How Did Sigmund Freud Impact Society
Introduction
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychologist who pioneered the study of the conscious and unconscious self. The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud viewed the self as a multi-sided unit consisting of not only the conscious but also the unconscious realms. Sigmund Freud’s study of the self-conscious mind clearly challenged the way people viewed everyday life, the conservative and religious framework of the 19th century in many ways as well. One of his greatest impacts was how he changed how society viewed people with mental illnesses. Before Freud and his discoveries, mental illnesses were seen as a deterioration or a disease of the brain. Since it was seen as a disease, many of those people were killed. People were constantly killed …show more content…
because they were thought to be a detriment to the government; however they were also seen as being socially awkward people who were sometimes sent to mental hospitals. Some were even displayed as “idiot” savants in “freak shows”. Luckily many of them were saved once Sigmund Freud came up with the psychoanalysis for their condition. Sigmund Freud saved many of the lives of the mentally ill who would otherwise be killed through his study of the human mind and the human behavior as well. Due to Sigmund Freud’s discovery, people were now able to look into what was occurring in the brain. In this essay, I plan to investigate Sigmund Freud’s influence on western culture. I plan to delve into Sigmund Freud’s study of the self-conscious mind, the conservative and religious framework of the 19th century, and the impact left by Sigmund Freud’s ideas in western culture.
Investigation
Revolution was the talk of the century and the starting point according to J.W. Burrow may come as a shocker to many. All these battles and the aftermath of all of these rebellions began in an interesting place. According to J.W. Burrow , it was people like Charles Darwin and their scientific ideas such as evolution that lead to the most philosophical and reflective revolutions of the century. These, what seemed to be small ideas, are what caused the redefining of our view of the self and society. New explorations of concepts from science, philosophy and psychology and the failure to revolt have caused for the embracing of this shift from a religious viewpoint to a more rational standpoint. By the end of the century this idea was taking over. Huge changes in science like Copernicus' theories about the earth and how the sun and not the earth are the center of our solar system were suggested. These theories went against the traditional teaching that the church adopted, which held that the Earth was basically the center of the universe. The scientific revolution also started a trend leaning away from the church since a scientific method for discovery was established that allowed for people to think in ways that did not agree with the church. People were using logic for theories that could be proved, not just believed. This made a big impact on people, especially in respect to how they viewed religion. This was very crucial to western culture because the Church had been the binding authority and institution in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. This shift to science meant the destruction of the framework put in place. J.W. Burrow argued that in the late 19th century best-sellers such as Ludwig Büchner’s Kraft und Stoff were offering a new way of understanding the world that was completely scientific. This new way would oppose metaphysics and religion and allow for scientists such as Darwin and Hermann von Helmholtz to propose new scientific ways of explaining nature through laws of physics. These new ideas gained many followers who were now idealizing nature. These new ideas had changed everything that was previously known.
In the article titled “19th and Early 20th Century European Culture and Thought” by Peter D. Smith, J.W. Burrow takes an interdisciplinary approach. J.W. Burrow does so by exploring the subtle connections between concepts from science, politics, philosophy, art, literature, and psychology. He does this exploring in order to create his own historical analysis of European history in the period 1848-1914. After the revolutions of 1848 failed, science was embraced as a genuinely progressive standard that promised social change along with technological innovations. But of course by the end of the 19th century there were movements against this new use of science to explain things and try to disprove many religious beliefs.
During this time, many scientists were releasing books almost as to offer a new way of understanding the world in a scientific matter. This of course was a problem because this new way of thinking completely opposed the traditional branch of philosophy and religion as well by challenging Christianity. At this time scientists such as Darwin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who proposed the conservation of energy and the first law of thermodynamics, were revealing the new laws of nature. By the end of the 19th century influential Darwinists such as Ernst Haeckel were changing the history of ideas. More and more throughout the end of the nineteenths century more scientists were coming up with rational explanations for how things happen and why they were happening. By the end of the nineteenth century, many Christians and their faith were being challenged by scientific ideas by many influential scientific figures such as Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, has always been a controversial figure, both in the clinical and the academic arenas because of his psychoanalytic beliefs and because of the influence of these beliefs on the western culture. Sigmund Freud’s ideas completely went against the ones already put in place. Though many conservatives did not believe in his theories, many others did and this was enough to start a spur in the previous customs. Not much after Freud elaborated his central theories; he already had tons of people who were fascinated by his work within the Vienna school break off to practice their own interpretations of his psychoanalysis.
The ethnic tensions, class conflicts and intellectual energy in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century strongly influenced the daily life of Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud, born Schlomo Sigusmund Freud, was born May 6th of 1856 in the Austrian town of Freiberg , Moravia into a Jewish merchant family. When he was four years old his family moved to Vienna , the town where he would live and work for most of the remainder of his life. When he was a child, his father and nanny influenced his feeling about faith. This influence of Christianity did not last long though since his nanny died and now it was just his father left to teach him the Bible. Once his father’s business went downhill and his family suddenly became poor though, his father had to hire a tutor instead. This tutor was hired to teach Sigmund Freud about the Bible in Hebrew, but along with this, the tutor also introduced Sigmund Freud to scientific thought. Sigmund was fascinated by this new way of thinking. Though this new way of thinking had a great influence on his life, Sigmund’s strong passion for learning the development of science also drove him further and further away from religion. This new desire for scientific thought caused him to question Christianity and become an
atheist.
Sigmund Freud grew up to become a well-educated and ambitious young man who was immersed in classical literature and philosophy. He began his education in 1873 at the University of Vienna and though Freud was initially interested in law, then zoology, he later decided to drive his focus towards neurology. During his time at the University of Vienna, he traveled to Paris to work with Jean-Martin Charcot, who pioneered the study of hysteria and also pursued an interest in hypnotic states. Sigmund Freud received his medical degree in 1881 and got engaged and then married the following year. Sigmund Freud and his wife had six children together and the youngest, Anna, later also became distinguished psychoanalyst. After his graduation, Freud quickly set up a private practice and began treating various psychological disorders. Considering himself a scientist before anything else, rather than a doctor, he strived to understand the journey of human knowledge and experience. Sigmund Freud found both study of hysteria and the study of hypnotic states to be extremely interesting. Under Jean- Martin Charcot's direction, Sigmund Freud turned to the speculative field of psychology.
Early in Sigmund Freud’s career, Freud became greatly influenced by the work of his friend and Viennese colleague, Josef Breuer , who had discovered that when he encouraged a hysterical patient to talk uninhibitedly about the earliest occurrences of the symptoms, the symptoms sometimes gradually decreased. In 1886, Sigmund Freud returned from academic study in Paris to Vienna, where he opened his own private practice in the specializing of both nervous and brain disorders. The case of Anna O, real name Bertha Pappenheim, was the cause of Sigmund Freud’s shift in his career as a young Viennese neuropathologist. It actually even went on to influence the future direction of psychology as a whole. Anna was a woman who suffered from hysteria, a condition in which the patient exhibits physical symptoms (e.g. paralysis, convulsions, hallucinations, loss of speech) without apparent physical cause. Her doctor Josef Breuer succeeded in treating Anna by helping her to recall forgotten memories of traumatic events. Doctor Josef Breuer discussed the case with his friend Sigmund Freud and out of these discussions came the germ of an idea that Freud was to pursue for the rest of his life. Inspired by Josef Breuer, Freud hypothesized that neuroses had their origins in deeply traumatic experiences that had occurred somewhere in the patient's past. He believed that the original occurrences had often been forgotten and hidden from consciousness. His treatment was to empower his patients to recall the experience and bring it to consciousness, and in doing so, confront it both intellectually and emotionally. He believed one could then completely discharge it and get rid of the neurotic symptoms. Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer published their theories and findings in Studies in Hysteria (1895).
After years of working together, Josef Breuer decided to end the relationship because he felt that Freud placed too much emphasis on the sexual origins of a patient's neuroses and was completely unwilling to consider other possible viewpoints. Sigmund Freud continued to polish his own argument and in 1900, after a serious period of self-analysis, he finally published The Interpretation of Dreams. He followed this in 1901 with The Psychopathology of Everyday Life and in 1905 with his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The great admiration that was later given to Freud and his theories was not in evidence for some years. Most of his colleagues felt, like Josef Breuer had stated , that his emphasis on sexuality was either outrageous or overstressed. In 1909, he was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States. It was after these visits and the publication of his 1916 book, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, that his fame grew exponentially.
In 1895, Sigmund Freud’s study of hysteria proposed that physical symptoms are often the surface manifestations of conflicts that were repressed unconsciously by the mind. However, Sigmund Freud was not just advancing an explanation of a particular illness; he was also indirectly proposing a revolutionary new theory of the human psyche itself. This theory emerged piece by piece as a result of Freud’s clinical investigations and it led him to propose that there were at least three levels to the mind. Since at the time all brain disorders were seen as the deterioration of the brain and a disease, this would have a great influence of how people viewed these disorders. Before Freud and his discoveries, many people were killed because of their mental disorders. People were constantly killed because they were thought to not only be a detriment to the government but also to be possessed by the devil. Luckily many of these people were saved once Sigmund Freud came up with the psychoanalysis. People were now able to look into what was occurring in the brain. Though at first Sigmund Freud’s analysis would be mocked and only seen as a theory with no actual evidence, it would later save the lives of many people with disorders. It was common for these people to be killed, but because of this new way of thinking, doctors would be able to analyze these mental illnesses. In 1899, Sigmund Freud introduced the results of his investigations to a wider audience with the publication of his famous book The Interpretation of Dreams. The main essence of this theory was that all dreams involve some type of psychological events past and present: in other words, Sigmund Freud believed that the mind works to restructure the conscious and unconscious memories in seemingly mysterious, but ultimately informative and meaningful ways. Many times when we suppressed memories or thoughts, what was suppressed by the ego because of social standards would be expressed throughout our dreams in mysterious ways and we would often have a Freudian slip. A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an unconscious, repressed thoughts, subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought guided by the ego and the rules of correct behavior. Slips of the tongue and of the pen are the classical parapraxes, but psychoanalytic theory also embraces misreadings, mishearings, temporary forgettings, and the mislaying and losing of objects. They reveal a "source outside the speech". This concept plays a great part in Sigmund Freud’s classical psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behavior and personality derived from the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness which are the preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious. Whether we notice it or not, many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip. These Freudian slips are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or feelings as stated above. For example, let’s say a man has just started a new relationship with a woman he met at a bar he often visits. While the man and woman are talking one afternoon he accidentally slips and calls her by his ex-girlfriend's name. Now while many of us would usually just blame this slip up on a distraction or something related to this. However, a psychoanalytic theorist such as Sigmund Freud would take a different approach on this situation and what seemed like a simple slip up. Sigmund Freud might take this situation and tell you something more along the lines of there being inner forces outside of your awareness that are directing your behavior with or without our knowing what or why this may be occurring. A psychoanalyst like him might take this situation and say that James misspoke due to some type of unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend perhaps because James was not too sure about his current relationship with this new girl he had just met at a bar.
In Sigmund Freud’s theory of the three mind types; the preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious mind, he compared these three levels of mind to an iceberg. He compared the conscious mind to the very top of the iceberg since this is what you can see above the water. The part of the iceberg that is submerged below the water but is still sort of visible is the preconscious mind. The bulk of the iceberg that lies unseen beneath the waterline and usually does the most damage would represent the unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud’s theory also states that each person also possesses a certain amount of psychological energy that forms the three basic structures of the personality. These three basic structures, as stated in his book An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, are the id, the ego, and the superego . These three structures have different roles and operate at different levels of the mind. The Id is centered on instincts, pleasures, desires, unchecked urges and wish fulfillment. The Ego is concerned with the conscious, the rational, the moral and the self-aware aspect of the mind. Lastly, the Superego is the censor for the id, which is also responsible for enforcing the moral codes of the ego. While you are awake, the impulses and desires of the id are suppressed by the superego, but through dreams, you are able to get a glimpse into your unconscious or the id. Since your guards are down during the dream state, your unconscious has the opportunity to act out and express the hidden desires of the id. However, the desires of the id can, at times, be so disturbing and even psychologically harmful that a "censor" comes into play and translates the id's disturbing content into a more acceptable symbolic form. This helps to preserve sleep and prevent you from waking up shocked at the images. As a result, confusing and cryptic dream images occur. According to Freud, the reason you often struggle to remember your dreams is because the superego is at work and is doing its job by protecting the conscious mind from the disturbing images and desires conjured by the unconscious mind.
Sigmund Freud relied heavily upon his observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory of personality development. He believed that there were three levels of the mind, the conscious mind, the preconscious mind, and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. The preconscious mind is the part of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when necessary. Lastly, the unconscious mind is full of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the things stored in the unconscious mind are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind continues to influence our behavior and experience, even if we are unaware of its underlying influences.
Sigmund Freud’s theories were considered shocking at the time and continue to create debate and controversy being that it challenged the way people normally thought about life and the conservative and religious framework of set at these at time. Though Sigmund Freud and other scientists seemed to be a detriment to western culture, Sigmund Freud’s work has actually had a profound influence on a number of disciplines such as, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and art. His theories were a great influence on psychology in the 19th century. He also had a great effect on religion. Many Christians believed him to be the enemy of modern Christianity along with Charles Darwin and Karl Marx.
Conclusion
This investigation has sought to answer the question “to what extent did Sigmund Freud’s views influence western culture?” The evidence that I have gathered has led me to the conclusion that Western culture was greatly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s belief of the conscious and unconscious mind. Him being a man that grew up in a religious family and had everyone possible leading him in the direction of God, and then having him drift away from religion and more towards science was particularly interesting. The 19th century was a very conservative time where religion, more specifically Christianity, played a very significant role in the life of everyone and everything that was done or believed. The lives of these western people and everything that had shaped their way of thinking was based and explained by the Bible and now this was being challenged. I can only imagine how upset they must have been. This must have caused an outrage. These people were so accustomed to this Christian life and way of thinking and now they had people like Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud changing history. These people were taking everything they knew and believed in and giving it a more scientific and explainable reason for how and why things happened throughout history and everyday life. What made this even worse for them was that not only were they bringing up these new theories, but people were actually following these figure and questioning religion. As more and more people began questioning Christianity, there was no more unity and everything that was thought to be true was now falling apart right in front of them. These figures challenging religion and the framework that had already been set up had greatly changed history and everything that was once thought to be true. Sigmund Freud along with other historical figures therefore had an extremely significant effect on western culture in the nineteenth century. Scientists along with Sigmund Freud’s ideas have shaped how we view things such as a mental illness today.
Sigmund Freud's theories, including those about "psychic energy," the Oedipus complex and the importance of dreams, were greatly influenced by other scientific discoveries of his day. Charles Darwin for example and his understanding of humankind as a progressive element of the animal kingdom certainly influenced Freud's investigation of human behavior. The formulation of a new principle by Hermann von Helmholtz, stating that energy in any given physical system is always constant, helped Sigmund Freud in his scientific studies into the human mind. Sigmund Freud's work has been both greatly praised and extremely criticized, but no one has had as great of an influence on the science of psychology as Sigmund Freud has.
Due to these new ideas set into place, we developed a new way of thinking. As stated above, scientists such as Copernicus and psychologists like Sigmund Freud greatly changed our way of thinking. Sigmund Freud greatly changed our views on the self and our view on the human mind and human behavior. Copernicus also left a great impact with his theory about the earth and how the sun, not the earth, was the center of our solar system and other scientists with their ideas causing a movement that shifted away from the church since science had a more rational and logical view that could be proven and was not just based on belief like religion was. This was a very impactful time because it destroyed the framework previously in place which pretty much kept Europe together.
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychologist who pioneered the study of the conscious and unconscious self. The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud viewed the self as a multi-sided unit consisting of not only the conscious but also the unconscious realms. Sigmund Freud’s study of the self-conscious mind clearly challenged the way people viewed everyday life, the conservative and religious framework of the 19th century in many ways as well. One of his greatest impacts was how he changed how society viewed people with mental illnesses. Before Freud and his discoveries, mental illnesses were seen as a deterioration or a disease of the brain. Since it was seen as a disease, many of those people were killed. People were constantly killed …show more content…
because they were thought to be a detriment to the government; however they were also seen as being socially awkward people who were sometimes sent to mental hospitals. Some were even displayed as “idiot” savants in “freak shows”. Luckily many of them were saved once Sigmund Freud came up with the psychoanalysis for their condition. Sigmund Freud saved many of the lives of the mentally ill who would otherwise be killed through his study of the human mind and the human behavior as well. Due to Sigmund Freud’s discovery, people were now able to look into what was occurring in the brain. In this essay, I plan to investigate Sigmund Freud’s influence on western culture. I plan to delve into Sigmund Freud’s study of the self-conscious mind, the conservative and religious framework of the 19th century, and the impact left by Sigmund Freud’s ideas in western culture.
Investigation
Revolution was the talk of the century and the starting point according to J.W. Burrow may come as a shocker to many. All these battles and the aftermath of all of these rebellions began in an interesting place. According to J.W. Burrow , it was people like Charles Darwin and their scientific ideas such as evolution that lead to the most philosophical and reflective revolutions of the century. These, what seemed to be small ideas, are what caused the redefining of our view of the self and society. New explorations of concepts from science, philosophy and psychology and the failure to revolt have caused for the embracing of this shift from a religious viewpoint to a more rational standpoint. By the end of the century this idea was taking over. Huge changes in science like Copernicus' theories about the earth and how the sun and not the earth are the center of our solar system were suggested. These theories went against the traditional teaching that the church adopted, which held that the Earth was basically the center of the universe. The scientific revolution also started a trend leaning away from the church since a scientific method for discovery was established that allowed for people to think in ways that did not agree with the church. People were using logic for theories that could be proved, not just believed. This made a big impact on people, especially in respect to how they viewed religion. This was very crucial to western culture because the Church had been the binding authority and institution in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. This shift to science meant the destruction of the framework put in place. J.W. Burrow argued that in the late 19th century best-sellers such as Ludwig Büchner’s Kraft und Stoff were offering a new way of understanding the world that was completely scientific. This new way would oppose metaphysics and religion and allow for scientists such as Darwin and Hermann von Helmholtz to propose new scientific ways of explaining nature through laws of physics. These new ideas gained many followers who were now idealizing nature. These new ideas had changed everything that was previously known.
In the article titled “19th and Early 20th Century European Culture and Thought” by Peter D. Smith, J.W. Burrow takes an interdisciplinary approach. J.W. Burrow does so by exploring the subtle connections between concepts from science, politics, philosophy, art, literature, and psychology. He does this exploring in order to create his own historical analysis of European history in the period 1848-1914. After the revolutions of 1848 failed, science was embraced as a genuinely progressive standard that promised social change along with technological innovations. But of course by the end of the 19th century there were movements against this new use of science to explain things and try to disprove many religious beliefs.
During this time, many scientists were releasing books almost as to offer a new way of understanding the world in a scientific matter. This of course was a problem because this new way of thinking completely opposed the traditional branch of philosophy and religion as well by challenging Christianity. At this time scientists such as Darwin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who proposed the conservation of energy and the first law of thermodynamics, were revealing the new laws of nature. By the end of the 19th century influential Darwinists such as Ernst Haeckel were changing the history of ideas. More and more throughout the end of the nineteenths century more scientists were coming up with rational explanations for how things happen and why they were happening. By the end of the nineteenth century, many Christians and their faith were being challenged by scientific ideas by many influential scientific figures such as Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, has always been a controversial figure, both in the clinical and the academic arenas because of his psychoanalytic beliefs and because of the influence of these beliefs on the western culture. Sigmund Freud’s ideas completely went against the ones already put in place. Though many conservatives did not believe in his theories, many others did and this was enough to start a spur in the previous customs. Not much after Freud elaborated his central theories; he already had tons of people who were fascinated by his work within the Vienna school break off to practice their own interpretations of his psychoanalysis.
The ethnic tensions, class conflicts and intellectual energy in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century strongly influenced the daily life of Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud, born Schlomo Sigusmund Freud, was born May 6th of 1856 in the Austrian town of Freiberg , Moravia into a Jewish merchant family. When he was four years old his family moved to Vienna , the town where he would live and work for most of the remainder of his life. When he was a child, his father and nanny influenced his feeling about faith. This influence of Christianity did not last long though since his nanny died and now it was just his father left to teach him the Bible. Once his father’s business went downhill and his family suddenly became poor though, his father had to hire a tutor instead. This tutor was hired to teach Sigmund Freud about the Bible in Hebrew, but along with this, the tutor also introduced Sigmund Freud to scientific thought. Sigmund was fascinated by this new way of thinking. Though this new way of thinking had a great influence on his life, Sigmund’s strong passion for learning the development of science also drove him further and further away from religion. This new desire for scientific thought caused him to question Christianity and become an
atheist.
Sigmund Freud grew up to become a well-educated and ambitious young man who was immersed in classical literature and philosophy. He began his education in 1873 at the University of Vienna and though Freud was initially interested in law, then zoology, he later decided to drive his focus towards neurology. During his time at the University of Vienna, he traveled to Paris to work with Jean-Martin Charcot, who pioneered the study of hysteria and also pursued an interest in hypnotic states. Sigmund Freud received his medical degree in 1881 and got engaged and then married the following year. Sigmund Freud and his wife had six children together and the youngest, Anna, later also became distinguished psychoanalyst. After his graduation, Freud quickly set up a private practice and began treating various psychological disorders. Considering himself a scientist before anything else, rather than a doctor, he strived to understand the journey of human knowledge and experience. Sigmund Freud found both study of hysteria and the study of hypnotic states to be extremely interesting. Under Jean- Martin Charcot's direction, Sigmund Freud turned to the speculative field of psychology.
Early in Sigmund Freud’s career, Freud became greatly influenced by the work of his friend and Viennese colleague, Josef Breuer , who had discovered that when he encouraged a hysterical patient to talk uninhibitedly about the earliest occurrences of the symptoms, the symptoms sometimes gradually decreased. In 1886, Sigmund Freud returned from academic study in Paris to Vienna, where he opened his own private practice in the specializing of both nervous and brain disorders. The case of Anna O, real name Bertha Pappenheim, was the cause of Sigmund Freud’s shift in his career as a young Viennese neuropathologist. It actually even went on to influence the future direction of psychology as a whole. Anna was a woman who suffered from hysteria, a condition in which the patient exhibits physical symptoms (e.g. paralysis, convulsions, hallucinations, loss of speech) without apparent physical cause. Her doctor Josef Breuer succeeded in treating Anna by helping her to recall forgotten memories of traumatic events. Doctor Josef Breuer discussed the case with his friend Sigmund Freud and out of these discussions came the germ of an idea that Freud was to pursue for the rest of his life. Inspired by Josef Breuer, Freud hypothesized that neuroses had their origins in deeply traumatic experiences that had occurred somewhere in the patient's past. He believed that the original occurrences had often been forgotten and hidden from consciousness. His treatment was to empower his patients to recall the experience and bring it to consciousness, and in doing so, confront it both intellectually and emotionally. He believed one could then completely discharge it and get rid of the neurotic symptoms. Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer published their theories and findings in Studies in Hysteria (1895).
After years of working together, Josef Breuer decided to end the relationship because he felt that Freud placed too much emphasis on the sexual origins of a patient's neuroses and was completely unwilling to consider other possible viewpoints. Sigmund Freud continued to polish his own argument and in 1900, after a serious period of self-analysis, he finally published The Interpretation of Dreams. He followed this in 1901 with The Psychopathology of Everyday Life and in 1905 with his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The great admiration that was later given to Freud and his theories was not in evidence for some years. Most of his colleagues felt, like Josef Breuer had stated , that his emphasis on sexuality was either outrageous or overstressed. In 1909, he was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States. It was after these visits and the publication of his 1916 book, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, that his fame grew exponentially.
In 1895, Sigmund Freud’s study of hysteria proposed that physical symptoms are often the surface manifestations of conflicts that were repressed unconsciously by the mind. However, Sigmund Freud was not just advancing an explanation of a particular illness; he was also indirectly proposing a revolutionary new theory of the human psyche itself. This theory emerged piece by piece as a result of Freud’s clinical investigations and it led him to propose that there were at least three levels to the mind. Since at the time all brain disorders were seen as the deterioration of the brain and a disease, this would have a great influence of how people viewed these disorders. Before Freud and his discoveries, many people were killed because of their mental disorders. People were constantly killed because they were thought to not only be a detriment to the government but also to be possessed by the devil. Luckily many of these people were saved once Sigmund Freud came up with the psychoanalysis. People were now able to look into what was occurring in the brain. Though at first Sigmund Freud’s analysis would be mocked and only seen as a theory with no actual evidence, it would later save the lives of many people with disorders. It was common for these people to be killed, but because of this new way of thinking, doctors would be able to analyze these mental illnesses. In 1899, Sigmund Freud introduced the results of his investigations to a wider audience with the publication of his famous book The Interpretation of Dreams. The main essence of this theory was that all dreams involve some type of psychological events past and present: in other words, Sigmund Freud believed that the mind works to restructure the conscious and unconscious memories in seemingly mysterious, but ultimately informative and meaningful ways. Many times when we suppressed memories or thoughts, what was suppressed by the ego because of social standards would be expressed throughout our dreams in mysterious ways and we would often have a Freudian slip. A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an unconscious, repressed thoughts, subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought guided by the ego and the rules of correct behavior. Slips of the tongue and of the pen are the classical parapraxes, but psychoanalytic theory also embraces misreadings, mishearings, temporary forgettings, and the mislaying and losing of objects. They reveal a "source outside the speech". This concept plays a great part in Sigmund Freud’s classical psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behavior and personality derived from the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness which are the preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious. Whether we notice it or not, many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip. These Freudian slips are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or feelings as stated above. For example, let’s say a man has just started a new relationship with a woman he met at a bar he often visits. While the man and woman are talking one afternoon he accidentally slips and calls her by his ex-girlfriend's name. Now while many of us would usually just blame this slip up on a distraction or something related to this. However, a psychoanalytic theorist such as Sigmund Freud would take a different approach on this situation and what seemed like a simple slip up. Sigmund Freud might take this situation and tell you something more along the lines of there being inner forces outside of your awareness that are directing your behavior with or without our knowing what or why this may be occurring. A psychoanalyst like him might take this situation and say that James misspoke due to some type of unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend perhaps because James was not too sure about his current relationship with this new girl he had just met at a bar.
In Sigmund Freud’s theory of the three mind types; the preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious mind, he compared these three levels of mind to an iceberg. He compared the conscious mind to the very top of the iceberg since this is what you can see above the water. The part of the iceberg that is submerged below the water but is still sort of visible is the preconscious mind. The bulk of the iceberg that lies unseen beneath the waterline and usually does the most damage would represent the unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud’s theory also states that each person also possesses a certain amount of psychological energy that forms the three basic structures of the personality. These three basic structures, as stated in his book An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, are the id, the ego, and the superego . These three structures have different roles and operate at different levels of the mind. The Id is centered on instincts, pleasures, desires, unchecked urges and wish fulfillment. The Ego is concerned with the conscious, the rational, the moral and the self-aware aspect of the mind. Lastly, the Superego is the censor for the id, which is also responsible for enforcing the moral codes of the ego. While you are awake, the impulses and desires of the id are suppressed by the superego, but through dreams, you are able to get a glimpse into your unconscious or the id. Since your guards are down during the dream state, your unconscious has the opportunity to act out and express the hidden desires of the id. However, the desires of the id can, at times, be so disturbing and even psychologically harmful that a "censor" comes into play and translates the id's disturbing content into a more acceptable symbolic form. This helps to preserve sleep and prevent you from waking up shocked at the images. As a result, confusing and cryptic dream images occur. According to Freud, the reason you often struggle to remember your dreams is because the superego is at work and is doing its job by protecting the conscious mind from the disturbing images and desires conjured by the unconscious mind.
Sigmund Freud relied heavily upon his observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory of personality development. He believed that there were three levels of the mind, the conscious mind, the preconscious mind, and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. The preconscious mind is the part of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when necessary. Lastly, the unconscious mind is full of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the things stored in the unconscious mind are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind continues to influence our behavior and experience, even if we are unaware of its underlying influences.
Sigmund Freud’s theories were considered shocking at the time and continue to create debate and controversy being that it challenged the way people normally thought about life and the conservative and religious framework of set at these at time. Though Sigmund Freud and other scientists seemed to be a detriment to western culture, Sigmund Freud’s work has actually had a profound influence on a number of disciplines such as, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and art. His theories were a great influence on psychology in the 19th century. He also had a great effect on religion. Many Christians believed him to be the enemy of modern Christianity along with Charles Darwin and Karl Marx.
Conclusion
This investigation has sought to answer the question “to what extent did Sigmund Freud’s views influence western culture?” The evidence that I have gathered has led me to the conclusion that Western culture was greatly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s belief of the conscious and unconscious mind. Him being a man that grew up in a religious family and had everyone possible leading him in the direction of God, and then having him drift away from religion and more towards science was particularly interesting. The 19th century was a very conservative time where religion, more specifically Christianity, played a very significant role in the life of everyone and everything that was done or believed. The lives of these western people and everything that had shaped their way of thinking was based and explained by the Bible and now this was being challenged. I can only imagine how upset they must have been. This must have caused an outrage. These people were so accustomed to this Christian life and way of thinking and now they had people like Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud changing history. These people were taking everything they knew and believed in and giving it a more scientific and explainable reason for how and why things happened throughout history and everyday life. What made this even worse for them was that not only were they bringing up these new theories, but people were actually following these figure and questioning religion. As more and more people began questioning Christianity, there was no more unity and everything that was thought to be true was now falling apart right in front of them. These figures challenging religion and the framework that had already been set up had greatly changed history and everything that was once thought to be true. Sigmund Freud along with other historical figures therefore had an extremely significant effect on western culture in the nineteenth century. Scientists along with Sigmund Freud’s ideas have shaped how we view things such as a mental illness today.
Sigmund Freud's theories, including those about "psychic energy," the Oedipus complex and the importance of dreams, were greatly influenced by other scientific discoveries of his day. Charles Darwin for example and his understanding of humankind as a progressive element of the animal kingdom certainly influenced Freud's investigation of human behavior. The formulation of a new principle by Hermann von Helmholtz, stating that energy in any given physical system is always constant, helped Sigmund Freud in his scientific studies into the human mind. Sigmund Freud's work has been both greatly praised and extremely criticized, but no one has had as great of an influence on the science of psychology as Sigmund Freud has.
Due to these new ideas set into place, we developed a new way of thinking. As stated above, scientists such as Copernicus and psychologists like Sigmund Freud greatly changed our way of thinking. Sigmund Freud greatly changed our views on the self and our view on the human mind and human behavior. Copernicus also left a great impact with his theory about the earth and how the sun, not the earth, was the center of our solar system and other scientists with their ideas causing a movement that shifted away from the church since science had a more rational and logical view that could be proven and was not just based on belief like religion was. This was a very impactful time because it destroyed the framework previously in place which pretty much kept Europe together.