FREUD - METHOD

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>FREUD</FONT><BR> THE PSYCHOLOGIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Method</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>CONQUISTADOR</B></FONT><BR> About the time of "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1900), Freud confessed that he was <BLOCKQUOTE>"not really a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, and not a thinker. I am nothing but by temperament a <B>conquistador</B> - an adventurer, if you want to translate the word - with the curiosity, the boldness, and the tenacity that belongs to that type of being."<P> (Quoted in Jones "Sigmund Freud ", Vol I, 348)</BLOCKQUOTE> <TABLE ALIGN=Left BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=1> <TR> <TD><IMG ALIGN=Left SRC="2006a.jpg" WIDTH="180" HEIGHT="208" ALT="VESALIUS BRAIN"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> Despite such proclamations, Freud resented that his: "opponents regarded psychoanalysis as a product of my speculative imagination and were unwilling to believe in the long, patient and unbiassed work which had gone into its making." Just as dissection of the brain strips away the outer layers to reveal the inner structure, psychoanalysis claims to delve below consciousness to reveal memories and emotions buried deep within the unconscious mind.<BR> ("An Autobiographical Study" p.50)<BR clear=left><BR> <FONT SIZE=4><B>TALKING CURE</B></FONT><BR> With Josef Breuer, Freud developed a method of treatment in which patients were encouraged to say anything that came into their mind. This "talking cure" became the basis for Freud's psychoanalysis. In psychoanalysis, the patient reclines on a couch and the analyst sits behind the patient out of the patient's view. Relaxed and undistracted, the individual can concentrate on his own thoughts and feelings which he or she is encouraged to vocalise. This process of free talking or free association encourages the individual to regress, to recall events, emotions, fantasies long forgotten to the conscious mind. Repressed emotions and painful experiences are brought to the conscious level of ego from the unconscious id. The analyst can often then trace current emotions and behaviours to their origins in childhood experiences. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>