10-lesson email course for beginners Status: Continuous - You may register right now!

This course addresses people willing to know how Freud approach the dream interpretation. It offers the basics of Freud's method including several examples of dream interpreted through his method. Finally you may submit your own dream to be treated the same as any Freudian dream. The course is designed with the accessibility in mind so you may take it without having any prior information about Freud's concepts in psychology and dream approach. The course is made of 10 lessons sent as email messages directly to your email address. All you need to receive and read them is simply an email client, such us Outlook or Thunderbird. Other email clients may work as well. Lessons titles and short descriptions follow: 1. How did Freud Discover the Dream Interpretation Method A short introduction to the Freud approach of his own dreams and the famous dream of Irma injection. 2. Children Dreams Their specific and the way they may be approached. 3. Structure of Dreams Dreams are produced by our mind in a sleeping state. This lesson depicts the psychic mechanism that leads to dream formation, according to Freud. 4. Dream Analysis The specific of dream interpretation in Freud's view. 5. Sexual Dreams Are all dreams sexual? This lesson talks about the dreams with sexual content and what they mean.

6. Symbols in Dreams Most of the dreams' content is made of symbols. Several symbols are explained by Freud the way they appear in almost all human dreams. 7. Psychoanalysis and Dreams Dream interpretation is the main method in approaching the unconscious and its products. 8. Freud and Dreams Today What is the place of Freudian dream interpretation in the psychoanalytic world today. 9. Dreaming of Falling Teeth (PDF) Example of dream approached through Freud's method. 10. A Dream with a Sexual Content (PDF) Example of dream approached through Freud's method. There's also a quiz upon the completion of the course (not mandatory). You may test online your acquired knowledge. Also you may send us your own interpretation of a dream and we'll try to assist you with its meaning.

Schedule and delivery: We deliver the course through email on a schedule, that is, 1 lesson every 2 days. Thus you have enough time to read them. Interactivity is also available if you need to ask more questions in regard to the topics approached in the lessons. Just send your question to J Jones and he'll try to reply within the same day. Cost: $25 Order this course now through 2Checkout/PayPal and start within minutes. Just click the "order now" button below and follow the instruction.

What is Psychoanalysis
A 10-lesson email course by J Jones

and AROPA

What is and what is not this course? First thing first, it as a straight presentation of psychoanalysis intended for people without any previous experience with it or working in the field of psychology. It is made of short lessons inspired by the main concepts and ideas of psychoanalytic knowledge (please read the list of lessons below to learn more). We also offer historical information about the birth of psychoanalysis, a definition augmented with some quotes from the Freud's works, and many hints on how it works and the methods it uses, including the dream interpretation. Finally we talk about the Oedipus complex and the child's sexuality. This course is not a grade one, or a piece of initiation intended for professionals. Still we suggest further readings to people willing to continue their study. And what is worth, we offer online assistance with your questions regarding the topics approached. Course Delivery Our course is made of 10 lessons sent as email messages to your email address. We send the lessons on a schedule of 1 lesson every 2 days. This way you have enough time to read them all. Starting date

You may start anytime without having to stop your current activity as there's no time limit to read and follow our lessons. You may even save them on your PC, or CD/DVD support, and take them with you anywhere. Furthermore you'll receive our future updates freely for life time! Lessons 1. The Birth of Psychoanalysis 2. What is Psychoanalysis 3. Psychoanalytic Therapy 4. Psychoanalytic Methods: The Free Association 5. Analysis of a Faulty Act (Freudian Slip) 6. Dream Interpretation 7. Applied Psychoanalysis 8. Oedipus Complex in Psychoanalysis 9. Child Sexuality 10. Psychoanalysis and Normal Life Bonus/Quiz Read about a simple case approached through psychoanalysis and find out about the secondary benefits of our neurotic problems (PDF paper). The final quiz may be taken to test your acquired knowledge (not mandatory). Cost: $25 Order this course now through 2Checkout/PayPal and start receiving lessons within a few hours (usually the same day). Please click the Order now button below and follow the instruction.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION Please notice that upon the completion of the order form you'll be invited to click on a link that leads to our course information page. Please read the instruction and follow in order to start receiving the lessons.

Need HELP? Should you need assistance with the registration or content of this course, please send your inquiry to aropa@freudfile.org.

-> Normal and Abnormal in Psychical Life - treats of normal-abnormal in psychical life from the point of view of psychoanalysis. -> Psychoanalytic Techniques - what are the psychoanalytic methods of exploration of the unconscious, including dream interpretation. -> Freud and Dreams - the short version of Psychoanalytic Techniques focuses on Freud's method of dream interpretation. -> Dream Interpretation Methods - explains several methods of approaching dreams up to Freud and Jung.

Of the many personologists that have lived through the years, few have had the impact, or created the controversy that Sigmund Freud has. Although Freuds theories have been greatly questioned and criticized in recent years, few modern theories are more comprehensive and all-inclusive than Sigmund Freuds theory of psychoanalysis. This paper will attempt to outline the major components of this extensive personality theory. To Freud, there were three levels of the psyche. These are the id, the ego and the superego. The id is the most important and plays the largest role in the psyche. The id

is entirely unconscious, which means that we are not aware of and cannot control its functions. The id is a product of evolution, which means that it is present in all people and is similar for all people. For example, all people are subject to the same kinds of instinctual urges, such as Eros and Thanatos. Thanatos is also known as the death instinct, and strives to return to the original, stable inorganic state from which we originally evolved, and promotes disunion and general destruction of order. Freud, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, best describes this: The attributes of life were at some time evoked in inanimate matter by the action of a force of whose nature we can form no conception. It may perhaps have been a process similar in type to that which later caused the development of consciousness in a particular stratum of living matter. The tension which then arose in what had hitherto been an inanimate substance endeavoured to cancel itself out. In this way the first instinct came into being: the instinct to return to the inanimate state. It was still an easy matter at that time for a living substance to die; the course of its life was probably only a brief one, whose direction was determined by the chemical structure of the young life. For a long time, perhaps, living substance was thus being constantly created afresh and easily dying, till decisive external influences altered in such a way as to oblige the still surviving substance to diverge ever more widely from its original course of life and to make ever more complicated dtours before reaching its aim of death. These circuitous paths to death, faithfully kept to by the conservative instincts, would thus present us to-day with the picture of the phenomena of life. (Freud, SE, XVIII, 38) Eros, on the other hand, has only good and loving urges that promote union. Eros is once again best described by Freud himself, in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego: Libido is an expression taken from the theory of the emotions. We call by that name the energy, regarded as a quantitative magnitude (though not at present actually measurable), of those instincts which have to do with all that may be comprised under the word 'love'. The nucleus of what we mean by love naturally consists (and this is what is commonly called love, and what the poets sing of) in sexual love with sexual union as its aim. But we do not separate from this - what in any case has a share in the name 'love' - on the one hand, self-love, and on the other, love for

parents and children, friendship and love for humanity in general, and also devotion to concrete objects and to abstract ideas. Our justification lies in the fact that psycho-analytic research has taught us that all these tendencies are an expression of the same instinctual impulses. In its origin, function, and relation to sexual love, the 'Eros' of the philosopher Plato coincides exactly with the love-force, the libido of psycho-analysis. (SE, XVIII, 90-91) Because the id works by the pleasure principle, which is a hedonistic principle that dictates that pleasure should be attained and pain avoided, the id tries to gratify these urges by any way it can. The id does not worry about its own preservation, or the preservation of the organism, so it attempts to satisfy the urges immediately, by any means. Thankfully for the organism, however, the id does not have powerful ways of gratifying urges. It only has primary processes, such as fantasies, dreams and other wish fulfillment, and reflex action, such as blinking, coughing and gagging. If these dont work to relieve the ids needs, the only other way at its disposal is to use the psychic energy at its disposal to pressure the ego into acting to satisfy the instinctual urges. The ego is the part of our psyche that is partially, although not entirely, conscious. One of the main functions of the ego is to act as a kind of a buffer between the id, the superego and reality, trying to compromise between each of their urges and desires. This does not mean that the ego denies these needs, but since the ego functions in accordance to the reality principle, it will search for the best time and conditions to gratify the urges to which it is submitted. This is what is referred to as the secondary process. The ego is formed when the child first realizes that there is an external world, with different pressures and needs. Freud believed that before this, the child was almost entirely made up of id, and had therefore no way to control or cushion the urges of the id. The ego therefore evolves to control, and serve, the id, while protecting the organism. It can be defended that all of the ways in which the ego does this are all in some way defensive, but these are present in the normal development of the individual, as C. Rycroft (1968) explains: Since psychoanalysis holds that anxiety is a spur to development, some, perhaps all, of the defenses play a part in normal development and it is assumed that certain defenses belong to specific stages of development. (p.48) To W. A. Wallace (1993), even the learning process can be attributed to the defensive postures of the ego.

In our efforts to avoid pain and experience pleasure, we form identifications, rationalizations hence, learning. In sort, pleasure and pain are the necessary and sufficient conditions for learningWhen it is gratifying the instinctual needs of id and adhering to the constrictions of superego, ego attracts and binds surplus psychic energy which can ten be diverted to the secondary or cognitive processes required for learning. (p.48) However, there is a difference between these healthy defense mechanisms and other, less healthy defense mechanisms, such as repression, projection, reaction formation or fixation. These defense mechanisms are put up by the ego when the anxiety caused by the conflicting pressures of the id and reality become overbearing. The ego then tries to ease this tension in a less threatening way or by getting rid of it completely by ignoring the ids desire, by repressing it. (Wallace, 1993) When the urge is allowed to be expressed, this is considered to be a successful defense. Freud believed that the only successful defense mechanism was sublimation, which is the substitution of acceptable behavior for unacceptable urges. The sublimated activity resembles the real urges so it permits the expression of the ids impulse. Freud believed that not only was sublimation part of normal development, but that it was responsible for some of humanitys greatest achievements, such as the arts and sciences. For example, a writer can satisfy aggressive urges by killing characters in a novel, or a surgeon can discharge aggression by operating on a patient. There are many impulses that cannot be sublimated, however, so other defense mechanisms are used by the ego. An example of such a defense is repression. Repression is an unconscious process of the ego, by which threatening material, such as a traumatizing memory, is forced into the unconscious. Of course, a lot of energy is needed to keep this material unconscious, because the material seeks to become expressed (Kline, 1984). It can be expressed in a disguised form, possibly as a physical symptom, or in a sublimated form. The last of the three aspects of the psyche is the superego. The superego acts mainly as a conscience, by saying what is right and wrong, but also holds the ego ideal, which is an idealized image of what the ego should be like. The superego evolves from the ego near the end of the phallic stage, which occurs typically between the ages of three to six, but does not become fully developed until after the resolution of the Oedipus complex. At this time, the child is no longer fully dependent or under the control of his parents, but is now controlling himself.

Like the id, the superego is unconscious and does not care about the organisms well being or survival. All it cares about is that the ego remains within the boundaries of what is right or wrong, and pressures the ego to do this with feelings of shame, guilt or pride. As was stated earlier, few personologists have created as much controversy as Sigmund Freud has at the beginning of the twentieth century. A large part of this controversy was due to his theorys large emphasis on sexuality, specifically at an early age. At a time when sexuality was rarely spoken of in adults, much less infants, Freuds theory shocked many by claiming that there were three psychosexual stages through which everyone went before puberty. These stages do not necessarily involve sexuality in the sense that it is generally thought of, or the way it is experienced in adult life, and it is important to differentiate between sexual and genital. The first stage begins shortly after birth and is centered around the childs mouth, which is why it is called the oral phase. During this phase, the child gains pleasure from sucking and biting that goes beyond the need for nourishment. This can be seen in young children who tend to put everything they pick up into their mouth. The mouth is the first erotogenic zone. The second, from the approximate ages of two to three years, is the anus. It is generally at this age time that the child begins being toilet trained and sexual pleasure is obtained from defecation and retention of feces. For this reason, it is called the anal phase. The third stage is called the phallic phase, because the genitals become the center of pleasure. Freud saw this stage as being particularly important, because it is during this stage that the Oedipus complex is developed. Freud saw the Oedipus complex being one of the most important events in defining character and personality, and saw its discovery as being one of mans greatest discoveries. During this phase, the boy will feel strong sexual feelings for his mother, and develop feelings of hatred for his father, who can be seen as competition for his mothers exclusive attention. The boy, however, notices the obvious physical difference between boys and girls, namely the fact that girls lack a penis. Unconsciously, the boy wonders why this is, and thinks that perhaps girls had lost it at some point in the past. The boy begins to fear that his father would cut his penis off too, as punishment for his incestuous feelings. This castration anxiety brings an end to the Oedipus complex. For girls, the process is a little different, in that, although she too begins her life in love with her mother, her affections are somehow transferred to her father. Freud explains this as a result of penis envy. The girl wants a penis and the power that goes

with it or at least something that can act as a substitute, such as a baby. Of course, in order to have a baby, a man is needed. This is the reason for the transfer of affections from the mother to the father. The girl will eventually displace from him to boys in general, and will identify with her mother. However, because Freud did not think that girls experienced castration anxiety, this explained what he saw as the fact that women were less firmly heterosexual and less morally inclined. These psychosexual stages play a large role in defining an individuals adult personality. Frustration or overindulgence in any of the stages can lead to certain character traits. For example, if a child is fed whenever he wants during the oral phase, weaning can become traumatic, and fixation can occur. This child is likely to develop an oral-passive character, for which an interest in oral gratification is important. Gourmets and wine connoisseurs display this type of fixation. On the other hand, if the child is frustrated during the oral phase, by regular feeding hours for example, he may develop an oral-aggressive character. As opposed to oralpassive people, who tend to be optimistic, oral-aggressive people tend to be pessimistic, bitter and have a dry, biting wit. Fixation at the anal stage can develop extremes concerning cleanliness. Sloppiness, disorganization, excessive generosity and even cruelty and destructiveness characterize the anal-aggressive personality, which can develop when parents put themselves at the childs mercy when toilet training him. If parents are very strict, however, an anal-retentive personality can develop where the individual is clean, perfectionist, very stubborn and stingy. If his mother rejects the child during the phallic phase, the individual may become meek, solitary, and generally have a poor sense of self-worth concerning his sexuality. If, on the other hand, his mother to his weak father prefers the child, he will have a high sense of self-worth, which may cause him to suffer once he enters the real world. He may also become rather effeminate, since he has no reason to identify with his father. Of course, the development of these character traits isnt absolute, but this gives an example of the importance of the unconscious in creating the personality of the individual. Seemingly insignificant events in childhood can be carried throughout an individuals life and can seriously affect his adult personality. The ego creates barriers, represses memories and urges and masks others, as is evident by the defense mechanisms that it utilizes. This is an important implication of Freuds theory, since it means that we cannot truly know ourselves, since what becomes conscious can be either a partial or masked truth.

To really know our true self, years of therapy are needed, the goal of which is to lower these defense mechanisms to bring the unconscious to the conscious. Freud took several years to treat his patients and insisted that there be no outside interference that could hinder the analytic process. He also required that the individual be completely willing and ready to go through the process. Only then could a person truly get to know himself. References: Day, R. (1998) Freud and Psychoanalysis [ONLINE]. Available: HTTP: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Psychology/psych2b3/lectures/freud-1.html Freud, S., The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. (SE) Vol. XVIII Ed. James Strachey et al. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1974. Freud, S., An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, Ed &trans. James Strachey. London: The Hogarth Press, 1969. Kline, D. (1984). Psychology and Freudian Theory - An Introduction. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. Rowell, M.H. (1998-1999). The Freud Page [ONLINE]. Available: HTTP: http://www.geocities.com/~mhrowell/ Rycroft, C. (1968). A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books. Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna [ONLINE]. Available:HTTP: http://freud.t0.or.at/