Are you familiar with the world-class psychologist named Sigmund Freud? He ruled his psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory, which we will discuss in this article. His well-known book: the interpretation of dreams, gave a mesmerizing meaning to dreams and why they occur. But apart from his tremendous victory, he suffered considerable criticism from other psychologists who didn't believe in his theories; thereby, his empire ceased functioning. This article will guide you on why he was criticized so much and what led to the fall of his kingdom.
Freud was born in Frieberg, Moravia, in 1856, but when he was four years old, his family proceeded to Vienna, where he lived and worked until the final years of his life. The scope of Freud's appeals, and his professional training, were very comprehensive. He always deemed himself, first and foremost, a scientist, endeavouring to extend the compass of human knowledge. To this end (rather than the practice of medicine), he enrolled on medical school at the University of Vienna in 1873. He focused initially on biology, doing research in physiology for six years under the great German scientist Ernst Brücke, who was director of the Physiology Laboratory at the University and, after that, specialized in neurology. He received his medical degree in 1881 and became diligent in being married in 1882. Freud set up a sheltered private practice in treating psychological disorders, which gave him much of the clinical material on which he established his theories and pioneering techniques.
Now talking about his contribution, which was many, let's highlight a few of his roles in forming an extensive psychological treatment today.
His masterpiece: the interpretation of dreams - arose in the emotional crisis he suffered after his father's death and the series of dreams to which this gave rise. This analysis revealed that his love and affection for his father were mixed with very contrasting feelings of shame and hate (such a hybrid attitude he termed ambivalence).
Theory of the unconscious - Freud's thesis of the unconscious, then, is highly deterministic—a fact which should not be surprising given the nature of nineteenth-century science. Freud was arguably the first thinker to apply deterministic doctrines systematically to the sphere of the mental and to hold that the broad spectrum of human behaviour is answerable only in terms of the (usually hidden) cognitive processes or states which determine it. Deeply associated with this, the unconscious theory was the view of the mind in Freud's account of instincts or drives.
Infantile sexuality - Freud's theory of adolescent sexuality must be seen as a required part of a broader developmental theory of human personality. His theory formulated that traumatic childhood events could have devastating adverse effects upon the adult individual and took the form of the general thesis that early childhood sexual experiences were crucial factors in determining the adult personality. From his statement of the instincts or drives, it followed that from the moment of birth, the infant is driven in his actions by the desire for bodily/sexual pleasure, which Freud sees in almost mechanical terms as the desire to release mental energy.
Possibly, following are some of the significant reasons:
Hans Eysenck, in which the writer condemns Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, Eysenck argues that psychoanalysis is unscientific. The book received both positive and negative reviews. Eysenck has been criticized for discussing the physician Josef Breuer's treatment of his patient Anna O, whom Eysenck argues suffered from tuberculous meningitis.
Eysenck claims that psychoanalysis is unscientific and that its approaches are based on no legitimate base of observation or experiment and have the status only of speculation. Eysenck claims that the integrity of psychoanalysis is testable through formal empirical means and that it has failed in all areas where such tests have been taken out. Eysenck names Freud "a genius, not of science, but propaganda, not of rigorous proof, but persuasion, not of the design of experiments, but literary art." According to Eysenck, Freud set back the study of psychology and psychiatry by around fifty years but formulated a thesis with no legitimate evidence.
Eysenck argues that the dreams Freud cites in The interpretation of Dreams (1899) do not support his theories and that Freud's examples disprove his dream theory.
To Freud, sexuality coats much broader than genital intercourse between a male and female. But whatever form or shape of sexuality one eventually takes, Freud asserts, it inevitably has its roots in infantile sexuality, which is described in terms of sexual development in the first few years of a life of an infant; this theory was opposed by many psychologists and hence never became helpful in today's world of psychology.
One primary reason why Freud's empire fell flat was the opposition from other psychologists, this psychologist called themselves as Neo-Freudians. Some of the Neo-Freudians are listed below in this article.
Carl Jung and Freud once had an intimate friendship, but Jung broke away to form his ideas. Jung directed his theory of personality to analytical psychology and introduced the collective unconscious concept.
Alfred Adler thought Freud's theories focused too laboriously on sex as the primary motivator for human behaviour. Instead, Adler placed a lower emphasis on the role of the unconscious and a greater focus on interpersonal and social influences.
Erikson felt that the expansion and growth of an individual are continued throughout life. He also believed that not all conflicts were unconscious. He thought many were conscious and resulted from the developmental process itself.
The fall and decline of the Freud Empire were because of the opposition of many other psychologists. These Neo-Freudians opposed Freud's theory and referred to modifications, extensions, or revisions of Freud's original psychoanalytic theory, most commonly to those that emphasize social, cultural and interpersonal elements rather than innate biological instincts such as sexuality and aggression.
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