Psychoanalysis
...FREUD in the 1890's and then further developed by himself, his students,
and other followers. It consists of three kinds of related activities: (1) a
method for research into the human mind, especially inner experiences such as
thoughts, feelings, emotions, fantasies, and dreams; (2) a systematic
accumulation of a body of knowledge about the mind; and (3) a method for the
treatment of psychological or emotional disorders.
Psychoanalysis began with the discovery that HYSTERIA, an illness with physical
symptoms that occurred in a completely healthy physical body--such as a numbness
or paralysis of a limb or a loss of voice or a blindness--could be caused by
unconscious wishes or forgotten memories. (Hysteria is now commonly referred to
as conversion disorder.) The French neurologist Jean Martin CHARCOT tried to rid
the mind of undesirable thoughts through hypnotic suggestion, but without
lasting success. Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician, achieved better results by
letting Anna O., a young woman patient, try to empty her mind by just telling
him all of her thoughts and feelings.
Freud refined Breuer's method by conceptualizing theories about it and, using
these theories, telling his patients through interpretations what was going on
inside the unconscious part of their minds, thus making the unconscious become
conscious. Many hysterias were cured this way, and in 1895, Breuer and Freud
published their findings and theories in Studies in Hysteria.
CLASSIC PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Traditional psychoanalytical theory states that all human beings are born with
instinctual drives that are constantly active even though a person is usually
not conscious of thus being driven. Two drives--one for sexual pleasure, called
libido, the other called aggression--motivate and propel most behavior. In the
infant, the libido first manifests itself by making sucking an activity with...
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