Psycho-Analysis

Sigmund Freud is well known as the creator of Freudian psychology, or Psycho-Analysis.Freud was an Austrian psychologist that focuses on the unconscious and the subconscious. Today, psychoanalysis is criticized for its extreme methods and its inability to be tested and proved. Some terms coined by Freud such as the Oedipus Complex, or the theory that as a male child, one possesses sexual desires towards his mom and a sense of competition or jealousy towards the father, were completely ridiculed at by society and criticized. In modern day, such theories are still being criticized and challenged. What a lot of people do not know is that even though such Freudian theories are disregarded by people as being valid, many concepts that Freud introduced were taken to a whole new level by psychologists, opening up a new era of psychology. Terms such as the id, or the pleasure principle, and the ego, or the reality principle are used interchangeably to describe desires that humans might have. In modern day, the most common type of psychoanalysis is treating patients with emotional problems such as not being able to sleep well, having recurring nightmares, or even in more extreme cases, social cases. It has evolved into more of a "talking" therapy where the patient reveals intimate information to the therapist and the therapist provides SIMPLE healing techniques. This is one of the most common misconceptions that people have about modern psychoanalysis. It is hard for people to comprehend how such abstract and ridiculous-sounding ideas Freud had made it to modern psychology and are still used today. Freud in fact did come up with a lot of theories and ideas on the human mind, including ideas on hidden sex drives, and ideas such as that women feeling inferior because they do not have male reproductive organs, or interpreting latent content, or hidden storyline of a dream. In fact, this is not what made Freud successful and popular. What Freud left in psychology is the idea that the brain is separated into levels of functioning that one is not completely aware of. Using this information, therapists in modern day psychoanalysis strive to find the right things to say to their patients to help work through problems. Although a lot of Freud's original ideas were not passed down, his contribution to psychology has been enormous.