The Interpretation of Dreams in the context of "Psychoanalysis"

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of the innate structure of the human soul and the dynamics of personality development relating to the practice of psychoanalysis, a method of research and for treating of mental disorders (psychopathology). Laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century (s. The Interpretation of Dreams), he developed the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. Since then, it has been further refined, also divided into various sub-areas, but independent of this, Freuds structural distinction of the soul into three functionally interlocking instances has been largely retained.

Psychoanalysis with its theoretical core came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century, as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments in the 1970s. Freud himself had ceased his physiological research of the neural brain organization in 1906 (cf. history). shifting his focus to psychology and the treatment of mental health issues by using free associations and the phenomenon of transference. Psychoanalysis is based on the distinction between unconscious and conscious processes, and emphasized the recognition of childhood events that influence the mental functioning of adults. Freud's consideration of human evolutionary history (genetics) and then the aspect of individual psychological development in cultural contexts gave the psychoanalytic theory its characteristics.

In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire for her father and hostility toward her mother is referred to as the feminine (or female) Oedipus complex. The general concept was considered by Sigmund Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), although the term itself was introduced in his paper "A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men" (1910).

Freud's ideas of castration anxiety and penis envy refer to the differences of the sexes in their experience of the Oedipus complex. The complex is thought to persist into adulthood as an unconscious psychic structure which can assist in social adaptation but also be the cause of neurosis. According to sexual difference, a positive Oedipus complex refers to the child's sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and aversion to the same-sex parent, while a negative Oedipus complex refers to the desire for the same-sex parent and aversion to the opposite-sex parent. Freud considered that the child's identification with the same-sex parent is the socially acceptable outcome of the complex. Failure to move on from the compulsion to satisfy a basic desire and to reconcile with the same-sex parent leads to neurosis.