By Bill Hart


The reverence that Sigmund Freud commands in the world of psychiatry is well earned. A good deal of this reverence is based upon his concept of psychoanalysis, or "examination of the mind". The primary elements of this idea include the following.

For starters, the seeds of the concept germinated on Freud's belief that everyone has needs that are not conscious of. Such needs are of a primal nature, and encompass things such as a need for food. These unconscious needs are controlled by our id, an aspect of our mind that we have from the moment we are born.

As we progress towards childhood, we start to hold memories of previous events and take on ideas about who we are and what sort of world we live in. This leads to the development of the ego. With further progression, we take on the social mores that our society abides by and develop a superego (more widely referred to as a conscience).

It is often the case that the needs of the id will conflict with the morals that the superego upholds. The role that the ego plays in this case is to resolve this conflict. Such a resolution allows the id to be gratified without the superego being impaired.

However, it is a possibility that the needs of our id may circumvent the restraining influence of both our egos and superegos. Such circumvention will bring about weird and neurotic behavior. Such behavior was the object of Freud's study and led him to develop his ideas to begin with.

In conclusion, the theory of psychoanalysis has had a great effect on psychiatry. The elements of this theory outlined above has become part and parcel of modern psychiatric discourse, even among those who repudiate Freudian theory. This fact alone testifies to how deep the effect of this theory is.




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