1. Psychoanal ysis and “Anna O” Renel Desir Robert Hudson

2. Who is Freud? Sigmund Freud was a neurologist. He was born in Freiburg, Moravia of the Austrian Empire on May 6, 1856. Freud is known as the ‘Father of Modern Psychology’ through his development of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and explaining human behavior.

3. Psychoanalysis Freud believed in curing people through the making conscious the unconscious thoughts and feelings of his patients. Psychoanalysis releases repressed emotions and experiences. The main assumptions of psychoanalysis are: Problems are rooted in the unconscious mind. Manifest symptoms are caused by hidden disturbances. Common causes are unresolved problems during development or repressed trauma. Treatment is intended to reveal repressed conflict to consciousness.

4. Psychoanalysis: The Big Idea - 3 minute video

5. Anna O Anna O is the pseudonym given to one of Josef Breuer’s patients. She suffered from a number of symptoms that included visual disturbances, hallucinations, partial paralysis and impairment of speech. The symptoms began to appear while she was nursing her father. Breuer treated Anna by talking about her experiences and this reduced the symptoms. This technique became known as the ‘talk therapy’ or ‘talk cure’. This case inspired Freud to co write Studies on Hysteria (1895) with Breuer. Freud concluded that the hysteria shown in Anna was due to childhood sexual abuse. Freud continued his development on talk therapy and later authored the book, “The Interpretation of Dreams” which recognized his psychoanalytic theory.

6. Evaluation Sigmund Freud’s theory presents a technique that can applied towards patients experiencing anxiety disorders and those with depression. Psychoanalysis however is time-consuming and needs to have a lot of time and money invested into it. The discovery of painful and unpleasant memories can cause the condition to become worse. Psychoanalysis also has the factor that it does not work for all people or all types of disorders. As Fisher and Greenberg (1977) have concluded, psychoanalysis can neither be accepted nor rejected, instead it must be reshaped into the circumstances or conditions presented.

7. References biography.com Sigmund Freud simplypsychology.com Sigmund Freud psychology.about.com Sigmund Freud, Anna O youtube.com Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory - The Big Idea in under 3 Minutes