HCJ - Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who was the founder of psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. He was seen as a sexual renegade and was known to have a reputation for "damaging our idea of noble creatures" due to the thoughts and ideas of a sexual nature. Ideas were a challenge toward enlightenment and it offered an alternative option to rationality. John Locke strongly believed that nothing is innate and that we our minds were simply blank slates on which we would learn and experience things, and henceforth expand our minds and understanding. Freud was born on the 6th May 1856 and died on the 23rd September 1939.

Freud argued that the central factor of motivation for our actions was sex. He believed that sexual symbols were all around us and that even buildings were being designed and built by architects who had sex on their minds whilst designing, or even with noticing it. Freud claimed that women suffered from penis envy and that the love for their fathers was as a result of their love for penis.

Freud believed the mind was divided into three separate parts: The id, the ego, and the superego. The theory of an unconscious mind is his legacy. 'The id' is the part of the brain that controls your animalistic desires like the urge to constantly have sex and perform horrific acts such as murder or rape. 'The id' sees objects and immediately links them to sex. 'The ego' is the origin of consciousness and the reality of principle. It is simply the part of the brain which has morals. 'The superego' is the part of the mind that controls and calms down 'the id'. It accepts the law of right and wrong and offers a degree of rational thought.

Freud stated that the 5 stages of life development were oral, anal, phallic phase, latency and genitals. He thought that putting things in your mouth and obsession with your mouth in later life came from the oral stage and premature weaning as a baby when being breast-fed.

He argued that the anal stage was if not properly toilet trained when a child, then your life could lead into a path of obsession and complusive lifestyle, and the phallic stage was the stage in your life when as a young child you wanted to have sex with your own mother and wanted to kill your father but knowing he was too strong for you. He said that if you had the ability to kill your father, you would have done out of jealousy and married your mother.

A battle of all three parts of the mind can lead to a repression. A way of repressing these feelings is sublimation which is another means of focus, or even a distraction from sexual feelings. There was "Projection" which is turning your shameful sexual thought onto somebody else. "Displacement" which is taking your thoughts and turning them into someone else. "Rationalisation" is the more socially accepted explanation, and finally "regression" itself which is regressing back to a different stage.

Freud argued that civilisation was there to control the desires of humankind, although through the mode of hypnosis and dreams he believes he could control 'the id'. He also claimed that aggression would never be eliminated from the mind or body. However, from a science point of view, Freud's theories could not be tested on because they were so vague. Yet, science has proved that the brain has three separate parts: the reptilian brain, the limbic system, and the neo cortex. The "Reptilian Brain" is the motor movement or the attack. The "limbic system" are emotions and the "neo cortex" is language or communication.