BCA Semester II
Additional English Notes
Sigmund Freud
1)
What did Freud’s contemporaries think hysteria was, and what was their attitude
towards it?
Ans.
It was Freud who, by either making or confirming a diagnosis of hysteria, and
their contemporaries, but neurology and psychiatry were relatively of the term
'hysteria' in the past is that it has encouraged doctors to think about
attitude towards the diagnosis of 'hysteria' only after a great deal of
research. For example, Katherina’s breathing difficulties and visions of a
frightening face staring at her, came on after witnessing her father sexually
abuse her cousin. The research also found that in some patients no stressors
were identified, but one wonders if this is only because few researchers can
replicate Freud’s skillful picking up of clues in his patients’ “free
associations”
2)
What did Freud learn from Charcot’s experiment?
Ans.
Charcot was already a well-established teacher and researcher when he acquired
his interest in hypnosis. Freud understood about hypnosis from Charcot and
Freud learnt hypnosis and that under hypnosis often showed symptoms very
similar to those of hysteria. Charcot's interest in producing deep hypnosis
arose from his desire to be absolutely certain of being able to distinguish
between true hysteria and simulation of these conditions.
3)
What did Breuer do that Charcot had not done?
Ans.
Breuer began to treat Fraulein Anna O. This girl of twenty-one had developed a
whole host of symptoms. Hers seemed a classic case of hysteria-paralysis of the
limbs, anaesthesia’s, disturbances of sight and speech, nausea, and confusion.
The illness had first appeared while she was caring for her severely ill
father. She was compelled by her own illness to abandon nursing him. The events
during her nursing made a deep impression upon her; but when she was first seen
by Breuer, she could not remember them. Anna got into the habit of relating to
Breuer the disagreeable events of the day. This provided a release for her
pent-up emotions or, as it came to be called, a catharsis. She experienced
relief and on occasion even the disappearance of a particular symptom but
talking about her troubles. For example, during a period when she could not
drink water, despite an intense thirst, she told Breuer that the same thing had
occurred for a time when she was a girl. She now remembered that at that time
she had seen the much-disliked dog of her governess drinking from a glass. She
told Breuer this story in disgust and anger. Afterward, she found she could
drink water again without trouble and there was no recurrence of this
particular difficulty.
4)
What made studies on Hysteria such a difficult pill for Viennese society to
swallow?
Ans.
The book ‘the studies on Hysteria’ was not ignored, it was received with
suspicion, or hostility. They might all be hysterical under the surface was
much too much for polite Viennese society, and the scientific community, to
accept.
5)
What did Freud mean when he spoke of ‘the unconscious’?
Ans.
The unconscious mind (or the unconscious) consists of the processes in the mind
which occurs. According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is the primary
source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind
is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives and decisions are actually
powerfully influenced by our past experiences, and stored in the
unconscious.
6)
What did Freud hope to achieve in the process of ‘psychoanalysis’?
Ans.
Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud believed that
people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and
motivations, thus gaining insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to
release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e., make the unconscious conscious.
Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy that aims to release pent-up or repressed
emotions and memories to lead the client to catharsis, or healing In other
words, the goal of psychoanalysis is to bring that which is at the unconscious
or subconscious level up to consciousness.
7)
Why did Breuer break with Freud, and why did Freud have to go on with his
researchers on his own?
Ans.
One of Freud's most important mentors during this time was Viennese physician
Josef Breuer. Through Breuer, Freud learned about a patient whose case had an
enormous influence upon Freud and the development of his theories. Breuer
treated Anna by using what the patient herself called "the talking
cure." She and Breuer were able to trace a particular symptom back to an
actual event in her life that might have triggered it. Breuer didn’t accept the
explanation that each one of us had a history of childhood fantasies of a
sexual kind, that they all had feelings they had hidden; guilty secrets that,
under psychoanalysis, come tumbling out, like dirty water from a
washing-machine. Breuer didn’t wish to face up to this possibility., so he
broke off his association with Frued.
8)
Why did Freud abandon hypnosis?
Ans.
Freud eventually abandoned hypnosis as a clinical technique, both because of
its fallibility and because he found that patients could recover and comprehend
crucial memories while conscious.
9)
Why was Freud reluctant to advance his theory of the sexual origin of much
adult neurosis?
Ans.
Not surprisingly, Masson devotes much of his attention in the assault on truth
to .We should hardly be surprised that Freud was reluctant to part with an idea
from which, for the passions that the seduction theory had correctly located in
adults. . “The origin of neurosis is not sexual desire alone nor even sexual
trauma .The adult is venting his own sexual and emotional unhappiness on a
child too and of his neurosis, with countless permanent effects which deserve
to be .Freud expected his colleagues to be reluctant to think about truths of
this.
10)What
effect did his father’s death have on the 40-year old Freud?
Ans.
Freud's development of these new theories took place during a period in which
he experienced heart irregularities, disturbing dreams and periods of
depression, a "neurasthenia" which he linked to the death of his
father in 1896[42] and which prompted
a "self-analysis" of his own dreams and memories of childhood. His
explorations of his feelings of hostility to his father and rivalries jealousy
over his mother's affections led him to fundamentally revise his theory of the
origin of the neuroses. It was only after the death of his father in 1896, that
Freud could begin to open up about how his own early sexual life had influenced
his personality. "The chief patient I am preoccupied with is I. My little
hysteria, though greatly accentuated by my work, has resolved itself a bit
further. The rest is still at a standstill. That is what my mood primarily
depends on. The analysis is more difficult than any other. It is, in fact, what
paralyzes my psychic strength for describing and communicating what I have won
so far. Still, I believe it must be done and is a necessary intermediate stage
in my work."
