Sigmund_Freud

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychologist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He believed that humans were driven by several primary desires, of which he came to place 'libido' as the foremost. He described libido as the sex drive, and over time, became somewhat fascinated by it. He and his contemporaries divided man's brain into 'sections', so to speak. There was the Ego (the actual manifesting personality), the Superego (The internal Parent, or authority on what is Right and Wrong) and the Id (the inner child who simply Wants things). He also liked to differentiate the conscious mind (of which you are aware) from the subconscious or unconscious mind (which affects you, but of which you are unaware). For example, he ascribed many of the taboos found in primitive tribal cultures around the world as being derived from attempts to prevent incest (Totem and Taboo, 1913). He studied various forms of mental illness in an effort to understand the mind. In the end, his work has been partially discredited, as modern psychology no longer holds so severely to the idea of the sex drive as being all-powerful over us. His 'obsession' is mocked somewhat today, as is evident by the phrase "a Freudian slip," referring to a mispronunciation or verbal mistake which turns an ordinary word into something with a sexual connotation.

I must go reread my Freud texts and be back later to correct myself as to the details. - Tangfan