Description
The development of psychoanalysis has been largely the work of one man, Sigmund Freud. Freud was primarily responsible for the major propositions of psychoanalytic theory, most of the early clinical findings, and the organization of the psychoanalytic movement that spread his teachings. Although today there are a number of variants of psychoanalysis, they share fundamental hypotheses and observations rooted deeply in clinical experience. Psychoanalysis encompasses three related but different activities: (1) a method of research into mental activity based on observations made under special conditions, emphasizing free association; (2) a theory of human behavior; and (3) a method of psychotherapy designed particularly for the treatment of symptom and character neuroses.
Only the psychoanalytic observational methods and theory of behavior are discussed in this chapter; psychoanalytic treatment is covered elsewhere in this volume. During the past century Freud’s revolutionary view of human behavior has become so deeply ingrained in Western thought that the extent to which psychoanalytic concepts are accepted in our ordinary understanding of persons is often forgotten. The methods Freud developed have helped to explain a wide range of human behaviors: from the most trivial (e.g., slips of the tongue) to the most momentous; from pathologic to clearly normal behaviors; from the development of sexuality to the development of creativity; and from alert, waking behavior to the sleeping behavior of dreams. No human endeavor is exempt from psychoanalytic efforts at understanding, and many have clearly been enriched by this effort.
