In psychiatry, one may love or hate Freud, but he is afigure who cannot be ignored, making psychotherapy almost synonymous with Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis began with Freud’s revolutionary idea that the unconscious mind drives much of human behaviour, evolved through multiple thinkers, and shaped our understanding of emotion, childhood, identity, and mental suffering.It explains theory and involves treatment in practice through free association. Freud was the Father of Psychoanalysis from the late 1800sto the early 1900s. Jean-Martin Charcot and Josef Breuer influenced him regarding hypnosis, but he soon moved on to the tools of dream interpretation and free association to access the unconscious mind.
Freud discussed defence mechanisms still used in therapeutic language: repression, projection, denial, etc. The id, ego, and superego are personality structures he defines. He also discusses stages of development such as oral, anal, phallic, and being “stuck” in an area. After Freud, between 1910 and 1930, Carl Jung broke away from Freud and developed Analytical Psychology, introducing concepts like the collective unconscious and archetypes. These concepts will be discussed in detail in later texts.
Alfred Adler founded Individual Psychology, emphasising the inferiority complex and social motivation rather than sexual drives.Anna Freud was another psychotherapist who developed child psychoanalysis and expanded the understanding of defence mechanisms.Melanie Klein: Pioneered object relations theory, focusing on early relationships, particularly with the mother.
After Freud, during mid-20th century developments (1940s–1960s), Erik Erikson and Heinz Hartmann made advancements in ego psychology,emphasising the ego’s role in adaptation and reality testing (e.g., Heinz Hartmann, Erik Erikson). This will be described in later blogs. Also noteworthy are John Bowlby (attachment theory) and Donald Winnicott’s object relations theory, which focus on early relational experiences. After the 1970s, numerous interpretations of Freud began to take shape. Jacques Lacan reinterpreted Freud using structural linguistics, the role of language, the mirror stage, and desire. Many scholars, such as Juliet Mitchell and Nancy Chodorow,challenged Freud’s theories, which were sexist and gender-biased.
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Stephen Mitchell and Jessica Benjamin emphasised relational psychoanalysis, i.e., two-person psychology ( as analyst and patient co-construct meaning). Freud isn’t followed today, but he’s still influential as a starting point—a thinker who dared to explore the murky depths of human motivation. He’s more culturally and philosophically relevant than medically or scientifically authoritative.Indian feminists critique Freud’s theories about penis envy and female passivity as androcentric and culturally irrelevant.
Some Dalit scholars (e.g., Gopal Guru) see Freudian psychology as elitist because it rarely addresses structural violence, caste trauma, or systemic humiliation. For them, Freud’s focus on internal guilt is less helpful than Ambedkar’s focus on social injustice. Indian psychologists and therapists often use Freudian tools (e.g., transference, dreams) but within collective, spiritual, and caste-conscious frameworks.
Example: Indian therapy may factor in joint family tensions, arranged marriages, and religious guilt, which Freud never accounted for. Some Indian clinicians integrate Vedanta, Buddhism, and Ayurveda with psychoanalysis, leading to hybrid models.In urban India, psychodynamic therapy (influenced by Freud) is still practised, particularly in private clinics and elite settings.
However, it is less accessible to rural and working-class populations, where community psychiatry or spiritual counselling is more common.
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