Psychoanalysis :: Psychoanalytic Theory and Methods

Psychoanalysis is a system of psychology originated by the Viennese physician Sigmund FREUD in the 1890's and then further developed by himself, his students, and other followers. It consists of three kinds of related activities: (1) a method for research into the human mind, especially inner experiences such as thoughts, feelings, emotions, fantasies, and dreams; (2) a systematic accumulation of a body of knowledge about the mind; and (3) a method for the treatment of psychological or emotional disorders. Psychoanalysis began with the discovery that HYSTERIA, an illness with physical symptoms that occurred in a completely healthy physical body--such as a numbness or paralysis of a limb or a loss of voice or a blindness--could be caused by unconscious wishes or forgotten memories. (Hysteria is now commonly referred to as conversion disorder.) The French neurologist Jean Martin CHARCOT tried to rid the mind of undesirable thoughts through hypnotic suggestion, but without lasting success. Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician, achieved better results by letting Anna O., a young woman patient, try to empty her mind by just telling him all of her thoughts and feelings. Freud refined Breuer's method by conceptualizing theories about it and, using these theories, telling his patients through interpretations what was going on inside the unconscious part of their minds, thus making the unconscious become conscious. Many hysterias were cured this way, and in 1895, Breuer and Freud published their findings and theories in Studies in Hysteria. CLASSIC PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY Traditional psychoanalytical theory states that all human beings are born with instinctual drives that are constantly active even though a person is usually not conscious of thus being driven. Two drives--one for sexual pleasure, called libido, the other called aggression--motivate and propel most behavior. In the infant, the libido first manifests itself by making sucking an activity with pleasurable sensations in the mouth. Later similar pleasures are experienced in the anus during bowel movements, and finally these erotically tinged pleasures are experienced when the sexual organ is manipulated. Thus psychosexual development progresses from the oral through the anal to the phallic stage. (Phallic, in psychoanalytic theory, refers to both male and female sexual organs.) During the height of the phallic phase, about ages three to six, these libidinous drives focus on the parent of the opposite sex and lend an erotic cast to the relation between mother and son or between father and daughter, the so-called Oedipus COMPLEX. However, most societies strongly disapprove of these sexual interests of children. A TABOO on incest rules universally. Parents, therefore, influence children to push such pleasurable sensations and thoughts out of their conscious minds into the unconscious by a process called repression.

Borders and Amazon Business Approach Essay

Describe the history and core business of each company. Traditional book stores have been around for ages. Evidently, public libraries and private stores like Barnes and Nobles, Waldenbooks, and of course Borders are often the main places where people go to purchase or borrow their books. Nowadays, with the rise of technology, many more options are available to readers. For instance, we now have the choice to go online to look for volumes we might want to read or buy; thus, one of the leading companies captivating the attention of many is Amazon which alone with Borders constituted two of the most prolific book organization in America. According to research, Borders started in as a small used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Tom and Louis Borders who initially intended to help supplied academically the University of Michigan (Borders Group Inc., 97). Over the years, after several movements and stores being opened, the company was acquired in 1992 by K-Mart which happened to own the chain of Waldenbooks as well. Unfortunately, the relationship did not last long because three years later Borders book became 100% publicly owned and still conducting business that way (Borders Group Inc., 97). Meanwhile, propel by electronic commerce, Amazon which started in 1995 is considered the pioneer of online book selling (Press, 2004). Being the first internet retailer securing one million customers, Amazon, kept on progressing as the years go by. It got into the music and video business in 1998 and acquired some companies in England and Germany that same year; started to sell toys, electronic tools, and hardware in 1999; and finally, made some profit in 2001 (Press, 2004). 2- Compare and contrast the management approach each took to Internet marketing and sales. Most people would agree that a company’s success or failure has a lot to do with the way they conduct their business from top to bottom. For instance Henri Fayol, a managing director of a large steel company stated the following, â€Å"The success of an enterprise generally depends much more on the administrative ability of its leaders than on their technical ability (Williams, 2010).† In this regard, it is important to try to understand the management approach of Borders and Amazon.com. The principle surrounding Borders’ success is due to its roots as an independent company focusing on strong educational values. First and foremost, Borders target a wide and complete variety of books and titles appealing to real readers and buyers (Borders Group Inc., 97). In addition to the comfortable setting allowing readers to enjoy their visit, its customers would find actively marketed document allowing them to always have an upgraded view of things. Secondly, the company shows its flexibility by trying to accommodate its environment (Borders Group Inc., 97). For instance, the setting of a store located near colleges may not be the same as that of an elderly neighborhood because of the fact that their interests are totally different. Lastly but not least, servicing the customer to the utmost has been the company’s motto. Thus, being proactive and responsive propels Borders’ management to be very successful despite the company’s previous set back. On the other hand, Amazon.com started its business online meaning their initial approach is to reach everyone. Despite not being profitable for more than five years, the company continued to invest in infrastructures. For instance, over $750 million were spent in state-of-the –art material in order to handle many new distribution facilities’ systems in the United States with similar investment to come in Europe (Amazon.com inc., 2000). Evidently, this is an approach of spending money in order to make more (Amazon.com inc., 2000). Also Amazon.com believes in personalizing its online stores to be exclusively set to meet each customer’s need. With that in mind, each customer is able to create his or her own virtual store according to interests, and needs. As far as solving certain problems like recommendation, the company uses the following algorithm approach: traditional collaborative filtering, cluster models, and search-based methods (Linden, Smith, & York, 2003). 3- Analyze 3 reasons for Amazon’s success despite not turning a profit for the first five to six (5-6) years. Successful companies often use similar strategy to captivate and maintain their customers. Thus, major online companies like Amazon.com provide their clients the type of products and services envision by many. Amazon.com remains attractive despite the lack of profit for more than half of a decade. Its user friendly website is one of the reasons for such success where customers don’t need to beat themselves up in order reaching their destination (Hogan, 2011). Furthermore, the search engine allows customers to sort their request accordingly and find what they are looking for quickly. Another reason for such success would be attributive to the payment system used by Amazon (Hogan, 2011). Users are enchanted to know that most form of electronic payments are accepted on the company’s site and can easily be cancelled (Hogan, 2011). Being a thriving organization may not easy; however, with good work ethic, great method, and dedication, it is hard not flourish even in today’s economy. 4- Discuss 3 reasons Borders, although initially successful and profitable, ended up in Chapter 11. The current world economy has affected many businesses. Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code would be viewed as a way for a company to restructure itself by having some kind of agreement with its creditors which is monitored by a court (Moran Law group, 2008). The series of events causing the reorganization of Borders started back in 2001 when the company decided to enter a partnership with Amazon.com. In quest of an effective business online, Borders decided to allow its customers to purchase books from amazon.com which basically controlled everything (Norris, 2011). The relationship escalated internationally where Borders and Books teamed up this time with amazon.co.uk in 2004 (Norris, 2011). Unfortunately for Borders, Amazon had the control of both its customers and Borders’ (Norris, 2011). Therefore, there was no reason for Amazon to encourage or promote relationships for Borders. Also, the company despite having a free membership could not compete with the like of Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com. Even tough, those other two companies charged $25 and $79 for their respective memberships, customers felt that they were well taken care of and they could get whatever they need contrarily to Borders’ (Norris, 2011). Lastly but not least, Borders’ Sony reader was not well connected with the customers (Norris, 2011). The association with its manufacturers was never in sink. Comparatively to the Nook released in 2009 by Barnes and Nobles, the Sony reader has been around since 2006 with limited knowledge of the e-book business. That is the reason why, the device did not look appealing to many (Norris, 2011). 5- Discuss the extent to which the management of each company adapted to changing market conditions. Change may be extremely challenging for any company in pursuit of prosperity. Evidently, management needs to be very proactive by considering all the factors or obstacles surrounding the existence of a business. Certain things like economic set backs, technological advancement, are inevitable. With the globalization of business, it is imperative for an organization to show its strength pertaining to adapting with new ways of life. Research states, â€Å"The purpose of adaptive strategies is to choose an industry-level strategy that is best suited to changes in the organization’s external environment (Williams, 2010).† As far as Borders is concerned, its management team was not ready for the 21st century. It took them too long to establish the online presence with Amazon.com which may not even make a difference considering the fact that Borders had no shot at building relationship with its customers. The e-commerce world was apparently too much for Borders and the competition was already a few steps ahead. According to research, â€Å"Borders was slow to adapt to the changing industry and lost book, music, and video sales to the internet and other competition (Msnbc.com staff and news service reports, 2011).† Meanwhile, being an already establish online company made easier for Amazon to remain competitive. Indeed, its management just had to keep being vigilant and practical by continuing to achieve both the awareness and the loyalty of its customers. Contrarily to Borders, Amazon always remains positive and innovative. For example, Amazon is building for the future by spending a lot of money in creating new infrastructure for a better future (Amazon.com inc., 2000). 6- Recommend 3 ways a company should build in flexibility to back up its decision-making process so as to adapt to changing market conditions. The importance of building flexibility to back up a company’s decision-making is extremely vital to its existence. An organization is often measured by its competitiveness, its dynamicity, its turbulence, and its complexity (Brown, 2011). Often time, a decision may not be the right one for a company; therefore, adjustments must be made in order to fix the problem even when it may pertain to bend a little the company’s policy and procedures (Noble, 2007). For instance, if a company’s policy is not to smoke in its premises causing lost business. It would not be a bad idea to create a smoking section for those who wish to do so. In addition, exceptional measures can be taken on a case by case basis to fulfill the necessary (Noble, 2007). Finally, an organization must always allow itself to create new ways of being operational (Noble, 2007). Such initiative would often show positive results. References Amazon.com inc. (2000, May). The frontline poll. Amazon.com’s spending on infrastructure; Approach to financial managagment , 1 (5), p. 8. Borders Group Inc. (97). The bookstore in America: Borders. Review of contemporary fiction , 17 (2), pp. 216, 35p, 3. Brown, S. P. (2011). Forces and trends in business. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from Ezine@articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?Forces-and-Trends-in-Business&id=708724 Hogan, G. C. (2011). Why Amazon is such a successful ecommerce site. Retrieved October 31, 2011, from Ezine@articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?why-amazon-is-such-a-successful-ecommerce-site&id Linden, G., Smith, B., & York, J. (2003, January/February). Internet computing, IEEE. Retrieved October 31, 2011, from ieeexplore digital library: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1167344 Moran Law group. (2008, September 16). Bankruptcy in brief. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from MoranLaw.net: http://www.moranlaw.net/chapter11.htm Msnbc.com staff a nd news service reports. (2011, July 18). Final chapter: Borders to close remaining stores. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43797505/ns/business-retail Noble, K. (2007). Building a culture of flexibility. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from Work Span: http://www.wfd.com/PDFS/Culture%20of%20Flexibility Norris, M. (2011). Borders: A case study of bookselling gone wrong. Book rublishing report , 37 (2), 1-9. Press, J. (2004). Company histories and profile. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from Fundinguniverse: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Amazoncom-Inc-Company-History.html Williams, C. (2010). Management (Custom ed.). (M. Staudt, & M. Stranz, Eds.) Mason, Ohio, USA: Cengage Learning.

WASP - Women Pilots of World War II

In the United States, women pilots were trained to fly non-combat missions in order to free male pilots for combat missions. They ferried planes from the manufacturing plants to military bases, and ended up doing much more — including flying new aircraft such as the B-29, to prove to male pilots that these were not as difficult to fly as the men thought! Well before World War II became imminent, women had made their mark as pilots. Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran, Nancy Harkness Love, Bessie Coleman and Harriet Quimby were only a few of the women record-holders in aviation. In 1939, women were allowed to be part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a program designed to train college students to fly, with an eye to national defense. But women were limited by quota to one woman for every ten men in the program. Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love separately proposed the use by the military of women. Cochran lobbied Eleanor Roosevelt, writing a 1940 letter urging that a womens division of the Air Force be established especially to ferry planes from manufacturing plants to military bases. With no such American program supporting the Allies in their war effort, Cochran and 25 other American women pilots joined the British Air Transportation Auxiliary. Shortly after, Nancy Harkness Love was successful in getting the Womens Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) established, and a few women were hired. Jackie Cochran returned to establish the Womens Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). On August 5, 1943, these two efforts — WAFS and WFTD — merged to become the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), with Cochran as director. More than 25,000 women applied — with requirements including a pilots license and many hours experience. The first class graduated on December 17, 1943. The women had to pay their own way to the training program in Texas. A total of 1830 were accepted into training and 1074 women graduated from WASP training during its existence, plus 28 WAFS. The women were trained the Army way and their graduation rate was similar to that for male military pilots. The WASP was never militarized, and those who served as WASP were considered civil service employees. There was considerable opposition to the WASP program in the press and in Congress. General Henry Hap Arnold, US Army Air Force commander, first supported the program, then disbanded it. The WASP was deactivated December 20, 1944, having flown about 60 million miles in operations. Thirty-eight WASP were killed, including some during training. Records of WASP were classified and sealed, so historians minimized or ignored the women pilots. In 1977 — the same year the Air Force graduated its first post-WASP women pilots — Congress granted veteran status to those who had served as WASP, and in 1979 issued official honorable discharges. Wings Across America is a project to tape memories of WASP. Note: WASP is the correct use even in the plural for the program. WASPs is incorrect, because the P stands for Pilots so its already plural.