FREE ESSAY ON PSYCHOANALYSIS

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud was the first to talk about psychoanalysis, a technique that allows an
individual to recount dreams but what psychologists call free association. Free
association is the individual saying whatever comes to mind when something is said.
Psychoanalysts encourage the unconscious mind to recall scenes, thoughts, and to
reconstruct past experiences that have shaped the patients present behavior.
Freud states that the personality develops in a series of stages. On the same hand, if we
resolve our conflicts that arise during our life as they happen, then psychological
problems in the future will not occur. That what we believe are spur of the moment
decisions etc. are really influenced by the unconscious. 
Psychodynamic theories are written in the individual, often outside the conscious mind.
Human behavior is based on unconscious instincts. Some are aggressive and destructive
while others are thirsting for the necessary tools to survive. In the same breath, he
says that sexual instinct is the most critical factor for the development of our
personality. According to Freud, personality is formed around these structures: the Id,
ego, and the super ego. 
The Id or instinctual needs is the only structure present at birth and is unconscious. It
is the collection of unconscious urges and desires that continually seek expression. The
ego is the part of the personality that mediates between environmental demands, which are
reality, conscience or superego, and Id. It contains all the thinking and reasoning.
Lastly, the super ego is the social and parental standards the individual has
internalized or the moral conscience of the brain. This is not present at birth, but
developed over a period of time. 
In conclusion, I feel psychoanalysis is a good way to understand why people do what they
do, and how to recognize it and have the ability to change it. Although Freud made this
discovery at the turn of the century it is still an effective way to deal with current
problems some individuals may have.
The article I chose was The Miseducation of the Negro. In this article, the author stated
that Negroes are being denied everything relating to black culture in public schools.
That they are taught everything from Hebrew to Latin but denied the rest. 
This article also determines that when talking to certain "high class" blacks they felt
that it was not important to learn about there culture stating that, "he didn't go to
school to waste his time." When black courses were offered in summer schools etc. they
consisted of material perceiving whites as being superior to blacks. It goes on to say
that regardless of education a black couldn't make it that far because of the world they
are going into. To sum up the article it claims that no matter how hard an African
American works they won't get far because they are forced to go back to "where they came
from" which is the group of people considered to be uneducated and unimportant. 
I do not agree with this article because I believe that blacks can go anywhere they want
to go. When the article was written that might have been the case but as the years have
went on gradual change has come. With that change, comes more opportunities for educated
people in general, and especially for black Americans.