Freud and Psychoanalysis

The book Freud and Psychoanalysis by W.W. Meissner, was my first step, as well as a change, in my research for my topic. I say it was a change, because I shifted my topic from humanistic psychology to psychoanalysis due to the lack of materials and deeper ideals put forth. The book goes through and, in detail, touches upon the development of psychoanalysis, sets forward the fundamental keys Freud, himself, put on the table and their origins, along with his beliefs and ideals on furthered investigations on that of the state of hysteria. It goes through and names the cases Freud first dealt with, which in part sparked his revolutionary concepts, hist interpretation of dreams, the stages in which human beings go through in a psychosexual way, and the development and ideas behind the infamous id, the mediating ego, and the conscientious superego. Added on top of that the author mentions of the growth of anxiety and how it is often placed in traumatic childhood situations -- with other aspects of human development from infancy to adulthood -- and how goes along with the on-going growth taking place in the psychology of human beings. The book goes on to also mention Freud's idea of therapeutic treatments for hysteria and psychosis, along with their specific characteristics.

I plan to apply this item of research to the way cultures could develop their initial rituals and beliefs in aspects of life. I want to delve deeper especially into the concept of dreams and the many ways to interpret them. Carl Jung is a definite figure of interest in my study, as his interpretation of dreams evolves into the concept of archetypes and symbols. This being so, symbols, along with archetypes, are a very prominent aspect in all cultural settings, rituals, and religions. The deduction of such ideas gives us more insight to how a culture functions, views certain objects, etc or they at least give us insight on how they once did.