Freud's Psycho-Analytic Method & Theory

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Sigmund Freud's discussions of psychological and psycho-analytic method and theory to discover whether Freud's constant reversion to sexually-based conclusions can be supported by his own arguments. For example, in his construction and interpretation of the dream of a neurotic in The Case of the Wolf-Man, Freud reads the dream of a young man. Basically, the young man recounts to Freud during his treatment a dream he remembers from childhood in which, while lying in bed, he observes six or seven white wolves sitting on a tree in front of his window. From this dream and through other theories he espoused throughout his psycho-analytic career, Freud argued that the dream was in fact caused by the young man's repression of seeing his parents engaged in sexual intercourse. To the lay person, such an interpretation of the dream seems rather far-fetched. For what, after all, do white wolves have to do with parental sexual intercourse? However, Freud's entire psycho-analytic theory appears to be based on several theories of sexual repression, and the question posed by this paper is whether, under close scrutiny, such theories appear persuasive and conclusory.

People living in the time following World War I were concerned with issues of self-identification and continuity. Specifically, they were attempting to relate their personal histories and the history of their society to the new world forming around them.

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s, Freud's theory of the occurrence of dreams is necessarily dependent on his theory of the workings of conscious and unconscious minds and the significance of childhood development. In themselves, such theories appear persuasive because they do seem to offer an explanation for dreams that seem to review childhood material. However, Freud's psycho-analytic method becomes problematic when he applies his theory of dreams to an actual interpretation of a dream because here his actual psychological theory and its dependence on sex-based solutions becomes highlighted. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams Freud argues that human beings have attempted to interpret their dreams as far back as the prescientific era. During that time, he argues, humans interpreted their dreams to be either favorable or hostile manifestations by demonic and divine powers (Freud, "On Dreams" 5). Following this period, when scientific thought began to flourish, Freud argues that the theories of dream-meaning were transformed into psychology, with only a small minority of educated people continuing to doubt that dreams were a product of the dreamer's own mind rather than otherworldly manifestations (Freud, "On Dreams" 5). Freud's psychological interpretation

Category: Psychology - F