Sigmund Freud's Influence On Psychology

The breadth and diversity of psychology can be seen by looking as some of its best known thinkers. While each theorist may have been part of an overriding school of thought, each brought a unique and individual voice and perspective to the field of psychology. A study that appeared in the July 2002 issue of the “Review of General Psychology” created a ranking of the 99 most influential psychologists. The rankings were mostly based on three factors: the frequency of journal citations, introductory textbook citations, and the survey responses of 1,725 members of the American Psychological Association. (About.com, 2015) Psychology’s most famous figure is also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century.
Sigmund Freud’s work and theories helped shape our views of childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy.
Sigmund Freud was referred as being one of the most important thinkers of the last century, according to Time Magazine in 2001. According to an article in Newsweek back in 2006, Sigmund Freud was called “history’s most debunked doctor.” Even though his theories have always been the subject of considerable controversy and debate, his impact on psychology, therapy, and culture is undeniable. (About.com, 2015) Freud believed that when we explain our own behavior to ourselves or others (conscious mental activity) we rarely give a true account of our motivation. This is not because we are deliberately lying. Whilst human beings are great deceivers of others, they are even more adept at self-deception. Our rationalizations of our conduct are therefore disguising the real reasons. Freud’s life work was dominated by his attempts to find ways of penetrating this often subtle and elaborate camouflage that obscures the hidden structure and processes of personality. (Mcleod, 2013) Freud drew heavily upon the emphasis of philosophers such as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Kant. Freud’s theories continue to influence much of modern psychology, and his ideas also resonate throughout philosophy, sociology, and political
science, with thinkers such as Jacques Lacan and Karl Marx drawing heavily upon Freudian theories. Freud's emphasis upon early life and the drive to pleasure are perhaps his most significant contributions to psychology. Even contemporary psychologists who disavow Freud's theories often take an interest in a client's early life and the relationship between child and parent. Some of Freud's most significant theories include: The development of the unconscious and conscious minds, the structural model of personality, stages of psychosexual development, the concept of defense mechanisms, and dream interpretation. (Good Therapy.org, 2015) Lev Vygotsky was a seminal Russian psychologist who is best-known for his sociocultural theory.
He believed that social interaction played a critical role in children's learning. Through such social interactions, children go through a continuous process of learning. Vygotsky noted, however, that culture profoundly influenced this process. Imitation, guided learning, and collaborative learning all play a critical part in his theory. (About.com, 2015) Unlike Piaget's notion that children’s' development must necessarily precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90). In other words, social learning tends to precede (i.e. come before) development. (McLeod, 2014) Lev Vygotsky is considered a formative thinker in psychology, and much of his work is still being discovered and explored today. While he was a contemporary of Skinner, Pavlov, Freud and Piaget, his work never attained their level of eminence during his lifetime. It wasn't until the 1970s that Vygotsky's theories became known in the West as new concepts and ideas were introduced in the fields of educational and developmental psychology. Since then, Vygotsky's works have been translated and have become very influential, particularly in the area of education. In a 2002 ranking of eminent psychologist's, Vygotsky was identified as the 83rd most frequently cited psychologist
during the 20th-century. (About.com, 2015)