Customer Reviews

An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (The Standard Edition) (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud)

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Freud, surprisingly, does a fine job in explicating the basic ideas behind Psychoanalysis. Unlike other texts which can use pretty complicated and verbose language, Freud (and the editors) used clear and easy to read syntax. I recommend this book for any looking to get a basic understanding of Psychoanalysis or to further enhance an undergraduate or graduate class.

Written beginning in 1938 and published in 1940, this is not intended as an "introductory" work for a general audience (such as were his Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (The Standard Edition) (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud)), but assumes a general knowledge of Freudian theory.

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"The teachings of psycho-analysis are based on an incalculable number of observations and experiences, and only someone who has repeated those observations upon himself is in a position to arrive at a judgement of his own upon it."
"There is no need to characterize what we call 'conscious'; it is the same as the consciousness of philosophers and of everyday opinion. Everything else psychical is in our view 'the unconscious.'"
"(In analysis, the patient) is to tell us not only what he can say intentionally and willingly, what will give him relief like a confession, but everything else as well that his self-observation yields him, everything that comes into his head, even if it is disagreeable for him to say it, even if it seems unimportant to him or actually nonsensical."
"Thus we shall not be greatly surprised if a woman analyst who has not been sufficiently convinced of the intensity of her own wish for a penis also fails to attach proper importance to that factor in her patients."
"Just as the Id is directed exclusively to obtaining pleasure, so the ego is governed by considerations of safety."

This is an entirely satisfactory edition of Freud's last published work made available at a surprisingly low price. I probably could not have found it in any local retail outlet, certainly not at so low a price. All shipping costs were eliminated with my Amazon Prime membership.

well-organized and well-written; very compact and filled with formulations useful to a comprehension of some of Freud's core concepts.

This time of year a lot of College students are reading Freud.... remember, a LOT has been added to Analytic thought that now makes his writing important for a basic understanding even if we have clarified some of his mechanistic and dogmatic thinking

Jump ahead to the latest in analytic thought, Self Psychology, for a a balancing perspecitve that you may find helps you understand where Freud's thinking has ended up. The best may be an excellent summary of Dr Heinz Kohut's writings by author Allen M. Siegel: " Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self".

It's an very readable presentation of where Freud's thinking has eventually led us and will make all human Psychology more understandable to anyone, probably more useful since it is built on many years of experience by scores of analysts, each of whom advanced and calarified and, yes, corrected, some of Freud's thinking.

Self Psychology is the current state of the art in analytic thinking and While much has been clarified and made more understandable and useful it actually makes the brilliance of Freud's observations obvious and him more understandable.

Since Kohut and others had 50 or more Great thinkers insights to build upon since Freud many questions about the development of the basic personality are addressed that Freud never dreamed would ever be asked, much less answered.

Freud found the skeleton of human psychology... This is human psychology with the flesh on it.Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self (Makers of Modern Psychotherapy)

I found that this book was on a higher level than most of Freud's literary pieces. Though many of the same information is presented here, it is presented in a wholey different manner, and a much more understandable one. I personaly find this a fairly good source of reference. Though one can not rely completely on anyone of Freud's ideas; they give good background to new ones.

I would do great injustice if I attempt to provide my thoughts on the works of Sigmund Freud. I admit my knowledge in this area is shallow and limited; and I took this read more out of curiosity than a scientific study. With this said I would ask you to bear with me in the following paragraphs and at the same time suggest taking this read with a caution that undertaking this read requires immense patience.
The ego has the task for self-preservation; it performs that task by becoming aware of the stimuli, by storing up experiences about them in the memory. It handles it by avoiding strong stimuli, by dealing with moderate stimuli and finally by learning to bring about expedient changes in the external world to its own advantages. It performs that task by gaining control over the demands of the instincts, by deciding whether they are to be allowed satisfaction, by postponing the satisfaction to times and circumstances favorable to the external world or by suppressing their excitation entirely. It is in this activity that tensions are produced by the stimuli. The raising and lowering of these tensions cause unpleasure and pleasure. It is probable however that what is felt as pleasure or unpleasure is not the absolute heights and lows but something in the rhythm of the changes in them. The ego strives after pleasure and seeks to avoid unpleasure. An increase in unpleasure which is unexpected is met by a signal of anxiety.
In contrast to ego; the id expresses the true purpose of the individual organisms life. This consists for the satisfaction of its innate needs. No such purpose as keeping itself alive or protecting itself from dangers by means of anxiety can be attributed to the id. That is the task of the ego to figure out the most favorable and the least perilous method of obtaining satisfaction; which entails taking the external world into account. The forces which hide behind the tensions caused by the needs of the id are called instincts. Freud proposed the existence of two basic instinct Eros and destructive instinct. The aim of the first is to establish greater unities and to preserve them thus in short to bind them together. The aim of the second is to undo connections and to destroy things. Modifications in the proportions of the fusion between the two instincts have the most opposite result. A surplus of sexual aggressiveness will turn a lover into a sex murderer, while a sharp diminution in the aggressive factor will make him bashful or impotent.