Implications of Freud's Unconscious for Freedom and Accountability Essay Example

Sigmund Freud, a strict determinist who is said to be one of the fathers of psychology, had the belief that everyday occurrences are explainable on the basis of prior causes. This theory led him to begin conducting psychoanalytic studies using hypnosis and the decoding of dreams. Psychoanalysis is based on the fact that all humans have hidden drives, impulses, and internal conflicts that influence our everyday decisions. By conducting these studies, Freud discovered that we as humans have three levels of consciousness in which we operate: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. While studying all of the levels of consciousness, Freud also discovered another way of looking at the inner workings of the personality which he called the id, ego, and superego. The different levels of consciousness are known as Freud's topography of the mind. All three of these states are always occurring in different levels and affecting our everyday lives, however, we are only aware of what is currently going on in our conscious state. The conscious state is everything that is within our immediate awareness. The preconscious state is everything that we are not immediately aware of but that is fairly accessible, such as ideas and thoughts. The unconscious state is everything about our inner personalities of which we are unaware. Unacceptable situations and occurrences are what we push into our unconscious, seeming to forget them. However, once they are pushed there, they silently affect us daily. Freud studied the unconscious by using hypnosis and the study of dreams. By studying these, he discovered that everyone has a dimension of their being, which is a hidden, unconscious feeling or fixation that affects our thoughts and behavior, but we are completely unaware of it. It is the unconscious that affects our behavior and explains our personalities and inner thoughts. According to Freud, the workings of these levels of consciousness are determined by prior