Sigmund Freud: The Father of Psychology

Today in our Personality and Development class, we learned about Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud is known as the “Father of Psychology,” and he lived in the 1900s, a time where certain diseases were much more prevalent, and certain traditional values made more practical sense health-wise, not just morally, in regards to marriage.

Therefore, Freud’s theories were a product of his time, which focused heavily on repressed desires battling against moral values in the unconscious mind.

Our unconscious mind is what we aren’t aware of - it’s a complex system that stores thoughts, memories, feelings, and urges that we don’t actively think about.

From’s Freud’s name comes the “Freudian slip.” This is when we accidentally speak our unconscious thoughts out loud.

For example, I was in a conversation talking about my past, but at the same time, i was very hungry. So, instead of saying, “In the past…” I said, “In the pasta…” because I really wanted to eat pasta.

Freud theorized that we have three parts of our minds that are in constant conflict with on another - The Id, the Ego, and the Superego. 

The id focuses on our basic needs, desires and urges. The Superego is your conscience, or your moral values, telling you right from wrong. The Ego is your conscious decision-maker.

Within the Id are two types of desires - The Eros, or the life instinct, which focuses on procreation, social cooperation, and survival, and the Thanatos, or the death instinct, which focuses on aggression, risky behavior, and relieving trauma.

The students did a great job in understanding the content of today's lesson, and I look forward to learning more about psychologists in future lessons!

-Josh