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| Sigmund Freud |
Psychoanalysis
was established by Sigmund Freud, in 1895. While examining his patients, as a
neurologist, Freud realized that many of his patients had neurological symptoms
without any organic cause. He came to the conclusion that such symptoms result
from inner conflicts that are repressed in the form of traumatic memories and
experiences. Resolving those inner conflicts by uncovering the repressed memories
into the conscious mind then became the underlying feature of psychoanalysis.
As
psychoanalysis evolved, it began to gain popularity but at the same time faced
criticisms. Freud’s associates like Alfred Adler and Carl Jung parted ways from
him due to their disagreements and developed their own forms of psychoanalysis,
keeping some of the basic elements the same. Like Adler and Jung, others had
different perspectives about psychoanalysis, which became more prominent after
the death of Sigmund Freud in 1939.
Despite
the many modifications, over the years, classical Freudian psychoanalysis
continued to have wide acceptance. It was found to be highly applicable in
therapeutic settings as well as in day-to-day life. Psychoanalysis
received its immediate expression through the needs of the mentally ill. It
was, initially, a clinical-based discipline, and was not academically oriented.
It was due to this that psychoanalysis had a
dominant role in psychiatry, as it was found suitable to clinical problems.
Till the 1960s, psychoanalytic writings found an almost exclusive position in
psychiatry and clinical psychology. It was one of the major reasons for the
alarming rise of clinical psychology.
Being clinically oriented, psychoanalysis resulted
in huge advances in treatment of mental patients. It was one of the pioneer
movements to treat mental patients more humanely. It is, in fact, the first of
the five classical schools of psychology to give emphasis to mental illness. It
stressed the importance of allowing patients to talk and express themselves. It
is, thus, the forerunner of all the current approaches to counselling and
psychotherapy.
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| Sigmund Freud |
Psychoanalysis, however, has not restricted itself
to mental illness. Apart from the understanding of abnormal behavior,
psychoanalysis has also led to an understanding of normal behavior. It
addresses both normal and abnormal behavior, and demonstrates that the
psychological processes underlying both are fundamentally the same.
Psychoanalysis has addressed a wide range of topics, apart from mental illness.
It has contributed to ground breaking work on humour, marriage, death,
friendship, suicide, creativity, competition, forgetfulness, mistakes, importance
of culture, society, and war, and many other domains. Sigmund Freud being one
of the most frequently cited authors in the psychology and the Division of
Psychoanalysis (Division 39) being the sixth largest of all APA Divisions
reflects the huge impact that psychoanalysis has had.
Further, psychoanalysis has helped in the
generalization of psychology to other fields. By showing the usefulness of
psychology in explaining everyday life phenomena such as religion, sports,
politics, art, literature, and philosophy, the relevance of psychology has
expanded to almost every sector of human existence. Additionally, it also
created substantial interest in the field of psychology among other
professionals like physicians and philosophers and even the general audience.
Psychoanalysis
has also had an enormous influence on art and literature. This has led to
literary and artistic expressions interpreted in light of the unconscious of
the artist as well as the perceiver. It is for this reason that art is seen as
symbolic, something that can be probed for unconscious meanings. The analysis
of art is regarded as an extension of psychoanalysis.
One of the
reasons for the popularity of psychoanalysis is that it has a strong influence
on popular culture, which began immediately after Sigmund Freud’s visit to
Clark University in 1909. Due to the rising of psychoanalysis, the 20th century
saw a loosening of sexual restraints in behavior, arts, literature, and
entertainment. It has become widely acceptable that inhibitions or repression
of sexual impulses can be harmful. The emphasis of psychoanalysis on sex helped
to popularize its ideas.
Even
though being highly popular and contributing to the field of psychology in a
major way, psychoanalysis has faced major criticisms, especially by the
philosopher Karl Popper, regarding falsifiability and scientific validity. Popper,
considered to be one of the greatest 20th century’s philosopher of
science, majorly criticized the methodology used by Freud, which was solely based on clinical case
studies and did not adhere to the commitment to the methodology expressed in
the systems that were generated by academic research.
In later times, however, there has been a great deal
of empirical research on psychoanalytic concepts, trying to give it scientific
validity. This research was initiated by Anna Freud, and later carried forward
by Heinz Hartmann, George Klein, and Henry Murray. Through their research, they
have given empirical evidences of psychoanalytic concepts, which in turn, led
to the acceptance of psychoanalysis in mainstream academic psychology.
In more recent times, advances in cognitive psychology and neurosciences have led to findings that are very consistent with
Freudian concepts. These findings led a group of cognitive psychologists,
neuroscientists, and psychiatrists began a movement and established a society
called Neuro-psychoanalysis, which is an integration of Freudian concepts with
neuroscience. This movement is often referred to as the second coming of
Sigmund Freud.
The person at the forefront of this movement, known
as the originator of Neuro-psychoanalysis, is the neuropsychologist Mark Solms.
Along with Solms, neuroscientists like Daniel Schacter and Antonio Damasio
argue that Freud’s conceptions of consciousness are corroborated by
contemporary neuroscience. According to Solms, Freudian concepts like the
unconscious, repression, and pleasure principles can be supported by
neuroscientific research.
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| Mark Solms |
Solms examined patients of brain damage in the light
of Freudian concepts. He found that the brain part known as the brain stem is associated with the core
conscious also called the state of not being awake. Damage to this region makes
the person unconscious. The brain area known as the prefrontal cortex is found to be associated with being aware and
the ability to self-reflect. Solms likened these findings in terms of Freud’s
unconscious (the part of the mind that consists of memories and emotions beyond
awareness) and conscious mind (the part of the mind that consists of memories
and emotions within awareness).
Proponents of neuro-psychoanalysis also compare the
unconscious to the highly studied phenomenon of cognitive psychology referred
to as nonconscious mental processing. These are processes that are implicit and
have automaticity. Cognitive psychologists refer to such activities as beyond
conscious awareness and intentional control.
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| John Bargh |
The social-cognitive psychologist
John Bargh, on the basis of a number of studies in cognitive psychology on the
phenomenon of nonconscious mental processing concluded that 95 percent of human
behavior is determined by these implicit and automatic activities.
Psychologists clearly mention that nonconscious cognition may not be similar to
Freud’s unconscious, but it comes close to it and can be seen consistent with
the tip-of-the-iceberg metaphor used by Freud in describing the conscious mind.
Nonconscious cognition may not be exactly the same as the unconscious mind, however, other studies by Solms reflect neuroscientific findings that are similar to specific aspects found in the unconscious.
Sigmund Freud suggested that one of
the basic instinctual drives that individuals have is to seek pleasure and
immediate gratification, which is guided by one of the structures of
personality called the id. Neuroscientific
research, by Solms, shows that the pleasure-seeking drives have their
neurological origins in two brain structures, namely the brain stem and the limbic
system. Further, the neurotransmitter called dopamine is centrally involved in most pleasure seeking behaviors.
These findings indicate a neuroscientific basis of the Freudian concept of the
id.
Neuroscientific research also
identified the brain area of the frontal-limbic
system to be associated with inhibition of impulses or impulse regulations.
It has been found that when this brain area is damaged, the individual’s
id-based pleasure seeking impulses increase.
In other words, basically in Freudian
terms, the individual behaves as if the ego is not inhibiting the basic drives
and that he/she becomes hostile, highly impulsive, and least concerned about
social norms. Solms suggests that injuries to the frontal lobe lead to
inability of individuals to stay reality bound and they start interpreting and
reacting to events through their wishes or basic drives. This, according to
Solms, provides a neuroscientific explanation of Freud’s concepts of id and
ego.
Sigmund Freud’s concept of defense
mechanisms, especially repression,
has been found to have a neuropsychological basis. According to Freud, in
repression the unconscious keeps ideas, feelings, and unpleasant or threatening
impulses out of consciousness. Neuroscientific research, by Solms, reports
cases that explore the areas of the brain that may be implicated in the use and
perseverance of defense mechanisms. A number of cases have demonstrated
repression of unpalatable information when damage occurs to the right brain
hemisphere and, if this damaged region becomes artificially stimulated, the
repression goes away; that is, awareness returns. Additionally, these patients
frequently rationalize away unwelcome facts by fabricating stories, which is an
indication of demonstrating the Freudian wish-fulfilling defense mechanisms.
Apart from research in cognitive and
neuroscience, recent research in social cognition has also given empirical
evidences for Freudian concepts, especially the phenomenon of transference. Transference refers to holding mental
representations of significant others in memory. According to Freud,
transference occurs when childhood fantasies and conflicts associated with a
parent or significant other are imposed on the psychoanalyst, during a
psychotherapeutic session. This takes place outside conscious awareness.
Freud believed that people hold
unconscious prototypes of individuals that determine their relationships with
other new individuals that they meet. Transference becomes an important
phenomenon as it helps the therapist to understand and uncover the conflicts
and fantasies of the individual.
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| Susan Anderson |
A series of experiments have been conducted by
researchers in which they deliberately activate significant-other
representations. These researches show that people tend to fill in the blanks
about a new person based on the knowledge of a significant-other, when that
significant-other representation is triggered. Such researches on the
social-cognitive model of transference give experimental evidences for the
Freudian phenomenon of transference.
Therefore, contemporary research in neuroscience,
cognitive psychology, and social cognition provide scientific explanations of
many of Freudian concepts. These researches have made classical Freudian
psychoanalysis relevant in today’s time, not letting it fade away from the
realms of psychology.
On one the hand there have been contemporary
researches that give evidence for Freudian concepts, and on the other hand
there have been a series of recent researches that completely refute Freudian
psychoanalysis. Recent research in the areas of memory, consciousness, trauma,
and psychotherapy has not just been questioning, but has even provided
evidences against phenomena that have shaped the foundation of Freudian
psychoanalysis.
The central concept of Freudian psychoanalysis is
the phenomenon of repression. Repression
refers to the exclusion of painful, traumatic memories or undesirable urges
that may have taken place in childhood, from the conscious awareness and
pushing them into the unconscious. These lost/repressed memories are said to
cause troubles to individuals in adulthood, in the forms of anxiety and other
psychological problems. A way to treat these psychological problems, according
to Freudian psychoanalysis, is to try to uncover or recover those
lost/repressed memories, which is also known as recovered memory therapy.
The idea of treating psychological problems by
recovering repressed childhood memories has been a contention of a huge
controversy, which originates to the early 1990s, known as the memory wars. Recovered memory therapy
has been at the receiving end of heavy criticisms, discrediting the central
idea of Freudian psychoanalysis.
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| Elizabeth Loftus |
One of the leading the persons behind these
criticisms is the well-known cognitive psychologist and human memory expert,
from the University of California, Irvin, Elizabeth Loftus. Loftus has been
involved in research in memory for over 20 years. She has a number of books on
memory, including, The Myth of Repressed
Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse.
The work of Loftus on eyewitness testimony has been
groundbreaking. Her research showed that eyewitness testimonies are not always
accurate and can easily be manipulated by misinformation, giving rise to false
memories. She conducted a series of experiments in which she showed that false
memories can be implanted in individuals. Similar mechanisms, according to
Loftus, can be applied in recovered memory therapy sessions. She came to this
conclusion when she investigated cases of a number of parents claiming to be
falsely accused of sexually abusing their children.
A large number of women during recovered memory
therapy sessions are able to recall specific details of how they were sexually
abused by their parents or a close relative. Psychotherapists claim that they
are able to uncover traumatic memories of being sexually abused in childhood,
helping them to overcome their psychological problems. Loftus completely
discredits the idea of repressed memories being recovered, claiming that memory
does not function in this manner.
Loftus argues that the memories that are recovered
are not accurate - memories are not like video recordings in which every past
thought, emotions, and experiences are stored safely and can be recovered
easily. Memories are more of reconstructive in nature. This means that past
events that are recalled are not in an accurate manner, but are a blend of fact
and fiction. The assumption of therapists that memory works as per the video-recorder model and not the reconstructionist model leads to the
creation of false memories – memories
of events that do not exist.
According to Loftus, it is easy to make someone
believe something to be true even if it has not occurred, especially in highly
suggestible situations like recovered memory psychotherapeutic sessions. The
memories that are recovered are mostly false memories. These false memories are
implanted, unknowingly, by overzealous or biased therapists.
The individuals after being in multiple of such
recovered memory therapy sessions end up believing things that have not even
taken place; they actually start believing that they have had traumatic
experiences (sexual abuse in the cases investigated by Loftus) in their
childhood. In a number of cases, it has been found that people end up believing
that they had experienced paranormal activities such as being abducted by aliens.
Strengthening her claims regarding the notions of repression
and recovered memories, Loftus also states that the hippocampus, brain area that plays an important in the formation of
memories, is not properly developed in early childhood. Due to this it is
impossible that accurate memories are stored for a really long time and
retrieved in adulthood. The human brain, therefore, according to Loftus, is
incapable of recovering accurate memories from early childhood.
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| Richard McNally |
In the same light as Loftus, Harvard psychologist
and expert in trauma research, Richard McNally argues that there is no such
thing as repression. In a number of his researches he shows that there is no
scientific evidence of repression. On the basis of his research, he further
suggests that people actually do not forget their traumatic experiences; they
in fact very well remember the traumatic events.
Traumatic events due to being highly emotionally
arousing are remembered in a better manner rather than being forgotten. A good
example of this is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in which people keep
getting flashbacks of their past traumatic experiences.
Further, McNally in his researches found that
recovered memories are not genuine; they do not correspond to real events; for
instance people being able to recall satanic ritualistic abuse or alien
abduction. McNally also found that people recall such instances only after
undergoing recovered memory procedures.
McNally like Loftus, argues that memory does not
operate like a video recorder and that recollections are always reconstructive
in nature. Regarding this he found that false memories of emotionally negative
events can be implanted in recovered memory procedures.
These researches by Loftus and McNally create
serious doubts and completely refute the phenomenon of repression, which is the
central concept of Freudian psychoanalysis. They give clear research evidences
that disprove the idea of repression.
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| John Kihlstrom |
In contemporary
times, one of the biggest critics of Sigmund Freud is the University of
California, Berkeley, psychologist John Kihlstrom. Known for his work on
consciousness, Kihlstrom has heavily criticized Freud in many of his writings.
Kihlstrom states that Sigmund Freud in contemporary times is irrelevant and his
ideas are completely obsolete. He argues that from 1950s onwards, with the rise
of cognitive-behavioral therapies and empirical approaches to personality,
Freud’s theories can be considered to be archaic.
According to Kihlstrom, Freud’s theory of
personality and psychotherapeutic techniques are completely dead as many of his
ideas such as the psychosexual stages, Oedipus complex, or childhood origins of
adult personality have no empirical evidence. He also argues that there is no
empirical evidence that psychoanalytic psychotherapy is more effective than any
of the behavioristic and cognitive therapies.
Kihlstrom further states that there is no scientific
evidence of the Freudian concepts of the unconscious and repression, which play
a central role in Freudian psychoanalysis. He argues that the discovery of
cognitive unconscious or nonconscious (mentioned above) and that the concept of
automaticity (automatic processes) cannot be considered as evidences of
Freudian unconscious.
Automatic processes are unintentional, involuntary,
effortless, consume little or no attentional capacity, and take place outside
conscious awareness. Processes like implicit memory (any effect of a past event
on an individual’s thoughts, actions, and experiences, without any conscious
reflection of that event), implicit perception (influence of an event without
conscious perception of that event), implicit learning (acquiring of knowledge
without conscious awareness of what has been learnt) are included in automatic
processes. Such processes have been found to generate conscious mental contents
like percepts, memory, feelings, and desires.
These automatic processes are certainly unconscious
and play an important role in conscious activities, and have been proven
experimentally. But Kihlstrom argues that they cannot be considered as evidence
for Freud’s unconscious. The automatic processes, Kihlstrom states are very
different from Freud’s unconscious, which is represented by repressed contents
like childhood trauma, emotional conflict, and sexual and aggressive urges.
Like Loftus and McNally, Kihlstrom completely
discredits the phenomenon of repression. He also states that there is no scientific
evidence of repression. He argues that experiments that claim to be evidences
of repression do not involve any unconscious processes, and are simply
evidences of suppression. As per Kihlstrom, the concept of repression is a
clinical myth. Kilhstrom also states that Freud at best can be seen as a
historical figure and is relevant only as a writer in the fields of language
and literature, but has no relevance in psychology, in contemporary times.
The enormous impact that Sigmund Freud has had is
undeniable. However, there is always the question of the relevance of Freudian
concepts in the present-day. Advances in cognitive and neurosciences giving rise
to the society called Neuro-psychoanalysis led by Mark Solms and research in
social cognition by Susan Anderson and associates not only give cognitive and
neuroscientific explanations of Freudian concepts, but even widen the scope of
Freudian psychoanalysis.
Hello, I would like to know if I can translate some of your texts, with due credits and references, to a blog of scientific dissemination of Brazil!
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