In the past century, the study of psychology, the science of human behavior, has sky rocketed, becoming one of the most prominent subjects of today. Starting in the late 19th century through the 20th century, Sigmund Freud introduced a completely altered a new revolutionary way of interpreting thinking and the mind process.
Growing up in Vienna, Austria, Sigmund Freud had an extremely promising life from the start. Being the favored child by his parents, he had control over all his siblings from the books they read, to what instruments they played. He was immediately talented in every field he studied in school, and made extraordinarily mature observations, which an adult would make, as a child. Since the beginning of his life, he had an unusual way of portraying people;even his own personality and behaviors. Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis and therapy, shocked millions of people around the world with his analyses and theories, changing the way people communicate, interact, and view one another. But if Freud’s development of psychoanalysis is so widespread, then why does it seem that people have more conflict internally and in relationships with others?
Society today, especially in America, wants the best, fastest, and most efficient way of reaching accomplishments. Freud once said, “ Let the biologists go as far as they can, and let us go as far as we can; one day the two will meet.” Essentially he is saying that he knew science and medication would be more relied on. When psychiatry was introduced, Freud was certainly right. Although Freud was proved his psychological methods of healing neurosis and other mental illnesses, the fact that medication was involved, and that it was prescribed by doctors made it much more appealing to people. Medication and drugs are advertised everywhere today, and are the treatment of choice among a majority of populations around the world. Because of how time consuming psychoanalytic therapy is, and that medication is so “quick and easy,” it is preferred mainly in the American lifestyle. But what people should realize is that both work equally as well, but the most efficient, long term result would be using both the medication and the psychotherapy. For the reasons of laziness and lack of time and money, people are seeming to feel not as uplifted as they could be. Despite the fact that all of this is true, Freud did the benediction to human society and was able to identify illnesses, whereas prior they were only seen as mentally insane.
Freud’s vast majority of patients were women because they had the highest rate of psychological problems. During this time period, they were seen of having distinct roles of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children and nothing else. On the other hand, the husband was definitely the superior of the house while the wife submitted. But once Freud permitted the patients to relax and use the method “free association,” there seemed to be many hidden emotions, which Freud
called “the unconscious”, that defense mechanisms repressed. Freud helped women recognize and express their psychological pain of witnessing men succeed, and not them. He was not prejudice towards women, in fact he was greatly in favor of them, and studied their reactions to free associations with great attention. Even though Freud’s ideas were stunning to the public, what infuriated doctors and other scientists in this era was his focus on sexuality. One of the most shocking, yet common reactions from Freud’s women patients was a return of romantic affection. His reasoning for these bizarre responses was that the affection of their parents was being projected onto him. Because women’s unconscious feelings were exposed, this gave them a voice, and a sense of power-at least over themselves. Eventually this lead to women having a say in the government, sports, and even work, and not as distinctive gender roles. Due to the fact that today women are just as equal as men, although some basic gender roles still exist, they stand up for themselves and try to have a balanced relationship which has lead to an increase in relationship challenges. Communication and equality were the two main things that were neglected a century ago, and now those are generally the two most critical factors in a relationship. Although Sigmund Freud's advances have influenced how people view, judge, and treat human psychological conditions, his methods and ideas have been found to have both negative and positive effects on modern society.
