Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is a famous Austrian psychologist who made a great contribution into the development of the modern classic western psychology. In the beginning of the 20th century he developed many innovative ideas according to innovative features of his time. Freud was the one who suggested turning back from the ideas of Enlightenment, where knowledge meant too much. In that age, people believed in the power of knowledge very much, and they did much to understand the role of people in the history. In the opinion of Sigmund Freud, many things in human life matter much more than the light of knowledge. For example, people are ruled by many other forces like those that are hidden deep inside the human nature. In the opinion of Sigmund Freud, people are ruled by unconsciousness, and even if they don’t realize many things, hidden consciousness matters much in the development of people nature. Unconsciousness matters much for dreaming, thinking, realizing the role in life, self-development, and self-esteem. All these issues were in future developed by Karl Yung who tried to understand the human behavior and psychology from the perspective of archetypes. The archetypes are symbolic norms of the behavior that are useful to understand the role in life of civilization via its representatives. For example, Karl Yung strongly believed that the archetypes of mother, player, etc. have significant meaning in the development of civilizations that have strong roots in Greek and Roman mythology. Myths are very significant to understand the stereotypes and archetypes of many people who are the worthy members of the society. The theory of Freud was just the first step to understand the essence of new ideas in psychology.
Sigmund Freud strongly believed that every human is a complex creature that has much in mind, and brain develops many ideas that are very useful for the further development of views, judgments, opinions, etc. Human mind is a complex essence that should be studied very well, and Freud understood this very well. He was aimed to develop new opinions in this field, and his views and theories were applied and proved practically. This is one of the main advantages of Freud’s theories. Sigmund Freud was so obsessed and inspired with his ideas that it was very difficult that people understand him in his times. In the beginning of the 20th century people were not ready to accept new views, and narrow minded people criticized the psychologist. But in any case, he managed to develop many useful ideas and apply them in practice, although it was so much difficult for the 20th century. Even his serious disease did not prevent him from writing and thinking about new theories. And in the future, Freud’s works would become of very much use for the development of the modern psychology. These theories were very useful for development of human psychology.
The works of Sigmund Freud are very significant and useful, and according to them, it is possible to cure many mental disorders in a way of applying psychoanalysis. Freud strongly believed that every disease can be cured, if the doctor should take care about finding the reasons of this disorder. Since every difficulty lies in mind, it is very useful to find out why many things happen in human mind. For example, Freud believed that before starting curing the patient, it is very good to observe him/her in a way of analyzing their gestures, mimics, etc. This helps to understand the nature and mental state of human very well. In any case, this also helps to find out why people behave one or other way, why they are going to do something, or why they make some decisions. Many factors rule the mind of people, including genes, social environment, temper, state of mind. People think many things, and some of them matter very much for the development of decisions in life.
When applying his theories to his patients, the famous Austrian psychologist tried to understand the hidden inside. He talked with the patients, observed them, gave some hints and used tricks, like a good master of psychoanalysis. His ways of treatment included many things that were unusual and uncommon for that period of time, but in the future these features were understood by the science very well. The reason is that Sigmund Freud was very interested in his researches, and he dedicated the whole life to them. He was obsessed, and even when struggling with his serious physical disease, he made endeavors to research more and more. His researches turned to be very challenging and unusual for the minds of traditional psychology of that time.
The famous works of Sigmund Freud include many innovative things that turned to be very useful for modern generations. Those who were interested, admired his works, and it was very good for people to understand not only the power of knowledge, but also the power of unconsciousness that were really hidden in the human mind.
One of the famous works by Sigmund Freud is the work “The Interpretation of Dreams” (Freud 2010, p. 507). For Sigmund Freud dreams were the key factor that rules the state of mind. According to him, dreams are just the reflections of human wishes. For example, he gives the example of the person who wanted to drink in the night, and consequently, he dreamed that he is drinking the water. This example also coincides with some other example of a dream. For example, the person lacks of sexual relations, so he/she may dream about doing sex. These dreams can be explained very easily, so what a person needs, he/she gets in their dreams. When a person is dreaming in the night, he/she should get a good relaxation, but it does not always happen to be true. For example, some people may see some bad and fearful dreams that are not always the sign of the mental health. People are ruled by fears also, and they get many things like that in their dreams. Many things are hidden in the human mind, and Freud tried to find out the keys to brain to unlock what is hidden. This was one of his main contributions to the development of the modern psychology. The attempt to understand the hidden in mind was he sign of a good endeavor to develop new ideas that are worthy in the modern society.
Freud’s
“The prehistoric view of dreams is no doubt echoed in the attitude adopted towards dreams by the peoples of classical antiquity. They took it as axiomatic that dreams were connected with the world of superhuman begins in whom they believed and that they were revelations from gods and daemons.” (Freud 2010, p.517).
Freud’s contribution into the development the theory of interpretation of human dreams can be measured by his useful way of thinking. The psychologist was never seeking for the easier solutions, but he was interested in developing new concepts for understanding the nature of human thinking. For example, he strongly believed that dreams in the nights are the results of the mental activities of people who are dreaming. Mental activity of a sleeper can bring to life many unbelievable combinations of the concepts that are crucial for understanding the types of behavior of people.
In addition, Freud was seeking much for the moral sense in dreams, suggesting the idea that morality and sexuality are two different contradictions, and people should better to overcome the barriers of mind to become free.
The task of interpreting dreams is to find the way to understand the nature of human soul. In the other words, interpreting of dreams is the way of decoding symbols that matter much for understanding the types of behavior. Freud personally as a psychologist was a good master of decoding human types of behavior that are crucial for understanding what is hidden inside. It is possible even to correlate Freud’s ideas in relation to the so called “kingdom of glory” or “kingdom inside” that are described in the Gospel. Yes, it is possible that Sigmund Freud was trying to find the key to the human soul, the key to thinking and reasoning, as the perception of the world is measured individually for every person. Freud’s task as a psychologist and the doctor practitioner was to find out how to deal with the patients whose brain activity exceeded expectations.
Freud provides good examples of the types of human behavior and types of thinking in a way of presenting his medical experience with many patients whom he calls by pseudo. The researcher was trying to improve his professional experience, and many patients served for scientific purposes. The aims of these researches were so clear, as many Freud’s works are good to read and study even in the perspective of many years that passed by.
Freud is analyzing some concrete examples of human dreams, suggesting the idea about the sources of their arising. For example, according to Sigmund Freud, the sources of dreams are:
“(a) a recent and psychically significant experience which is represented in the dream directly, or
(b) several recent and significant experiences which are combined into a single unity by the dream, or
(c) one or more recent and significant experiences which are represented in the content of the dream by a mention of a contemporary but indifferent experience, or
(d) and internal significant experience (e.g. a memory or a train of thought), which is in that case invariably represented in the dream by a mention of a recent but indifferent impression.” (Freud 2010, p. 667). In this case, the impressions are the key factors that rule the structure and formatting of the human dreams. All who are dreaming at night should see good dreams where there is no place of fear or immorality. This is one of the main tasks of every psychologist to find out the reasons of the patient’s dreams and how they manage to regulate their behavior in everyday life. The principle of “what you see is what get” is acceptable for Freud as he believed much that people can percept the reality in their own ways, according to the functionality of the brain, but there are also some common components that can be treated generally for all.
The other part of Freud’s inheritance is dedicated to analyzing visible signs in human behavior. For example, when people talk, they may touch some parts of the body (nose, mouth, face). According to Freud’s theory, these are the signs which can be treated in relevance to real state of mind. These are the signs that are hidden from common people, but those who are interested may understand them very well. For example, according to Freud, when people touch mouth, they may hide something, or when touching nose, they may tell lie. Touching face in conversation can be more a sign of the lack of confidence. Those who can read such type of signs, according to Freud, will be able to understand people very easily, although this type of statement can be discussed even at the higher level.
The most famous examples from Freud’s practice are those: 1) about dream of Cyclamen; 2) about the dream of a fat woman and salmon, etc. These examples can prove the fact that there is a close relation between human nature, real events and dreams.
In any case, Freud’s contribution into the modern psychology consists not only in interpretation of dreams and types of the human behavior, but also in his unique attitude to the research process. It is easy to understand that he cared much about the results of his work, so he worked day by day writing numerous studies in psychology. Freud was the one who first contributed to psychology in the perspective of the ideas of Enlightenment, changing the way how to treat the inner world of people. In one of his works Freud cites Hamlet: “There needs no ghost, my lord, and come from the grave to tell us this.” (Freud 2010, p. 662, from Hamlet). Indeed, the ghosts live only in human mind. The problem is that some people cannot really deal with their perceptions of reality. That is why they believe in supernatural. Freud tried to change this point of view by all available means of those days, including research work.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Interpretation of Dreams. In book: Freud – Complete Works. Ivan Smith, 2000, 2007, 2010. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. Physical (or Mental) Treatment. In book: Freud – Complete Works. Ivan Smith, 2000, 2007, 2010. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. An Outline of Psychoanalysis. In book: Freud – Complete Works. Ivan Smith, 2000, 2007, 2010. Print.
