Sigmund Freud`s Psychotherapy

Chrisrine Adika

Professor Roth

English 101

28 Febuary 2007

Sigmund Freud 's Psychotherapy

Freud 's psychoanalysis is the best known of all personality theories because it (1 ) postulated the primacy of sex and aggression - two universally popular themes (2 ) attracted a group of followers who were dedicated to spreading psychoanalytic doctrine and (3 ) advanced the notion of unconscious motives , which permit varying explanations for the same observations (Tallis 669

Sigmund Freud initially formulated psychoanalysis during the latter part of the nineteenth century . The essence of psychoanalytic technique is

br the investigation of repressed trauma by means of dream interpretation transference and free association . Freud built his theory on observations from history , art , and literature , but his primary source of data came from his clinical experiences with neurotic patients whose dreams and slips of the tongue he analyzed as part of his psychotherapy His psychoanalytic theory has been applied to psychotherapy , dream interpretation , and Freudian slips

A . Freud 's Early Therapeutic Technique

During his early years as a therapist , Freud used a very aggressive technique whereby he strongly suggested to patients that they had been sexually seduced as children . He later abandoned this technique , along with his belief that most patients had been seduced during childhood The current frequency with which therapy patients accuse their parents or other adults of criminal sexual acts has prompted some investigators to look at the validity of these claims

B . Freud 's Later Therapeutic Technique

Beginning in the late 1890s , Freud adopted a much more passive type of psychotherapy , one that relied heavily on free association , dream interpretation , and transference . The goal of Freud 's later psychotherapy was to uncover repressed memories , and the therapist uses dream analysis and free association to do so . With free association patients are required to say whatever comes to mind , no matter how irrelevant or distasteful . Successful therapy rests on the patient 's transference of childhood sexual or aggressive feelings onto the therapist and away from symptom formation . Patients ' resistance to change is seen as progress because it indicates that therapy has advanced beyond superficial conversation

C . Dream Analysis

In interpreting dreams , Freud differentiated the manifest content (conscious ) from the latent content (the unconscious meaning of the dream that lies hidden from the dreamer . Nearly all dreams are wish-fulfillments , although the wish is usually unconscious and can be known only through dream interpretation . Dreams that are not wish-fulfillments follow the principle of repetition compulsion and often occur after people have had a traumatic experience (Bouveresse and Cosman 34-35 . `To interpret dreams , Freud used both dream symbols and the dreamer 's associations to the dream content (Bouveresse and Cosman 37

D . Freudian Slips

Freud believed that parapraxes - that is , slips of the tongue or pen misreadings , incorrect hearings , misplacing of objects , and temporary forgetting of names or intentions - are not chance accidents but reveal a person 's unconscious intentions (Freud 227

Related Research

Although Freudian theory has generated much related research , it rates low on falsifiability because most research findings...