Biography of Freud, father of psychoanalysis, created the 'couch' idea as medical treatment in reliving early experiences by conversation between doctor and patient.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, psychoanalyst, and a medical. He is best-known as the founder of psychoanalysis. He wrote three influential books: The Interpretation of Dream (Die Traumdeutung) (1899), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), and The Future of an Illusion (1927).

Freud studied medicine at the University of Vienna, and specialized in neurology. Freud worked with Joseph Breuer in using cathartic method with hysterical disorders, later describing this procedure as what is now known as 'psychoanalysis.' Results are found in his book Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams).

The Key to Understanding Freud's Philosophy

• Psychoanalysis is predicated with a view that certain early childhood experiences are 'repressed' by the Ego into the Unconscious. Typically, these are experiences that the child feels would elicit disapproval, and crucially for Freud, are tied in with the child's sexual identity in relation to one or both of its parents.
• Freud defines psychoanalysis as "a procedure for the treatment of the medically ill." The doctor's 'treatment' consists of eliciting repressed memories from the patient by interpreting the responses to his questions. This is called "Freud's couch," where a patient would be encouraged to re-live previous experiences, which at that time was an entirely new method of treatment.

Freud's Claims, Counter Claims and Critics

There have been philosophical concerns as well as questions regarding the validity and scientific bearing of Freud's procedure:

• The doctor's "treatment" is an unusual kind of medical treatment, in that nothing passes between the doctor and patient except conversation.
• Since the interpretation by the doctor is neither objective nor 'testable', and more so, protected from scrutiny by the ethos of doctor-patient confidentiality relationship, the measurement of results in Freud's psychoanalytic practice cannot be objective.

Despite these philosophical concerns, the popularity of psychoanalytic treatment is apparent. However, it is important to distinguish several logically independent claims.

• Claim 1: That personalities can be understood by interpreting an account of childhood experiences
• Claim 2: That the interpretation given of such an account represents some objective truth about the patient.
• Claim 3: That this process of 'conversation and interpretation' can effectively treat nervous illnesses.

The popularity of psychoanalysis could be attributable to the truth of any, all or none of these claims.

In theoretical terms, Freud's division of a responsible Ego suppressing the impulses of the Unconscious also invites criticism. In particular, that it attributes conflicting intentional or purposive agency to distinct realms of the mind. The French philosopher and critic Jean-Paul Sartre criticized Freud's psychology for incoherently proposing that the conscious censor, the Ego, suppresses unconscious desires: that if the Ego is not conscious of the unconscious ideas or desires, how could it be in a position to know what must be repressed?

Freud's Rationale

Despite counter claims, in general, philosophy has reacted well to Freud's theoretical principles. Freud himself suggested that "this psychology represented a new 'Copernican revolution'. Just as Copernicus had shown that the earth is not at the centre of the universe, as Darwin had shown that man is not lord and master over the animal kingdom, but merely a continuous extension of it." (Refer to source consulted: Philosophy, The Great Thinkers, by Philip Stokes).

Freud claims to have proved that "the conscious mind, or the self, is not 'master of its own house', as all rationalist and Cartesian philosophies presuppose."

Sources:

Philosophy, The Great Thinkers, by Philip Stokes, Arcturus Publishing (2007)

Fontana Dictionary, edited by Alan Bullock and R.B. Woodings, (1983)