Key takeaways

• Freud believed that our childhood experiences shapes our personalities and our behaviour in adulthood (Childhood Trauma and Its Relation to Chronic Depression in Adulthood – Negele, Kaufhold et al. (2015))
• He also believed that there were three components to our personalities which are controlled by our conscious, pre-conscious and unconscious mind (Id, Superego & Ego).
• Defence mechanisms: Denial, Repression and Displacement
• Psychosexual stages: Oral stage, Anal stage, Phallic stage, Latent stage and

  Genital stage.
• The Oedipus complex was developed by Freud’s study of Little Hans who had a phobia of horses. He explained this in the ‘phallic stage’ of his development – which explained why he was so close to this Mother and avoidant towards his Father.
• Even though Freud’s work is commonly disregarded, he demonstrated interesting insights into the importance of childhood experiences, Psychotherapy and other talk therapies