Freud And Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Psychoanalysis

We never touched, Abby” (Miller Act 1). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an incredibly complex play depicting the fictional events of the Salem Witch Trials. If one is to begin to dissect the contents of said play, you must look at it from a psychological point of view. Particularly, a view of Freudian psychology might provide insight as to why some characters made certain decisions and carried out the actions they did. Using a Freudian psychological lens to examine The Crucible, readers can take a closer look at the actions of John Proctor and Abigail Williams and form hypotheses as to their deeper motives.

What would you do in a dystopian society? Brainwashing has changed American society in many ways, mostly in negative ways. For instance, in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury states that society has been brainwashed into thinking that books are deleterious. The main character in the novel Guy Montag tries to convince society why books are important. On the other hand, society thinks that Montag was out of his mind.

“The psychopaths are always around. In calm times we study them, but in times of upheaval, they rule over us” (Kretschmer 94). This quote by German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer identifies the mental illness of psychopathy as capable of both academic and social interest. The concept of psychopathy has been evolving since the 19th century, with authors like Robert Smith attributing the mental illness to religious failings and a lack of cognitive distinction between right and wrong (13).

The articles The Myth of Mental Illness and Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder addressed the issue of mental illness in two completely different contexts. Both authors agreed that societal context plays a large role in classifying what is “mental illness”. In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz was critical and sceptical of the definition of mental illness. Mental illness was defined as a deviation in behaviour from psychological, ethical or legal norms. He then proceeded to ask the reader, “Who defines the norms and hence the deviation?”

Scientists have developed many theories about the purpose behind dreaming. So many, however, that scientists and the scientific community are greatly divided on what theory is more likely to one day be fact. With the current inability to even narrow down the theories, let alone prove one, scientists continue to argue their points about these theories. A popular theory on why dreams occur is the Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud 's theory states that dreams are a representation of thoughts, wants, and needs (Cherry).

The insanity defense is available to those with serious mental illnesses as a legal excuse for criminal responsibility (Felthous, 2010). The insanity defense continues to be debated and has both legal and mental health professionals questioning whether psychopathic disorders should qualify under the defense or not. The history of criminal responsibility dates back to 1838 when Isaac Ray published his famous book in which he argued that those who committed criminal offences should not be found guilty due to their “moral mania” (Felthous, 2010). The most famous and influential case however was of Daniel M’Naghten who, in 1843, fatally shot the prime minister of England’s secretary while suffering from a paranoid delusion.

Up until the 19th century, trauma meant something psychical. Once limited to bodily wounds, trauma, in its contemporary understanding, is now also recognized as an injury to the mind, soul, or spirit. Though Sigmund Freud’s views of trauma evolved over time, what remains essential from his studies of “hysteria” and “shell-shock” is the inability of the mind to perceive the traumatic event as it occurs, resulting in a structure of delayed understanding. The traumatic memory cannot be processed on a linguistic level and as a result, surfaces through as somatosensory and involuntary responses. Studying these forms of embodied memory led those like French psychologist Pierre Janet to make the careful distinction between narrative and traumatic memory.

In 1923, Sigmund Freud proposed his theory that the make-up of an individual’s personality is largely governed by three fundamental components: the id, the ego, and the superego. Working through the unconscious and shaping behavior according to psychological fixations and conflicts or lack thereof, these elements evolve through five levels of psychosexual development (Freud, 1962). However, in spite of its compelling approach to the phenomenon, Freud’s structural theory of personality is riddled with limitations and as such, is subject to much criticism. The mind is layered into three states: the conscious, referring to the thoughts currently in our forefront; the preconscious, idle thoughts that can be easily accessed and brought to the conscious; and the unconscious, which houses the more instinctual drives that are repressed because it threatens the conscious’ equilibrium (Cloninger, 1996).

The Good, the Bad, and the In-Between Sigmund Freud, an intellectual genius, created an entirely new technique that dealt with the understanding of the human personality. This technique, called psychoanalysis, consists of three parts. The id responds directly to his or her instincts, while the superego relies on his or her conscience. Lastly, the ego represents reality, or the balance between the id and superego. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the three levels of subconsciousness are ideally filled by the main characters, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale.

These inseparable conflicting forces constantly struggle for sovereignty in his consciousness as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are implied to be the primitive duality of good and evil. Dualism is used to convey both good and evil within individuals during the Victorian and Jacobean era. Stevenson uses the ideology of the three divisions of psychoanalytic theory which was created by Sigmund Freud (a neurologist) in the nineteen hundreds. This theory suggested that the psychological side of humans was constructed of three different forms, the id which is the instinctual side; the super-ego which is the moral/ethical and ego the realistic part. This theory can be seen in Stevenson’s novella to show duality in the form of ambition as Dr Jekyll had desire and thirst for Knowledge which led to Mr Hyde.

Janessa Holman Psych.451- Intro. To Psychotherapy 03/31/2016 Paper #3: Research Review Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, while being responsible for influencing all other forms of subsequent therapy, has a prevalent discounting in modern psychological circles, as well as present-day media (Wolitzsky, 33-34). Due in part to a growing emphasis on Cognitive Behavior Therapy and its supposed superior effectiveness, as well as a reluctance on the part of its forefathers to submit their patients to research methodology, believing it improbable for a study to measure treatment benefits, such as insight, freedom from inner constraints, etc., Psychodynamic Therapy has been brushed aside as an ineffective therapy, due to a supposed lack of empirical research support (Shedler, 1). Dr. Jonathan Shedler argues that this presumption is entirely false, for though “evidence based” is typically utilized to refer to “a group of therapies conducted according to instruction manuals (‘manualized’ therapies) (Shedler, 1), this does not negate

However, the political promise of response is far-fetched. America urgently needs a drug policy reform because the current policies are failing. An ideal drug reform law is one that is grounded in evidence-based research and health and safety concerns. Dr. Carl Hart has spent almost his entire career studying the effects of drug use on the brain. According to Hart, adopting a fear-based approach to counter substance abuse and addiction is misleading and often results in a excess of other harmful effects.