Freud

• Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis
• Through psychoanalysis, Freud believed that people could be cured of various mental ailments
• Freud believed that a person's development is determined by childhood events which have either been forgotten or repressed
• Where the conscious mind conflicts with the unconscious mind, trauma or mental illness can occur
• Freud produced the best-known account of the conscience as a psychological phenomenom
• Psychoanalysis often brings repressed events to the surface
• Karl Popper dismissed psychoanalysis as non-falsifiable pseudoscience
• Richard Feynman labelled both psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as witch doctors
• The ID is an unconscious, instinctive part of the brain responsible for basic needs and desires
• The ego is a rational faculty that takes others into account
• The superego develops in early childhood as it internalises the voices of authority figures. It commands or threatens in later life
• Freud sees the conscience as no more than an expression of the wishes of a person's parents or other significant adults
• Freud argues the conscience cannot be seen as the voice of God, or as an expression of the natural self
• Freud says we may think God plays a role in the conscience; however it is just a control mechanism alongside our parents and societies expectations of us 
• Freud states those brought up in religious homes were subject to 'child-abuse' as a belief in God is the source of much guilt and shame