Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture Web site to study the life of Freud and the events surrounding his theories. Students will read portions of Freud's writings, quotes of others regarding his work, and descriptions about the worldwide events that could have influenced his writings. The site is filled with pictures of his family and contemporaries, and students may also listen to a BBC recording of Freud made shortly before his death. Students will then answer four questions and apply this information by drawing a cartoon that illustrates Freud's view of human nature.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will be able to describe the development of the psychoanalytical theory of personality and Freud's view of human nature.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to draw a cartoon illustrating Freud's concept of human nature.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. Freud's methods included hypnosis, massage, pressure to the head, free association, suggestion, dream interpretation, and transference and counter-transference.
2. Transference was the term Freud used to describe the strong emotions that a patient "transfers" to the therapist. Freud believed that during transference, patients were led to repeat patterns of behavior from earlier relationships. With the therapist able to evaluate the behavior, unconscious behavior could be made conscious. In other words, knowledge of unconscious behaviors could help a patient change those behaviors. Freud also believed that the patterns witnessed by the therapist could lead a person to self-awareness through recollection.
3. According to Freud, the patient and doctor could agree to stop meeting, but that did not mean that the patient was healed. Indeed, he believed that unconscious conflicts continued after analysis, and may cause serious problems.
4. The exhibit suggests that Freud could have been affected by the thinking of his contemporaries Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, both of whom emphasized that change resulted from struggle. Freud lived during a time in which the world experienced unimagined hostilities (World War I and World War II), and he believed that these wars reflected the conflicts within each individual's psyche. He offered no solutions, but instead he tried to explain the source of conflict within the world.
5. Students' cartoons will vary. Students should use information from the Web site as the basis of their cartoons. Ask students to cite their source quotations.