Jonah Bossewitch	September 19, 1995

PSY 365	Professor Sugarman

Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1-3)

The Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis reveal Freud's methodology as well as a brief outline of his theories to date. We learn that Freud approaches his work as a pioneering experimental scientist might. He observes empirical data (his patient's hysterias, neurosis, and pathologies) and attempts to infer what underlying principles and/or forces might account for such behavior. Freud's work is not purely theoretical, as his primary goal is clinical. However, Freud believed that the only way to cure his patients was to come up with a comprehensive theory of the mind first. Freud describes a few instances of how psycho-analysis worked in curing some of his patients but he doesn't stop there. He goes on to introduce the force he calls repression in order to explain how the hysterical condition comes about in the first place. He goes on to explain the connections between jokes, dreams and insignificant actions. They all seem to employ the same associative transformations and shed a great deal of light on the subconscious. The first three lectures on Psycho-Analysis plunge the reader headfirst into the world of Freud's case studies's, theories and cures.