There is great diversity in approaches to mental health but all forms of counseling ultimately owe their own foundation to the work of Sigmund Freud. Unlike most other theorists, he was not associated with a university, nor was his system based on experimental evidence. Although Freud performed some experimental research early in his career, it had no real relevance to his later theory. Indeed, Freud’s theory had more to do with behavioral deviation than with general principles of behavior.
Based in medicine and neurology, he revolted against the traditional German psychiatrists (e.g., Kraepelin) and their insistence on physiological causes for behavioral disorders. As his theory developed, Freud’s explanations became more psychological and less medical.
Freud’s Theory
Freud’s theory is a deterministic system of internal motivation. Borrowing heavily from the terminology of physics and other sciences, Freud proposes a self-contained system of psychical energy. Behavior is a result of conscious and unconscious processes which oppose and counteract each other.
Although responsible for popularizing it, Freud didn’t create the concept of the unconscious mind. Certainly, Leibnitz’s (1646-1716) theory of monads contained the notion of an unconscious but it was Herbart (1776-1841) who fully developed it. Similarly, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote of the negative influence unconscious ideas could have. He also introduced the basic concept of repression.
Freud proposed that the mind is composed of three structures: the id, ego and superego. The id is Freud’s term for the earliest and most basic component of personality. At birth, a neonate is only an id. Like a spoiled child wanting immediate gratification, the id relies on the pleasure principle. The id operates like a reflex, providing the individual’s psychic energy. The id’s primary process generates an image of the object it desires. Since the id is completely unconscious, it can’t distinguish between images and reality.
As an infant matures, it evolves from an id-centric organism in order to deal with reality. With the addition of an ego, the child can interact with reality and tries to acquire in reality the imaginary images produced in the id (object substitution). The ego operates on the reality principle, and controls both the motor and sensory functions of the body.
As a child learns right from wrong, the ego creates the third mental component. Like the id, the superego cannot distinguish imagined from real, and consequently punishes you equally for a bad idea as for a bad action. Composed of the conscience (what you should not do) and the ego ideal (what you should do), the superego is in direct opposition to the id (what you want to do). The conflict produced by the fighting of the id and superego is called anxiety. Human behavior is a function of the ego mediating between the forces of the id and superego.
Summary
Freud has given us a complicated system of force and counter-force. Although the structure of the mind is illustrative and abstract, his model emphasizes the importance of the individual. Freud based his ideas on case histories and not on experimental data. He shows us that good writing and revolutionary theorizing does not depend on the latest computerized laboratory equipment. Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood, the usefulness of dreams, and that we are not always aware of our own motives.
Since Freud’s approach was the first modern theory of personality, psychoanalysis is sometimes called the First Force of psychology (behaviorism is the 2nd and humanism is the 3rd). Since his theory is over 100 years old, Freud’s views sometimes conflict with current research findings. Yet it is surprisingly popular.
For more, try Freud, Sigmund.
