Explain the basic theories of Freud and Freudian psychoanalysis

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis,a therapeutic method by which repressed desires are brought to the conscious level to reveal the sources of emotional disturbance. Its tools were dream analysis and "free association" (the spontaneous verbalization of thoughts).
Freud theorized that instinctual drives, especially the libido, or sex drive, governed human behavior. Guilt from the repression of instinctual urges dominates the unconscious life of human beings and manifests itself in emotional illness. He argued that a child formed an unconscious attachment to the parent of the opposite sex and a jealousy towards the parent of the same sex, a phenomenon he called the Oedipus complex.
In describing the activities of the human mind, Freud proposed a theoretical model, the terms of which have become basic to psychology. This model pictures the psyche as consisting of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, according to Freud, is the seat of human instincts and the source of all physical desires, including nourishment and sexual satisfaction. Freud described the second part of the psyche, the ego, as the administrator of the id: the ego is the "manager" that attempts to adapt the needs of the id to the real world. The third agent, the superego, is the moral monitor commonly called the "conscience." The superego monitors human behavior according to principles inculcated by parents, teachers, and other authority figures.