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'''Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)''' founder of the psychoanalytic theory. 


<youtube>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwSyxR8kE34</youtube>


Born in Freiberg, Moravia. 


Freud was a prolific writer:

*''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (1900)
*''The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud'' (1905)
*''The Sexual Enlightenment of Children, collected papers'' (1907)
*''The origin and Development of Psychoanalysis'' (1910)
*''A General Introduction to Psychanalysis''(1920)
*''The Ego and the Id'' (1923)
*''Inhibitions Symtoms and Anxiety'' (1926)
*''New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis'' (1933)
*''The Problem of Anxiety'' (1936)
*''An Outline of Psychoanalysis'' (1940)


=History=

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in a small town named Freiberg, Morovia. His mother was 21 at the time of his birth; his father was 20 years her senior.  He lived most of his life in Vienna and was educated at Vienna University.  There he studied to be a physician.  While in Vienna he became interested in Neurology.  From there Freud spent time studying under Jean Charcot in a mental hospital in Paris.  It was there that Freud became interested in hysteria.


Freud than began to work with a Viennese physician named Josef Breuer. Dr. Breur became Freud's mentor. His early work involved hypnosis which Freud later stopped using and started using "Free association."  Freud and Breur co-authored a book on hysteria. In this book, their theory of hysteria was explained: every hysteria is a direct result of some traumatic experience. Freud later added something that Breur refused to acknowledge publicly - that secret sexual desires were the root of all hysterical neuroses.


From here Freud began to place emphasis on the sexual reasons behind patients issues.  Toward the end of his life he developed the model of human personality.  Freud identified three parts of the personality: id, ego, and superego.  The id is the impulsive, fun part of our unconscious.  The ego is the rational, thoughtful part of our personality.  The superego is the moral part of our personality and attempts to control the id.


Freud finally died of Cancer in England in 1939.


Freud's life lead him to develop his Psychoanalysis Therapy.  Most people invision Freud at the head of a couch with someone speaking openly.  It is really a method of open talk by the paient until they come to a new self-understanding.  For this contribution to society Freud is considered one of societies greatest thinkers of all time.


Even though Freud was possibly one of the greatest thinkers of all time(as we know) many have not agreed with his methods for dealing with social and personal problems.  These people are called neo-Freudians.  Often these were once students of Freud or practiced his methods and after research of their own have changed their views on why or how people behave the way they do and how they should deal with it.  One of the neo-Freudians that has contributed to education is Glasser.  He felt that the Freudian method encouraged dependancy and the interpertations from the sessions with a therapist did not equip the person to deal with the real world.  It was a method of giving a person a defense for how they behave and not making a way for the person to deal with their actions effectively.  Glasser and several other Psychiatrist that have wrote about classroom managment have broken from Freud in search of more effective classroom techniques that help students reshape their behavior and contribute more effectively to the classroom.

Sigmund Freud was also interested in the subconcious mind, in particular the dream state.  His book [http://psychology.about.com/library/classics/blfreud_dream.htm The Interpretation of Dreams] has been presented as a basis of dream analysis.

=Application in Classroom and Similar Settings=

It's obvious that Freud is a prominent name in the study of psychology. Anyone who studies psychology at all has heard of Freud. His work has been heavily criticized over the years, but Freud remains far more famous than his critics. (See 'Critics and Their Rationale' below.) To literally apply Freudian philosophy to the classroom seems a bit archaic. In regards to classroom management, more contemporary phychologists have broken away from Freud's ideas, simply because they were ineffective.  However, many of these ideas from Freud are adopted into classroom management and behavior in schools. Although there is a place for some of what Freud taught, there is too much emphasis on the sexual psychology of the human mind.  Contemporary psychologists such as neo-Freudians have developed from the ideas of Freud but taken away the huge sexual aspect of his musings.  Where will a teacher need hypnosis, dream interpretation, and the like? (See http://human-nature.com/freud/)
 
However, when loosely looking at the concept of the id, ego, and super-ego, psychoanalysis can be applied to observing and assessing a student's behavior. "Psychoanalysts, along with humanists, believe that the complex inner world of the individual must be taken into account when observing their behaviors." (Fonda)  There are several objects that students can possibly desire in a classroom.  Some may want attention, good grades, to be left alone, sleep, to be somewhere else, to go to the washroom, to talk with friends, etc...   Some wants are inner needs that the person desires, some may be wants that will please them for the moment, or some may be needs that will please others. 

When looking at the id, the id are desires that "governed by the pleasure principle." (Kardas)  When talking about it in Freudian setting, it is always about sexual wants.  In realistic classroom settings, the student might want to just have fun and not be studying.  Or the student might feel the urge to talk about tonight's party as opposed to classwork.  There are several complex reasons why a student could misbehave.  

When looking at the ego, these are characteristics a person shows on the outside.  In a classroom setting, the student might only behave just becuase they want to look good to everyone.  They might only be good just to get praise.  These students are generally called the "teacher's pets."  These students might only learn the material at a rote level just to please others and appear as a good student.  This is a faulty way to learn and hard to detect as a teacher.  The teacher should try to do everything they can to change this behavior if the teacher detects something wrong such as poor test grades or consistent begging for praise.  

When looking at the super-ego, these are characteristics that a person has to make themselves the ideal person.  This person is the ideal in their own eyes.  This person tries to do the best they can to improve their own well-being.  This person is generally a satisfactory student.  This person would earn top scores, be a role-model in behavior, and do so just to feel good about themselves.  

These aspects of the id, ego, and superego can be used in assessment and observation of each student in the class.  The teacher should make sure the student earns their "super-ego" status in that they achieve their fullest potential.  On top of that the teacher must sure that "super-ego" is a realistic and respectable goal and guide them in their way to that goal.

=Critics and Their Rationale=

The detailed appraisal of Freud's role to our understanding of psychoanalysis has been gradually, but definitely, turned aside. Psychiatrist's opinions have changed; it has become more uniformly negative. Since Freud's time, there has been millions of more developments of behavior analysis, thus more complete and suitable ideas have become more prominent.  Due to his constant readiness to relate everything to sex, Freud comes to light as being more of a quack than a scientist. This view has not really agitated true believers. His theories, notoriously, have a built-in defense mechanism. To disagree with Freud and his followers is regarded as a indication of the very resistance they themselves predict, confirming their evidence. Psychoanalysis, apparently, has the ability elude criticism. The American historian Paul Robinson (Webster), writing as recently as 1993, asserted that Freud's critics "would do him no lasting damage."

=Personal Testimony=

I remember in my undergraduate education classes being required to take psychology.  In the introductory courses we learned mostly about basic psychology theory and the theorist.  The major pyschiatrist discussed was Sigmond Freud.  Unfortunately, ten years after those courses I am left with remembering Freud as having to do with the "id, ego and super ego, and Freudian slips."  This is my attempt at determining who Sigmund Freud was, what was his belief in regards to humand and psychology, what effects his work has had on education and psychology and my personal connections to his theories.

Max Uhls' Personal Testimony - I, too, remember taking some Psych classes, but vaguely. What I remember from those classes about Freud included his work on the id, ego, and super-ego and some dream interpretation, but also that many of his discoveries about psychology were inspired while under the influence of serious drugs - cocaine, perhaps. I also remember him being referred to as a sex-aholic, as many of his dream interpretations involved sex or were somehow sex-related. My contributions to site is to better inform those who wish to know more of Freud.

John Nicholas Janowiak's Personal Testimony - Sigmund Freud will always be known as the godfather of Psychology.  There will be no changing that.  However, as time has passed, numerous significant findings have been regarded as better answers to how the brain works than Freud's Psychoanalysis.  Although, his findings are a great basis to the world of Psychology today, his actual ideas are outdated.  Freud is famous for being the first famous psychologist, not the most accurate.

Freud laid the foundation for modern study in psychology.  Although most of his ideas seem dated today, at the time explanations for psychosis usually meant you had a wandering organ or that you needed your head drained of bad humors.  His studies dwelt on subconscious impulses and revealed how the mind is actually much deeper that can be understood by observing behavior and our personalities have many sides, including dark, repressed (and yes, sexual) impulses that we are not aware of on the surface.  Times have changed, and now we have more precise measurements and tools with which to explore the mind and behavior...but the groundwork was laid by Freud and his methods.  -- D. Melone

=Related Links=

This collection of links points to Internet resources related to Sigmund Freud and his works. Included in this collection are libraries, museums, and biographical materials, as well as materials in the Brill Library archives.
[http://users.rcn.com/brill/freudarc.html Sigmund Freud and the Freud Archives]

[http://www.freud.org.uk/ Freud Museum London]

[http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/freud.htm Sigmund Freud (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

[http://www.freudfile.org/ Sigmund Freud - Life and Work]


=References=

Fonda, Mark.  Introduction to Freud (1995).  Available at: http://www.magma.ca/~mfonda/freud.html

Kardas, Edward P.  Ego, Id, Super-Ego.  Southern Arkansas University--Magnolia.   Available at: http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/Kardas/Courses/GPWeiten/C12Personality/EgoIDSuper.html

Menninger, William C.  Sigmond Freud. Encarta.  Available at: Http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia
Thornton, Stephen.  

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).  The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/
Wikidpedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmond_Freud

Freud, S. (1927) The Ego and the Id. London: Hogarth Press.

[[Category: EPSY406 ClassroomManagement]]
[[Category: EPSY490 ClassroomLearningAndManagement(CTER)]]

http://human-nature.com/freud/ (for opinions on how Freud was wrong)
Webster, R. Why Freud was wrong: sin, science and psychoanalysis London: Harper Collins, 1995.

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/freud.html