- Information
- AI Chat
Langlit II - Psychology
BS Psychology
Recommended for you
Preview text
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: researchgate/publication/
SIGMUND FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Article · May 2020
CITATIONS 4
READS 192,
1 author:
K J Sibi Shivprasad Sadanand Jaiswal College affiliated to Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University 21 PUBLICATIONS 12 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by K J Sibi on 01 July 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
LangLit
A n International Peer-Reviewed Open A ccess Journal
Special Issue 75 May 2020
Website: langlit Contact No.:+ One Day National Webinar On 8 Trauma Studies 9 Organized by Department of English, Santaji Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur(MS), India.
16.
SIGMUND FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Dr K J SIBI Assistant Professor, Department of English. Shivprasad Sadanand Jaiswal College Arjuni-Morgaon, District Gondia, Maharashtra-441701, India.
ABSTRACT This research paper focuses on analyzing the psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis method. Sigmund Freud is the father of modern psychology, which analyzes the human mind and claims that the unconscious mind, controls the conscious mind. The human mind has different layers like a conscious mind, preconscious mind, and unconscious mind. Ego, superego, and id are the apparatuses of the mind and functioning in person. The unconscious mind is a repository from which one's personality has emerged. Dreams are the indirect outlets of the unconscious mind. Therefore, in the psychoanalysis method, dreams are the royal roads to the unconscious mind. Freud's theory analyzes the life instinct and death instinct in human beings. Life strives for the dialectical synthesis of birth and death. Freud's two disciples expressed dissent against his libido theory and established their independent schools of psychology.
Keywords : Unconscious mind, Conscious mind, Id, Ego, Superego, Eros, Thanatos. Libido.
Introduction
Psychoanalytic theory helps us to understand the personality and personality development of the person and psychoanalysis is a clinical method to treat psychopathology. Sigmund Freud was known as the founder of psychoanalytic theory. He developed this theory based on the development of the physical science of that time. Now the psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements under the influence of modern science.
Sigmund Freud had developed his psychoanalysis method from his mentor and friend, Josef Breuer. Breuer had a patient named, Anna O. She spent most of her time along with her ailing father by nursing him at the age of twenty-one. A bad cough had developed in her, but there was no proof of any physical basis for the cause of this cough. Later she had developed some speech difficulties and then she became speechless immediately. After some period, she started to speak only in English instead of her usual German. After the death of her father, she refused to take water in her life and showed a set of problems in her life, such as lost her sensation in her feet and hands, developed some paralysis and involuntary spasms in her
LangLit
A n International Peer-Reviewed Open A ccess Journal
Special Issue 77 May 2020
Website: langlit Contact No.:+ One Day National Webinar On 8 Trauma Studies 9 Organized by Department of English, Santaji Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur(MS), India.
According to Freud, three important conceptualized parts of the human personality are the id, ego, and superego. Based on the pleasure principle, id operates at the unconscious level. The id consists of two kinds of biological instincts: Eros and Thanatos. The life instinct, Eros helps the person to survive in the world and directs life-sustaining activities such as respiration, eating, and sex in individuals. Life instincts create energy, which is known as libido. Death instincts, Thanatos are a set of destructive forces visible in all human beings. Sometimes, this energy is directed towards others in the form of aggression or violence. Freud strongly believed that Eros is stronger than Thanatos. It always helps people to survive.
During infancy, the ego develops from the id in individuals. The purpose of the ego is to satisfy the demands of the id in a very safe and socially acceptable way. The ego operates both in conscious and unconscious mind; ego follows the reality principle in contrast to the id. During childhood, the superego develops in individuals. Every child follows the same-sex parent and tries to identify with them. The superego is responsible for ensuring moral standards in individuals. It operates on moral principles and motivates them to behave in socially acceptable ways. The fundamental dilemma of all human beings is that every part of the psychic apparatus makes demands, which are incompatible with the other two. Therefore, every person is under the inner conflict. Freud compares the relationship between the structure of personality and the levels of consciousness to an iceberg floating on water. The unconscious mind controls the conscious mind of the person.
The primitive instincts of the id very rarely give direct expression to the outside world. The ego always regulates and transforms the primitive instincts following the external world and superego. The ego aims to synchronize the demands of the three tyrannical masters: id, superego, and the external world. Therefore, the ego becomes the battleground between the conscious and unconscious minds. Even the ego is an integral part of the id but it functions with modification to accommodate the needs of the external world. The inability of the ego to satisfy the demands of the id indicates the weakness of the ego and leads into the split of mind. Suppose the ego is to satisfy the demands of the id, it shows the strength of the ego.
For satisfying the id, the primitive instincts give indirect expression through various dynamic processes. There are many defence mechanisms such as fantasy, identification, sublimation and displacement, and dreams. Defence mechanisms are unconscious activities of the mind. The person does not know it directly. They are different in different persons. This process is a normal one. When it goes beyond the limit, then it leads to abnormality. The primary intension of all these processes is to meet the demands of the id without any conflict with the outside world. Some of the processes are denial, fantasy, compensation, projection, displacement, sublimation, reaction formation, regression, and repression.
Dreams are the dynamic process through which the ego maintains its strength. Therefore, the interpretation of dreams plays a significant role in the psychoanalysis method. Dream analysis plays a crucial role in psychoanalytic theory as the mode of revealing the unconscious. In psychosis, the mental symptoms like hallucination and delusion are the repressed experiences and unconscious conflicts that uncover the expression through actions. Dreams fulfil the expressions of repressed experiences. The dream is the desire to fulfilling the activity that is an impossible indirect way. It is one of the ways of providing an outlet for
LangLit
A n International Peer-Reviewed Open A ccess Journal
Special Issue 78 May 2020
Website: langlit Contact No.:+ One Day National Webinar On 8 Trauma Studies 9 Organized by Department of English, Santaji Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur(MS), India.
the repressed feelings and thoughts in the unconscious mind. The contents of the dreams are not the direct expressions of the repressed contents. The ego censors the repressed contents in the dream. To understand the unconscious mind, it is necessary to interpret the dream. Freud calls the contents of the dream as observed in the process of dreaming as manifest dreams. They express the conflicts and repressed feelings and thoughts, which found in latent-dream. The task of transforming the manifest dream into a latent dream is known as dream interpretation. Therefore, in the psychoanalysis method, dreams are the royal roads to the unconscious mind. It is usually interpreted as the ego's attempt to satisfy the essential needs of the id without the superego and external world.
Id supplies psychic energy to the child through three stages of development for becoming the adult. They are infantile sexuality, latent period, and genital stage. The psychic energy is sexual, which is specifically called libido. It manifests through biological, social, and psychological forms during the stages of development. At the time of development processes, the sexual instinct undergoes a more or less serious failure that is to pass through certain stages of development called the fixation of the instinct. These fixations will have serious consequences in later life as it determines certain characteristics of the person.
Freud suggested the counterbalancing and interaction between life instinct and the death instinct. He believed that both these instincts had a common source. He called the death instinct as ego instinct and explained that it comes from the stimulating of inanimate matter. Its aim is to the reinstatement of lifelessness. He also stated that at the time of birth, there is instinct to return to the intra-uterine life and instinct to sleep. He called it the fantasy of returning into the mother's womb. Thus, Freud's psychoanalytic theory has given significance to the death instinct.
The birth is the primary realization of the death instinct. Death is the ultimate realization of the life instinct that is governed by the pleasure principle. Life strives for the dialectical synthesis of birth and death. Life is a process of dialectical evolution aimed at the realization of an ultimate death instinct. All principles become unimportant one who achieves this ultimate destination.
Conclusion
To conclude, the psychoanalytic theory faces some criticisms mainly from two quarters. The first criticism comes from the realm of psychoanalysis. It aims against the theory of sexuality. The second one comes from outside the realm of psychoanalysis. It mainly intends to question the scientific status of the psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis method. Adler and Jung both of them are the close disciples of the Sigmund Freud departed from the mainstream of the psychoanalysis method and expressed their dissent against Freud's libido theory. These two disciples of the Freud departed from his orientation, moved their way, and established their independent schools of psychology.
Langlit II - Psychology
Course: BS Psychology
University: Polytechnic University of the Philippines
- More from:BS PsychologyPolytechnic University of the Philippines999+ Documents
