Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

  • Submitted By: JPfeffer
  • Date Submitted: 05/16/2013 11:52 PM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 2776
  • Page: 12
  • Views: 2

When it comes to the field of counselling, Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud is deemed to be one the greatest psychologists and counsellors of the late 19th century to early 20th century (Cherry, 2012a, Cherry, 2012b; Kovel, 1991; McLeod, 2007; Michels, n.d.; Peterson, 2010; Psychology Today, 2012). Much of Freud’s work has suffused intellectual thought and popular culture to the extent that in 1940 W. H. Auden wrote, in a poem dedicated to him: "to us he is no more a person / now but a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives ..." (Auden, 1940; Sadock & Sadock, 2007, p. 190). Through his revolutionary theories such as psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, Freud can be regarded as having one of the greatest contributions to the field of counselling. This essay will endeavour to provide a brief overview of Freud’s background, followed by a discussion of the influences on his philosophy, his approach to counselling, and the significance of his contribution to counselling theory and practice.
Freud was born on the 6th of May 1865 in Freiberg, Movaria, but later moved to Vienna where he spent most of his life (Cherry, 2012c, ¶1; Freud Life, 2012, ¶1). According to Cherry (2012b), “His parents taught him at home before entering him in Spurling Gymnasium, where he was first in his class and graduated Summa cum Laude” (¶1). Though his parents were poor, Freud chose medicine as a career and qualified as a doctor at the University of Vienna, subsequently undertaking research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital (Boeree, 2009, ¶2). He later married Martha Bernays, the granddaughter of a Chief Rabbi in Hamburg, and had six children (Cherry, 2012c, ¶17; Freud Life, 2012, ¶16). Through his work with respected French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud became fascinated with the emotional disorder known as hysteria (Cherry, 2012b, ¶2). After setting up private practice in 1886, Freud began...

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