Sigmund Freud is known as the father of modern psychology and psychoanalysis. It was him who came up with a brilliant and novel perspective of the human mind. His studies were so staggering that they revolted many people during his time. Today we know that many of his claims were astonishingly correct. 

The psychoanalysis he developed was used as an in depth analysis of the human mind in order to cure various nervous and mental disorders. Freud believed that we only have conscious access of certain parts of our brain. He held that there was an entire world within our heads, which we were unconscious of, where all sorts of thoughts, memories and desires were held.

He claimed that not only was there a constant tension between man and his surroundings but also between his needs and drives and the demands of society. These “drives” or “needs”, he said, are not simply guided by reason, as many rationalist philosophers before him liked to believe. Irrational impulses, as a result of the unconsciousness within us, determine what we think, do, dream and desire. For instance he believed that the human sexual drive was just as basic as the baby’s instinct to suckle or that what we dreamt had something to do with wish fulfillment. 

It was such a mentality of the human mind that allowed Freud to treat innumerable patients during his career. Just as an archaeologist discovers older and more precious artifacts by digging deeper and deeper in the earth, Freud believed that psychoanalysts can, in a similar way, dig deep into the patients mind and bring into light the experiences that were causing the patients the psychological disorder. According to Freud, we store all the memories of our past within us even though we can’t consciously access them.