Free Term Paper on Freud and Psychoanalysis
Freud was particularly interested in the psychoanalytic school of thought and the founder of psychoanalysis. He believed that our unconscious minds are responsible for many of our behaviors. According to Freud, he thought that there was a significant relationship between slips of the tongue and what we are actually thinking. Today these are called Freudian slips. Similarly he believed that we get information, like our fears and wishes, out by just merely saying what comes to mind. He was able to tell a lot about people, including their past experiences, how they were feeling, and what they wished and feared, just by simply encouraging them to speak whatever came to mind.
In sitting down and
tape recording myself speaking about anything that came to mind, a lot of
unconscious thoughts about myself were revealed. I noticed myself speaking of
things that I normally wouldn’t have. For instance, I spoke of God, death, and
negative things about my friends. I also said a lot of stuff that really made no
sense at all. An exact piece of what I recorded myself saying was, “I don’t
care. That’s just the way I am. I don’t give a shit. It’s like… I don’t know.
Die. Maybe God will. Yeah… maybe. Ha. Butterflies. Stand on walls, do that
dance. Yeah… Buddy’s cool. Stop. No. Eva. Duh. She’s… so fucking stupid. Ugh.
Drink. Yeah right. Who cares? It’s little.”
I have to admit. Those
were some pretty strange lines I was saying on that tape recorder. Some of which
I might indeed know where they came from. Let’s begin at the start of the tape
when I began with, “I don’t care. That’s just the way I am. I don’t give a
shit.” This attitude of mine occurs quite frequent. If I were Freud, I would
probably interpret this as to how I really feel about things. I in fact do have
an “I don’t care” attitude more times than none, but I didn’t realize the
severity of it till I heard this tape of myself. Aside from my schoolwork,
rarely do I care about much. I never care about what people think of me or what
other people do.
In the next segment, I said, “It’s like… I don’t know. Die.
Maybe God will. Yeah… maybe.” I think here Freud would suggest that I was
feeling lost and helpless and wishing for either an easy way out or help. This
is very true. Many times I’ve thought that dying would help to solve all my
problems and make things all better. Shortly after, I realized that it wouldn’t.
Things would actually get worse. If I were to ever commit suicide, it would be
against God’s will and He will instantly reincarnate me into a newborn, who
later in life will have to deal with the exact same problem which I ran away
from earlier in the previous life.
The next segment included, “Ha.
Butterflies. Stand on walls, do that dance. Yeah… Buddy’s cool.” This was to me
very jumbled. In this piece, I would have to say that Freud would say that
unconsciously, there was a link between a butterfly and me. To my knowledge, I
cannot recollect where I would have a tie with butterflies. The part about
standing on walls and doing that dance, I would say had something to do with my
dream of being a dancer and a stuntwoman. All my life I dreamed of doing these
things,
but I was never the right size. I was always too heavy and
overweight to do many of the things I dreamed of doing.
In the last part, I
said, “Yeah… Buddy’s cool. Stop. No. Eva. Duh. She’s… so fucking stupid. Ugh.
Drink. Yeah right. Who cares? It’s little.” Buddy is my cat. He is like a baby
to me and I’m like his mother. Eva is a friend of mine. She is a bit ditzy and
does not have direction in her life. All she ever wants to do is smoke, drink,
do drugs, and go clubbing. The part about Eva being stupid, I think Freud would
explain that as how I really do feel about her. Although she is my friend, I
never realized that the reason for me always being so sarcastic to her is
because I couldn’t stand the fact that she is so irresponsible and uneducated.
In doing this little project, I learned to interpret my subconscious
behaviors into meaningful thoughts. Although they may have sounded dumb and
ludicrous, I have realized that there really is meaning behind them. Had I done
this prior to studying Freud, I would never have been able to understand the
fact that we actually do think when we aren’t even aware of it, and that there
actually is meaning to our unconscious thoughts.
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By Pradeep Chadha A lot has been written about the Unconscious in psychology literature. During my own training, I found it hard to understand the intricacies of the Unconscious. But over the years, I have learnt something more than what the books taught me. This article is about my own experiences and my own understanding of the Unconscious. The part of the nervous system that controls our internal organs and is affected by and regulates our emotional state is the Unconscious. Initially made popular in the Western world by Freud, the Unconscious has been an accepted phenomenon in Eastern cultures for a long time. References to the Unconscious have been made in Bhagvatgita, a holy book for the Hindus. Arjuna, the protagonist, in Bhagvatgita, is advised by Krishna, to rise over the emotions and anxiety that he is experiencing in the battle-field. Through cognitive therapy, Arjuna is advised to deal with his physical and emotional state first, before he fires an arrow at his enemies. Recently, it has been scientifically shown that a part of the nervous system called the ‘limbic system’ is responsible for controlling emotions in the humans. The limbic system is located in the center of the skull. It gets its input from the sensory organs. It is connected to the ‘logical’ cerebrum on one side and on the other it is connected to the nerves that control the functioning of internal organs like heart, lungs, stomach, liver and the kidneys. It is also connected to the master gland of the endocrine system- the hypothalamus. The limbic system gets its information from the senses, the logical part of the brain and also the internal organs. As soon as we think of an event, or become aware of an event in our environment that causes emotional arousal, the limbic system stimulates the endocrine system. We feel emotional due to the production of particular hormones in particular quantities. The impact of these emotions depends on what the limbic system has observed (by preconditioning) of how the event is perceived- threatening or non- threatening. The Unconscious determines our behavioral responses to the environmental cues. To change our behaviour, it is the Unconscious that needs to be trained to respond in a different manner. This can be done either by using reason or by dealing with the emotions that are experienced in a particular situation. The interesting part of the change process is that once the emotions, relating to a particular event are experienced fully, the nervous system becomes tired of them and changes the behavioral responses of the person. This is the reason why counseling, hypnotherapy, emotive therapy and cognitive therapy work. If someone does not get well with these therapies, it is not that the particular therapy does not work, but because the emotional experiences have not been concluded. Pradeep K Chadha is a psychiatrist who specialises in helping patients with meditation and imagery using little or no medication. He is the author of The Stress Barrier-Nature's Way To Overcoming Stress published by Blackhall Publishing, Dublin. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.His website address is :http://www.drpkchadha.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pradeep_Chadha |