ave been especially persuasive because they argued that continuity existed in human and social development, which could be revealed through his psycho-analytic method, while blaming sexual repression for much of human dysfunction.
Freud analogizes the analyst's "work of construction" or, as he alternately terms it, "reconstruction" to an archaeologist's excavation of a place that has been destroyed and buried (Freud, "Therapy" 274). One difference he sees between the two is that the psycho-analyst has more material at his or her command to assist in dealing with something that is not destroyed but alive although forgotten. The storage of this forgotten material is based on Freud's theories of the way the mind works, particularly the relationships among what he refers to as the various psychic provinces of minds. In his Outline of Psycho-Analysis, he delineates the three psychic provinces created throughout human development.
The oldest province, the one that is formed first, he calls the id (Freud, "Outline" 14). This province contains all the inherited material, primarily the instincts. As people develop and interact with the world, however, another province takes shape: the ego (Freud, "Outline" 14). This province develops from the portion of the id intended to act as a protective shield against stimuli. Thus, Freud characterizes the ego as the province that mediates between the id and the external world. Its task is self-preservation. Finally, Freud argues that the long period of childhood, during which the growing human being lives in dependence on his or her parents, leaves behind a special agency in which parental influence is prolonged. This super-ego's primary task is to serve as the conscience (Freud, "Outline" 15).
Thus, Freud's basic theory establishes the significance of childhood on human development. Theories elaborated from this fundamental tenet only further stress the importance of childhood memo...