Freud's 5 Key Psychological Insights

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and a theory explaining human behavior.

Freud's iceberg theory metaphorically represents the mind's three levels: the conscious (visible tip of the iceberg), the preconscious (just below the surface), and the unconscious (vast submerged portion).

Freud's psychosexual theory posits that human development occurs in five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. This theory emphasizes the role of unconscious desires and childhood experiences in shaping personality.

Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic approach and theory, founded by Sigmund Freud, that seeks to explore the unconscious mind to uncover repressed feelings and interpret deep-rooted emotional patterns, often using techniques like dream analysis and free association.

Little Hans was nearly five when he was seen by Freud (on 30th March 1908) but letters from his father to Freud provide the bulk of the evidence for the case study. These refer retrospectively to when Hans was less than three years old and were supplied to Freud through the period January to May 1908 (by which time little Hans was five years old).

Freud (1900) considered dreams the royal road to the unconscious as it is in dreams that the ego's defenses are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to awareness, albeit in distorted form.