Sigmund Freud

May 1856 – 23 September 1939

Early Life• Freud was born in Freiberg,

Moravia in 1856• When he was four years

old his family moved to Vienna where he was to live and work until the last years of his life• His parents ensured his

schooling and education• Studied at the University

og Vienna

Field of research • Psychology was his main field of research• Psychology is the study of the mind• What motivates individuals• What makes people “tick”

Contributions• He founded the discipline of psychoanalysis• Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory

conceived in the late 19th and early 20th

• Basic Psychoanalysis includes….

Experiences which are largely determined by irrational drives, those drives are largely

unconscious &

Events in early childhood

Unconscious Mind• Strongly believed in repression- "the psychical

mechanism of (unconscious) defence“• Wrote The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and

Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905)o Dealt with unconscious mental activity

Video• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfP9AIJA72E

Cocaine Use

• Early user and proponent of cocaine as a stimulant

• He believed that cocaine was a cure for many mental and physical problems

How did he further psychology?

• Refined the concepts of the unconscious mind• Created a reference for the understanding of

human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions

• Dream interpretation

Video• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWMEnkyL_qA

Dream Theories• Maintained the notion that the dream

fundamentally acts as the guardian of sleep• Believed that the body manufactured dreams to

protect the sleeper from internal and external stimuli

Composition of a Dream

• Freud claimed there were 2 parts to a dream:• The Manifest:

• content that a person would remember as soon as they wake - what they could consciously describe to someone when recalling the dream.

• Freud believed the manifest content possessed no meaning.• The Latent Content:

• holds the true meaning of the dream - the thoughts and unconscious desires.

• disguised in the manifest content

• Dreams which the manifest and latent content can be indistinguishable Freud referred to as “Infantile dreams”

Dream Work • The process by which the latent content is

transformed into the manifest content.

• Works in 4 ways:o Condensationo Displacemento Symbolismo Secondary Revision

Freud insisted that dreams are a form of fulfilling suppressed wishes.

If a wish goes unsatisfied during the dreamer’s normal day, the mind reacts to this ‘internal stimuli’ by transforming it into a visual fantasy – allowing the dreamer to satisfy his or her desire.

The result of which is a peaceful night’s sleep.