Psychology, the study of the mind and behaviour, is one of the most interesting fields of science we as humans have ever come across. It involves understanding the workings of the brain, its behaviours, and how it acts in situations presented by nature.
Sigmund Freud, an Australian neurologist widely known for coming up with a contemporary solution for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and the analyst.
This method would be coined as ‘psychoanalysis’. The basic core belief of it was that people possess unconscious thoughts, desires, memories, and feelings.
Psychoanalysis gave us an idea that people in their daily life experience catharsis and learn more about their current state of mind by bringing the thoughts and desires from their unconscious mind to their conscious mind.
Since introduced in 1896, psychoanalysis has helped us understand that a persons day to day behaviours is driven by their unconscious wants, illnesses such as depression are rooted in a constant conflict between both parts of the mind, people use defence mechanisms to shield themselves from the information in their unconscious mind, etc.
In psychotherapy, people are made to feel safe enough to explore their feelings, memories, and desires which might have led to psychological difficulties.
The unconscious mind:
The unconscious mind consists of all the things that are outside our conscious awareness. These can include things such as childhood memories, secret desires, and hidden inspirations or drives.
These can also be the things that we deem as socially unacceptable and hence we try to bury them deep in our minds because it will bring us pain and conflict. Even though they are outside our awareness, they can still influence the way we act or think.
Conscious mind:
This part of the mind consists of the thoughts, feelings, wants, and urges that we, are aware of and can be easily acted on. They are not suppressed or hidden in our minds. Although these can be influenced by our unconscious mind.
Division of the Personality:
Sigmund Freud stated that our personalities can be divided into 3 parts, the Id, Ego, and Superego.
Id is the first of these components which consists of all the unconscious and prima urges that we store in our minds.
Ego is the second aspect it is sort of a reality check for our actions and our mind. It controls the urges of the Id and makes us behave acceptably. Ego focuses on fulfilling our desires in a socially acceptable way, rather than acting to fulfil our desires in the way our urges want us to.
Superego is the final aspect and it consists of our ideals and values. These values and beliefs whether instilled in us by parents or from the exposure to society give us guidelines on how to act and how to behave.
Pros and Cons of Psychoanalysis
Pros:
- Psychoanalysis is based on experimental research and the methods of psychoanalysis contribute to the development of experimental psychology.
- It has stayed relevant as these theories are influencing the field of psychology to date.
- This has opened a new gateway to view mental illnesses, by giving us a way to acceptably seek out help from a psychoanalytic professional to alleviate distress.
Cons:
- The theories presented by Sigmund Freud overemphasized the unconscious mind, aggression, childhood experiences and sex.
- These concepts proposed by psychoanalytic theorists are difficult to measure and quantify.
- Freud’s ideas and theories were based on case studies and clinical observations, rather than empirical and scientific research.
As you can imagine, bringing a new section of psychology into the world would have gotten Freud some criticism.
Mane people adopt scepticism when it comes to psychoanalysis by giving the reason that the evidence is not effective enough. One argument is that this process is not as effective as other treatments.
Even though, through many research experiments, it has been found that psychoanalysis yields support to the basic theories. It can be effective against many conditions including eating disorders, somatic disorders, anxiety disorders and depression.
Another critique is that psychoanalysis requires an investment of time, money and effort. As in today’s world, people look for quick solutions to their problems. Whereas psychoanalysis can take years of therapy to come to a solution.
Psychoanalysis, even after being old, is still considered new in some societies and is often shunned due to certain taboos.
Research suggests that going to therapy and bringing your unconscious mind into your conscious awareness can be extremely helpful in situations of mental illnesses.
Psychoanalysis has always been here and will continue to intercept all our lives at some point. It all depends on how you deal with it.
Written By- Mohammad Arbaz Jalees
0 Comments