Freud was a Neurology student. While traveling in Vienna, he received a scholarship to study anatomy and neurology in France. With a scholarship (of a value that I consider too low to support himself for 6 months, but anyway), he chose to go to Paris to do an internship with the renowned Jean Martin Charcot .

Who was Professor Charcot (1825 - 1893)?

Freud interned at the Salpetriere Hospital, where Charcot worked and taught. In addition, he was known for his results in treating hysterical patients.

Charcot used hypnosis to gain access to his patients' unconscious, so that he could access their trapped memories and emotions, which could not be accessed by the conscious. In this way, he could eliminate physical problems and illnesses, resulting from these very memories and emotions.

As a result of a psychosomatic problem, leading patients to experience limb blockages, pains, limitations of all kinds, bouts of loss of control, etc. Thus, Freud marveled at Professor Charcot's technique.

Back in Vienna, the psychiatrist decided to treat his patients with the technique learned from Professor Charcot.

The change in Freud's technique

However, he realized that only a few patients could enter trance - about 20 %. This disappointed him about hypnosis, because he could not get the same results as Charcot. On the other hand, he realized that conversation produced results just as good as those with Charcot's hypnosis.

Moreover, he saw that by letting the patients make a free association and speak freely, without judgment or guilt, they already started a re-signification of these emotions. Thus, they improved from the limiting physical problems.

In this way, he started to make free association in all the patients. With this, the patients were able to expose their feelings and, in this way, already started an improvement.

Therefore, he decided to abandon hypnosis because he could not access the unconscious or subconscious of all patients.

The union of Freud and Breuer in the use of the cathartic method

For discovering a new method of achieving the same results, he teamed up with Breuer, and the two worked together to develop a new line of treatment, which they called the cathartic method.

They had a good partnership for several years. Then it was undone by Freud's fixation on the association of the libido with various dammed emotions. The libido was a strong word for the time.

The reprisals of society at the time

Before, it was believed that sex could only be performed for the purpose of procreation, and it was not allowed to talk about sexual intercourse in connection with anything else.

This made Breuer very worried about the reprisals of society, and so he broke off the partnership. However, Freud was not intimidated and continued his studies with analysis.

Thus, he began to create what we know today as Psychoanalysis. So, Jean Martin Charcot was extremely important for Freud to abandon neurology and dedicate himself to the in-depth study of the human psyche.

What are dreams for Psychoanalysis?

Later Freud created Psychoanalysis, a science widely accepted today because it does not depend on the judgment of the professional in the analysis, including the analysis of dreams.

I want information to enroll in the Psychoanalysis Course .

Psychoanalysis understands that dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to bring to the conscious mind traumatic situations and conditions in an allegorical way, and of great importance for the resignification and elimination of physical problems with an emotional cause.

Furthermore, we cannot associate Psychoanalysis with the norms and rules of Psychology, because we believe that Psychoanalysis should be free and taught to all people.

Today, Charcot is known as the Father of Hypnosis and was the precursor of practically all methods known today. Even the Ministry of Health, the Federal Council of Medicine, the Federal Council of Psychology, and the Federal Council of Dentistry all recognize the efficacy of hypnosis as a complementary tool in physical and mental treatments.

Potentiating the results of Hypnosis according to Charcot

In this way, the technique potentiates the results, either by accessing the unconscious for resignification and emotions, or by eliminating traumas, or even by promoting anesthesia for several procedures.

Charcot was a major influence, not only on Sigmund Freud, but also on the whole field of modern health care.

Id, Ego and Superego, as well as Unconscious, Pre-Conscious and Conscious, are reference bases for Hypnosis to define the levels of access or trance levels and their action and technique to be used for resignation.

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If you want to know more about Clinical Psychoanalysis, visit our blog and check several articles written by our course students.

This article was written by our course student Luiz Henrique Martins Puga, exclusively for our Blog.