The Psychoanalytic Approach
• Sigmund Freud – the creator of psychoanalytic theory, one of the towering intellectual figures of the twentieth century.
• The psychoanalytic account of personality remains the most comprehensive and influential theory of personality ever created. Its impact extends well beyond psychology, influencing the social sciences, the humanities, the arts, and society generally.
• Freud began his scientific career as a neurologist, using conventional medical procedures to treat patients suffering from various “nervous” disorders. Because those procedures often failed, he turned to the technique of hypnosis but soon abandoned it.
• Free association – the method which Freud eventually discovered, in which a patient is instructed to say everything that comes to mind, regardless of how trivial or embarrassing it may seem . By listening carefully to these verbal associations, Freud detected consistent themes that he believed were manifestations of unconscious wishes and fears. He found similar themes in the recall of dreams and early childhood memories.
• Conscious – our current awareness
• Preconscious – all information that is not currently “on our mind” but that we could bring into consciousness if called upon to do so (for example, the name of the resident of the
• Unconscious – the storehouse of impulses, wishes, and inaccessible memories that affect our thoughts and behavior.
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