by Ruth Snowden
Freud – The Key Ideas
With thanks to Richard Chapman, the illustrator of this book.
Teach®
Yourself
Freud – The Key Ideas
Ruth Snowden
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First published in UK 2006 by Hodder Education, part of Hachette UK, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH.
First published in US 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
This edition published 2010.
Previously published as Teach Yourself Freud.
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Copyright © 2006, 2010 Ruth Snowden
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Contents
Meet the author
Only got a minute?
Only got five minutes?
Only got ten minutes?
Introduction
1 Freud’s life and career
Freud’s early life
Vienna and the society in which Freud lived
A brief outline of Freud’s career
Freud’s private life and personality
2 Freud’s early work
Freud’s medical training
Scientific research
Hysteria and hypnosis
Nineteenth-century scientific and moral thinking
Freud’s first ideas about the unconscious
3 The beginnings of psychoanalysis
The crucial decade
The repression of sexual ideas
The seduction theory
The pressure technique
The free-association technique
Transference
Freud’s self-analysis
The analysis of Dora
4 The interpretation of dreams
Why dreams are important in psychoanalysis
Dreams as wish fulfilment
Dream mechanisms
Methods of dream interpretation
Freudian symbols
Origins of dreams
5 Exploring the unconscious
The divisions of the mind
The theory of the unconscious
The pleasure principle and the reality principle
Parapraxis, the famous Freudian slip
Jokes and the unconscious
6 Sexual theories
Freud attacks current thinking
Sexual deviations
Infantile sexuality
The struggles of puberty
7 Going back to childhood
Psychosexual development
Infantile amnesia
The oral stage
The anal stage
The phallic stage
The Oedipus complex
The latency stage
The genital stage
8 Seeking an adult identity
Freud’s new model of the mind
The id
The ego
The super-ego
Anxiety
Defence mechanisms
Narcissism
Mourning and melancholia
Instincts
Eros and Thanatos
Character
9 Freud and society
Civilization
Religion
Thoughts about war
Art and literature
10 Psychoanalysis
The process of psychoanalysis
Some of Freud’s own cases
Early beginnings of the psychoanalytic movement
Rifts in the psychoanalytic movement
Some famous followers of Freud
Psychoanalysis today
Glossary
Taking it further
Timeline of important events in Freud’s life
Places to visit
A list of Freud’s most important works
Further reading
Useful websites
Index
Meet the author
Welcome to Freud – The Key Ideas!
I first became interested in both Freud and his follower Jung (who eventually broke away from Freud) while I was still at school. What really drew me to their work was their shared interest in dreams and the unconscious, and it was this aspect that led me to a decision to study psychology at degree level. As it turned out however, my BSc degree in Psychology at the University of Birmingham was very firmly based on the scientific method and behavioural psychology, and so I was disappointed to find that Freud and Jung’s work was not considered worthy of much study. After university I went into teaching for a few years. This proved to be very useful groundwork in preparing me to be a writer, because I had to learn how to explain ideas in ways which most people could grasp easily. My early interest in dreams was somewhat on the back burner at this stage, but I was always interested to listen to children’s accounts of their nocturnal journeys.
A necessary career break came while my own three children were smal
l, but it was during this period that I turned once again to my own inner world and began to record my dreams in a dream diary. I also became fascinated by my children’s accounts of their own dreams and the way their very individual psyches gradually unfolded. This was the beginning of something big, although I was yet to realize it at the time. Eventually my early interests really came to the fore again and I set up a complementary therapy practice, which offered personal development amongst other things. One of the main approaches I used for this was dream-work and in 1998 I was commissioned to write my first book, Working With Dreams. This was published by How To Books, under the name of Ruth Berry. Two years later, in 2000, Hodder published two more books of mine: Freud: a Beginner’s Guide and Jung: a Beginner’s Guide. By the time these were followed by the first editions of Teach Yourself Freud and Teach Yourself Jung I had remarried and now write as Ruth Snowden.
I now work full-time as a writer and my main interests lie in the spiritual and the psychological, especially in the interactions between the natural world, human culture and the psyche. Freud and Jung were both deeply fascinated by the same kinds of things and you can read accounts in their work of their studies of ancient history, myth, dreams, synchronicities, the paranormal and world religions. As well as writing for adults, I also write poetry and children’s fiction, where I enjoy weaving myths into new stories.
Nowadays, a century after his time, people often make fun of some of Freud’s more way-out ideas. But I feel that this is unfair. It is easy to forget that Freud was one of the greatest thinkers of his day and his ground-breaking work has totally changed our way of looking at ourselves and our relationships with others.
Ruth Snowden, 2010
1: Only got a minute?
Sigmund Freud was a doctor who lived in Vienna. He is famous because he founded a new system of psychology that he called psychoanalysis.
Freud began by using hypnosis to treat neurotic patients. He decided that neurotic symptoms were caused by repressed sexual experiences.
He explored these suppressed memories using dream analysis and his new technique, which he called free association.
Dreams are of central importance in psychoanalysis. Freud saw dreams as disguised wish fulfilments, mainly harking back to childhood experiences.
Much of Freud’s work concerned the unconscious mind, which he explored by looking at parapraxes (Freudian slips) and jokes, as well as dreams.
Freud claimed that the sexual instinct was very complex and that it was present from birth. Sexual development could get stuck at any stage.
His theories about the stages of childhood sexual development became a model for social and psychological development generally.
Freud said that the mind had three different levels: the id, ego and super-ego. These often worked in conflict with one another.
Freud said that civilization causes conflict within the individual, who has to conform. He saw religion and art as means of escape from the real world.
Many people have been inspired by Freud and the psychoanalytic movement grew to achieve international importance, despite rifts and arguments.
5: Only got five minutes?
1 Freud’s life and career
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is famous because he founded a new system of psychology called psychoanalysis. His work largely concerns the unconscious mind and is still the basis of various therapies used today. Psychoanalysis also works with theories about the unconscious, personality development, relationships and society.
2 Freud’s early work
Freud’s pioneering work helped to cure neurotic symptoms by releasing suppressed traumatic memories. This was called the cathartic method. He suggested that conflict occurred when one part of the mind wanted to release blocked up emotions but another part resisted. This conflict led to a process called resistance. Such ideas gradually led Freud to discoveries about the unconscious.
3 The beginnings of psychoanalysis
Freud claimed that the key to neurosis was the suppressed memory of a childhood sexual seduction. He said that current treatment methods were unhelpful because the patient was not in control. Using his new method, the free association technique, he encouraged people to relax and voice whatever thoughts arose. Freud was also beginning to use dream analysis to access the unconscious.
4 The Interpretation of dreams
Freud emphasised the importance of dreams because they occur during sleep, when the conscious mind releases its hold. He saw all dreams as wish fulfilments and said that dream symbols were often used to disguise childhood sexual issues and prevent them from entering the conscious mind. Exploring the hidden desire symbolised in dreams could therefore help to unravel neuroses.
5 Exploring the unconscious
Freud explored the unconscious by studying dreams, jokes, and parapraxes (Freudian slips). He decided that there were three states of consciousness:
The conscious mind is aware of its thoughts and actions.
The unconscious is repressed. Information here cannot easily be accessed.
The preconscious is where information is stored but can easily be recalled.
6 Sexual theories
Freud studied what he saw as being sexual deviations and drew several conclusions:
The sexual instinct has to struggle against various mental resistances.
It is more complicated than people had previously maintained.
The sexuality of neurotics has usually remained in, or reverted to, an infantile state.
Freud’s study of infantile sexuality challenged the popular view that sexuality lay dormant until puberty, saying that sexual impulses are present from birth.
7 Going back to childhood
Freud said that personality development depends on a child’s progression through biologically determined stages, each concerned with a different source of sexual pleasure.
The oral stage focuses on the mother’s breast.
The anal stage focuses on the anus and defecation.
The phallic stage focuses on the genitals.
The Oedipus complex develops when the child falls in love with the opposite sex parent.
The latency stage – the sexual drive becomes dormant until puberty.
The genital stage – the sex drive finally becomes focussed on sexual intercourse with an opposite-sex adult.
8 Seeking an adult identity
Freud proposed a new dynamic model of the mind, involving three main parts: the id, ego and super-ego. Conflicts between these result in anxiety and stress. Unconscious defence mechanisms arise in order to protect the ego from too much anxiety. An example is projection, when taboo urges or faults are projected outwards onto another person.
9 Freud and society
Freud said that civilization is necessary for the survival of the species, but the pressure to conform makes it hard for individuals to be happy. Human nature consists of deep instinctual impulses and therefore we can never totally eradicate evils such as war. He maintained that all art was the result of the sublimation of libidinous urges; he was also dismissive of religious teachings, saying that they were merely created to help people cope with the tensions of civilisation.
10 Psychoanalysis
In 1902 Freud was appointed professor at the University of Vienna. He still faced much opposition, but a small supportive gathering slowly evolved into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1909 the ‘International Journal of Psychoanalysis’ was published for the first time. The following year the International Psychoanalytic Association was formed. Despite arguments and rifts within the psychoanalytic movement, many influential thinkers have been inspired by Freud and have developed his ideas further.
10: Only got ten minutes?
1 Freud’s life and career
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was an Austrian doctor who lived and worked in Vienna for most of his life. His work largely concerns the unconscious mind. Before Freud, psychologists usually just described and observed behavio
ur. Freud wanted to go deeper, to analyse and explain it. He said that we have many inner motives for our behaviour, and that these are mostly sexual. Freud is famous because he founded a new system of psychology that he called psychoanalysis, which is still the basis of various therapies used today.
Psychoanalysis has three main aspects. Firstly it is a type of therapy aimed at treating mental and nervous disorders. Secondly it attempts to explain how the human personality develops and how it works. Finally it provides theories about how individuals function within personal relationships and in society.
2 Freud’s early work
While doing medical research Freud became interested in hysteria and hypnosis. When he began private practice two main methods of treatment were currently used with neurotic patients: electrotherapy and hypnosis. Freud said electrotherapy was useless: when it did seem to work it was only because of the power of suggestion. In other words he was saying that mental processes could affect physical symptoms. This was a very new idea, but Freud was not afraid to go against mainstream thinking. He carried on with his pioneering cathartic method, helping to cure neurotic symptoms by releasing suppressed traumatic memories.
Freud’s suggested that conflict often arose between two different parts of the mind. One part wanted to release blocked up emotions but another part blocked this by a process of repression. Ideas like this gradually led Freud to his discoveries about the unconscious.
3 The beginnings of psychoanalysis
At first Freud thought that neurotic symptoms were always caused by traumatic events, but soon he decided that they could be caused by repressed sexual urges. Freud attacked current authoritarian methods and developed the free association technique, where the patient was encouraged to relax on the couch and feel free to voice whatever thoughts arose.