5 main ideas of FREUD

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about the main ideas one of the most important thinkers in history, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Neurologist of Austrian origin.

Freud was one of the most brilliant psychoanalysts and thanks to his work, today we have a great knowledge about the unconscious, the personality and behavior of the human being, the human psyche/mind, psychic conditions, the interpretation of dreams, culture or sexuality.

If you want to know more about the Freud's main ideas, keep reading this lesson from a PROFESSOR Let's start!

Index

1. Psychoanalysis, one of the main ideas of Freud
2. Freud's neurotic conflict
3. Freud's Dream Interpretation
4. child sexuality theory
5. The origin of culture, according to Freud

For Freud, the human mind consists of three parts where memories are stored (first topic) and, to explain this thesis, makes an analogy with icebergs:

1. Theunconscious: It is the place where repressed memories or painful and negative thoughts are located (inaccessible area for our conscious part). It would be the
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   base of the iceberg/ the part that cannot be seen.
2. The preconscious: Place where the memories are that we can access if we make an effort (what we are able to remember and bring back to our consciousness). would be the body oficeberg that is submerged / the semi-visible.
3. the conscious: It is what we think at each moment and the conscious part (part that we can access without problem). Would the highest tip of the iceberg / what is visible.

On the other hand, our protagonist also establishes that the human mind is made up of three parts or characters (second topic):

1. The It: The part of the mind that is meant to satisfy our impulses, is the most primitive part and is located in the unconscious of our mind.
2. The I: It is the part that helps us face reality and the one that stands as mediator between the id and the superego. It is located in the conscious, unconscious and preconscious.
3. The Superego: It is the part in which everything that the individual collects from his culture is developed, the internalized moral norm. The one that tells us what is moral or ethical and the one that prohibits us. It is located in the conscious, unconscious and preconscious.

Another of Freud's main ideas are those related to his neurotic conflict. For this philosopher, the human being who lives in society has a neurotic conflict (lives in discomfort) because he has internalized a series of nsocial norms that prohibit him fulfill your most primal desires or most natural instincts. This idea, Freud, links it directly to two principles:

1. pleasure principle: The pleasure we get when we satisfy a need or desire.
2. reality principle: The norms established by a society or culture that controls (castrates) the need to satisfy our primary desire.

Likewise, our protagonist establishes that the human mind has developed defense mechanisms to mitigate neurotic conflict. Such as:

• Repression: Ignore and deny desire. The denial of desire favors the development of different psychological or behavioral pathologies.
• Regression: Reproduce behaviors from the past, especially from childhood.
• Sublimation: The individual makes the object of desire the most important, allowing it instead of denying it.
• Projection: The individual blames something external for his problems and is not able to accept responsibility for him = the problem is not solved.
• Displacement: The individual thinks that the neurotic conflict is caused by other people and never by himself.
• Reaction: Behaving in a totally opposite way to desire.

For Freud dreams are a manifestation of the unconscious, a symbolization that we make as a result of a dream process of our mind. Therefore, the interpretation of it is of a great psychic utility.

Likewise, our protagonist also establishes that dreams are made up of three elements:

1. Protect the act of sleep=Try to keep us sleeping. That is why when we are sleeping and they call us, we incorporate that call into sleep or when we feel like going to the bathroom and we dream that we are going to the bathroom.
2. show our concerns: Dreams capture the concerns that we have in our conscious and preconscious mind. Thus, if we have an exam, we may dream about it.
3. They have a deep element: The dreams of the unconscious are the result of a repressed desire.

Without a doubt, this is one of the main ideas of Freud and one of the most studied.

According to Freud there is a childhood sexuality and therefore children also have sexual elements. All this is because pleasure is equal to sexuality, although sex does not intervene directly.

In this way, Freud speaks of five stages sexual or psychosexual developmenthe in childhood and youth:

1. oral phase(from 0 to 1 year). in which the child gets pleasure through the mouth. Due to the sucking reflex, the baby sucks on the mother's breast, then bites her breast, procuring pleasure. If the mother frustrates this pleasure, the baby will remain fixed at this stage =receptive oral personality, if she suddenly gets frustrated = aggressive oral personality and if it is satisfied, it will go to the next phase.
2. Anal phase (from 1 to 3 years): In this phasethe anus is the child's pleasure center. Here certain rules are imposed on the child with sphincter control, if they are too strict or tolerant they can produce fixations or regressions = petty or wasteful personality.
3. Phallic phase (from 3 to 6 years): start with the discovery of the genitals, the child discover the genitals of him. The differentiation of the sexes occurs, boys are attracted to their mothers and girls to their fathers. This causes conflicts to arise: the Oedipus complex in children and electra in girls.
4. Latency phase (from 6 to 12 years):sexual development slows down and there is the adaptation of the child to the social environment.
5. Genital phase (12 years and older): It develops the adolescent sex drive the first sexual relations and consolidation of the sexual identity of individuals.

We end this review of Freud's main ideas by talking about the origin of the culture that this thinker defended. It is on this issue that Freud comes closest to philosophy, since he wonders what makes man live in culture. Thus, to answer this question, he analyzes the behavior of apes and primitive tribes, and then relates them to each other:

• ape behavior: Apes clans are made up of the dominant/alpha male, females, and dominated males. In these clans, coexistence is based on a sexual dictatorship: the alpha male has all the females (he is the only one who has disagreement) and the dominated males have to respect, although sometimes they fight to become the alpha. Be that as it may, everyone has to obey the rules of the leader.
• Behavior of the tribes: All primitive tribes have two common elements: the totem or deified animal from which all descend and the taboo or sacred prohibition (for example not eating meat from the animal that represents your totem).
• The relationship between each other / emergence of culture: According to Freud, the relationship between both (apes and tribes) would give rise to the origin of culture as there is a simile between the two: At one point the dominated apes agree to kill alpha, but they deify him as a holy father and the totem (ancestral memory) is born. Which, in turn, becomes a taboo, since its meat cannot be eaten. This is where the origin of culture would be born, when the group already imposes moral and social norms that are internalized (= neurotic conflict).

If you want to read more articles similar to Freud: main ideas, we recommend that you enter our category of Philosophy.

Freud, S. Introduction to psychoanalysis. Alliance Ed. 2011