Sigmund Freud s The Unconscious

The unconscious, or also knows as the subconscious, is "the complex of mental

activities within an individual that proceed without his awareness." ("Unconscious"

Encyclopedia Britannica) Sigmund Freud was the first to suggest that the unconscious

affects a person s behaviour despite the mind not perceiving the thought. Although

theorists deny the actuality of the unconscious, Freud s concepts of different conscious

states are well established and continue to be in important aspect of modern psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud, born in Freiberg, Moravia, now Pribor in the Czech republic, in

1856, entered the University of Vienna medical school in 1873 in hope of pursuing

neurophysiological research. This pure research was difficult to perform by this man of

the Jewish faith as it was mainly only preferable by the independently wealthy. In 1886,

Freud opened a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders. By 1900, he

introduced the masses to the opinion of the unconscious mind when he published The

Interpretation of Dreams. Freud s theories were the root of ridicule. Despite the negative

publicity that Freud received, he continued his practice and studies. Today, what was

mocked, is now seen as one of the most influential ideas in psychoanalysis to date. But

why does Freud s The Unconscious hold such substantial relevance today and how does it

influence generations of those concerned with the study of the human mind?