Sigmund Freud is one of the key figures in the field of psychology, and his works served as a foundation for many thinkers and theorists. Although Freud’s ideas are no longer part of the mainstream approaches in psychology, certain concepts offered by him still remain relatively popular. In his lifetime, Freud produced many notable works, and one of the key phenomena described him was unconscious. Specifically, Freud insisted that people often lacked awareness of their true feelings and urges, which manifested themselves unconsciously. The concept of the unconscious is central to Freud’s ideas, and by embracing it, every person may discover many hidden messages and meanings in their daily life.
First, it is important to thoroughly investigate the phenomenon of the unconscious mind and its nature, as described by Freud himself. As mentioned above, the unconscious refers to a collection of ideas and thoughts which are not recognized by people, despite them having considerable importance. In fact, the content which is kept in the unconscious mind is ignored by individuals because it is unpleasant or unacceptable (Quinodoz, 2018). For instance, an example of the unconscious can be various negative feelings, including anxiety and pain. Additionally, Freud claimed that all of the basic instincts and urges possessed by people and which are often contained also belong to the realm of the unconscious. Despite being basic, such instincts are irrational and therefore suppressed by individuals. The repressive mechanism is the tool that helps people to keep the unconscious under control in order to avoid experiencing various feelings, including guilt. At the same time, Freud suggested that constant repression can entail negative consequences. Specifically, repression can lead to greater anxiety and other negative emotions that people may wish to avoid daily.
At the same time, when analyzing the unconscious and its implications for individuals, it is essential to gain a better insight into other psychological realms described by Freud, namely, the preconscious and conscious. In other words, the preconscious refers to the thoughts and feelings which an individual is not aware of but which, nevertheless, can be easily brought to their consciousness. Thus, the conscious consists of the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and, most importantly, memories that people are currently aware of. The conscious realm can be analyzed by people rationally at any given moment. According to Freud, the conscious and unconscious realms have a direct link that connects them and allows people to manage their thoughts and memories (Quinodoz, 2018). In other words, all of the content the conscious mind wishes to keep concealed from the current awareness is repressed into the unconscious. While people remain unaware of their unconscious feelings, thoughts, emotions, and urges, they still find ways to manifest themselves in various forms. Thus, Freud identified several effective methods to discover the unconscious elements in the daily of people.
The first idea on how the unconscious content can become unfolded concerns slips. Essentially, Freud believed that people’s unconscious thoughts could occasionally enter their conscious minds (Ludden, Jr, 2019). The most notable example of such a phenomenon is the slips of the tongue, which are extensively used in popular culture. Another name for such slips is parapraxis, and it occurs when people say or write certain content which they initially did not want to produce. According to Freud, such slips are extremely important because they reveal secret feelings and thoughts which people usually keep to themselves. In other words, slips constitute the pieces of repressed ideas, urges, and memories that are stored in the unconscious mind. Thus, whenever repression fails, people make slips of the tongue and thus disclose their secrets. An example of such a slip can be a man calling their wife by the name of their former partner. On many occasions, such slips had a sexual nature; therefore, in this case, a potential analysis of Freud would indicate that the man was likely having repressed sexual desire relating to their previous partner.
At the same time, slips, explored by Freud, were linked to speech and memory, namely, the tendency of people to forget certain experiences. Essentially, Freud claimed that people, who encountered a negative event in their life, were likely to intentionally repress it and relegate it to the unconscious realm (Ludden, Jr, 2019). For instance, a person severely scratched by a cat named Oliver in childhood may find it hard to remember the name of their coworker, Oliver. In other words, the person will continue to repress the unwanted memory while still being unaware of it. Nevertheless, there is also the phenomenon of forgetfulness which is related to the desire of an individual. For example, from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis, when a person forgets lists containing their daily errands, they unintentionally delay the completion of the unpleasant tasks. It is important to note that all of the activities linked to forgetfulness are not performed by people willingly. In other words, people are unaware of their actions, and it is their unconscious mind that controls them during such moments.
Another important element of the Freudian approach to the unconscious is the dream theory which he developed as a tool to disclose the secrets of people that they try to repress. The basic idea promoted as part of the dream theory is that people’s dreams constitute one of the modes of expression of the unconscious mind of individuals (Sayers, 2020). As a result, the ideas which people repress may manifest themselves in their dreams and take various forms. Therefore, Freud believed that the task of the specialist conducting psychoanalysis would be to interpret the content of the client’s dreams and identify the key unconscious contents. Moreover, Freud held a set of basic beliefs about dreams, enabling him to conduct his analysis. For instance, Freud insisted that dreams were short and occurred only before the waking of the person. Additionally, Freud insisted that dreams usually contained reflections on the events of the past day. Yet, most importantly, Freud was certain that wishes, especially those which are unconscious, which people are unable to fulfill in reality, could usually be achieved in dreams.
Thus, the key driver behind dreams, as described by Freud, was unconscious longing, as well as sexual desire or aggression. Specifically, the sexual undertones of dreams were particularly closely studied by Freud, who believed that they occupied a major part of the unconscious human mind (Sayers, 2020). Thus, Freud tied various elongated objects appearing in his clients’ dreams, including towers, trees, and even umbrellas, to male genitalia. There were many symbols considered by Freud as sexual, which was one of the key points of criticism by later psychologists. For instance, Freud believed that when a person had a dream in which they were falling, it meant that they were losing control over their sexual urges. Moreover, according to Freud, a person who had short and terrifying dreams was likely to have heart disease or a similar serious health problem. Nevertheless, based on such observations, Freud was able to identify numerous problems of his clients of which they were unaware. Essentially, Freud acted as a therapist who tried to assist patients in overcoming their troubling experiences related to dreams.
While slips and dreams were elements that could openly disclose the unconscious thoughts of people, Freud also developed an approach called free association, which enabled him to intentionally bring the repressed out. Essentially, the free association method involves a psychoanalyst asking their client to relax, engage in a stream of consciousness, and say all words and phrases that come to their mind (Saugstad, 2018). It is important to note that while performing the activity, the person must be absolutely open about what they have on their mind and share their thoughts and ideas irrespective of how irrelevant, embarrassing, or trivial they may seem. Such an approach requires a high level of trust between the specialist and the client. According to Freud, the ultimate goal of the free association approach is to make the person enter a state where they can streamline their unconscious thoughts and memories. Essentially, during the free association session, the individual has to let their unconscious contents enter the conscious realm. Thus, the person and the psychoanalyst can become aware of the secret thoughts and desires of the former.
The ideas of Freud were revolutionary for his day and age and became extremely popular over a short period. Nevertheless, nowadays, the concept of the unconscious often becomes subject to considerable critique by modern psychologists and theorists. Specifically, one of the key problems of the Freudian approach is the lack of any scientific foundation. In other words, Freud does not utilize a clear methodology that would allow him to substantiate the principles of his theories. The majority of his ideas constitute his personal observations which he portrayed as actual scientific evidence. At the same time, other researchers state that Freud was a pioneer in psychology and could not possess all of the necessary tools for developing his methodology. Moreover, recent research demonstrates that some of Freud’s ideas were partially correct. For instance, studies in the field of neuroscience indicate that people possess automatic and implicit functions which act in a similar way to the unconscious mind (Saugstad, 2018). Thus, it is possible to say that the findings of Freud remain relevant today.
Additionally, the concepts offered by Freud are also successfully utilized in modern psychology. For instance, the concept of the unconscious became one of the founding elements of the implicit memory phenomenon. Essentially, implicit memory refers to the information people store but are unaware of at all times (Mendelsohn, 2021). In other words, such memory can be considered unconscious and not articulated in any form by the individual. One the example of implicit memory is the knowledge of how to tie strings which is usually automatic. Thus, it is clear that there is a link between the Freudian unconscious and the concept of implicit memory. Another important element of modern psychology is the idea of priming. The concept of priming describes how people who were subject to certain stimuli in the past respond to the same stimuli in the future (Mendelsohn, 2021). In the case of priming, it is once again visible how Freud’s ideas affected modern psychology. As mentioned earlier, Freud believed that past negative experiences could make people engage in intentional forgetfulness, which is similar to priming.
Freud is one of the pioneers of psychology who believed that the unconscious mind played a major role in people’s lives and could affect their actions. Specifically, Freud was certain that every person had certain thoughts, ideas, and urges that they considered inappropriate, unfavorable, or embarrassing. As a result, to avoid experiencing them, people repressed these elements by making them a part of their unconscious. Yet, often, the unconscious contents manifest themselves in different ways in the daily lives of people. For instance, individuals could make slips of the tongue which would be indicative of their sexual desires. Similarly, people’s dreams contained many symbols which reflected their unconscious urges. The ideas of the unconscious and repression promoted by Freud are no longer extensively used by psychologists. Nevertheless, the scientific evidence demonstrates that the concepts proposed by Freud were, to a certain extent, valid despite the fact that he did not have a thorough methodology. The elements of modern psychology, such as priming and implicit memory, share many characteristics with Freud’s unconscious mind. Thus, Freud’s works and contributions to the field of psychology still remain partially relevant to this day.
References
Ludden, Jr., D. (2019). A history of modern psychology: The quest for a science of the mind. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Mendelsohn, R. (2021). Freudian thought for the contemporary clinician: A primer on psychoanalytic theory. London: Routledge.
Quinodoz, J. (2018). Sigmund Freud: An introduction. London: Routledge.
Saugstad, P. (2018). A history of modern psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sayers, J. (2020). Sigmund Freud: The basics. London: Routledge.