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SIGMUND FREUD
(1856 - 1938)
by Dr. ALEC GILL MBE
WIDE APPLICATION OF FREUD'S THEORY:
- Childhood Development / Unconscious Mind / Personality / Inner Conflicts
/ Motivation / Sexual Desires / Social Activity / Job Choice / Feminism?
THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND: Three elements
- ID
- EGO
- SUPEREGO
PSYCHO-SEXUAL STAGES
- ORAL / ANAL / GENITAL (PHALLIC) / LATENCY / PUBERTY /
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
METHODOLOGY
FOR and AGAINST FREUD
INTRODUCTION:
If Psychology is a study of the Mind; then Psycho-analysis is a study of the
Unconscious Mind.
OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND:
Is there such a thing? / What goes on within it?
According to Freudians, the Mind houses our selfish wishes, private fears, dreams, nightmares, inner
conflicts, sexual impulses, childhood desires, incestuous thoughts, etc.
DREAMS: "The Golden Highway to the Unconscious Mind"
- Everyone dreams - whether they know it or
not.
- Insight / Eureka! / De je vue! / Ghosts / Madness / Unconscious /
- How can we explain all these bizarre thoughts?
FREUD TRIES TO BRING ALL THESE ASPECTS TOGETHER -
Few try, many avoid it, but only FREUD had a go. He was the only one to really
venture into these areas.
THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
Freud claimed that the Mind is divided into three parts: ID,
EGO, and SUPEREGO. But what do these terms mean? Freud invoked a variety of
colourful neologisms to explain them (to his own satisfaction, at least).
ID (Latin = IT)
These are unconscious impulses which seek IMMEDIATE expression and gratification -
known as THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE.
This aspect of our mind is ANIMAL, PRIMITIVE, ASOCIAL, AMORAL.
Obviously a child would not survive long if s/he behaved solely in this selfish
manner. Therefore, the next level of the mind grows out of the ID.
EGO
This part of the mind mediates between the savage ID and the rules of reality. This
is Freud's REALITY PRINCIPLE. The Ego directs the individual's behaviour in two ways:
(a) MEDIATES between the greedy ID and harsh reality; and (b) MOTIVATES the individual to gain status and power. By acting in its
self-interest, it can then satisfy the demands of the ID. (JR, Dirty Den?)
SUPEREGO
This is like a Parental Figure. It sees what the Id and Ego are up to and so
suppresses them both. This is the GUILT PRINCIPLE which 'pricks our consciousness' when we do
wrong and evil things.
CONFLICT THEORY: In essence there is a CONFLICT between these three parts of
the mind:
ID = I want - BIOLOGICAL - Instinct
EGO = I can - PSYCHOLOGICAL - Intelligence
SUPEREGO = I ought - SOCIAL / MORAL - Institutional
OEDIPUS COMPLEX OF THE MALE CHILD
The Oedipus Complex is central to Freud's Psycho-analysis. Since he presented it at the start of
the 20th.century, it has shaped thinking in the arts and society.
How does it work?
A boy has an unconscious desire (within the ID) to kill his father and sleep with
his mother. But he also fears that his powerful father will act against him = CASTRATION ANXIETY.
This dilemma has a double effect:
a. the boy represses his erotic feelings toward his mother; and
b. he identifies with his father as a powerful figure in order to gain his mother's
affection.
NOTE: Freud's Theory is good in that if you agree with it, it provides a
blue-print against which to understand the complexity of the human mind;
but if you disagree strongly, it forces you to devise your own model or ask:
How do we come to terms with the phenomena of the human mind - metaphysically
or empirically?
ELECTRA COMPLEX
For females, Freud crudely reversed the process for girls. That is, she desires to
kill her mother and sleep with her father. Her anxiety is that she believes she has
already been castrated. Thus girls have PENIS ENVY. She therefore identifies with her
mother in order to gain male affection.
In many respects, both these 'complexes' are
odd - they explain everything and tell us nothing!
PSYCHO-SEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
THE CONCEPT OF THE LIBIDO is "a fundamental pleasure-seeking drive which
unconsciously motivates us from the moment of our birth". According to Freud, our
personality develops through various Psycho-sexual Stages. His revolutionary claim was
that sexual desires begin in earliest childhood through the following stages:
- ORAL - during the first year of life the libido is gratified through stimulation of
the mucous membrane of the mouth (breast feeding, sucking behaviour).
- ANAL - (2nd / 3rd years) pleasure now gained from anus by excretion and retention of
faeces. This is why some psychologists gave great stress to Potty Training in the 1950s.
This line of research seems to have fizzled out.
- GENITAL / PHALLIC (3rd / 4th years) erotic pleasure from the genitals. Young boys were
once punished if fondled their sex organs.
- LATENCY / FORGETFUL (5 years to puberty) the period when psychosexual desires are
inactive or forgotten until puberty.
- PUBERTY - development of normal heterosexual behaviour.
ADULT EMOTIONAL NEUROSES stem from disturbances at any of the above Psycho-sexual
stages when Libido energy gets blocked or FIXATED at one of the stages. The greater the
level of fixation the greater the problem the patient has in achieving a satisfactory
adult emotional relationship. It can result in REGRESSION to earlier psychosexual stage.
FREUDIAN METHODOLOGY
Now, being unconscious, the problem which Freud and his followers had was to find
ways of analysing the mind. The Freudian Method is to interpret the patient's
- DREAMS - The Golden Highway to the Unconscious
- FREE ASSOCIATION of trivial words
- SLIPS of the TONGUE - Freudian slips
- HUMOUR
- SEXUAL DEVIANCY
- JOB CHOICE and, of course,
- the patient's NEUROTIC SYMPTOMS.
CRITICISM OF FREUD'S WORK - mainly from the
Empirical / Behavioural camps
- UNTESTABLE - All Freud's theories are built upon their own INTERNAL LOGIC which cannot be proved either
way. Internally consistent, yes, but externally un-provable. Thus, little or no scientific
worth.
- NO PREDICTIVE VALUE - Even if we know that someone had no father figure against whom
to compete for his mother's affection, what does that tell us about his future behaviour?
- TINY SAMPLE - Theory not based on a large sample of people, or tested under
experimental conditions with control groups, etc. Freud's patients were largely wealthy
hysterical Victorian middle-class women in Vienna in the late 1800s. Therefore, from such
a narrow group, the theory is applied universally. It is presented as an all-encompassing
male-centred theory.
- NEOLOGISMS - Freud invented many new terms, but rarely defined exactly what he meant
- thus open to such wide interpretation (but some would see that as its great attraction).
The more vague the terms, then the more people are free to apply them to their own needs.
- METAPHYSICAL - abstract throughout - not testable via
empirical methods.
- PERSONAL PROJECTION of Freud's own life, fantasies and conflict with his own father
(Oedipus Complex).
- UNDERSTANDING the UNCONSCIOUS - Freud deals with the Unconscious mind which he claims
can only be understood through dreams, slips of the tongue, etc. But, do we really
understand how the Conscious Mind itself works? Answer: No. Therefore, how can something
which does not understand itself, begin to interpret what the Unconscious Mind generates
(Khristnamurti)?
FREUD'S CONTRIBUTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
I like to end on a positive note!
- MULTIPLE LEVELS - He made us aware that the Mind operates at various levels.
- INFANTILE SEXUALITY - Highlighted the importance of infant development and that a
child has sexual feelings.
- SOCIAL TABOOS - Took away many social taboos related to sex. We certainly live in a
post-Freudian age. There is no going back to a pre-Freudian period.
- SYMBOLIC MEANING - Gave emphasis to the symbolic meaning of objects in human
experience (phallic symbols).
- CREATIVITY - Stimulated artistic creativity (Salvador Dali, Modernism).
- STARTING POINT - His controversial theories acted as a
viable starting point for much
research, especially into childhood psychology. Had Freud not highlighted the Unconscious
Mind, someone else would have had to (Walter Mischel, 1968).
IS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ONE OF
CONTINUITY or DISCONTINUITY?
The traditional view of Human Development is that once s/he has reached a certain
level, it is then FIXED for that person's lifetime. This theory has been applied to
characteristics such as:
- PERSONALITY
- INTELLIGENCE (11+)
- ATTITUDES
- PSYCHO-SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
- The origins of this DOMINANT view began with the Greeks: Plato (400BC), John Locke
(1670s), Freud (1910) and Watson (1928). In essence, they state that once a
childhood characteristic has been formed it CONTINUES into ADULTHOOD. More recent
research, however, seriously undermines that tradition stance (Clarkes, et al).
VAGUE FREUDIAN CONCEPTS:
1. FIXATION can occur with either frustration or overindulgence. For example, during
the Oral Stage the child may not receive enough oral gratification, so will fixate on that
stage and be inclined to prolong it to make up for lost time. Conversely the child's
Unconscious may find this stage so pleasant that there is a reluctance to move on to the
next one!
2. REGRESSION occurs in adolescence/adulthood. If, during the genital stage, sexual gratification is not satisfied, the person will
then regress to a previous psychosexual stage which was a trouble-free source of
gratification. Therefore, if blocked in one's adult aspirations, then a regression will
return to a time when gratification was met in childhood development...!
It is also possible for there to be Partial Fixation or Regression. So the picture
is complex - according to the Freudian view.
3. CONSEQUENCES of REGRESSION to a PSYCHO-SEXUAL STAGE
ORAL: Over-eating, drinking, smoking, thumb-sucking, nail-biting. Freudians claim
that this is why it is difficult for people to stop smoking. When they do, they overeat or
chew gum to compensate - thus keeping the mouth busy in other ways.
JOBS: Excessive use of vocal cords. People get jobs as college lecturers, public
speakers, politicians, selling, broadcasters, preachers, dentists, etc.
ANAL FIXATIONS: miserly, tight-fisted people.
JOBS: involves mixing or moulding (unconscious link with the faeces), chemist, cook,
artist, sculptor, etc.
GENITAL / PHALLIC (masturbation): Pre-occupation with one's own body and craving for
the parent of the opposite sex. Highly self-centred, insecure in their sex role identity.
This may lead to either homosexuality or an excessive show of masculinity / femininity. Sexuality is exaggerated, but in a shallow way. Phallic regressives exploit others
and avoid deep inter-personal relationships.
JOBS: authorship of erotic literature (this involves sexuality, but avoids the
involvement with others). Male surgeons are trying symbolically to castrate their father;
while female surgeons searching for the penis!!
LATENCY: regression to the 'resting stage' between the main gratification phases.
This involves non-sexual aggressive expressions of instincts.
JOBS: scientists who direct energy away from sexual conquests into intellectual
struggles; volunteers who fight for charitable causes. Nuns / Monks?
4. THREATS TO THE EGO - three sources:
REALITY ANXIETY - environment not always friendly.
NEUROTIC ANXIETY - Id impulses may get out of control and be severely punished by
society.
MORAL ANXIETY - Superego suppression would bring all behaviour to a halt because so
ridden with guilt.
Under attack from these three sources, the ego's best defence is to arrive at a
compromise between all the forces by allowing the ID indirect expression (in a disguised,
symbolic form). This does not offend the SUPEREGO.
Guilt reduced, EGO maintained, and self-esteem enhanced in the eyes of the world
(reality).
CONCLUSION: Freudian Psycho-analysts seem to be in a Win :
Win situation. That is, heads they win, tails you loose. Either way, their
clients pay. Delving into the past can go on forever and forever - and still get
nowhere. The present is overshadowed by the past and the future is bleak. Where
are the positive results from decades of treatment? Is Freud a fraud?
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