Freud Was an Austrian Neurologist and the Founder of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytical Theorists

Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. He created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. Freud is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial minds of the 20th century. He developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defenses against them (Cherry, 2013).

In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analyzed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences. Freud's contributions came at a time when interest in mental illness and how to classify it was growing; however, the cause was unknown and treatments were mostly ineffective, mostly because clinicians and researchers were still focused on conscious, cognitive processes. Freud was unique because he recognized an entirely different mental realm, and many of his concepts were revolutionary and fundamental in their time and are so recognized today that they have entered the daily vocabulary of the general public. He has been influential in two distinct, but related ways. He concurrently developed a theory of the human mind and human behavior, and a clinical technique for helping unhappy people. Many people claim to have been influenced by one but not the other (Cherry, 2013).

Freudian theory and practice have been challenged by empirical findings over the years. Some people continue to train in, and practice, traditional Freudian psychoanalysis, but most psychiatrists today reject the large majority of Freud's work as unsupported by evidence and best used for inspiration or historical study, if at all. Although Freud developed his method for the treatment of neuroses, some people today seek out psychoanalysis not as a cure for an illness, but as part of a process of self-discovery. His work was very influential during this his time because there were no other explanations for mental illness, and his theories gave support and hope to researchers to begin to explore his findings and connect them with other theories (Cherry, 2013).

Erik Erikson was a German born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. Erikson is best known for his psychosocial developmental stages and identity. He believed that the ego existed from birth and that behavior was not totally defensive. Erikson did not agree with many of Freud's views (McLeod, 2008).

John Bowlby was a British psychologist and psychoanalyst best known for his work with the attachment theory, and his interest in child development. Bowlby believed that mental health and behavioral problems could be related to early childhood. His theory of attachment suggests that children are born being biologically pre-programmed to form attachments to others; he thought that these attachments help them to survive (McLeod, 2007).

Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology. Piaget may be best known for his four stages of cognitive development model. He discovered that children think and reason differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that everyone passed through an invariant sequence of four qualitatively distinct stages. Invariant means that a person cannot skip stages or reorder them. Although every normal child passes through the stages in exactly the same order, there is some variability in the ages at which children attain each stage (McLeod, 2009).

Many of the analysts that followed Freud disagreed with many of his views. For example, Erik Erikson believed that Freud was incorrect to believe that

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