PSYC2014 Final: PSYC2014-Full-Summary (Everything you need)
Document Summary
The fundamental assumption of psychoanalysis is that there is no qualitative distinction between those who are psychological healthy and those who are ill. In other words, (cid:498)sanity(cid:499) and (cid:498)insanity(cid:499) exist on the same continuum. Due to this lack of distinction, freud used his clinical observations to generate general hypotheses regarding human personality. Freud commenced his research on hysteria, which he used to establish his theories of psychoanalysis. Hysteria is defined as the presence of bodily symptoms in the absence of any physical pathology. Such symptoms include eating, sleeping or swallowing difficulties, choking, suffocation-like sensations, blindness, fits, epilepsy and paralysis. In late 19th century, it was though hysteria was only applicable to women. The traits of hysteria were the same as the traits of a bad woman and were thought to be due to excessive femininity. However, at the end of the 19th century, leading researchers found that hysteria was found in men as well.
