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Early Life
Sigismund (Sigmund) Schlomo Freud (May 6,1856 – September 23, 1939) was born and raised in what is now known as Austria. He was a neurologist who eventually became one the founding fathers of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory. In 1873, he began his studies at the University of Austria, and eventually graduated with a degree in medicine, specializing in neuroscience. While in school, Freud met Josef Breuer. Freud and Breuer spent most of their time together discussing issues they faced when treating patients. There was one patient in particular that both of them found to be complicated. Breuer was able to hypnotize the patient and his problem soon surfaced. Breuer soon began calling this type of therapy “The Talking Cure”.

Professional Life
In 1886, Freud opened his own medical practice, specializing in nervous and brain disorders. He tried to use hypnosis with some of his more neurotic and hysteric patients. He found that thoughts that were suppressed in consciousness would surface while the patient was under hypnosis and he or she would begin to discuss their subconscious issues. The unconscious thoughts that spontaneously became conscious were called “Freudian slips”. He quickly learned, though, that if the patient was in a relaxed and comfortable state, say lying on a couch, they would freely talk about their problems without the use of hypnosis. With this knowledge, Freud gradually discontinued the use of hypnosis with his patients.

Interpretation of Dreams
In 1900, Freud published "The Interpretation of Dreams" in which he talked about the unconscious mind and its involvement in dreams. In this book, he struggles with the idea that when a person falls asleep they seem to store more information in their unconscious about past and present experiences than in their conscious mind. There was one instance where a patient was dreaming and noticed a bunch of lizards perched on some type of plant. During his conscious state, he had no idea what the Latin name of the plant was. However, when he was dreaming, he knew all the Latin names for all the plants in his dream. This was one aspect of dreaming that Freud was interested in. “Interpretation of dreams” includes case studies about dreams and passages from different authors analyzing dreams and the scientific importance behind unconsciousness and consciousness. Freud was also determined to find out how and why when we enter this unconscious realm it why we fail to remember what happened during our unconscious state. The easy approach would be to say that we wake up, yet this does not entirely explain why this strange phenomenon occurs. During REM sleep, the brain organizes and sorts newly processed information into its rightful place which is why humans need sleep. However, why is it that we can bounce from conscious to unconscious with little to no memory of the unconscious realm? Why does unconsciousness or a dream state lead to consciousness?

Later on in his book, Freud continues to say that that there are four dream sources: External sensory stimuli, internal sensory stimuli, internal physical excitation and purely physical exciting sources that stimulated while we sleep. The eyes are a crucial aspect of the sensory system and once they are closed off to the world (like during sleep), stimuli in the environment can affect other aspects of our sensory system. This means that if you are experiencing cold temperatures in your environment while you are sleeping; you are going to experience coldness in some way in your dreams. The environment a person sleeps in affects the unconscious realm they are experiencing. Buzareingues experienced an accidental incident that will prove this theory correct. Buzareingues fell asleep and his knee was left exposed. Throughout his dream, he experienced cold temperatures. He described this feeling in his dream as being left in a mail coach all night. Chances are you have experienced this before in your dreams. When you set an alarm to get up at a desired time, and when the alarm goes off you hear the annoying buzzer in your dream. When we sleep, our bodies are under paralysis so that we may not act on our dreams. This is a protective mechanism.

Psychosexual Theories
In 1905, Freud published work on his theory of the "Oedipus Complex", one of his most famous and controversial theories. This theory suggests that young boys have a sexual attraction towards their mother and therefore harbor jealousy towards their fathers. The only way to conquer this complex is to suppress your feelings for your mother and become more like your father. He later created a parallel theory, the "Elektra Complex", that suggested young girls have a sexual attraction towards their fathers. It was speculated that Freud was dealing with his own Oedipus complex that was never dealt with properly. In addition to his work on the two complexes, Freud also developed a theory of psychosexual stages that took place throughout childhood development. Each stage consists of one fixation. There are five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. The oral stage usually lasts from about birth to the first year of life, and the fixation point is the child’s mouth. This is because most of the things that infants get pleasure from involving their mouth. This includes sucking, biting and feeding. This is also when teething occurs. The anal stage lasts from the 1st year of life until about the third year. This stage has a lot to do with the toilet training processes of the child. The phallic stage starts around the 3rd year and lasts until the age of five or six. This is the stage where children become aware of their genitals and the differences between the two sexes. This is also the stage where the Oedipus and the Elektra complexes emerge. The latent stage that comes next lasts until puberty. During this time, there is no real psychosexual development and the child’s libido is latent. The genital stage is the last stage and starts with the end of puberty and continues into adulthood. This is when sexual experimentation begins and the child starts having sexual relations. Freud proposed that some children do not fully leave certain stages, which leads to fixation. In the oral stage, fixation can lead to habits involving the mouth, such as smoking and nail biting. Fixation in the anal stage leads to anal-retentive personality traits and so on

Id, Ego, Superego
Freud theorized that the mind could be divided into three separate parts that work together to form one’s personality. According to Freud, the three different components that make up one’s personality are called the id, ego, and super-ego. The id is in charge of instinctual and sexual behavior, it operates on what Freud called “the pleasure principle.” The id is the part of the mind that is responsible for impulses. Freud thought that the id was present at birth and eventually was brought under control by the ego and superego. The ego operates on what Freud called “the reality principle.” It is the mediator between the id and superego. According to Freud, the ego is the part of the personality that is seen by others. The super-ego is the part that takes values and morals into consideration. The id is kind of like the devil on our shoulder while the super-ego is the angel and the ego mediates between the two. In essence, the three structures of the mind have this “teeter totter” effect on our actions and basic motive drives.

World War II
All of Freud’s work was accomplished and published just before World War II. Once the Nazi party rose to power, the Nazi regime burned all of Freud’s literature. This started the decline of Sigmund himself. He was later diagnosed with cancer. In 1939, cancer was the cause of Freud’s death.

Anxiety
Freud’s ideas centered a lot on anxiety. Freud proposed that people dealt or coped with their anxiety through defense mechanisms, which were unconscious actions that helped them deal with their anxieties. Freud named nine defense mechanisms. The first being repression. Repression is when the person puts the item that causes anxiety into the unconscious, so it is hidden from the ego. The item can still slip into consciousness though. The second defense mechanism is denial. Denial is when a person refuses to see the reality of something. The third defense mechanism is projection. Projection is when one puts the blame for something on someone else rather than oneself. The fourth defense mechanism is rationalization. Rationalization occurs when one justifies his/her actions or behaviors in a logical manner rather than for the true reason. The fifth defense mechanism is intellectualization. Intellectualization occurs when one uses facts while facing something that evokes anxiety rather than emotions. The sixth defense mechanism is regression. Regression is when one deals with anxiety by using coping mechanisms that one would have used when he/she was a child, like crying or throwing a tantrum. The seventh defense mechanism is reaction formation. Reaction formation is when a person’s expressions are the opposite of what they are really feeling. The eighth defense mechanism is displacement. Displacement happens when the superego overrides the ego and one engages in socially acceptable behavior rather than unacceptable behavior. The last defense mechanism is compensation. This is when a person tries to overachieve in one area of something to make up for failing in another area of something.

Conclusion
Although Freud is no longer alive, his discoveries and theories have made significant impacts on the field of psychology. Freud’s theories are taught throughout psychology courses today.