Explorer of the Depths: Freud

Chapter 7 of Hunt’s The Story of Psychology (1993) focuses on the life and career of one of the most important and controversial figures in the field of psychology: Sigmund Freud. It was prophesized early in Freud’s life that he was destined for greatness, a prediction that Hunt (1993) credits as the potential motivator for Freud’s ambition and academic diligence. Of the two professions available to him as a Jew living in 19th Century Vienna, medicine appealed to him significantly more than law, so he pursued studies in science and eventually narrowed his attention to psychological disciplines (Hunt, 1993).

Throughout his collaboration with Breuer, Freud began to discover and develop the seeds that would eventually grow into his unique brand of psychotherapy (Hunt, 1993). Beginning first with hypnotherapy, Freud gathered inspiration from Breuer’s treatment of a woman suffering from symptoms of hysteria in which he would “lightly hypnotize her” in hopes of drawing out words and phrases relating to the origins of her distress (Hunt, 1993, p. 252). Freud adopted this method in his own practice, but with only fragmented success (Hunt, 1993). Not until a particularly troubled woman named Frau Emmy insisted that he discontinue “asking her where this or that came from, but to let her tell [him] what she had to say,” (Hunt, 1993, p. 256), did he make the paramount discovery of free association.

From this discovery and Freud’s subsequently developed techniques comes the ubiquitous image of the therapist smoking his pipe in a leather chair while the patient lies stretched before him on a couch, ruminating on their troubles. The late 1800s produced the term “psychoanalysis” as the moniker for Freud’s variety of treatment rooted in the discussion and dissection of painful memories, a process that aimed to uncover the root of the patient’s illness as a means of curing it (Hunt, 1993).

In the 20th Century, Freud unearthed a number of significant, psychological phenomena that serve as the building blocks of psychoanalysis, beginning with transference and dream interpretation (Hunt, 1993). The latter topic had gone unexplored or branded trivial by his predecessors. Seeing the potential power of the unconscious to create meaningful narratives of his patients’ strife, Freud published his ideas in 1900 as The Interpretation of Dreams (Hunt, 1993). Among the other discoveries that comprise Freud’s approach in his theory of psychoanalysis are: repression; the pleasure principle, the dynamic unconscious, the Oedipus complex, primary and secondary processes, infantile sexuality, the principle of constancy, and the stages of sexual development (Hunt, 1993). All of these concepts remain in use today within many contexts, from native psychology to literary theory.

Freud became a household name beginning in the early 20th Century. He was (and still is) the subject of both praise and criticism (Hunt, 1993). The lack of a scientific basis remains one of the most prominent and persistent criticisms of psychoanalysis. Hunt (1993) discusses a number of scientists and psychologists who have put Freud’s theories to the test in a clinical setting, the general outcome being that he “fared rather well” (p. 296) in a great deal of these studies, having been correct about a “respectable number of issues” (p. 296).

Still, by the time these “partial confirmations” (Hunt, 1993, p. 297) surfaced, psychoanalysis was already beginning to lose its relevance. However, by the 1980s and 90s—over 40 years after his death—Freud’s theories were thrust back into prominence (Hunt, 1993). Though Freud and his methods will continue as a topic of controversy and even disparagement, their timeless applicability to the human condition is undeniable. Hunt (1993) cites Freud’s main objective in the development of psychoanalysis as the desire to discover, “what am I and what made me that way,” (p. 248). It is safe to say that this is one of the most critical questions human beings will continue to ask themselves regardless of time, space, and hard scientific evidence. In this way, Freud’s psychoanalysis will always be relevant, as long as humankind has a subconscious.

Reference

Hunt, M. M. (1993). The story of psychology. New York: Doubleday.