Sigmud Freud and Psychoanalysis

“A human is not the master of his own body”

With this sentence, the man who played such a big role in the analysis of our psyche shocked the whole world. His name? Sigmund Freud. He founded a lot of theories like that, especially theories about one awkward topic: sexuality, which was very taboo in the time he was born. In the following text, the life of Sigmund Freud and different parts of his theories will be discussed.

On May 6, 1856, Sigmund Freud, who was actually called Sigismus Schlomo Freud, first saw the light of day as the son of a Jewish family. With nine brothers and sisters, Freud was never bored. After his father lost his business because of the economic crisis of 1857 he and his family moved to Leipzig, and just a few months later to Vienna. In this city, Freud entered the Leopoldstädter Kommunal-Realgymnasium, and completed the Matura in 1873. Until 1881, he studied Medicine at the University of Vienna. After a lot of research, working and travelling, he declared what he is most famous for today: the existence of the subconscious.

In 1886, Sigmund Freud married Martha Bernays. With this woman he had six children, three girls and three boys. Oddly enough his relationship to the girls was better than the one to his boys. Nevertheless, he was an aloof father, who had a lot of difficulties building up a relationship not only with his children, but also with other people. In 1930, Freud was awarded the “Goethepreis,” and after eight years he left Vienna and migrated to England.

Throughout his whole life, Freud smoked about 20 cigarettes a day, so it was not very surprising when he got sick. After many operations he died in London on September 23, 1939.

Now that we know all the important facts about Sigmund Freud’s life, it would be very interesting to find out something about the theories he developed. In the following text we will get to know something about his psychoanalysis.

His first theory was the one of unconscious motivation. Sigmund Freud divided the human psyche into three parts: Id, Ego and Superego. Each of these instances has its own “job.”

Firstly, the Id: The only aim of the Id is the fulfillment of its needs, no matter if others have to suffer because of them. Thus, it acts according to the “Pleasure Principle.” Moreover, he assumed that a lot of sexual energy, also known as libido, lies there.

Let us take a look at the Superego. It acts in contradiction to the Id. The Superego always tries to remind us of instructions. Of course this instance is affected by our parents who taught us what is wrong and what is right in our early childhood. So, if we do something wrong, the Superego reminds us of this, which causes a bad conscience.

The Ego acts according to the reality principle. It is always keen to keep the Id and the Superego under control, which means it is aware of the consequences of doing something wrong and tries to find a balance between the Id and the Superego. Finally, the Ego has to decide what the human being does.

In this picture the concept of unconscious motivation is illustrated. On the left, you can see the Id. Its face and the way it looks are somehow scary and show similarities with the devil. The way its tongue comes out of its mouth shows that it wants something very much.

On the right there is the Superego. Its mouth, eyes and ears are covered. All it can recognize are parental advices and morals. Above its head there is a halo, which shows that it wants to act properly, perhaps like an angel.

In the middle of the heads, there is the Ego. It does not look very happy because it has to decide what and who is right and wrong, the devil or the angel.

Moreover, there is Freud’s theory that there are sexual needs even in a child. He divides the childhood in different parts. The first one is the oral phase. Its name comes from the fact that babies want to experience their environment with their mouth. In addition, they use their mouth to suck on their mother’s breast. In this phase little children make their first steps towards their own sexuality. The next phase is named anal stage. Babies learn to experience their genitals, which is a totally normal part of their development. Phallic phase is the time when little boys want to marry their mums and little girls their dads. At first sight, this seems crazy, but it’s usual in becoming an adult. The last phase is called genital phase and starts as soon as the child reaches puberty. Here an adolescent has his/her first sexual experiences.

As you can see, sexuality seems to play a big role for Sigmund Freud. However, he also deals with the importance and meanings of dreams. In Freud’s eyes, in every dream there lies a little bit of truth. Dreams are displaced wishes, which are often connected to unfulfilled sexual desires. In his point of view, each symbol in a dream has a special meaning; for example dreaming about being naked in public expresses the wish of childlike unabashed nudity, dreaming about losing teeth indicates that you are afraid of losing your sexuality due to castration. Freud also argues that dreaming about the death of a person you like, stands for the wish that a person you did not like in your childhood, maybe a rival who loved the same girl like you in kindergarten, would die.

If you look at the meaning of dreams for Freud, you’ll find some connection to “Brave New World”. There, people are conditioned by others telling them who they should be in their dreams. In the famous book by Aldous Huxley, people experience sleep teaching to show them to which class they belong. Another basic part of Freud’s theories is the avoidance of sexuality. If this is the case, people become sick, for example with neuroses. In “Brave New World”, these theses are adopted: people are supposed to satisfy their sexuality with lots of different partners. They are to be promiscuous.

So after we’ve found out something about Freud and learned about his psychoanalysis, we should have a closer look at his statement: “A human is not the master of his own body.” Is this true? Or is it just a sentence by a man who was totally crazy?

In our opinion, Freud is right. We are influenced by something we can’t see. It is concealed deep in the psyches of everybody. Of course, this seems a little confusing, but only at first glance. Haven’t you ever dreamt about something which happened to you the day before, just with little variations called Déjà-vu? Just think about it the next time you take a walk, and realize: I have already been in this situation, haven’t I?

By Miriam Ottenwälder and Sabine Schremser

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