What is aesthetic feelings definition. Aesthetic values

From the point of view of psychoanalysis, the key to understanding a person's mental illness should be sought in his subconscious. The use of psychoanalysis allows you to activate the unconscious and extract it from the depths of the psyche. Psychoanalysis is based on psychodynamic theories of personality, according to which the feelings and thinking of an individual are determined by internal factors, the interaction of the conscious with the unconscious.

The historical roots of psychodynamic theories of personality go back to the psychoanalysis of the Austrian scientist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He believed that the cause of all mental disorders is the unresolved conflicts of childhood and the painful memories associated with them. According to Freud, human life, culture and creative processes are determined by primary, unconscious (especially sexual) drives. According to Freud, disorders of sexual desires play a decisive role in the formation of a pathological personality. Unpleasant experiences, repressed into the subconscious, are the cause of constant internal conflict, which eventually leads to the development of a mental or neurological disease. Taking the main provisions of Freud's theory as a basis, his student, the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler (1870-1937), created an individual psychology, according to which the main driving forces for the development of the individual are the desire for superiority, perfection and a sense of community.

Various forms of psychopathology and social deviations are associated with the underdevelopment of a sense of community. Meanwhile, according to the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (Jung 1875-1961), mental disorders are caused not so much by childhood memories as by a person's real well-being. The images that arise in the subconscious are innate, they are associated with evolution, the history of mankind, and social consciousness. Neopsychoanalysis relies on and develops some of Freud's statements. The healing process in dynamic psychotherapy has as its ultimate goal the realization of the “unconscious”.

Therapeutic action

There are differences and even contradictions between the directions of psychoanalysis, but in general they are quite similar. Freud's psychoanalysis tries to find the causes of illness in the unconscious by analyzing dreams, childhood memories, free associations. Over time, a kind of picture of a person’s subconscious is formed from individual parts, the causes of his internal conflicts emerge. The task of the psychotherapist is to help the patient to realize them.

An important aspect of psychoanalysis is the patient's resistance to treatment. By the nature and intensity of the resistance, the therapist can understand which unconscious conflicts the patient most wants to push into the subconscious. In order for the patient to fully open up, he must trust his psychotherapist, a spiritual connection must be established between them. The connection between the doctor and the patient decreases after the conflicts are recognized and resolved - then the patient is left alone with them.

The Effectiveness of Psychoanalysis

If depth psychotherapy is effective, then the patient overcomes his internal conflicts and can lead a normal life.

Often during treatment, the patient begins to doubt its effectiveness. However, in order to feel the beneficial effects of psychoanalysis, a lot of time must pass. Even if at first psychotherapy does not give positive results, it should not be interrupted.

When is psychoanalysis used?

Psychoanalysis is used to treat various personality disorders. It gives positive results in depression, phobias, neuroses, personality pathologies, psychosomatic diseases.

Psychoanalytic therapy is contraindicated for children suffering from mental illness. These children have difficulty expressing their thoughts. They do not realize that they are mentally ill. Therefore, for the treatment of children, it is recommended to use other methods, for example, games that contribute to their self-expression.

Initially, psychoanalysis arose as a method of studying and treating hysterical neuroses. The results of psychotherapeutic practice, as well as the analysis of various phenomena of normal mental life - dreams, erroneous actions, wit - were interpreted by Freud as the result of the operation of general psychological mechanisms.

The main premise of psychoanalysis is the division of the psyche into the conscious and the unconscious. Human behavior and thinking predetermine unconscious drives that are rooted in traumatic childhood experiences or come into conflict with existing moral and cultural norms in society. This is how intrapsychic conflicts arise. The resolution of these conflicts is carried out by ousting "evil", but natural inclinations and desires from the consciousness. Displaced from the consciousness of attraction and desire do not disappear without a trace. They are driven into the depths of the human psyche and one way or another, sooner or later they make themselves felt, causing tension.

What is psychoanalysis?

First, psychoanalysis is a method of treatment, and nowadays almost all psychoanalysts are doctors. The psychoanalyst tries to remove the patient's symptoms by freeing him from unnecessary doubts, unjustified feelings of guilt, painful self-accusations, false judgments and unreasonable impulses. In addition, he aims not only to calm the patient, but also to unravel his personality. But the analyst is only a guide and observer, and the patient is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the entire process.

Secondly, it is a method of scientific observation and study of personality, and especially desires, impulses, motives, dreams, fantasies, early development and emotional disorders.

Thirdly, it is a system of scientific psychology, that is, the observations and ideas of psychoanalysis can be used in an attempt to predict human behavior and the outcome of human relationships, such as marriage and relationships between parents and children.

How is psychoanalysis performed?

The process of psychoanalysis consists in the study and reorganization of the personality; this is done so that the individual can store his tensions with less difficulty until the time comes for them to be released. It is necessary to make the subconscient conscious and to bring unsatisfied tensions under observation. It is believed that in order to fully carry out this process, it should last at least a year and be from three to six sessions per week, each lasting about an hour. If the study lasts less than a year or the number of sessions is less than three per week, it is almost impossible to carry out the process effectively.

To conduct a psychoanalytic session, the patient lies down on the couch, and the analyst sits in his head so as to be out of sight. Thanks to this, the patient's psyche can work without being distracted. In turn, this method relieves the doctor of unnecessary tension: without being under constant supervision, he can better focus on what the patient is saying.

The so-called free association method is used. This means that the free expression of the free flow of ideas is not restrained and not changed by the usual censorship of consciousness (ideas of politeness, shame, self-respect).

In a state of free association, the patient's psyche is often overflowing with desires, feelings, reproaches, memories, fantasies, judgments, and new points of view, all of which appear at first sight in complete disarray. However, despite the apparent confusion and incoherence, every statement and every gesture has its own meaning in connection with this or that unsatisfied tension. Hour after hour, day after day, meanings and connections begin to emerge from the chaotic web of thoughts. Over a long period, certain central themes may gradually develop, relating to a number of tensions that have been unsatisfied since early childhood, long buried in the subconscious and inaccessible to conscious recognition, which form the basis of the patient's personality structure, the source of all his symptoms and associations.

The position of the analyst in relation to the patient must be strictly neutral. The main work of the analyst is, in a sense, that he shows the patient every time when he is deceiving himself; therefore, the doctor must always maintain a self-critical position, excluding any manifestations of sympathy and indignation for the patient, which would give him the opportunity to deceive the doctor and himself. The analyst's unwanted emotional attitude towards the patient is called countertransference.

The question often arises, can psychoanalysis harm anyone? The greatest danger is to treat a patient who is on the verge of psychosis, if the analyst is not aware of his true state. The analyst must also be careful in distinguishing neuroses from certain diseases of the brain and hormonal disorders.

Based on the materials of the book by E. Bern

"Introduction to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis for the Uninitiated"

Psychoanalysis is one of the directions in psychological science, which is based on the definition of anxieties and internal conflicts of the individual, hidden in the depths of the subconscious. Such conflicts can be one of the causes of psycho-emotional trauma. The founder of this trend is Sigmund Freud, who devoted his life to the study of unconscious processes. Thanks to his teachings, psychologists around the world got the opportunity to work with the motives of the behavioral model hidden in the subconscious of the individual. Let's find out what psychoanalysis is in psychology and talk about the basics of this doctrine.

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory founded by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, as well as a method of the same name for the treatment of mental disorders.

Fundamentals of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is one of the psychological teachings that considers the human personality in the form of a struggle between consciousness and the subconscious. This confrontation affects the level of emotional perception and self-esteem, and also determines the degree of interaction with the outside world. Most often, the source of conflict between the subconscious and consciousness is the negative life experience gained by a person throughout his life. Human nature is arranged in such a way that each person tries to avoid various types of pain and is aimed at finding pleasure.

Psychoanalysis is a branch that studies the interaction between the unconscious and conscious areas.

The theory of psychoanalysis is built on the assertion that the human personality is based on three components: the unconscious, preconscious and conscious parts. Each of these components are interchangeable and dependent on each other. The preconscious part contains human desires and fantastic ideas. Focusing on such stimuli moves them from the preconscious part to the realm of consciousness. Morality and morality are social values ​​that determine the human personality. Their influence on the perception of certain life events can cause the mind to perceive various life situations as painful or acceptable. With painful perception, memories of traumatic circumstances are deposited in the unconscious area.

Such life experience, as it were, is separated from the rest, with the help of invisible barriers. Human psychoanalysis is based on two analytical mechanisms:

  1. The study of spontaneous actions that are committed throughout life.
  2. Analysis of personality, with the help of associations and interpretations of dreams.

Freud's theory

The human behavioral model is regulated by consciousness. Research on this topic helped Sigmund Freud to reveal the existence of a certain layer that is responsible for various lusts and inclinations. Since Freud was a practitioner, in his research he determined the existence of a whole layer of motives, which are called unconscious.


The goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to be able to unravel a person's personality, and not just calm him down.

According to Freud, it is precisely such motives that are the root cause of the occurrence of diseases of the nervous system and the human psyche. Thanks to this discovery, scientists have been able to find the means that can stop the struggle within the patient's personality. One of these means was the method of psychoanalysis, which is a method of resolving internal conflicts. The treatment of neuropathic pathologies was not Freud's main goal. This great scientist sought to find methods that would help restore the mental health of the patient as much as possible. Through trial and error, a theory of analysis of the patient's personality was developed, which is widely used today.

The uniqueness and effectiveness of Freud's methodology has become highly widespread and has become one of the most famous "tools" for restoring the psyche. The classical version of psychoanalysis should be regarded as a kind of revolution in psychological science.

What is the theory of psychoanalysis

What does psychoanalysis study? The basis of this teaching is based on the assumption that the behavioral model has in its nature unconscious motives that are hidden deep within the personality. The middle of the last century can be characterized as a revolution in psychological science, since the world was presented with methods that allow you to look at the internal psychological tension from a new point of view.

According to Freud, the human personality consists of three components. They received the names "Super-I", "I" and "It". "It" - the unconscious part of the personality, in which various objects of gravity are hidden. "I" is a continuation of "It" and arises under the influence of external forces. "I" is one of the most complex mechanisms, the functionality of which covers both the conscious and unconscious levels. Based on this, it follows that the "I" is one of the tools to protect the psyche from external influences.

Many of the mechanisms that protect the psyche from damage are prepared at birth for the influence of external stimuli. However, the violation of the process of personality formation and the negative microclimate that prevails within the family can become a source of various pathologies. In this case, the influence of objective reality leads to a weakening of the defense mechanisms and causes distortions. It is the force of curvature of the adaptive defense mechanisms that leads to the emergence of mental disorders.


Psychoanalysis is a method of scientific observation, the study of personality: its desires, drives, impulses, fantasies, early development and emotional disorders.

Psychoanalysis as a direction of psychology

The definition of the characteristics of the human psyche, proposed by Freud, has become very widespread in psychology. To date, many modern methods of psychotherapeutic correction have been built on this theory. Jung's analytical psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychoanalysis are one of the main "tools" for identifying internal conflicts that are sources of pathological perception.

The theories of the aforementioned scientists are based on the research of Sigmund Freud. The main difference between these methods is the limited importance of sexual motives. Thanks to the followers of Freud, the unconscious part of the personality received new characteristics. According to Adler, the manifestation of lust for power is a compensation for an inferiority complex.
Jung's research was based on the study of the collective unconscious. According to the scientist, the unconscious part of the individual's psyche is based on hereditary factors. According to Freud himself, the unconscious level is filled with phenomena that were pushed out of the conscious part of the psyche.

Use of psychoanalysis in psychology

The method of psychoanalysis is based on three main elements that fully reveal the whole concept of this teaching. The first element is a kind of stage at which material is collected for study. The second element involves careful study and analysis of the data obtained. The third element is interaction using the data obtained as a result of the analysis. Various techniques are used to collect information, including the method of confrontation, associations and transference.

The method of building free associations is based on creating a model of situations that exactly repeat certain life events. This approach allows you to identify certain processes occurring at the unconscious level of the psyche. The use of this method makes it possible to obtain data on pathological processes in order to further correct mental disorders. Correction is carried out by understanding internal conflicts and the causes of their occurrence. One of the important conditions in the use of this method is the creation of a strong communicative relationship between the psychologist and the patient, aimed at eliminating psychological discomfort.


Psychoanalysis studies the internal, coming from the subconscious, driven by instincts and the principle of pleasure, the tension of a person.

To do this, the patient must voice every thought that is born in his head. These thoughts may be obscene or borderline absurd. In order to achieve a high result, it is necessary to create the right relationship between the doctor and the patient. The transfer technique involves the unconscious transfer of the characteristic personality traits of the patient's parents to the attending physician. Thus, the patient relates to the doctor in the same way as he treated close relatives in early childhood. At the same time, the substitute person gets the opportunity to identify children's desires, grievances and psychological trauma received during the formation of the personality.

It is important to note that psychotherapeutic intervention often encounters the phenomenon of internal resistance emanating from the patient. It manifests itself in the form of a failure to comprehend causal relationships and a violation of the process of creating a new model of behavior. The cause of resistance is an unconscious refusal to touch internal conflicts, which is accompanied by the appearance of obstacles on the way to identifying the cause of mental disorders.

The main task of personality analysis is to perform four sequential actions:

  • interpretation;
  • working out;
  • clarification;
  • opposition.

Further, the joint efforts of the patient and the psychologist are aimed at achieving a specific goal, which was identified as a result of the analysis. The technique of interpreting dreams involves the interpretation of dreams, which are a deformed form of unconscious motives.

Modern theory of psychoanalysis

Such representatives of psychoanalysis as Alfred Adler, Jacques Lacan, Karen Horney and Carl Jung made an invaluable contribution to the development of this area of ​​psychology. It was their modified theory of classical psychoanalysis that made it possible to create new methods for revealing the hidden properties of the human psyche. Over the course of a hundred years that have passed since the advent of the method of psychoanalysis, various principles have appeared, on the basis of which a multi-level system has been built that combines various approaches to resolving internal conflicts.

Thanks to the followers of Freud, whole complexes of psychotherapeutic correction appeared, which contain methods for studying the unconscious part of the human psyche. One of these methods is the release of the personality from those restrictions that are created in the subconscious area and hinder personal development.

To date, the methodology of psychoanalysis includes three main branches that are complementary and interconnected with each other:

  1. Applied form of psychoanalysis- is used to identify and study general cultural factors with the help of which certain social issues are resolved.
  2. Clinical form of psychoanalysis- a method of therapeutic assistance to people faced with internal conflicts that provoke the occurrence of neuropsychic pathologies.
  3. Psychoanalytic ideas- which are a kind of ground for the construction of methods of actual correction.

A person who has undergone psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy will be able to radically change himself and his life.

Psychoanalysis has a high degree of distribution in various fields of science. Psychoanalysis in philosophy is a peculiar method of interpreting the foundations and mores established in society. The classical form of psychoanalysis was one of the reasons for the development of the sexual revolution, since it is in it that the concept of sexual desire is expressed most clearly. The current form of psychoanalysis is based on ego psychology and object relations teachings.

To date, the use of the method of analyzing the patient's personality helps to cope with both neurotic diseases and complex mental disorders. Thanks to the constant improvement of this area, scientists every day identify new ways to eliminate various pathologies. A huge contribution to the improvement of this branch was made by the followers of Freud, whose teaching was called neo-Freudianism. However, despite the high prevalence and application in various fields, the theory of psychoanalysis often faces criticism. According to some scientists, this direction is pseudoscience and has undeservedly gained such high popularity.

Each of us had unusual, amazing dreams that we could remember in detail the next morning. The first thing that comes to mind after waking up to any person is to look at the meaning of the dream in the interpreter.

One of the most famous dream books was developed by the founder of the theory of psychoanalysis, an Austrian scientist. Freud considered psychoanalysis the only tool capable of revealing hidden experiences, anxieties, fears that find expression in our dreams in rather bizarre forms.

So what is psychoanalysis? In his book "Introduction to Psychoanalysis", Freud wrote that the method is aimed at revealing the hidden, repressed experiences of the individual, which can lead to an increase in internal tension, deepening the conflict between the components of the personality, and as a result - to various kinds of mental disorders. Modern psychology considers the undoubted advantage of the method of psychoanalysis that a person is considered as a unity of opposites that are in constant struggle with each other.

A bit of history

The fate of Sigmund Freud was rather difficult. He was born on May 6, 1856 in the city of Freiberg, into a Jewish family. The boy was ambitious, dreamed of becoming a minister or a general. However, in those days in the Austrian Empire for Jews, the choice of specialties was small: jurisprudence or medicine.

The future founder of psychoanalysis entered the University of Vienna and jumped from faculty to faculty. Freud's throwing did not last long, he soon finally chose medicine. Freud was an extraordinary person: it is known for certain that he was fluent in eight languages, was a member of prestigious scientific communities, and had a phenomenal memory. Freud is the author of a huge number of scientific works, in addition, he introduced the term cerebral palsy into medicine, became known as the author of a revolutionary approach to the treatment of various kinds of mental disorders.

Despite all the achievements of Freud, representatives of the scientific community of that time subjected psychoanalysis to harsh criticism, and many did not hesitate to call the author of the method a charlatan and a sexually obsessed maniac.

There are other interesting points in the biography of the psychoanalyst: for some time he studied the beneficial properties of cocaine, treated drug addiction with this substance, and called for drinking a small amount of powder dissolved in water to improve well-being. It is also known that Freud suffered from very funny phobias: he was afraid of the numbers 6 and 2, ferns and pistols, did not look into the eyes of his interlocutor, never discussed, believing that his opinion was the only true one.

Freud died at the age of 83 from a lethal dose of morphine. He suffered from a serious illness, the cause of which was excessive smoking. Many believe that the psychoanalyst resorted to euthanasia in order to avoid the severe pain that accompanies this disease.

Theoretical foundations of the method

The history of psychoanalysis is as unusual as the biography of the scientist who developed this method. Working in Paris under the guidance of the prominent psychiatrist Jean Charcot, Freud was engaged in research and identification of the causes of neurosis.

The scientist discovered that a person's behavior and actions are controlled not only by his consciousness, but also by some unconscious component that comes into confrontation with the norms and rules established by society. According to Freud, this confrontation led to the emergence of various kinds of disorders.

To develop a new approach to the treatment of mental illness, Freud conducted his own research, and also used the data of other scientists. The theory of psychoanalysis is unique, it differs from other areas in that it does not consider individual problems of a person, but analyzes him as a whole person. Let us briefly consider the main provisions of psychoanalysis.

1. Classical psychoanalysis is based on the determinism of the biological component, namely on the postulate that physiological and sexual needs prevail over the rest. Modern psychology no longer pays such a significant role to these components.

2. Mental determinism speaks of the continuity of a person's spiritual life. Every act of a person has a hidden or explicit motive and is determined by previous events.

3. Identification of three components of mental life: conscious, preconscious component and. The first component is what a person experiences, feels and thinks; preconscious - the focus of fantasies and desires; the third - what is forced out of consciousness is suppressed by the internal censor of the personality. Psychology, from Freud's point of view, should pay special attention to this complex mechanism.

Psychoanalysis of personality is one of the most interesting developments of the scientist. Freud singled out three components in the structure of personality: Id, Ego and super-ego. The first component - Id - is a set of unique characteristics laid down at birth, it is a source of energy and an unconscious part of the personality. The second part - the Ego - is conscious, constantly in contact with the external environment. The third is the controller, the receptacle of moral norms, rules, restrictions dictated by a civilized society.

The techniques of psychoanalysis consist of several stages: production, analysis, working alliance. At the stage of production, one can distinguish such methods of psychoanalysis as free association, resistance,. Each of these methods has its own characteristics and scope.

The first method of psychoanalysis uses associations to comprehend the deep unconscious processes of the human psyche. The data obtained are analyzed and used for therapeutic intervention in order to correct human behavior. The method involves the joint work of the patient and the doctor to reduce internal tension.

The process of comprehending cause-and-effect relationships, changing personal attitudes, forming an atypical type of behavior often encounters a negative reaction in patients - resistance. This phenomenon is generally recognized and is expressed in the desire to prevent the real sources of the problem from being established. According to Freud, such resistance is unconscious, it is a consequence of attempts to recreate repressed experiences in consciousness.

The third method of psychoanalysis involves holding sessions during which the patient voices any thoughts that come to mind. When talking with a psychotherapist, the patient subconsciously transfers the properties of his parents to the doctor. The success of the work in this case largely depends on how trusting relationships have developed between the attending physician and his ward.

The analytical stage is divided into four steps: confrontation, interpretation, clarification, elaboration. A working alliance involves the existence of a constructive and productive relationship between the patient and the therapist, aimed at purposeful problem solving at the analytic stage. It is worth mentioning the method of interpreting dreams, aimed at finding the truth hidden behind deformed images.

The philosophy of psychoanalysis is such that this method is not only a strictly scientific concept, but is also used in therapeutic practice to heal the mental ailments of patients. Freud believed that the foundations of psychoanalysis developed by him should become an indisputable truth for all practitioners. The analysis of the unconscious processes taking place in the human psyche, the concept of resistance and suppression, the Oedipus complex, sexual development - this is the real subject of study for any psychotherapist.

It is worth mentioning the works of other authors who also made a significant contribution to the development of the theory. He developed his own analytical psychoanalysis, taking Freud's calculations as a basis. The second direction - individual psychoanalysis - was founded and developed by an Austrian psychologist. Both scientists agreed that the prevalence of sexual impulses over the rest is unreasonably exaggerated, but the theory of the unconscious does have a serious scientific basis.

The Jungian approach is the most interesting and considers the desire for power as a driving motive as a way to compensate for feelings of inferiority. The Jungian method considers two types of the unconscious - collective and personal. It is widely known to divide people into two types: extrovert (directed outward) and (focused in itself).

Modern view of the theory

At the present stage of development, psychology has a rather diverse toolkit for studying the problems of the human psyche. However, it is psychoanalysis that enjoys undoubted authority, the main provisions of which have undergone some changes under the influence of such prominent scientists as Adler, Jung,. Thus, less importance was attached to sexual impulses, the unconditional influence of the unconscious on the human psyche was recognized, and the concept of the collective unconscious appeared.

Modern psychoanalysis develops in three directions:

  • Applied psychoanalysis is aimed at solving global social problems.
  • Clinical - used to help people with psychological problems.
  • Theoretical - psychology must develop, and for this it is necessary to develop new approaches to solving the problems facing science.

The concept of "psychoanalysis" in psychology is inextricably linked with the name of Freud, who made a significant contribution to the development of science, despite all the attacks from the adherents of the traditional approach of that time. Largely thanks to the works of this scientist, modern psychology has gone far beyond the treatment of neuroses. The development of psychoanalysis led to the emergence of numerous varieties of the method, which confirmed the validity of Freud's main statement about the existence of the unconscious in the human psyche. Author: Natalya Kuznetsova

Academic psychology and psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis developed mainly outside the mainstream of academic psychology. This situation persisted for a long time. American academic psychology did not accept the psychoanalytic doctrine. An unsigned editorial in the Journal of Anomalous Psychology in 1924 expressed obvious annoyance at this "endless stream of work on the unconscious by European psychologists". In this article, they were barely mentioned as completely unworthy of attention.

It is clear that in such a situation very few psychoanalytic works have been awarded publication in professional journals. Such discrimination continued for at least 20 years. Many academic psychologists have denounced psychoanalysis with vehement criticism. In 1916, Christina Ladd-Franklin wrote that psychoanalysis is the product of "an underdeveloped ... German mind." It should be noted that this judgment was made at a time when everything German was perceived with great suspicion against the backdrop of German aggression in the First World War.

Robert Woodworth of Columbia University called psychoanalysis a "terrible religion" that leads even sane people to utterly absurd conclusions. John B. Watson generally defined the Freudian position as shamanism, voodoo. Despite all these caustic attacks on psychoanalysis by the leaders of academic psychology and the attitude to it as just another “crazy” theory, nevertheless, some Freudian ideas made their way into American psychology textbooks in the early 1920s. The problem of psychological defense mechanisms, as well as the explicit and latent (latent) content of dreams, was quite seriously discussed in psychological circles. However, since behaviorism remained by far the dominant school, psychoanalysis as a whole was simply ignored.

Psychology of psychoanalysis

However, in the 1930s and 1940s, psychoanalysis gained unexpected wide acceptance among the public. The combination of sex, violence and ulterior motives, and the promise of a cure for a wide variety of emotional disorders, is very attractive, almost irresistible. Official psychology is furious because, from its point of view, people can confuse psychoanalysis and psychology assuming they are doing the same thing. Official psychologists were disgusted by the very idea that someone might think that sex, dreams and neurotic behavior is all that psychology is concerned with. "In the 1930s, it became clear to many psychologists that psychoanalysis was not just another crazy idea, but a serious competitor that threatened the very foundations of scientific psychology, at least in the minds of the general reading public."

To deal with this threat, psychologists have decided to test psychoanalysis against the strict criteria of being scientific. They conducted "hundreds of studies whose ingenuity was matched only by the futility of the results." This flurry of research, though mostly poorly executed, has shown that psychoanalysis is far behind the level of experimental psychology, at least from the point of view of the adherents of experimental psychology themselves. As a result, this allowed them to once again take the position of "arbitrators and guardians of psychological truth." In addition, these studies have shown that academic psychology may also be of interest to the general public, since it deals with essentially the same issues as psychoanalysis.

In the 50s and 60s of the last century, many behaviorists were engaged in translating psychoanalytic terminology into the language of their concept. We can say that the beginning of this trend was laid by Watson himself, when he defined emotions as just a set of habits, and neuroses as the result of an unfortunate combination of circumstances. Skinner also referred to Freud's idea of ​​defense mechanisms of the psyche, describing them as a form of operant conditioning. Eventually, psychologists adopted many of Freud's ideas, which even over time became part of the main body of psychological theories. Recognition of the role of unconscious processes, the importance of referring to childhood experience, the study of the action of defense mechanisms - this is a far from complete list of psychoanalytic ideas that have become widespread in modern psychology.

____________________________________________________________________

Articles about psychology

Carl Jung and analytical psychology

Jung gradually developed his own psychology of unconscious processes and dream analysis. He came to the conclusion that the methods by which he analyzes the symbols of the dreams of patients can also be applied to the analysis of other forms of symbolism, that is, he picked up the key to the interpretation of myths, folk tales, religious symbols and art >>>

Psychology of the unconscious

Let us follow the way Freud came to the discovery of the unconscious. It goes from the psychic symptom to the unconscious. Symptoms are ascertained. They enter reality as functional disorders of the organism or thinking and become the cause of suffering for the affected subject, moreover, the cause of complaints. Before Freud, these complaints remained stubbornly impenetrable to the psychology of the psychiatrist. But he did not follow the direct path, from the symptom to the unconscious. He took a detour through a thicket of dreams, misguided actions, and even witticisms. Before him, all this was considered insignificant and especially frivolous in the eyes of psychiatrists >>>

Psychology of breastfeeding

The psychoanalysts who created the psychology of human emotional development are also responsible to some extent for some reassessment of the importance of the breast for the infant's psyche. No, they were not mistaken, but time has passed and now “good breasts” is a psychoanalytic slang word that means quite satisfactory maternal care and parental attention in general. Psychologists say that the ability to nurse, hold and handle a child is a more important indicator of a mother's success in her task than the fact of actually breastfeeding >>>

Please copy the code below and paste it into your page - as HTML.