Sigmund Freud

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2009

Sigmund (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist. He was the first to draw attention to the significance of unconscious processes in normal and neurotic behaviour, and was the founder of psychoanalysis as both a theory of personality and a therapeutic practice. The theory that adult personality is shaped in early infancy and is especially influenced by the individual's experiences in sexual exploration and development.

Sigmund Freud proposed the existence of an unconscious element in the mind which influences consciousness, and of conflicts in it between various sets of forces. Sigmund Freud also emphasized the importance of a child's semiconsciousness of sex as a factor in mental development, while his theory of the sexual origin of neuroses aroused great controversy.

Sigmund Freud's works include The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), Totem and Taboo (1913), and The Ego and the Id (1923).

Psychonalysis [PSYCHO- + ANALYSIS]: Analysis of the unconscious forces believed to affect the mind; specifically,

(a) a therapeutic method originated by Sigmund Freud for treating mental illnesses by bringing into consciousness a patient's unconscious fears, conflicts, and fantasies (attributed chiefly to the development of the sexual instinct) through free association of ideas, interpretation of dreams, etc., and dealing with them through transference;

(b) a theory of personality, motivation, and neurosis derived from Freudian analysis, based on the interaction of conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of the mind (classified as ego, id, and superego) and the repression of the sexual instinct. Also, the psychology of the unconscious.

Psychoanalyse v.

(a) v.t. subject to or treat by psychoanalysis;

(b) v.i. perform psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalyst n. a person who practises or has training in psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalytic a. of, pertaining to, or employing psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalytical a. relating to the analysis of mental processes;

Psychoanalytically adv. by means of or as regards psychoanalysis.