sessions can reveal the suppressed painful memories that will cause him even greater suffering.
• Psychoanalysis is not suitable for all people and not for all ailments.

However, there is an opposite point of view. For example, Canado -American psychologist Jeremy Safran believes that some methods of psychoanalysis in conjunction with modern research have proven their effectiveness. And the American psychological association includes psychoanalysis among the practices recognized by it and areas of training specialists.

What are alternatives to psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysts, unlike psychologists, are not focused on the model of natural sciences in assessing human behavior. In psychoanalysis, a person is not an object, but a subject of study, that is, he studies himself. Therefore, as supporters of psychoanalytic theory believe, already accumulated knowledge of already accumulated knowledge is not applicable for the study of each individual case.

In fact, psychotherapy has become an alternative to psychoanalysis. It relies on evidence and less specifies each individual case. And if a therapist can use several types of treatment, then a psychoanalyst usually adheres to only psychoanalysis.

Methods of alternative psychoanalysis of therapy (cognitive, cognitive behavioral, problematic) are focused on a decrease in negative effects. Psychoanalysis seeks to help a person completely overcome the destructive influence of the unconscious, discovering the source of the problem.

Psychoanalysis had a huge impact on psychology and psychiatry, but you need to understand that it was a product of his time. Freud’s concept was extremely lacking in evidence of effectiveness – they had to look for students of the Austrian psychologist. And although Freudism is actively criticized, it was he who served as the foundation for evidence -based psychology, which is so popular now.

Everyone probably heard about the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. But few people understand that this is really.

What is psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory and the method of psychiatric treatment based on it. The main provisions of the concept and the term “psychoanalysis” itself were created by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries.

Psychoanalysis is based on faith in the existence of unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories. As therapy, it is often used to treat depression, phobias, panic attacks, obsessive -compulsive and post -traumatic stress disorders. Psychoanalysis is closely related to psychodynamic therapy.

Also, psychoanalysis can be understood any of a number of theories about the human person, which, on the basis of an analysis of the unconscious in the mind of a person, try to find the deep causes of mental problems. The most simply can describe this method as “deep psychology”.

The general psychoanalytic theory of treatment does not exist.

Psychoanalysis can also be considered a form of self -knowledge, a source of new spiritual experiences. If a person for years shares the most intimate with those who help him interpret this information, then he can look at himself from a completely different side.

And finally, psychoanalysis is often considered as a scientific and philosophical concept. Freud himself believed that psychoanalysis is neither psychology nor philosophy. He called his theory of metapsychological and believed that one day it would become a science. But this was not destined to come true.

In many ways, psychoanalysis was an attempt to reconcile the dispersed directions in the psychology of that time: philosophical and scientific. In the end, he turned into a complex set of ideas and ideas looking for an alternative answer to the question “what is a person?”

How psychoanalysis appeared

The founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Austria and spent most of his life in Vienna. He entered the Medical Institute and received the education of a neurologist in 1881. Soon discovered private practice and began to treat people with psychological disorders.

Freud’s attention attracted the case described by his colleague – the Austrian doctor and physiologist Joseph Breer. Patient Breyer named Berte Pappenheim, known in the literature as “Anna about.”, Suffered from physical ailments for no visible reasons. But she felt better when Breyer helped her remember the traumatic experiences experienced. This case will then be described more than once by Freud and other authors.

Freud became interested in the unconscious and in the 1890s, together with Breer, he began to study the condition of neurotic patients under hypnosis. Colleagues came to the conclusion that the condition of the patients improved when they learned with the help of hypnosis about the real sources of their problems.

Freud also noted that many patients feel the effect of such therapy and without hypnosis. Then he developed the technique of free associations: the patient told the psychoanalyst everything that came to him the first when he hears words, such as “mother”, “childhood”.

Freud also saw a pattern: most often the most painful experiences of his patients were related to sex. He suggested that these alarming sensations were a consequence of suppressed sexual energy (libido), manifested in various symptoms. And those, according to Freud, are mechanisms of psychological protection.

With the help of the technique of free associations, Freud began to study the meanings of dreams, reservations, forgetfulness. He believed that injuries and conflicts of childhood give rise to sexual desires and aggression in a person in adulthood.

Freud’s psychoanalytic therapy was the release of these suppressed emotions and experiences, that is, an attempt to make an unconscious conscious. Such a cure is called “catharsis”.

Freud insisted that reducing symptoms was not enough, the problem would not be solved until it eliminates its cause.

During the sessions of psychoanalytic therapy, the patient lay on a special couch, and Freud himself sat behind, making records. This helped both get free from social restrictions. To achieve a positive result, sometimes I had to spend from two to five sessions per week for several years. Sometimes patients, according to Freud himself, experienced memories and associations as brightly as if they were actually returning to the past. Although in fact psychoanalytic therapy is just a frank conversation.

Freud’s couch. Image: Robert Huffstutter / Wikimedia Commons

How psychoanalysis influenced the development of psychology

During the XX century, psychologists borrowed many ideas and observations of Freud. This is especially true for the concept of levels of consciousness, protective mechanisms and stages of psychological development.

So, before Freud, dreams were considered not worthy of attention of science of a phenomenon. However, his book “Interpretation of dreams” and the concept presented in it aroused a stormy interest in this area of human life, which is still preserved.

Freud’s development was used in the future, for example, to create the theory of child psychoanalysis. The pioneers in this area were Melanie Klein and Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud.

In a slightly different form, Freud’s business was continued by his student Karl Jung, the creator of analytical psychology. He dispersed with the teacher in matters of the nature of libido (energy underlying human aspirations and actions) and the unconscious, as well as the causes of human behavior.

Freud considered libido only as a source of sexual energy, while Jung argued that it was much wider and includes motives from sex to creativity.

Also, Jung did not share Freud’s idea that human behavior was dictated only by the experience of the past. He believed that future aspirations also play a significant role.

Jung’s works underlie most modern psychological theories and concepts. For example, he introduced into circulation such terms well -known today as “archetypes of personality” and “collective unconscious”.

In the middle of the last century, psychoanalysis entered into close interaction with art, humanities and philosophy. For example, he had a great influence on German expressionism, and he, in turn, largely determined the appearance of a cinema horrors. Freud’s concept greatly influenced the work of such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Paolo Pazolini. Freudianism also plays a significant role in the films “Basic Instinct”, “Eternal Light of Clean Mind”, “Antichrist”, “Island of the Damned”.

Look 📽😱🔪

• Why do we like to watch a terrible movie and is it normal

What provisions underlie psychoanalysis

Consciousness and unconscious

Freud proposed a model of the human mind, consisting of three layers:

1. Consciousness – Our current thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
2. Subconscious (or premature) – everything that we remember or is able to recall.
3. Unconscious – the vault of what controls our behavior, including primitive and instinctive desires.

Freud considered the unconscious of a special area of the psyche, completely unlike reality. According to him, the unconscious is divorced from moral attitudes and prejudices, it is a storage of secret desires and hidden experiences. Freud later clarified, complemented and structured this three -part model. So the concept of “it”, “I” and “super -me” appeared.

“It”, “I” and “Super -I”

The study and interpretation of free associations led Freud to a new concept of personality structure from three components: “it”, “I” and “super -I”.

• “It” (ID) – these are impulsions and impulses associated with instinctive desires to continue life and destroy. ID exists only at the level of the unconscious.
• “I” (ego) – This is the part of the personality that is most closely related to reality and helps a person to perceive the world around him, learn new things and satisfy the needs. She works at conscious and pre -knowledge levels and is formed in infancy.
• “Super -I” (Superego) – These are the ideals and values of the person that he learned from the family, the environment and the outside world. Supergo acts the censor of the functions of the ego, indicating what to do morally acceptable. For the most part it acts at the level of consciousness.

Within the framework of the Freudian concept, conflicts between these components of the individual lead to anxiety. To protect himself from her, a person has special mechanisms learned from a family or culture.

Protective mechanisms

Freud believed that the components of the mind are in constant conflict, because each has its own purpose. When the conflict goes beyond some limits, the ego of a person launches protective mechanisms, among which there are the following:

• Suppression – the ego displaces anxious or dangerous thoughts from consciousness. A person can simply “forget” about the real reason for his anxiety – for example, about a traumatic event in childhood.
• Negation – the ego makes a person not believe in what is happening or refuse to recognize him. So, parents who have lost their child often do not want to believe in the reality of what happened.
• Projection – Ego attributes the thoughts and feelings of a person to someone else. For example, tolerates hidden fantasies and socially unacceptable desires to other people.
• Bias – A person redirects his reaction and changes an object that causes stress, to another – safer. The simplest example is an employee that the boss shouted at is anger at the weaker – subordinate, child or dog.
• Regression – a person rolls back in development in response to negative emotions. For example, a shocked adult behaves like a child.
• Sublimation – Like displacement, replaces the unconscious aspirations of a person with work or hobby. The most famous example is to redirect sexual energy to creativity classes.

When these mechanisms interfere with the normal life of a person in society, they, according to psychoanalysis, become pathological.

Interpretation

Psychoanalysis avoids assessment, its essence is in the explanation, and not in condemnation or approval. The psychoanalyst is not a mentor, he is an “empty screen”. This is necessary so that the client can work on his unconscious without someone else’s intervention.

To obtain data on hidden experiences and their interpretation, the analyst can use various tools:

• Rorshah test (“Ink spots”). The blots on the images are abstract and mean nothing. It is important that he will see in them by projecting his unconscious, every specific person.
• “Freudian reservations” (paracapons). In psychoanalysis, it is believed that our hidden unconscious desires appear in reservations. For example, a mistake in the name of a sexual partner gives out a real object of fantasies of a agreed.
• Free Association of Ideas. Freud used this method to analyze the first (unconscious) reaction of a person to words.
• Dream analysis. Freud recognized this method very important, since he believed that consciousness is less vigilant in a dream and misses the “outside” suppressed experiences. Dreams, according to Freudianism, have a clear (what we remember or think) and hidden (as this actually is talking about) values).

After receiving the data, the client and analyst jointly express hypotheses about symbols and conflicts hidden behind them and experiences. Typically, the therapist’s task is to indicate the patient to protective mechanisms in his mind and the reasons because of which they appeared.

Psychosexual development

Freud suggested that the development of the child is associated with a change in the sources of pleasure. Based on this, he identified five stages of psychosexual development.

1. Oral: the child is looking for pleasure with his mouth (for example, from sucking).
2. Anal: the child enjoys the anus (for example, tolerate needs or emptying).
3. Phallic: the child receives satisfaction from the penis or clitoris (for example, during masturbation).
4. Latent (hidden): The sexual motivation of the child in receiving pleasure is weakly expressed or completely absent.
5. Genital: development is suitable for logical completion;Boys and girls enjoy the penis or vagina (for example, from sex).

According to Freud, to become a psychologically healthy person with fully formed ego and superego, you need to go through all these stages. Otherwise, you can “get stuck” on one of them, and this will lead to emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood.

Complexes

Children’s problems, which, according to Freud, became the causes of difficulties in adulthood, the Austrian psychologist structured in the concept of complexes. The most famous among the described by Freud was the Oedipus complex when the son unconsciously wants to take the place of his father. Analogue of the Edipov complex in girls – the Electra complex.

What areas of psychoanalysis exist today

There are significant differences between Freud’s theories and modern psychoanalysis. For example, today in psychology there is no such strong emphasis on sex and associated behavior. But at the same time, much attention is paid to the experience of early childhood.

In the second half of the 20th century, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan called to return to the concept of psychoanalysis, proposing her new reading. He looked at the unconscious and, unlike the founder of psychoanalysis, paid more attention to the tongue.

Lacan came to the conclusion that it was real, and not the unconscious, it is necessary to recognize the main level of the human mind. Anxiety, according to Lacan, occurs due to the fact that a person cannot control the reality surrounding him.

Since psychoanalysis had a huge impact on mass culture, some leading representatives of neo -Freedism (Jacques Lacan, Glory of Zizhek) conduct psychoanalytic research on its works. For example, one of the books of Zizhek is called “What you always wanted to know about Lacan (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock)”.

As another example, an interpersonal psychoanalysis can be given by a neo -fraudian concept. It is associated with the names of such researchers as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. They take a special place in the formation of personality to the environment of the child: parents and other people, especially peers.

Another modern direction of Freudian theory is neuropsychialism. He seeks to combine a psychoanalytic concept with the achievements of neurobiologists in the study of the human brain. Thus, researchers are trying to find the basics of emotions, fantasies and unconscious.

Why psychoanalysis is criticized

Initially, Freud’s developments were taken into hostiles, and his concept was accompanied by scandalous glory. In particular, Karl Yaspers, Arthur Kronfeld, Karl Popper and Kurt Schneider spoke out against her.

Although today the concept of psychoanalysis has many supporters, it is subjected to serious criticism. Opponents of psychoanalysis doubt its effectiveness, and some researchers completely declare the Freudian concept of pseudo.

The acute topic of criticism was the concentration of psychoanalysis on sexual motives. For example, a number of researchers believe that “rough digging in sexual life” of patients can lead to adverse consequences for the psyche.

The concept of the Edipov complex Freud is disputed.

There are also doubts about the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy. In 1994, a group of German scientists conducted a study by 897 psychoanalysis works. Scientists came to the conclusion that a long -term visit to a psychoanalyst is ineffective for the patient and that psychoanalytic therapy increases the risk of deterioration. Only some mild disorders, according to the article, partially retreat after psychoanalysis sessions. At the same time, behavioral therapy was twice as effective.

It is also noted that the hypotheses and the position of psychoanalysis are difficult to test with an experimental way, since this approach pays too little attention to conscious in human behavior.

The psychoanalytic theory is also criticized by its roots that go into Freud’s sexist views, the inapplicability in cultures that are different from the Western, and excessive passion to reduce everything to pathologies.

Opponents also criticize psychoanalysis methods. For example, psychologist Berres Frederick Skinner considered the method of “ink spots” subjective and unscientific.

In addition, Freud himself is reproached with facts. In 1972, the Canadian psychiatrist and medicine historian Henry Ellenberger found out that Anna o.” Did not happen. That is, the very first case of cure with the help of psychoanalysis in reality turned out to be a fake. Subsequent studies found that Breyer was stuffed the patient with morphine and chloral hydrate, making it an drug addict ultimately. Because of this, she departed from the consequences of “Catharsis” for three more years.

Today it is known that “Anna o.’Suffered from the disease of the teeth. The patient of Freud himself was the same ailment – “Cecilia m.”(Anna von Liben), which he stubbornly diagnosed with hysterical neurosis. Here it is also worth mentioning the indicative case of “Dora” (Ida Bauer). Freud believed that her pains are associated with nervous experiences, although in fact I was going to tormented the rectum cancer.

There are subjective factors, due to which it is difficult to determine whether psychoanalytic therapy is effective or not.

• It requires a lot of time, money and motivation and does not guarantee a quick “recovery”.
• A person during sessions can reveal the suppressed painful memories that will cause him even greater suffering.
• Psychoanalysis is not suitable for all people and not for all ailments.

However, there is an opposite point of view. For example, Canado -American psychologist Jeremy Safran believes that some methods of psychoanalysis in conjunction with modern research have proven their effectiveness. And the American psychological association includes psychoanalysis among the practices recognized by it and areas of training specialists.

What are alternatives to psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysts, unlike psychologists, are not focused on the model of natural sciences in assessing human behavior. In psychoanalysis, a person is not an object, but a subject of study, that is, he studies himself. Therefore, as supporters of psychoanalytic theory believe, already accumulated knowledge of already accumulated knowledge is not applicable for the study of each individual case.

In fact, psychotherapy has become an alternative to psychoanalysis. It relies on evidence and less specifies each individual case. And if a therapist can use several types of treatment, then a psychoanalyst usually adheres to only psychoanalysis.

Methods of alternative psychoanalysis of therapy (cognitive, cognitive behavioral, problematic) are focused on a decrease in negative effects. Psychoanalysis seeks to help a person completely overcome the destructive influence of the unconscious, discovering the source of the problem.

Psychoanalysis had a huge impact on psychology and psychiatry, but you need to understand that it was a product of his time. Freud’s concept was extremely lacking in evidence of effectiveness – they had to look for students of the Austrian psychologist. And although Freudism is actively criticized, it was he who served as the foundation for evidence -based psychology, which is so popular now.