Sigmund Freud's Dichotomy Paper

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Sigmund Freud, the infamous “sexually obsessed” psychologist, was an expert in the area of physcopathology and personality development. Freud understood the differences between one’s preconscious state, the conscious state, and the unconscious state. However, it was the unconscious mind that has much of the attention. Under the unconscious, is what drove his interests. The unconscious is the levels of the mind in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness. Also, it has been depicted as difficult to retrieve material due to it being well below the surface of awareness. Freud believed that there were three separate divisions of personality that defined the areas of consciousness. …show more content…

The unconscious mind, however, is difficult for me to wrap my head around. I am guessing this is due to the fact that my conscience is attempting to understand a state in which it is not residing/displaying. This creates a particular dichotomy in which we attempt to evaluate the unconscious state. Is it even correct to attempt to understand dreams or population behavior because of this dichotomy? I would not say that his observations are incorrect, just interesting. When applying Freud’s theories in everyday life, I believe it is helpful for an initial evaluation that would set the base line. I believe it is necessary to move forward from Freud and begin constructing one’s psych package in increasing stages of complexity. I am not one that believes there is a simple explanation for any particular person in regards to their psyche, rather I believe that there are so many components to which to consider under the evaluation of either a particular person or a population. Overall, Freud’s findings provide an excellent starting point in the analysis of the human condition, but are not the complete