What I would like you to do is to find a topic or person from this week's chapter that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find a video clip that demonstrates something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. Please use at least 3 quality resources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, a) I would like you to say what your topic is, b) how exactly it fits into the chapter, and c) why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you read or viewed related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about the topic in a knowledgeable manner. At the end of your post, please include working URLs for the three websites. Keep in mind that it will be easier if you keep it to one topic.
Additional instructions: For each URL (internet resource) you have listed. Indicate why you chose it and the extent to which it contributed to your post
Chapter 12
I chose to do more research on Franz Mesmer, along with his thoughts and contributions on hysteria. The information I retrieve from my research will fit into this chapter because it’s already discussed in the chapter, I am simply gathering more information to better understand the concept and mindset of Mesmer about hysteria. I’m interested in this topic because I don’t know much about it and I would like to have a better understanding of hysteria.
Franz Mesmer, a German physician whose system of therapeutics, known as mesmerism, was the forerunner of the modern practice of hypnotism. Mesmer’s dissertation at the University of Vienna borrowed heavily from the work of the British physician Richard Mead; it suggested that the gravitational attraction of the planets affected human health by affecting an invisible fluid found in the human body and throughout nature. Mesmer revised his theory of “animal gravitation” to “animal magnetism,” where the invisible fluid in the body acted according to the laws of magnetism. According to Mesmer, “animal magnetism” could be activated by any magnetized object and manipulated by any trained person. After bleeding a patient, which was common practice for nearly every ailment back then, Mesmer noticed that as he approached the patient the flow of blood increased, and lessened noticeably when he stepped away. This was enough to convince the forty year old lay doctor that his own body must be some sort of magnetic force.
His practice boomed when word of this new miracle cure spread, although the combined faith of both healer and the patient in the process certainly was a persuasive factor in these cures, much like the placebo effect, well documented today. The innate power of a charismatic personality synchronizes the strong notions of a believer to effect untold numbers of miraculous payoffs cannot be denied. Long before Freud, Mesmer seemed to realize the effects of sexual repression and nervous hysteria. For at least two thousand years of European history until the late nineteenth century hysteria referred to a medical condition thought to be particular to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus. His seductive techniques released many neurotic patients to the fresh feeling of an aspiring humanity, at least temporarily, free from the bondage of the host of mental and sexual insecurities modern society encourages.
At any rate, Mesmer unfortunately did not understand the role of imagination in Mesmer’s successes. Had either Mesmer or any other early key pioneers of hypnosis really understood the vital role of even some of the ingredients of the hypnotic formula, belief, imagination, expectation and conviction, the entire history of hypnosis would have changed course! It seems tragic that even the 19th Century pioneers failed to learn from Mesmer’s mistake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFy6cfPmjd4
I chose to add this YouTube video that a trailer of the movie “Hysteria”. This movie is about the beginning of hysterias emergence and the development of treatments. I personally have not seen this movie yet but I am interested in watching it.
http://www.docmagi.com/hypnosis/franz-anton-mesmer-1734-1815-german-physician/
This webpage contributed to my blog through the information of Mesmer’s life and theories. I think this webpage was helpful because of all the information provided about hypnosis and its development.
http://aznewage.org/mesmer.htm
This webpage didn’t have very much material on it; however a lot of the information on the page was about Mesmer’s early life. This webpage contributed by providing the early life information.
http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/franz-anton-mesmer/
I chose this website because of the extensive information over Mesmer’s development of hypnosis. This webpage contributed a lot through the information on hypnosis.
Although in my blog for chapter 12 I stated that I was most uninterested in the reform movements on better living conditions for the mentally ill, I decided to do my topical blog on Dorthea Dix. The reason I chose to do more research on this topic was because I realized as I was writing my paragraph that I did know a lot about her reform movement, however I did not know much about her own life story so I wanted to take a deeper look into that to see why she chose to engage in this movement. This relates to the chapter because there is a whole section on the Early Treatment of the mentally ill, the enlightened reform, and lastly the reform on asylums.
Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Main. She was the oldest of three children and her father was very into religion. When Dorothea was twelve years old she left Hampden because her mother was not in good mental health and her father was an abusive drunk. She moved to live with her grandmother in Boston, and then with her aunt in Worcester. She began teaching school at the age of fourteen and in 1819 she moved back to Boston and started a school for girls called Dix Mansion. This was a charity school and she let poor girls attend for free. Dix said that she never really had a childhood because she had to care for her brothers at a young age and she began teaching at a very young age too.
While living with her grandmother, Dorothea began living a completely different life. Her grandmother was very wealthy so she wanted her to live like a wealthy girl, she had her own seamstress, dance instructor, fancy dinners etc. but this never took away from Dorothea’s giving personality. She once was punished by her grandmother for giving her new clothes and food to a begging children.
Dorothea developed a huge passion for teaching after meeting her second cousin Edward Bangs. He is the one who inspired her to begin her own school for poor girls. The two spent a lot of time together and at the age of 31 he confessed that he loved her, but this scared Dix so she closed the school and moved to Boston, he followed her there and proposed; she accepted. She did not want to set a date however because she feared becoming like her parents. Once in Boston she began reading her grandfather’s books and grew a huge passion from this. It wasn’t until the age of 39 when Dix began visiting Jails. This is when she saw all the poor conditions and decided to make a change which was described in this book.
It was very interesting to see the type of life Dix lived and it makes more sense now to see why she wanted to help others since she had such an awful upbringing herself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix
http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html
http://www.biography.com/people/dorothea-dix-9275710
I chose to do more research on defense mechanisms and how many there are now. I think that defense mechanisms are really interesting to think about because we unknowingly use them in our lives to help us cope with hard situations. If you look at yourself then you would be able to know which ones you use, but at the time most people are not aware of what they are doing. Freud came up with defense mechanisms first and I wanted to see what had come of this idea. This fits into the chapter because I am going more in-depth to the defense mechanism that were discussed in the chapter
There is no official number of defense mechanisms out there, but there are fifteen common ones that are used. They are denial, regression, acting out, dissociation, compartmentalization, projection, reaction formation, repression, displacement, intellectualization, rationalization, undoing, sublimation, compensation, and assertiveness. The ones that I thought were most interesting were the ones that I chose to do a little more research on.
Regression was the first defense mechanism that I thought was interesting. Regression is with you revert to earlier stages in development. This is used when someone faces an unacceptable thought or impulse. An example of this would be an adult who refuses to get out of bed and basically throws a tantrum. They revert back to being young and moody so that they don’t have to do with their day to day activities. You can tell when someone is using this defense mechanism just by if their actions are childish, and if they are acting immature.
Displacement is the second defense mechanism that I thought could be seen in everyone. It can be seen by a man who is mad at his boss but instead takes his anger out on his wife or children. Another example would be of a student who hates her professor so she takes out her aggression on her roommate. Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feeling and impulses directed at one person or object, but taken out upon another person or object. This is a very dangerous defense mechanism because the anger is taken out on innocent by-standers and could lead to the person hurting someone else.
The third defense mechanism that I found interesting was sublimation. Sublimation is when a person channels unacceptable impulses, thoughts, and emotions, into acceptable ones. An example of this would be a person who is sexually frustrated and they instead of having sex put there unacceptable impulse into another activity like running or other rigorous activities. Humor is also found in this defense mechanism and can be a way for a person to turn an unacceptable impulse or thought into a light hearted joke. This defense mechanism can be very helpful for the person because it allows them to channel their unwanted energy into something more acceptable and may help them actually get other things done. Freud believed that this defense mechanism was a sign of maturity.
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/15-common-defense-mechanisms/
I used this website to help me identify the 15 common defense mechanisms and what exactly each one of them was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_(psychology)
I used this website to give me a little more information on what regression was and to give me some more examples to work from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(psychology)
Same with this website except it was on sublimation.
The topic from this chapter that I chose to research more about was the York Retreat. I chose this because this was the first real attempt at making the housing and treatment of the mentally ill more humane and less violent and animal like.
The York Retreat first opened its doors in 1796. It was founded by WIlliam Tuke and is located in England. It was originally ran and created for the Quakers, but it was soon open to any and everyone. The York Retreat is most famous for introducing moral treatment of the patiends, and became a model for Asylums around the globe. Tuke developed the Retreat as a reaction to the extremely harsh and inhumane treatment that was all too common in Asylums and mental hospitals of that era. The Retreat used no chains or menacles, also physical punnishment was banned. Although in rare occasions straight jackets were used if need be. The treatment in the facility was based on the personalized attention and benevolence, and the goal was to restore the self-esteem and self-control of the individual. This facility showed early stages of occupational therapy such as farm work and walks around the property. The patients at the Retreat wore their own clothing and they were also encouraged to work, do crafts, and read as a therapy as well. In 1880-1884 most patients at this time were under the age of fifty, and most met the criteria for schizophrenia and/or mood disorders, and 1/3 of the patients were succidal.
The York Retreat is still operating, and is now an independent hospical. They provide modern health care based on traditional values. The facility offers a variety of treatment methods such as; rehab for psychosis, post traumatic stress, eating disorders, and personality disorders to name a few. There are still no locked doors or restraints used. Many of the employees there still have a Quaker background, and the minister on site is also Quaker.
http://www.theretreatyork.org.uk/about-the-retreat.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Retreat
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/georgian/the-retreat
For this weeks topical blog post I decided to do more research on Victor: The Wild Boy of Aveyron. I also was interested in learning more about Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin. Although the book gave information about all three of these people I still learned a lot about all of them. I found it fascinating that both of these men had the patience to try to teach Victor for so many years.
Edouard Seguin was born in 1812. His family was made up of physicians. He pioneered educational methods for teaching the severely mentally handicapped. His approach was brought on by utopian ideas. He thought of treating the mentally challenged as progress to a perfect society. His work included exercise to strengthen the physical body and develop sensory-motor consideration showed that even those who suffered the most improved tremendously. In 1837 he started treating his first patient at the Salpetriere asylum in Paris. By 1839 his class grew bigger and he opened up the first school dedicated towards education the mentally challenged. I also found that he believed mental deficiency wasn't brought on by abnormal brains but instead by a weakness of the nervous system. He also thought it could be cured by motor and sensory training. The commission from the Paris Academy of Science reported that Seguin had solved the problem of "idiot education."
Jean Itard was only educated to be a tradesman, but he joined the Army during the French Revolution and became an assistant surgeon. He had no prior scientific training and his medical education training was on the job. In 1796 he finally did an internship in Paris.He then began working at the National Institute for Deaf-Mutes.
Both of these men are better known for trying to educate Victor:The Wild Boy of Averyon. From what some people know of Victor he was born in 1788-1790 and abandoned in the woods between 1795 to 1797. From what our history and systems book said I thought he was only captured once but instead he was captured three different times. The first time he was captured in 1798 then escaped for another year only to be captured for a week in 1799. He was captured yet again in 1800 and was taken to the Institute for Deaf-Mutes. He had no cognitive ability and he appeared to be deaf. The only noises he would respond to were those that interested him. Also, he couldn't speak and had no sense of touch or temperature. His socialization skills were slim to none. The headmaster of the Institute was one of the first ones to try to teach him but thought he was unteachable. Itard thought that Victors unfortunate childhood and its effects could be reversed and he could mentally be restored. He took Victor home and came up with an education program that aimed to expand his senses, increasing his dependence on other people, teaching him to speak, enhance his cognitive ability, and socialization. Itard worked with Victor for six years.
In order to modify his sensation and perception. To do this he would put him in a hot bath for hours at a time every day. After three months Victor could tell the difference between hot and cold. This led to his other senses to develop. He could finally take a bath in a normal temperature. He quit wetting himself because he preferred being dry. Victor started wearing clothes, sought affection and he began to cry and sneeze for he first time.
After that Itard started working on Victors speech. However, nothing he tried worked. Itard thought Victor was catching on to a few words, but he was not catching on. He couldn't associate sounds or words with their objects. Along with this he also could not write letters or words. After all of this failed teaching Victor managed to make big leaps in socialization. He could mainly tell when something was wrong. He became empathetic and interested in people instead of being aloof and egoistic. When his caretakers husband died he still set the table, putting a plate in his caretakers husbands spot. His caretaker started crying so Victor removed the plate and never set the spot again.
I was also interested in finding out what happened to Victor after Itard stopped teaching him six years later. Victor stayed in his caretakers home until he died at age forty. Itard believed if he had met Victor a few years earlier he may have been able to reverse the effects of his childhood.
http://haberdasher.hubpages.com/hub/The-Wild-Boy-of-Aveyron
This site gave me all of my information on Victor.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/itard.shtml
This website gave me the majority of my information on Jean Itard.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edouard_Seguin
This website helped a lot with giving me information on Edouard Seguin.
I decided to do my research on the pros and cons of Sigmund Freud’s work, I felt like the chapter did a good job explaining Freud and his coming about but it also did an even better job criticizing his work. I’m interesting in the negative side of Freud’s work, even if it did fail or was proven wrong, because I think that you can learn a lot by looking at certain situations in a positive way; regardless if they are right or wrong, there’s always an opportunity to learn something. If you can look at something and declare that it is incorrect and then move on, you haven’t improved anything.
Freud has been criticized for years about his work and theories, and was even called, “history’s most debunked doctor”. Many of Freud’s theories have been proven to be untrue and a bit theatrical, but I do believe that in some ways he was able to make a valid point; you just need to look outside of the box. Being a woman, I decided to look more into Freud’s theory on woman, I’ve read about penis envy before and we’ve also discussed it in many previous classes; I understand how his theory on woman and penis envy is distorted and condescending, but on the same hand I get where he’s coming from; I don’t want a penis but I’d be lying if I said I never thought it wouldn’t be fun to have one for a day. On a broader level than his theory isn’t it kind of like when woman say, ‘men don’t have to go what woman go through, you try having cramps each month’, isn’t the underlying point there is that were mad woman have ovaries and men don’t. I understand that Freud’s theory on penis envy goes a lot deeper than that, and I don’t agree with daughters resenting their mothers and loving their fathers because they have penises, but maybe we should look at it as there is some reason that there’s the saying of being “daddys little girl” and a “mama’s boy”. Perhaps it has nothing to do with reproductive parts and just the fact that there are different levels and ways of bonding depending on your gender. A father is usually sterner with a son, so naturally a son is going to look for love from his mother and vice versa.
The next area I looked at was Freud’s theory on religion, he believed that religion was an expression of underlying psychological neuroses and distress which meant religion was a way to control the Oedipal complex, a means of giving structure to social groups, wish fulfillment, an infantile delusion, and an attempt to control the outside world. I understand that religion is a very touchy subject to some people, but I on the other hand am very open to it. I also happen to agree with Freud when he stated that, "A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it." To me this reminds of when I hear highly religious people say, ‘you need to find Christ’, and in my mind I can’t help but think, how you know they haven’t found him. Looking at gay people, a big controversy is what does the bible say about being gay; I’m sorry but I’ve gotten to the point of when I hear this I just yell who the (omit word) cares. In my mind this is what I’m taking away from Freud’s theory on religion, he might not have been completely right or correct, but he made a point in saying that religion isn’t always right either; believe in your identity but dissecting or defending a religious view piece by piece doesn’t always make you right; and maybe these religious ‘rules’ aren’t meant to be dissected but rather they’re meant for people to read between the lines and form their own personal views on them instead of being told what’s right or wrong.
I often look at Freud and his theories and some of them are laughable, but then again I feel as if Freud had more time to develop and expand off of his own theories he would have continuously changed them. I remind myself that I need to take into consideration the time frame in which Freud grew up and how society portrayed categories such as woman, religion, etc. I could be really off on my thinking and trying to make sense of some of Freud’s theories, but honestly I’m okay with that because at least I’m thinking about them in my own terms and trying to figure out what I believe is right or wrong instead of reading in a book of what is said to be right or wrong.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/freud.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/freud_women.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/freud_religion.htm
I chose do to do more research on Franz Mesmer and his work with mesmerism. I thought reading about it in the book was interesting and I thought I could get more details on his work if I searched for it. I found a lot of things interesting while looking for more information on him. Mesmer fits into what we have been learning because we learned about animal magnetism and how his work fit into the history of psychology.
Franz Mesmer was an interesting person. He was an physiologist that was interested in astronomy. He believed that there was a natural energetic force that interacted with animated and inanimate objects. This was the concept behind animal magnetism.
The first recorded time Mesmer produced an effect of mesmerism occurred in 1774. He had his patient swallow iron. He then used a magnet to move the iron around in the body. The patient said she could feel a fluid inside her body moving around and her symptoms disappeared for several hours. The process of using a magnet was to disrupt the gravitational pulls in her body.
After his first success with animal magnetism he stopped using the magnet. He believed he was able to do the same thing without the magnet by using his own energy. He began going on tour healing a number of other patients with what has been said to be hysterical symptoms. He had a lot of success while healing people.
Although he was having success with his treatments in Vienna where he was a member of the medical field, he was not only kicked off the medical team, but banned from practicing medicine in Vienna all together. He chose to leave Vienna. He moved to Paris where he continued the practice of mesmerism. In Paris he was such a major success that he would hold group sessions. How this worked was that the group would hold hands and he would walk through them.
While he was receiving so much success in Paris, he was once again undergoing scrutiny from the government. The king appointed a royal commission to investigate the finding of Franz Mesmer. This commission included Benjamin Franklin. This commission found his work to be ineffective and the condemned the use of animal magnetism.
He once again left his home after being told his treatments were fake. He continued practicing mesmerism until he died in 1815. Although his work was often scrutinized it has evolved over time to the modern day hypnotism. This process is similar to Mesmer's treatment because they put the person into a trance like state and then make suggestions which produce the desired effect.
http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/franz-anton-mesmer/
This site included a lot of information on mesmerism and how it has come to be hypnosis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer
This site contained information on Franz Mesmer including his life and life's work.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/05/09/psychologys-history-of-being-mesmerized/
This site was really helpful because it had very detailed information on Mesmer's work with animal magnetism.
For this week's topical blog I decided to learn more about Dorothea Dix. She was talked about some in this week's chapter, but I wanted to learn more about her.
Dorothea Dix spent the first years of her life in Worcester Massachusetts, but move to Boston to live with her grandmother at the age of twelve. She moved to Boston because her father was abusive and an alcoholic.
Dix opened a school in Boston where she taught the children of upper class families. She also started teaching poorer children at home on her own time. She also established a model school for girls.
Dorothea had tuberculosis, which made her sick many times through her life. In an attempt to ease her suffering, Dorothea took an extended vacation to England. There she met a family of Quakers who taught her more about social reform. She also witnessed the British Lunacy Reform Movement, which taught her about the treatment of those in madhouses and asylums.
When she returned to the United States, Dix set about on a mission to examine the conditions of the asylums in Massachusetts. Dix found widespread abuse in town across the state. In many cases, the town would hire someone to take care of the insane when there were no relatives to do so. These people often did not provide the quality of care needed.
Dix traveled to many other states as well. She would document her findings and send it to the state legislature. Dix helped to establish Illinois' first mental hospital during this time. A mental hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina was also named after Dix for her work with the state medical society.
During the Civil War, Dorothea Dix was chosen to be the Superintendent of Army Nurses. She instated rules during this time requiring nurses to be between 35 and 50 years of age and plain looking. This was to prevent mistreatment and abuse by doctors and patients. While she was a formidable woman, it is thought that Dix did not have the social skills to succeed at this job.
After the war, Dix continued to work to improve conditions for prisoners, the mentally ill, and the disabled. She even met with representatives from Japan about improving their care facilities. Sadly, Dix contracted Malaria and was forced to spend the rest of her days in a hospital.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix
I used this website for the majority of information on Dix
http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/93/Dorothea-Lynde-Dix.html
This site helped me learn more about the various illnesses Dorothea had in her life
http://www.biography.com/people/dorothea-dix-9275710?page=2
This site told me a lot about what Dix did during the war, as well as aspects of her personal life
Chapter 12 ends with a discussion about different aspects of how clinical psychology was prior to world war II. In earlier chapters, the author touched a bit on how clinicial psychology has been/is used in military settings. Treating mental illnesses is interesting to me and with my brother's rank in the US Navy, I have taken a particular interest in treating mental illnesses that are common among veterans, such as PTSD. For this reason, I chose to do this week's topical blog on various aspects of current clinical psychology techniques used in America's military setting. I started off by going to PsychINFO through Rod Library's website. Tons of articles and books popped up. This was interesting, because at the end of Chapter 12, we learned that in the earlier 1900s, clinical psychologists did not feel welcomed in the American Psychological Association.
Through research, I learned that the treatment of military related mental disorders lies within the hands of two organizations; the DoD which cares for active members of the military and the VA which cares for veterans. Most often than not, these organizations work together and together they have comprised a plan to care for and remedy the symptoms of the most common military related mental illness- post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. These organizations recommend four treatment types for PTSD. These four are: exposure based therapy, cognitive therapy, stress inoculation training, and eye-movement desensitization. The first two of these four are common therapies found in mental health facilities of every type; not just those concerning the military. For this reason, the DoD and VA mandates that one or the two is available to all active members and veterans at all times. The last two are more specialized, making them more expensive and ultimately less available to those in need.
This information then got me wondering, how does one become qualified to be a clinical psychologists working with military personnel? While, a broad master's/phD in clinical psychology would suffice, specialized graduate programs would give one an edge over their competition. There was many schools that came up as offering a specialized program but I just picked one to look up specifically. Adler school of professional psychology is located in Chicago, Illinois. "Professional" schools are different than universities in that they are more specialized that usually one enters this kind of school in hopes of working in the real world, as opposed to one who earns their phD from a university. These individuals are usually interested in working in more of an academic environment, such a professor. Also, professional schools cost a lot more money than universities.
In Adler's clinical psychology program, they offer a Military Clinical Psychology track. This plan gives students the chances to examine different psychological hardships that are experienced as a military personnel; such as combat, explosions, terrorism, chemical mishaps, or even natural disasters. Students who enter this kind of program are either past or current uniformed service personnel, looking to advance their career in their particular branch, or they are civilians who are wanting to work with the Department of Defense (DoD) or Veterans Administration (VA) {as mentioned earlier}. As one can imagine, the application process for such jobs is rigorous and the competition is far from scarce.
As one could imagine, the need for military clinical psychologists is rapidly growing and unfortunately, will always be there. In more recent times, since the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been an epidemic of PTSD seen here in America. Sadly, more often than not, military personnel in need of therapy are afraid to ask for help. Some belief that this stems from stereotypes about mental illnesses but most often, it is the fear that higher-ups will catch word and therefor treat differently or demote the soldiers reaching out for help with their PTSD or whatever their particular condition in. As we learned in Chapter 12, the treatment of the mentally ill has come along way from its beginnings but this notion brings light to how much room is still left for improvement.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/science/article/pii/S0272735812001420
This was a research article that I found on PsychINFO, in went into depth about the different treatment types for PTSD. I used the basics to get the underlying facts for this blog post.
http://www.adler.edu/page/programs/chicago/doctor-of-psychology-in-clinical-psychology-military-clinical-psychology-track/overview
Here, I go the information about Adler's specific program.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/the-urgent-need-for-confidential-psychological-care-for-us-military/266381/
This is a newspaper article that I found discussing a personal story of one's struggle to get help in fear of their higher-ups finding out.
I liked many things about chapter 12, so it was hard to pick something from the chapter to do more research on. I said in my Tuesday blog that I would do my research on Anna Freud, but as I was looking for more information, I could not find anything significant that the book had not already talked about. Since I like to do my topical blogs on the people behind the theories I was left with just one more person really besides Anna Frank, and that was Sigmund himself. The book went into some good detail, so I was nervous that I would not be able to find anything other than what it had talked about. I guess I just wanted to see what else there was to know about him that the book had left out. At first I could not find much on his early life, but I kept looking abnd came across a pretty good article that gave me a brief on his life, and there was some thing s int he article that the had failed to mention. He was a very interesting man, and all this article did was salidify that fact, and then provide more reasons why.
Over the past few weeks I have begun to realize that I either find out more information while I do my research,or I just do not do a good enough job of reading the material in the book. I say this because I find a lot more about hte persons early life wehn I do my research than I get from the book. There are many examples of this I would like to point out that this article provided me the insight with. Freud grew up in Austria, and was born in to a Jewish family. His father and moher were very deeply grained into the churches doings. However, as Freud was growing up he did not like the ways of the church, but rather liked the scientific approach to things. I guess the nature side wins this battle because even though his family was very religious, and was a big influence in Freud's life, he still grew up an athiest. The article went on to talk about some of the stuff that the book had mentioned regarding most of Freud's early research. What I read in the article that was different from the book, or I failed to read correctly the first time, was a section on Oeidpal Complex. When I read it from the book I got a whole different understanding then what the article stated, and now I have a better understanding of what the Complex really is. The complex states that when children are growing up the have a stronger connection with the opposite member in the family, and develop a resentment to the same sex member in the family. This is true because Freud thought certain hormones developed early in everyone and this was a natural reaction because of those hormones. If I had not read this article then I would have gone on thining something completely different. This now makes sense because Freud's research was mainly on sexual attraction. Another thing that the book did not mention was the Freud also committed suicide. This is probably for good reason, but its the little things about someone that gives you a better impression about them. The main reason that people thought that Freud committed suicide was probably because everyone thought he was a little on the odd side, but it turns out that he overdosed on morphine, porbably from his mouth cancer that lead him to have over 30 surgeries. Those were my main findings from this article. I feel that I got the most from this article, and took away some information that I did not take away from the book. So, I continued my research to see if there was anything else that I could find to help me understand Frued on a more personal level. I thought that maybe a youtube video would be a good start because I would get a first hand look at some of his research.
I came across a pretty good video about Freud that talked about his life in general, along with some of his theories. I video was made by someone my age, and sounded like she was ready from our textbook. I have found out that I can not find any information on Freud that is different than what the book had provided. I usually have no problem in finding the information that I want when I do my topical blogs on the other famous psychologists that we have talked about in class. I have found more information on men that were born in that 19th century, so I guess I am just frustrated. This video talked about Freud and Breuer, and how they were good partners for some time. What made them split was the fact that Freud believed that hysteria steemed from sexual repression. It went on to talk about his famous studies, and his beliefs when it came to the unconscious mind. I know that Freud gets a lot of crap from people because of hs forward thinking for that time period. I think that the one thing that people fail to appreciate that this video talked about was his finding of the unconscoius mind. This has lead to many other great findings in the field of pschology. I thought that there was some good information on this video, and I believe I have a better understanding of Frued now that I have watched it. I just wish that I could find a article or video that woulld blow me away with information on Freud's life. There plenty of things that I found out about when it came to pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, and all the other psychologists that I did my research on. All I can do is to keep the search going for that information.
The next article that I came across was by far the best one that I could find/found. It gave me information as to why I could not find much information of Freud. There was a section of the article that was interesting, and that was the section on his personal life. It said that Freud was a very private man that kept to himself. He was a devoted father that practiced out of his house. He had a close tight nitch of friends that he was very loyal too. This is the type of information that I value over the textbook information. This is why I do these topical blogs because I like to know the smaller details behind the person. From what this article tells me, and from what the rest of my research can tell me is that I could not find much research on Freud. The reason that I could not find information on Freud is because he did not want a lot of people to know about his persoanl life. He kept a close group of friends because he did not want his name out there like the other psychologists that I read about. When I did my research on Skinner, his main objective was to get his name out there in the public because he wanted to spread the word on behaviorism. Skinner believed that if he spread his name and behaviorism that he could change the way that people were. Freud was the complete opposie in the sense that he did not want his name in the media. What got him in the media was his forward way of thinking. I also found out from this article that Freud was a family man. It talked about Anna breifly but not enough to matter. I think that this stems from his childhood growing up in Viennna. Frued had a close relationship with his father and mother despite that he did not believe in the same things as them. Freuds mother was 19 years old which could have lead to a different upbringing, but it turns out that Freud was his mothers favorite sibling out of his 6 brothers and sisters. I think that the big thing that I could take away from this article and the research is the fact tha Freud was a quite man. He was very private, so it lead to not much information on him while I was doing my research. Everything you want to know about him can be found in a textbook because thats all the authors of the book could find to. I can take away one positive from my research in Freud and that is that I found out what type of person that he was. From the outside I thought of hima bit odd because most of his theories are based of sexual repression, but it was stuff that he actualy belived in.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/twolives/freudbio.html
This article gave me a better understanding of Freud life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0w0db2zR7Q
This video gave me a better understanding of Freud and his connection to Breuer
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Freud-Sigmund.html
This was probably the best information tha I found on Freud. Mainly because I came away with a better understanding of who he was after reading the article.
I was interested in finding out a little bit more about the man who came up with the tranquilizing chair. That is why I read about the history of Dr. Benjamin Rush.
Rush relates to this chapter because he is considered the father of American psychiatry.
At first glance, I knew that the person who invented the tranquilizing chair was more keen on using force and aversive stimuli to try to control people's behavior. The tranquilizing chair is kind of like a mixture of an electric chair and a straight jacket. The mental patient sits down in the chair (probably against his/her will) and has their arms and legs bound to the chair, which restricts their movement. Rush's justification for using such force was that physically immobilizing somebody makes it so they can't exert energy from their muscles, and would regulate blood flow. He believed that mental illnesses were caused by irregular blood flow to the brain. However, after reading a bit more about the man himself, I think that this was just a convenient justification for his dominant, aggressive behavior. Rush even admitted that he believed in controlling his patients through fear and intimidation. I believe that this is the real reason why he wanted to restrain his patients. He wanted to scare them into behaving normally.
However aggressive he was with his patients, he is remembered as one of the first people to believe that mental illnesses could be diagnosed and treated somewhat humanely, instead of just locking the mentally ill up away from society.
Similar restraint devices to the Tranquilizing Chair include the straight jacket, which is a garment that restrains the patient's arms, the locking glove, the utica crib, which looks like a big wooden kennel that opens from the top, and the isolation cell.
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1751/tline7.html
This website gave a timeline biography of Dr. Rush
http://cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com/history_blog/tag/tranquilizing-chair
This website focused on the tranquilizing chair and other "torture" devices used by psychologists/psychiatrists of the time
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/features/brush.html
This webpage was similar to the first one, but focused on specific instances of Rush's life, as opposed to a comprehensive biography
This week I would like to learn more about the Anna O. Case. I think it's a very interesting topic and became very perplexed by the new details I learned while reading the chapter, which prompted me to want to learn more.
Anna O. was actually a name alias that was created for Bertha Pappenheim after she began treatment with Dr. Josef Breuer. "Anna" was twenty-one years old and known for her brilliance in academics. When she began to see Dr. Breuer, she suffered from a rigid paralysis, loss of sensation in the right side of her body and occasionally of her left side as well. She also had a disturbed eye movements, had difficulties moving her head, had a severe nervous cough. For several weeks she complained that she was unable to drink in spite of her thirst. At times, her ability to speak was reduced at one point, becoming so extreme that she was unable to understand her own native language. Finally, she was subject to the conditions of confusion, delirium, and alteration of her whole personality.
When Dr. Breuer began observing her symptoms he initially diagnosed her with hysteria, seeing as all he organs were functioning normally. During these sessions of Annas treatment she was able to relieve her apparent distress by telling fairy takes. She called this tactic "chimney sweeping". The doctor next began to put Anna in a stage a hypnosis, where he repeated a few select words that she herself had been muttering to herself. These words would bring about Anna's stories of her late, sick father. Anna had been her fathers caretaker until his death. Through this hypnosis, Anna was able to get rid of a great majority of these symptoms that she held onto due to the unresolved loss of her father and her inability to heal him. Although Dr. Breuer was not able to finish Anna's case due to her new found infatuation with him, her sessions sparked many new ideas into the minds of him and his colleague Sigmund Freud. These ideas would lead to things such as free association, transference, and overall psychoanalysis.
http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/annao_case.html
This site was very well organized and put together
http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/98/6/465.full
This site seemed very reliable
http://freudpsychoanalysis.com/anna-o-case-study/
This site contained a lot of the specific information I was looking for
Reading this weeks' chapter, I was very inspired by Dorothea Dix and so I wanted to do a little more research on her life and her work.
Dorothea Lynde Dix was born in 1802 in Maine but grew up on Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father was abusive and her family was alcoholic, so when she was twelve, she left for Boston to live with her grandmother in the "Dix Mansion". There, she opened a school in 1821, but moved on to teach poor and neglected children in their homes soon after.
Her health wavered, and she began working on her books "Conversations on Common Things"-- which were full of stories for children. Later she opened a school for girls, but her health failed again. The doctors now discovered that she had tuberculosis. She travelled to Liverpool, England in search of a cure, where she first became interested in mental institutions and how residents were cared for.
Upon her return to America, she began investigation of the conditions endured the mentally insane. She started off doing a statewide investigation in her home state of Massachusetts, which resulted in a bill to expand the Worcester Hospital. Since she was happy with the results of her lobbying, she travelled to other states with the same intention.
Her views on how the mentally ill ought to be treated were quite radical for her time, and it was especially surprising that she managed to do all of this as a woman. Before Dix, the mentally ill were purposely tortured (not just neglected). Civilians often even paid to watch the mentally ill suffer. Lobotomies, blood letting, tranquilizing chair, and immersion into ice water were commonly practiced on the mentally ill.
However, Dix was successful in reform all over the United States, and is especially known for reform in Raleigh, North Carolina-- where they named the hospital after her. She is also known for helping in the founding of the first public mental institution in Pennsylvania.
Dix was appointed superintendent of army nurses during the Civil War. She was not very popular among her staff and was known for strange practices. She made nurses, who were all older and "plain looking", wear drab clothing to ensure that the nurses were not exploited by the patients and doctors in the hospitals. She was tough among her staff, firing volunteers if she hadn't trained them herself. She got into many fights with the army doctors over firing nurses. However, her gentle heart showed through again when she would help the rebels from the confederate army who were helpless and suffering.
Dix died in 1887 and was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is described as "the most effective advocate of humanitarian reform in American mental institutions during the nineteenth century" (Goldenson, 1970). However, her achievements have only briefly been mentioned in less than 10% of history of psychology books. However, Dix didn't like talking about her achievements and became embarrassed when asked about them. During her lifetime, she refused to let anyone name anything after her and kept her name off of must publications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix
I used this mostly as an overview of her life
http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html
Used mostly to discuss her perceptions as a historical figure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aOGuKzd0fw
Used to describe how the mentally ill were treated before Dix
This week’s topic I decided to look more deeply into would have to be Franz Anton Mesmer and his career using magnetism and how he used the power of suggestion on human behavior. The reason this fits into this chapter is because it was a section that was inside treating mental illness and how he used this magnetism to treat medical problems that people had. The reason I found this interesting and wanted to learn more about his work is because we all know what hypnosis is and have probably seen it at a social event in one way or another but I kind of wanted to look more into the beginning of hypnosis and how it is still applicable today.
The way that hypnosis started out was through what Mesmer would call animal magnetism. Animal magnetism was derived from one of Mesmer’s influences Isaac Newton who did a lot of study with gravity. Mesmer believed that just like how the universe has tidal influences on the planets, so it also operates this way in the human body. With this idea Mesmer would use magnets to disrupt the gravitational tides that were adversely affecting his patients. The reason Mesmer liked doing this, and was pretty successful at it, was because he was tired of the approach to medicine at the time which used drugs that would sometimes have more adverse reactions then the symptoms they were trying to treat at the time.
After Mesmer was denounced as a medical professional because his work didn’t exactly work in theory how it did in practice animal magnetism kind of died for the most part until the early 1920’s. In the early 1920’s hypnosis was starting to be seen as useful to self-help in psychology. At first it was just used in stage acts as entertainment but then hypnosis started to be studied by psychologists to see how it could be useful in stopping minor pains and in memory retrieval situations. This led to the study of hypnotherapy and was being used in medical areas all around. An example of this would be how hypnotherapy was used in World War 2 to help treat psychological battle trauma. Today hypnotherapy is mostly used to treat trauma, improve self-confident, lower anxiety, and in some cases can be used as a substitute for sedatives when it comes to having medical operations where you need to be unconscious.
http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/franz-anton-mesmer/
https://hypnosisinhistory.com/hypnosis-in-the-modern-era?gclid=CI7r3cHz1bYCFeU-Mgod0SMA_w
http://www.mindmotivations.com/resources/articles/anton-mesmer-history-mesmerism-amp-beginnings-hypnosis
Once again, I am deciding to write about a topic that I didn’t write about in the blog post on Tuesday. For whatever reason, I get my inspiration from reading other people’s posts from Tuesday and then I eventually decide on switching subjects. I first wanted to write about the theories of hypnosis and how “real” it is, however I changed that topic to Freud and his psychosexual stages. These psychosexual stages aren’t anything new to me, but it’s never a bad idea to dive deeper into a subject you already understand. These stages of psychosexuality fit into the chapter because they are in fact from the chapter. I’m interested in writing about it tonight because I want to see how I can relate the stages of development to things that we experience very day. I wanted to see if I could use the theory to explain things that we all experience.
The first stage is the oral stage. In this stage an infant is obsessed and focused on oral pleasure. I can totally understand where Freud came up with this idea. At that age, infants seem to have this reflex of putting everything in their mouths. By everything, I really do mean everything. Infants feed either on breast milk or on formula from bottles (which simulate that of a nipple). It seems that the whole babies’ life revolves around the mouth at this point in their life. I like that psychoanalytics tried to relate actions in infancy to possible problems later in life. For example, those who either receive either too much or too little stimulation could have an addiction later in life that involves the mouth such as drinking or over-eating.
This same sort of idea continues to apply to the other stages. Under and over stimulation of the different areas of the body is thought to cause future problems in a person’s life. After the infancy oral stage is the anal stage. The anal stage focuses on anal pleasure such as pooping. This is learned at a stage with a child becomes aware of their pooping and can take pride in it. There are thought to be two bad outcomes from under/over stimulation. The first is anal retentive which is thought to hold traits of being uptight and very organized while anal expulsive is very messy and more free going.
Next is the phallic stage. In this stage the Oedipus and Electra complex are introduced. The Oedipus complex is where a child (male) has an obsession with his mother. Freud thought that the children in this stage were in love with their mothers and were at a constant war with their father for their mother’s attention. The Electra complex is when the child (female) has an obsession with the father and is in a competition with the mother for the father’s attention. This seems a bit far stretched but it has appeared in pop culture more often than I had expected. I read that one of The Doors songs features a line where Jim Morrison says “Father, yes son, I want to kill you, Mother...I want to...fuck you”. This is a direct reference to the Oedipus complex. I love The Doors and went back to give it a listen. If you’re interested in hear it, it’s in the song “The End”.
The other two stages aren’t as interesting and involve the habit of children playing with same sex children because they are uninterested in anything sexual. After that children become aware of their want for sexuality and it becomes a conscious thought.
http://www.datehookup.com/content-sigmund-freuds-psychosexual-development-theory.htm - This website was by far the most helpful because it helped remind me of each stage and what the consequences were.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud Wikipedia was helpful to give examples that I could base other information off of. It also helped me get my first link.
http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/tragedy/student%20second%20documents/Oedipus%20Complex.html - This website had the pop culture references to the Oedipus and Electra complex's.
I was very interested this week in the topic of hypnosis, where the idea came from, and how it can be used in modern medicine. There are records of practices that sound much like hypnosis in ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Hindu texts. Hypnosis has been around and largely misunderstood since people have been wondering about the human mind and how to manipulate it
Research suggests if you can allow yourself to be hypnotized, which cannot happen unless you are willing, you can control your own pain, thoughts, and even urges and temptations. In modern psychotherapy, Mesmer was the first to use hypnosis in order to treat his patients. One of his first recorded cases was Miss Paradis who was suffering from psychosomatic blindness. His treatments seemed to be successful, but when Miss Paradis stopped going to treatment, her blindness returned. Because of this, Mesmer and his treatments were discredited. Still today, hypnotism is looked upon with skepticism in the scientific world as well as the medical scene.
Hypnosis was used by surgeons in World War II on the battlefield to reduce pain and increase survival. Some modern hospitals have began using hypnosis in addition to regular treatment. Research shows that patients who are hypnotized along with regular treatment report less pain, require less pain medication, and actually have a higher success rate. In a study where women gave birth under hypnosis, only 4% of the women asked for pain medications during the childbirth process! This is so amazing that we can get these affects to replace or severely reduce the amount of chemicals we put into patients' bodies.
James Braid, known as the father of hypnosis for bringing it into the scientific realm with controlled experiments, described hypnosis as "nothing but fixation of attention." In this sense, anyone who believes and is willing to make it happen can not only be hypnotized, but can also hypnotize themselves. Emile Clue studied and described self hypnosis in detail.
The goal for self hypnosis is to reduce and remove limiting beliefs. For example, if a student is told that a math problem has been unsolved for 200 years and is thought to be unsolvable, his beliefs will be limited by the idea that he cannot possibly solve it himself. If, on the other hand, the problem is presented to the student under the assumption that the student must solve the problem for points in the class, he will be working under the assumption that he should be able to do it. In this way, he will be far more likely to solve it with success. In the same way, if you can get your subconscious to believe that you can, for example, lose weight or that you do not need or want unhealthy snacks, you can easily reach your goals for healthy weight loss.
The problem remains, then, how to get to your subconscious in order to make yourself believe these things. This is where hypnosis comes in. Through deep relaxation and fixed attention, you can bypass your consciousness and get to your subconscious.
Www.abouthypnosis.com/history-of-hypnosis.HTML
This was a very interesting site about hypnosis from the very beginning. It led me to a lot of other ideas and questions about hypnosis and really got me thinking about what parts of the subject specifically interest me.
Www.self-help-and-self-development.com/hypnosis.HTML
This site was useful on the topic of self hypnosis. It even provided a script to learn to hypnotize yourself.
Www.discoverymagazine.com/2004/nov/hypnosis-works#.UXDKe2go6no
This sight provided insight into research studies being done on hypnosis as well as the ways doctors can use it in the medical setting.
I wanted to know more about Annie O (Bertha Pappenheim) and see what she had to say about her psychoanalysis, if anything. I read that after two years of Pappenheim receiving constant attention and talk therapy (the talking cure) from Dr. Joseph Breuer, she was reportedly not any better than when she had started treatments, except she had developed a drug addiction from the sedatives given to her by Breuer. Bertha Pappenheim was the daughter of a millionaire, and prior to her father’s death she had been on the marriage path that was typical of the elite young women of her time. I read that she was not enthusiastic about her future and I wondered if her symptomology was more a method for avoidance of marriage (as far as I can tell she never did marry) and other ritual tasks expected of her at that time.
Supposedly, when Breuer realized that Pappenheim had feelings for him (or maybe he was done with her), he institutionalized her for care and then took his wife on a vacation trip. Years later, Pappenheim would still not recount any information about the time period of her psychoanalysis, and asked family members to never reveal any information they may have known after her death.
I read that Dr. Sigmund Freud and Dr. Joseph Breuer had had some disagreements over theories and that was what had ended their friendship. The story about Pappenheims’s false pregnancy and projected feelings for Breuer had been perpetuated by Freud after the falling out. Meanwhile, after her disassociation with Breuer, Pappenheim seemed to thrive. She went on to publish the fantastical stories she had been telling during her illness, and she became involved in philanthropic works as well the women’s rights movement. Pappenheim became a successful lecturer and author, and very iconic in the women’s rights movements. She also translated to German a book written by Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).
The real life story of Anna Pappenheim brings to mind the advantages of having power and privilege. Whatever her medical or psychological issues really were, the outcome would have been very different had she not been wealthy. Had she been poor she would likely have been placed in a poorly run sanitarium or left homeless in the streets. Instead, she was able to put her stories into a manuscript and get them published, possibly using her own money or her family’s influence to do so.
As an activist, Pappenheim founded a Jewish women’s rights organization and a home for unwed mothers and children born out of wedlock. She had connections to Sigmund Freud because Freud had married Martha Bernays (a legal ward of Pappenheim’s father). Correspondence from Bernays Freud to her mother indicated that Pappenheim was no better off for the therapy she had received from Breuer and continued to suffer hallucinations throughout her life. Again, given the era when all of this was taking place, I do wonder if Pappenheim’s hallucinations could be attributed to psychotropic drugs or perhaps her erratic behaviors very possibly intensified due to some unknown issues from her contacts with Breuer. After all, Pappenheim was still mourning the loss of her father when she met Breuer and her behaviors at that time could have been a side effect of depression or the medications of that era to treat depression.
Freud’s charges of Pappenheim’s alleged false pregnancy drama and transference of feelings toward Breuer due to incestuous thoughts for her father seem a bit out there, and causes me to want to discount the validity of any of Freud’s theories concerning the interactions between males and females. Breuer and Freud parted ways partly due to Freud’s inability to look past sexuality concerning Pappenheim, her father and Dr. Breuer as the root causes for Pappenheim’s behaviors. Today we might consider alternative reasons for Pappenheim’s erratic behaviors such as her situation as caregiver for her dying father, as a Jewish woman pressured by patriarchal rituals, her reported substance abuse or the possibility of a liaison (or hopes for one) with her physician and therapist, Dr. Joseph Breuer.
A history of Pappenheim:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freuds-patients-serial/201201/bertha-pappenheim-1859-1936
Freud and Anna O:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/berthapappenheim.aspx
A book that could be an interesting read:
http://berthapappenheim.weebly.com/
Annie O's relevance to psychology:
http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/anna_o.htm
I decided to research more on Dorothea Dix. I was intrigued because not only have I heard her name in several classes, I saw some references to her at the Mental Health Institute in Independence. I wanted to learn more about her because everything that I have heard about her has been mentioned as something in passing.
Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine. She grew up in Massachusetts where she lived with her grandmother. Dix's father was an abusive alcoholic, which is why she left to live with her grandmother. This information impressed me because it showed that she was a very independent woman for the time period. Not only did she leave her immediate family, but she also became a successful, educated woman.
Dorthea Dix's name was solidified in history when she began teaching Sunday School at a women's prison and saw the poor treatment of the prisoners (especially the mentally ill ones).
The course of Dix’s life changed in 1841, when she began teaching Sunday school at the East Cambridge Jail, a women’s prison. She discovered the appalling treatment of the prisoners, particularly those with mental illnesses, whose living quarters had no heat. She immediately went to court and secured an order to provide heat for the prisoners, along with other improvements. Dix began to travel around the state to research the conditions of prisons and other group homes. She eventually set her sights on the entire country. She toured the country documenting the conditions and treatment of patients. Dix also campaigned to establish humane asylums for the mentally ill and founding or adding additions to hospitals in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Dorothea Dix helped to establish 32 asylums in the United States. After researching her name, I understood why she was honored in the Mental Health Institute in Independence. Dix did a great service to the the care of mental patients and mental health as a whole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix
http://www.biography.com/people/dorothea-dix-9275710
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470530/
RB
In reviewing he topics presented in this chapter, the one that I found to be the one that I would like to pursue was that of the Anna O. case study. The reason that I selected this topic was because out of all of the topics presented in this chapter, the Anna O. case was particularly peculiar to me.
Bertha Pappenheim, otherwise known as Anna O. to Joseph Breuer in the case study, was born on February 27, 1859. The name Anna O. was just a pseudonym that Joseph Breuer used to cover up Bertha’s real identity. Bertha was born into a Jewish Austrian family. She grew up to become a very prominent feminist and founded the League for Jewish Women.
When Bertha Pappenheim began to see Joseph Breuer, she was suffering from symptoms of hysteria. Such symptoms included the occasional loss of sensation in the left side of her body, a total loss of sensation in the right side, paralysis, visual and auditory deficits and strange eating habits. She soon began to suffer from confusion and an altered personality. In addressing her case, Breuer gave her the new name of Anna O. In order to resolve the mystery of the symptoms, Breuer tried to uncover Anna O’s past. Breuer found success through a method that he called catharsis, or free association. By tracing a symptom back to its original occurrence, Breuer could locate the cause of a problem. In Anna O’s case, the cause of her problems stemmed from her father. Anna O. referred to catharsis as the talking cure.
http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/anna_o.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_O.
http://fundamentallyparamount.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/freud-and-hysteria-the-anna-o-case-study/
The topic that I chose to do more in-depth research on from chapter 12 is the Anna O. case. I choose this topic because everyone seems to know so much about, and it is a reoccurring topic in my psychology classes that I do not know enough about. I would like to be able to contribute to this conversation when it comes up, so therefore, I am going to learn more about it! She is most known for being a patient of Sigmund Freud, but originally was a patient of Josef Breuer. She had multiple symptoms throughout her body with little to no physical illness for reason. Hysteria is what she was diagnosed with. She was the first to begin treatment based on psychoanalysis, and free association. She would first be placed in hypnosis, and afterward discus whatever came to her mind with Breuer. She would take stress and then convert it to physical symptoms. Her largest impact of conversion is when she believed she was pregnant with her doctor’s child, this lead to the halt of treatment by Breuer. Anna experienced all symptoms that are connected with pregnancy, including nausea. Breuer at this point saw Anna as a lost cause and passed her onto Freud labeled as deranged. There is some controversy to how Freud diagnosed her and further treated her. Freud believed her case was more neurological caused by drug dependence and seizures. Many today would classify her as epileptic. When analyzing and researching just the illness side of her case to me it sounds like it all began from the single source of anxiety. Her father’s death is the leading source of her anxiety. She suffered from conversion disorder with a language barrio, at times she could not speak at all and at other times she could speak other languages fluently. She also had Neuralgia witch contained facial plain treated by pain killers that led to addiction. Paralysis overcame her body in several different times, the lead to paralyze of one side of her body. Mood and eating disorders contributed to her daily state of personality. Amnesia was one of the other main disorders that lead to difficulties for diagnosis. She would not remember her actions during important times. However, In spite of all above she was described as an intelligent young lady with ability to maintain a normal life style at certain points in her life. The relationship between her and Breuer is somewhat suspicious at times, and many articles establish solid reason for question. He treated her as a family doctor for several years, and shortly after her father’s illness the treatment increased. At one point an article states that he spend around a thousand hours with her within a year. During a state of Anna she would not accept food or recognize anyone but him. She would also prefer to hold his hand during the treatment. The feelings Anna had for her physician were inappropriate and she was clearly drawn to him. There was a section in our text that spoke about how we believe and listen to authority without reservation. This made me think about what her family was thinking during this entire time. He was one of the most well known in his felid, but it sounds like majority of their time was spent alone. I think there were a lot of reservations about this case being published. In the end she did grow up to further lead a normal lifestyle and made history for her contribution to psychology. I am learning about disorders in abnormal psychology, and this case just makes me want to know the difference between what is real and what is faked. The study of anxiety and what it can lead to also interest me now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_O.
http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/98/6/465.full
http://www.enotes.com/anna-o-case-reference/anna-o-case
The topic I choose to do my topical blog on is the Anna O. case by Joseph Breuer. Anna O. was really Bertha Pappenheim, a 21 year old pseudonym patient of Dr. Breuer. Bertha came to Dr. Breuer with a severe cough, paralysis of her right side, a disturbance in vision and hearing, troubled speech, hallucinations, and a loss of consciousness. After analyzing her, Dr. Breuer diagnosed her with hysteria, marking the beginning of psychoanalysis. During this time Dr. Breuer spent time talking with Bertha, realizing she was experiencing "absences", times when she would change personality and go through states of confusion. These "absences" Dr. Breuer found she murmured to herself a change of words to herself, becoming another person. As time came Bertha began to discuss anything and everything that came to mind, which came to be known as "free association". During this time Bertha discussed whatever she felt with not rationality, a process she named "chimney sweeping". During this time, Dr. Breuer found the reasoning for Bertha's illness, her father's illness. At night, Bertha would sit at the end of her ill father's bed, experiencing hallucinations and anxiety. These two experiences lead to Bertha to develop language and eating disorders, and amnesia. From this, her other issues developed. Bertha soon began transference, when the patient's feelings for the significant figure transfer to the doctor. While Bertha was transferring, she believed she was pregnant with the doctor's baby, even developed pregnancy symptoms. At this time, Dr. Breuer stopped treating her, and she was later institutionalized. At the end of her treatment, many believe Bertha's state was not improving, but was decreasing. Bertha experienced two years of physical and psychological illness for institutionalized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_O.
This site gave an overview of the Anna O case.
http://freudpsychoanalysis.com/anna-o-case-study/
This site gave more detail, especially with her illness.
http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/annao_case.html
This site gave a great overview that added to the information from the first site.
The topic I chose was Freud’s psychoanalysis in the treatment of hysteria. Like any other topic it relates to this chapter cause it has to do with the history of psychology, but to a more defined point it brought about the practice of studying the unconscious behavior. I guess I’m most interested in this topic due to the fact that growing up I thought I always wanted to go into this field of study. Like most psychology majors either helped with or tried to understand close friends and relatives problems growing up. Always being the one people came to’ unload (free association) and sometimes coming across that resistance, were there was nothing you could do but stand there in acquired silence. That being the time you think to yourself, I want to be a therapist. To be able to sit there and get paid while people tell you what is on their minds.
Psychoanalytic treatment is the study of how the unconscious factors affect current relationships and patterns of behavior, by tracing them back to their origins. In hopes that the individual can deal better with the realities of adult life. It is through this analysis that a patient becomes aware of the underlying sources of his or her difficulties at an emotional level, repeatedly with a analyst. This happens over a period of time and number of visits with a analyst, while the patient lies on a couch and tries to spill their guts. While the analyst has the task of picking out the Freudian slips of the unconscious and put together a pattern of behavior that the patient finds hard to talk about. It is only then can the two tackle further thoughts and feelings and over time come to (the patient) a sense of self-change known as catharsis, can the life of the patient change for the better.
When it comes to who can be a psychoanalyst, the answer is anyone in regards to using the title. To be an actual psychoanalyst one has to be trained under the auspices of the American Psychoanalytic Association and have had rigorous and extensive clinical education. Those accepted for training at an accredited psychoanalytic institute must meet high ethical, psychological, and professional standards. The training has three parts: attending classes in psychoanalytic theory and technique, personal analysis, and finally conduct at least three patients psychoanalysis. That of a four year graduate school with clinical hours under the supervision of a professional. This is almost enough to scare someone away from the profession and in my case did a little bit, but I was more drawn to the I/O field entering my senior years of high school while employed at my first and still current job.
Although psychoanalysis started off as a tool for the elimination of emotional suffering, it is now used for more than just therapy. It is used as a method for learning about the mind and a way to understand the processes of normal everyday mental functioning. Along with the development and insight it might produce in furthering the twentieth-century culture.
http://www.med.nyu.edu/psa/psychoanalysis/
Was used to discuss the benefits of and who can become a psychoanalyst.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html
Used the video examples to understand certain aspects of the theory.
http://www.apsa.org/About_Psychoanalysis/Contributions_of_Psychoanalysis.aspx
Combination of both websites and for the use of terms
After reading this week’s chapter I decided to do some more research on Dorothea Dix. I learned about her some in my social work classes but all I know is that she played a pivotal role in the development of mental institutes in America. It says that she is and American Activist but I like to think she is like a social worker. With me wanting to be a social worker; I would like to learn more about one of the first social workers in America. This fits into the chapter well because they are talking about mentally ill in this chapter and Dorothea is the first activist to fit for proper treatment of the mentally ill.
Dorothea was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts until she was twelve then she fled to her wealthy grandmother’s to get away from her alcoholic family and abusive father. In 1821 she opened a school but was patronized by the rich families. She then began teaching poor and neglected children at home. Her health took a hit at that point so she resorted to writing books of devotion and stories for children. She established a model school for girls in Boston in1831. In hopes for a cure of her illness she spent some time in England. She met people there that felt that the government should play a direct, active role in social welfare. When she returned to America she conducted a statewide investigation of how Massachusetts cared for the insane and poor. She got an asylum built in Massachusetts then travelled to many other states establishing many other asylums. Overall she got much legislation put into place to help the mentally ill and poor.
Sources:
http://www.biography.com/people/dorothea-dix-9275710
http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix
I decided to do more research on Franz Mesmer. This research relates to the chapter because it was reviewed in this chapter. I am interested in Franz Mesmer and his work on hysteria because upon reading the book, this was the first time I have heard of it. What peaked my interest most was how the term mesmerizing comes from Franz Mesmer’s name.
Franz Mesmer was a German physician who was interested in astronomy along with theology. Mesmer is best known for mesmerism. Mesmerism is a form of vitalism and emphasizes the movement of energy. This was first known as “animal magnetism”. This is the theory that the tide influencing the planets have an effect on the human body though universal force. When Mesmer was 33, he did not approve of the current medicines and treatments including bleeding, purgatives and opiates. His alternative was based on animal magnetism. Mesmer would use a magnet to alter gravitational tides that are affecting the patient. His work became famous for curing hysterics and symptoms such as blindness, menstrual complications and hemorrhaging. This form of treatment is the basis of today’s hypnotism. Mesmer would put his patients in a trance and once they would awake, they would feel no pain. Mesmer’s work was controversial. It was review by a commission of nine men including Benjamin Franklin, and verdict was found to be not in his favor. The report stated, “Nothing proves the existence of magnetic fluid….” Even though the commission found that there was no proof to Mesmer’s work, Mesmer preceded to live a comfortable life with his previously earned riches.
Sources
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/franz_mesmer.htm
I chose this site because it gave information on what Mesmer did after his work was found to have no supporting proof.
http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/franz-anton-mesmer/
I liked this site t he best because of the detail it provided of Mesmer's research and treatment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer
Lastly, I chose this site because it gave the best overall review of Mesmer's life,. background and work.
The topic that I chose to do more in-depth research on from chapter 12 is the Anna O. case. I choose this topic because everyone seems to know so much about, and it is a reoccurring topic in my psychology classes that I do not know enough about. I would like to be able to contribute to this conversation when it comes up, so therefore, I am going to learn more about it! She is most known for being a patient of Sigmund Freud, but originally was a patient of Josef Breuer. She had multiple symptoms throughout her body with little to no physical illness for reason. Hysteria is what she was diagnosed with. She was the first to begin treatment based on psychoanalysis, and free association. She would first be placed in hypnosis, and afterward discus whatever came to her mind with Breuer. She would take stress and then convert it to physical symptoms. Her largest impact of conversion is when she believed she was pregnant with her doctor’s child, this lead to the halt of treatment by Breuer. Anna experienced all symptoms that are connected with pregnancy, including nausea. Breuer at this point saw Anna as a lost cause and passed her onto Freud labeled as deranged. There is some controversy to how Freud diagnosed her and further treated her. Freud believed her case was more neurological caused by drug dependence and seizures. Many today would classify her as epileptic. When analyzing and researching just the illness side of her case to me it sounds like it all began from the single source of anxiety. Her father’s death is the leading source of her anxiety. She suffered from conversion disorder with a language barrio, at times she could not speak at all and at other times she could speak other languages fluently. She also had Neuralgia witch contained facial plain treated by pain killers that led to addiction. Paralysis overcame her body in several different times, the lead to paralyze of one side of her body. Mood and eating disorders contributed to her daily state of personality. Amnesia was one of the other main disorders that lead to difficulties for diagnosis. She would not remember her actions during important times. However, In spite of all above she was described as an intelligent young lady with ability to maintain a normal life style at certain points in her life. The relationship between her and Breuer is somewhat suspicious at times, and many articles establish solid reason for question. He treated her as a family doctor for several years, and shortly after her father’s illness the treatment increased. At one point an article states that he spend around a thousand hours with her within a year. During a state of Anna she would not accept food or recognize anyone but him. She would also prefer to hold his hand during the treatment. The feelings Anna had for her physician were inappropriate and she was clearly drawn to him. There was a section in our text that spoke about how we believe and listen to authority without reservation. This made me think about what her family was thinking during this entire time. He was one of the most well known in his felid, but it sounds like majority of their time was spent alone. I think there were a lot of reservations about this case being published. In the end she did grow up to further lead a normal lifestyle and made history for her contribution to psychology. I am learning about disorders in abnormal psychology, and this case just makes me want to know the difference between what is real and what is faked. The study of anxiety and what it can lead to also interest me now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_O.
http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/98/6/465.full
http://www.enotes.com/anna-o-case-reference/anna-o-case
The topic I chose to learn more about was Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytical approach towards the unconscious mind. The first site explained how Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory about personality begins in the unconscious mind, where our thoughts are entwined with our feelings, memories, and awareness. He used the psychodynamic approach to observe the human mind. Freud believed the mind was divided into two parts the consciousness and unconsciousness. Our conscious awareness is just a thin layer of what we know and remember. However, our unconsciousness goes deep beyond the surface of our thoughts into a hidden area of memory where the painful memories can exist and the mind never forgets. Freud thought this could be part of a defense mechanism to protect us from undesirable memories. According to Freud, our behavior is influenced by unconscious memories that affect our personality. Ultimately Freud’s theory has forever changed the way the human mind is perceived.
The second site discussed some facts about dreams. First of all everybody dreams, but not everybody remembers them. Dreams begin to fade once we awaken and 90 percent of them are forgotten. Only 10 percent of dreams are vividly remembered, it usually depends on the traumatic moments in the dream. Our dreams are consisted of true experiences and things we have seen before in reality or on TV. When people snore, they are not really in a deep enough sleep to dream. Precognitive dreams can also occur immediately after dreaming. De ja vu is experienced by 70 percent of people who dream of a place or time that is familiar in their memory. Freud became interested in dreams when he noticed his patients often times brought up their dreams. Through a psychodynamic approach, he began using dreams to analyze the minds of his patients. Freud came to the conclusion that dreams were an important part of understanding a person’s unconscious thoughts.
The third site discussed how Freud believed our thoughts are motivated by our unconsciousness. Some of our thoughts are repressed, but still can come to life in the form of dreams. These dreams can symbolize what is hidden in the mind. According to Freud the id, ego, and superego are part of the mind that influences are thoughts. The id is driven by desire, the ego is morally concerned about our self-awareness, and superego is responsible for the egos rational thinking and helps id to control impulses. Basically superego repressed ids careless urges and when we dream, we view these hidden unconscious desires. The reason we have a hard time remembering dreams is because the superego protects us from disturbing images that could potentially harm our conscious mind. Sleep is also necessary so the mind can rest from being over exposed from too much stimuli. According to Freud, there is a manifest content in dreams it is what we remember seeing, and the latent content is the meaning behind the image. To interpret dreams, Freud used manifest dream symbols to discover what automatically comes to mind in a technique known as free association.
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/psychodynamic.htm
http://psychohawks.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/dreams-freud/
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/freud.htm
After reading the chapter I found myself asking a lot of questions about hypnosis. I wanted to know how valid it really was. I do not like a lot of the criticism about it. If that method works for a good amount of people, why try and knock it? I see it as a safe and non medication form of therapy. I think any time you can successfully not use medication, you should do that. Medications have bad side effects (in some cases). Natural treatments are a good alternative. I think they got bashed on sometimes because they usually take longer to yield results. You have to have patience when utilizing them. One pro is that usually the person is cured of the phobia or other ailment for life.
I am really interested in how hypnosis can aid in the areas of phobias, depression, and grief. These things are very debilitating in some cases. I think one reason why it works is because people are usually feeling sub conscious and can be open and honest. They are out of tune with the outside world. One knock of hypnosis is that, like other natural treatments, it is time and cost consuming. You really have to fully commit and believe that it will help. Some say that hypnosis unlocks the unconscious mind, but I think many people are skeptical of this.
A study at Stanford showed that around 95% of people can be hypnotized properly. This shows some validity because of the fact that so many people can be effected by it. It seems to be something that a vast majority of people can utilize. We can use EEG scans to see what is going on while the person is under hypnosis.
I think we are on to something good with hypnosis. Instead of trying to discredit it, we should do more research involving it. It is a good natural alternative to medicines for such things as anxiety. If we can prove that it can work and more people buy into it, we can use it to help more people.
http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-hypnotherapy talks about hypnosis as a clinical treatment
http://news.psu.edu/story/141251/2005/10/03/research/probing-question-does-hypnosis-work history and validity about hypnosis
http://www.eocinstitute.org/hypnosis_s/648.htm?gclid=CMGeqZ_m_7YCFao-Mgodkh0AIA this site gave me some basic information about hypnosis from a credible source
BR
I chose to do more research on Dorthea Dix from this chapter. Her story about how she helped the mentally ill, by traveling to institutions, hospitals, and homes to make sure they were getting the proper care. Dorthea was born on April 4,1802 in Hampden, Maine. At the age of fourteen she opened a school for small children in Worchester. She was a strict when it came to discipline but she was also a very capable teacher at that age. She opened another school on her grandma’s land when she was nineteen, and this school was for poor and neglected girls. She ended up getting really sick with tuberculosis and decided to move to England with a friend until she got better. Dix returned when she was well, but she took a different route with her career.
Her second career was at the East Cambridge Jail, and her job here was teaching female inmates Sunday School. This experience of the jail was what sparked Dorthea’s passion in wanting to make the lives and facilities of mental patients better. The conditions at the jail for the mentally ill were unsanitary; multiple people were put into a room with no furniture, or heat and it smelled awful. After this she started visiting many different jails and housing for the mentally ill, she took all the information she gathered from each and presented a document to the Massachusetts’ legislature. Her argument for better conditions for the mentally ill won support from the legislature and funds were contributed in order to expand Worcester State Hospital.
Dorthea contributed in helping many other mentally ill housings and institutions across the U.S. She was a successful role in the finding of 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind and many training facilities to train the nurses properly. Dix also traveled to Europe and helped renovate a bunch of different mental illness facilities throughout the country. Dorthea had passion to help the mentally ill and she pursued it by making sure patients were being treated in a humane way. She paved the way for today’s laws and policies on how hospitals and institutions have to be ran and how patients need to be treated.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/dix.html
http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/DOROTHEA%20DIX.htm
http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dsohf/services/dix/bio.htm
a) This week I chose to do my topical blog on Sigmund Freud.
b) This chapter discussed a lot concerning Freud. It had a section on Freud and his founding of psychoanalysis, early life and education, his influence and contributions within the field and his relationship with Breuer. It got into some of his theories regarding the importance of sex, repression and ego defense mechanisms to name a few.
c) Freud is mentioned so much within our courses. He seems like such a fascinating person from his life to his theories and ideas. I know basic facts regarding Freud and his theories but wanted to dig deeper regarding his earlier years and personal life.
2)
Sigmund Freud was born as Sigismund Schlomo Freud on May 6 in the year 1856. Today he is known as the father of psychoanalysis. He developed such well known techniques including free association and discovered transference. He also formulated the oedipus complex. Today psychoanalysis still remains very influential within the world of psychotherapy, and some areas of psychiatry.
Freud was born to Jewish Galician parents, being the first of their eight children. His father, Jakob Freud was a wool merchant. His mother, Amalia, was twenty years younger than his father. His parents struggled financially and rented out a room in a locksmiths house during Freud’s childhood. Freud’s half brother eventually immigrated to England which separated him from his inseparable playmate of his younger childhood.
When Freud was just nine he entered into a prominent high school where he was an outstanding student, graduating with honors. He enjoyed literature and spoke eight different languages. Throughout his life he read a lot of Shakespeare and entered the University of Vienna at the age of 17. He planned on studying law but instead got into medicine. In 1881 he graduated with his MD.
When he was twenty-four he began smoking tobacco, which eventually led to buccal cancer. Freud believed that smoking enhanced his capacity to work. His work on aphasia was the basis for his first book On The Aphasias: A Critical Study which was published in 1891. Throughout his time at the Vienna Hospital he worked in several different departments such as a psychiatric clinic and an asylum which led to his interest in clinical work. He often used hypnosis within his clinical work. It was his large body of published research which eventually led to his career as a university lecturer in neuropathology. In 1886 he entered into the world of private practice, specializing in nervous disorders. That very same year he married Martha Bernays. Together the two had six children. In 1896, Freud’s sister Martha moved in with them after the death of her fiancé. During this time rumors surfaced of an affair between the two.
Some of Freud’s major influences include Brentano and Theodor Lipps. Brentano introduced him to the concept of the unconscious. Freud also owned and was influenced by Darwin and his writings. His Jewish origins had great influence on his moral outlook. It also had effect on the content of his psychoanalytic ideas. He believed that patients dreams could be analyzed to reveal complex structuring of unconscious material. Through this he explored his own feelings of hostility towards his father and jealousy over his mothers affection. In 1899 he published The Interpretation Of Dreams. This text gives interpretations of his own as well as his patients dreams. On Dreams was published in 1901. Freud also published Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria which became one of his most famous case studies.
In 1939 Freud’s cancer of the jaw was causing him extreme pain. His doctor declared it inoperable and on September 21 and 22 administered doses of morphine resulting in his death on the 23rd. The Sigmund Freud Memorial is a statue near the home where Sigmund and Anna lived which is now the Freud Museum. The building behind the memorial is now a major psychological health care institution.
3)
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud
This website included a ton of information! It first presented a synopsis regarding his life and included a table of contents at the top regarding important aspects of his life. It began presenting information concerning his early life and education, early career and marriage, development of psychoanalysis, his followers, struggle with cancer and then ended with his legacy. It included a section with all of his works which was nice.
2. http://www.egs.edu/library/sigmund-freud/biography/
This website had a lot of great information as well. It as well started off with a brief summary regarding major aspects of Freud’s life. It as well started off with information in chronological order regarding his early childhood and career and got into the birth of psychoanalysis and all of his theories and ideas.
3. http://www.freudfile.org/biography.html / http://www.freudfile.org/childhood.html
This site was really informative. Its main page had links to the most important events of his life, a biography, self analysis, the cocaine episode and freudian dissidents. I mainly looked into the biography link. It included a lot of great information such as direct quotes from Freud, information about his personal life and the development of his theories.
This week, I choose to look into Anna Freud. I have always been interested in Sigmund Freud; writing two papers on him in high school, but I have never taken an in-depth look into to the life of his daughter, Anna. Anna was the youngest child born to Sigmund and Martha Freud on December 3, 1895. She had a close relationship to her father; which probably helped lead her into a career in the field of psychology. As for her relationship with the rest of her family, it is said to have been a tense one. Anna and her mother were never close. Her mother actually took off on a vacation for a few months right after Anna was born. It was their nanny, Josephine that was Anna’s main caretaker. Anna’s relationship with her siblings was no better than the one she had with her own mother. She saw her older brothers and sisters as boring and she felt out of place when around them. In 1901 at the age of six, Anna joined her siblings at a private elementary school; however, Anna later recalled that the majority of her education came from her father and the guests that would accompany him in their home. This education from her father was not limited to his psychological works, but he also helped her to learn many different languages such as; German, English, and French. In 1912, Anna finally graduated school at the age of 17. Two years later, Anna became an apprentice in an elementary school teaching. While working as a teacher, Anna’s interest in her father’s psychology work grew and eventually she took a specific interest in child psychology and psychoanalysis. In 1925, Anna began preforming psychoanalysis on children; taking her father’s work and making it her own. One of these patients was the son of an American woman named Dorothy. Anna tried to help Dorothy’s son, Bob by using psychoanalysis, but the real story was the relationship between Anna and Dorothy. Anna and Dorothy moved to Semmering together after Sigmund Freud’s health improved and Anna felt he could take care of himself. Rumors swirled that the two women were more than friends, which Anna denied until she died. Throughout everything, Anna continued to work on her child psychoanalysis with many different writings such as On Defense Mechanisms. Today she does not live in her father’s shadow. She is known as the founder of child psychoanalysis.
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_annafreud.htm
I always like using this site due to its concise nature and accurate information.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219843/Anna-Freud
This site went more in depth about Ann's professional life
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/afreud.htm
This site really helped me to learn more about Anna on a more personal level.
For this week’ topic, I chose to discuss the early years of the mental institution, and its formation. Since the week’s chapter covers mental illness, this topic comes up. Where people who are unable to function within society go is a question that at one time had no answer. I chose this topic because while mental illness has always been interesting to me, mental institutions in the early ages interest me more.
While mental institutions didn’t always exist, mental illness has. While most people suffering from mental illness are able to function in society, some are not. But where do these people go? Long ago they lived with their families, but often time ended up in prisons and homeless shelters. As settlement disbursed, and populations increased, a need arose for a place for people unable to live among the community because of their mental health. In 1752 the basement of a Pennsylvania hospital was dedicated to those with mental health issues. It quickly filled up and a new section was added onto the hospital to help compensate. Near a hundred years late in 1856 the Pennsylvania House for the Insane opened and was the first hospital to be devoted entirely to mental health. Over the following 35 some years every state opened at least one mental institution for the public.
Treatments taking place in medical settings are much different today than that of 150+ years ago. Psychiatric medicines were not yet available, and many conditions were seen as incurable. People were admitted and not expected to leave. Some of the various treatments given over the years are hypnotism, lobotomies, electric shock, bloodletting, and art therapy. While art therapy doesn’t seem so aversive, others left some patients different for life, or even dead. Many treatments as well as how they were treated wasn’t exactly considered ethical to today’s standards. The patients seemed to be treated more as prisoners, including using chains attached to the walls. The care changed once a man known as Philippe Pinel started what is known as ‘moral treatment’, which is this crazy notion that patients should be treated like people. As population increased however, moral treatment was unable to be obtained. State ran hospitals were large and the number of patients compared to staff made it difficult to do anything but give people a place to hide away. Change occurred when a woman named Dorothea Dix intervened. After seeing the awful conditions in a jail when going to teach Sunday school there, she immediately felt she needed to help make a change. She then visited every jail, almshouse, and mental institution to document the conditions where the mentally ill are housed. She terrible things she saw including abuse and neglect pushed her towards helping open 32 mental institutions, and 15 schools for the feeble minded. While population has increased, the number of state ran facilities have decreased. We are now back at square one 150+ years ago asking ourselves, where do these people go?
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/diseases/early.html
timeline of events was important for my topic to be able to accurately give dates.
http://news.discovery.com/human/life/slideshow-history-mental-asylum.htm
focused on some of the important details of mental institutions over the years
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/17/the-birth-of-the-mental-asylum/
overall history of mental institutions
http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html
Dorothea Dix, stood up for change in the conditions of the hospitals, pushed for new institutions.