Freud’s Legacy

Freud brought into our awareness and is recognized for such concepts as the “id,” “ego”, “superego” and “Oedipus complex.” But what has survived in modern psychoanalytic practice, amidst a prevailing environment in psychiatry today of the biological and pharmacological, is the power of the unconscious mind and our past as it affects our current life and issues.

The American Psychoanalytic Association  (APsaA), which was founded in the year 1911, is still in existence today. They stress the psychoanalytic framework as consisting of individual uniqueness, unconscious factors influencing one’s behavior, the past’s relevance to the present and that the process of human development is ongoing throughout life; all consistent with Freudian views.

Freud is also with us today thanks to The Karpeles Manuscript Museum exhibit, which will run through mid-December, showcasing Freud’s theories, through his writings and correspondence, with an emphasis on his theory of psychoanalysis.

Sources: Elizabeth Landau, CNN , American Psychoanalytic Association , Karpeles exhibit focuses on Freud