Sigmund Freud Sometimes a Cigar Thesis

Some, such as Carl Jung, reconceived the nature of the unconscious, while others, such as Melanie Klein, replaced drives or instincts with interpersonal ("object") relations as the pivot of the psyche. Others, such as Alfred Adler, placed relatively greater emphasis than Freud did on the ego, while lessening the emphasis on the sexual drives. In Freud's wake, many varieties of talking therapy were created, some ultimately with little connection to the tenets of psychoanalysis, save the notion that people's ways of thinking about their lives, cultivated by their previous experience, may taint their happiness more than do the external events that befall them. Diverse therapies also share the belief that giving expression to one's concerns may both begin to lift the burden they impose and promote self-enlightenment (Freud, Sigmund, 2008, Criticism of…Section, ¶ 3).

Table 1 depicts some of these theorists and how they altered or changed Freud's theories.

Table 1: Changes to Freud's Theories (adapted from Freud, Sigmund, 2008, Criticism of…Section, ¶ 3).

Theorists

Thoughts or Changes to Freud's Theories

Carl Jung

Reconceived the nature of the unconscious.

Melanie Klein

Replaced drives or instincts with interpersonal ("object") relations as the pivot of the psyche.

Alfred Adler

Placed relatively greater emphasis than Freud did on the ego, while lessening the emphasis on the sexual drives.

Freud's talking therapy has also been expanded upon, using less of a connection to the principles of psychoanalysis. In his early years, Freud regularly used cocaine as he perceived it to potentially possess cure-all properties. Freud also believed that medication might one day replace psychoanalysis. In time, albeit, although psychiatrists do prescribe drugs to compliment "talk therapy," it generally has not relinquished its status as a treatment to drugs (Associated Press, 2006). Cognitive-behavioral therapy, one form of contemporary talk therapy, coupled with an antidepressant, reportedly works better for depression than merely prescribing pills for the depressed patient, Dr. Joseph Coyle, Harvard psychiatrist, asserts. This type therapy is not psychoanalysis, however Coyle credits Freud with laying the foundations for today's clinicians to develop effective talk-therapy type of interventions (Associated Press, 2006).

The researcher credits Freud with recognizing that not everything, as the quote starting this paper asserts, has an underlying meaning. Or does it? The researcher ponders: Is a cigar just a cigar? After all, it may have constituted a contributing component of Freud's mouth cancer.

REFERENCES

Associated Press. (2006). Freud celebrated, debated at 150; many of the father of psychoanalysis ideas have been modified or discarded during the last century. Telegraph -- Herald

(Dubuque). Retrieved February 17, 2010 from HighBeam Research:

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Caropreso, F. & Simanke, R.T. (2008). Life and death in Freudian metapsychology: A

reappraisal of the second instinctual dualism1. International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Retrieved February 17, 2010 from HighBeam Research:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1581512431.html

Freud, Sigmund. (2008). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale.

Retrieved February 17, 2010 from HighBeam Research:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3045300865.html

Kalb, C. (2006). The Therapist as Scientist; Before inventing psychoanalysis, Freud dissected fish and studied the anatomy of the human brainstem. Newsweek. Newsweek, Inc.

Retrieved February 17, 2010 from HighBeam Research:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-143496366.html

Thornton, S.P. (2005). Sigmund Freud (1856 -- 1939). The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Retrieved February 17, 2010 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/

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