Critical Studies

Module III – PSYCHOANALYSIS

Unit 4 – Concepts
Libido, Pleasure Principle, Reality Principle, Oedipus Complex, Penis Envy, Freudian Slips,
Archetypes, Collective Unconscious, the Persona, the Self, the Shadow.
SIGMUND FREUD

Psychology's most famous figure is also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers
of the 20th century. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist born in 1856, is often referred to
as the "father of modern psychology."

Freud revolutionized how we think about and treat mental health conditions. Freud founded
psychoanalysis as a way of listening to patients and better understanding how their minds
work. Psychoanalysis continues to have an enormous influence on modern psychology and
psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud's theories and work helped shape current views of dreams, childhood,
personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Freud's work also laid the foundation for many
other theorists to formulate ideas, while others developed new theories in opposition to his
ideas.

SIGMUND FREUD’S THEORIES

Freud's theories were enormously influential but subject to considerable criticism both now
and during his life. However, his ideas have become interwoven into the fabric of our culture,
with terms such as “Freudian Slips”, "repression," and "denial" appearing regularly in
everyday language.

Freud's theories include:

 Unconscious Mind: This is one of his most enduring ideas, which is that the mind is
a reservoir of thoughts, memories, and emotions that lie outside the awareness of the
conscious mind.
 Personality: Freud proposed that personality was made up of three key elements: the
id, ego and superego. The ego is the conscious state, the id is the unconscious, and the
superego is the moral or ethical framework that regulates how the ego operates.
 Life and Death Instincts: Freud claimed that two classes of instincts, life and death,
dictated human behaviour. Life instincts include sexual procreation, survival and
pleasure; death instincts include aggression, self-harm, and destruction.
 Psychosexual Development: Freud's theory of psychosexual development posits that
there are five stages of growth in which people's personalities and sexual selves
evolve. These phases are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage, and
genital stage.
 Mechanisms of defense: Freud suggested that people use defense mechanisms to
avoid anxiety. These mechanisms include displacement, repression, sublimation, and
regression.
MAJOR CONCEPTS

Id, Ego and Super Ego

Perhaps Freud’s single most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche
(personality) has more than one aspect. According to Freud, human personality is complex
and to study this complex mind he formulated a personality theory.

According to this personality theory (1923), the psyche structured into three parts (i.e.,
tripartite), the id, ego, and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These are
systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical, but rather hypothetical
conceptualizations of important mental functions.

These elements work together to create complex human behaviours. Each component adds its
own unique contribution to personality and the three interact in ways that have a powerful
influence on an individual. Each element of personality emerges at different points in life.

The Id

 According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary
component of personality.
 The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
 This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and
primitive behaviours.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all
desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of
anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate
attempt to eat or drink.

The id is very important early in life because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the
infant is hungry or uncomfortable, they will cry until the demands of the id are satisfied.
Young infants are ruled entirely by the id; there is no reasoning with them when these needs
demand satisfaction.

Examples of the Id

Imagine trying to convince a baby to wait until lunchtime to eat their meal. The id requires
immediate satisfaction, and because the other components of personality are not yet present,
the infant will cry until these needs are fulfilled.

However, immediately fulfilling these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we
were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing the things that
we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our cravings.

This behaviour would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the
id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the use of primary
process thinking, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object to satisfy the
need.
Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality remains the same
infantile, primal force throughout life. It is the development of the ego and the superego that
allows people to control the id’s basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and
socially acceptable.

The Ego

 According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the
id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.
 The ego is the personality component responsible for dealing with reality.

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in
realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of
an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.

The ego is the only part of the conscious personality. It’s what the person is aware of when
they think about themselves and what they usually try to project toward others.

The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the real external world. It is the
decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id
is chaotic and unreasonable.

The ego develops from the id during infancy. The ego’s goal is to satisfy the id’s demands in
a safe and socially acceptable way. In contrast to the id, the ego follows the reality principle
as it operates in both the conscious and unconscious mind.

The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying
the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative
consequences of society.

The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette, and rules in deciding how to behave.

Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure (i.e., tension reduction) and avoids pain, but unlike the id,
the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure.

The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of
satisfying without causing harm to itself or the id.

Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is stay on,
pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were
its own.

If the ego fails to use the reality principle and anxiety is experienced, unconscious defense
mechanisms are employed to help ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good
things feel better for the individual.

The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and orientated
toward problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought through again
until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control
their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.

The Superego

The last component of personality to develop is the superego.

 According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.

 The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from
our parents and society (our sense of right and wrong).
 The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.

The superego has two parts:

1. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents
and society. These behaviours are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences,
punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.
2. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviours that the ego aspires to.

The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behaviour. It suppresses all id's unacceptable
urges and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than on realistic
principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

Examples of the Superego

For example, if you give in to the urges of the id, the superego is what will cause you to feel a
sense of guilt or even shame about your actions. The superego may help you feel good about
your behaviour when you suppress your most primal urges.

Other examples of the superego include:

 A woman feels an urge to steal office supplies from work. However, her superego
counteracts this urge by focusing on the fact that such behaviours are wrong.
 A man realizes that the cashier at the store forgot to charge him for one of the items
he had in his cart. He returns to the store to pay for the item because his internalized
sense of right and wrong urge him to do so.
 A student forgot to study for a history test and feels an urge to cheat off of a student
sitting nearby. Even though he feels like the chances of getting caught are low, he
knows that cheating is wrong, so he suppresses the urge.

Pleasure Principle

The pleasure principle is a term originally used by Sigmund Freud to characterize the
tendency of people to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Freud argued that people will
sometimes go to great lengths to avoid even momentary pain, particularly at times of
psychological weakness or vulnerability.

It is the view that human beings are governed by the desire for gratification, or pleasure, and
for the discharge of tension that builds up as pain or “unpleasure” when gratification is
lacking. In the classical psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, the pleasure principle is the
psychic force that motivates people to seek immediate gratification of instinctual, or libidinal,
impulses, such as sex, hunger, thirst, and elimination. It dominates the id and operates most
strongly during childhood. Later, in adulthood, it is opposed by the reality principle of
the ego. Also called pleasure–pain principle.

Reality Principle

In Freudian psychology and psychoanalysis, the reality principle is the ability of the mind to
assess the reality of the external world, and to act upon it accordingly, as opposed to acting
according to the pleasure principle.

The ego is the component of personality that deals with the demands of reality. It makes sure
that the desires of the id are satisfied in ways that are effective and appropriate—in other
words, the ego is ruled by the reality principle.

The reality principle forces us to consider the risks, requirements, and possible outcomes as
we make decisions by temporarily halting the discharge of the id's energy until a suitable time
and place. In other words, the ego doesn't try to block an urge, but instead, it works to make
certain the desires of the id are met in ways that are safe, realistic, and appropriate. For
example, rather than snatching that slice of pizza, the ego will force you to wait until you can
buy your own slice, a delay achieved through what is known as the secondary process
thinking.

Oedipus Complex

Oedipus complex takes its name from Greek mythology to describe a psychological theory
involving how children view their parents.

Oedipus complex is a psychosexual theory first developed by neurologist Sigmund Freud in

1899. Freud used the phrase to describe the experience of children feeling a possessive
fixation or desire toward the parent of their opposite sex, along with rival feelings toward the
parent of their same sex.

Its characteristics become apparent during the phallic stage development, stemming
from Freud's theory of the psychosexual stages of development. During this phase, ages 3-6,
the life force (source of libido) is emphasized in the child's erogenous zones, and the child
recognizes the sexual distinctions between women and men.

According to Freud, this development causes the child to unconsciously desire their parent of
the opposite sex and to be jealous of their parent of the same sex. The male child usually
becomes jealous of his father because he sees him as the object of his mother's affection and
thinks about getting rid of his father and replacing him as his mother's companion. The boy
also develops castration anxiety, meaning that he is afraid of both literal and physical
emasculation by his father. Although the Oedipus complex can apply to both males and
females, it is mostly used to refer to males.

Penis Envy

According to Freud, Penis envy is a stage of development experienced only by female

children and occurs when a girl first notices the differences in male and female anatomy
and longs to have a penis of her own. He suggested that this moment is critical for sexual
awareness and gender role differentiation in women. After a girl realizes she lacks a
penis, she may be envious of boys. She may then begin to sexually desire her father and
blame her mother for her apparent castration, longing for the death or disappearance of
her mother. To cope with this conflict, a girl begins to mimic her mother, but later
realizes she cannot have her father. To cope with this fact, her sexual desire is displaced
onto men generally, marking the beginning of heterosexuality.

Freudian Slips

Freudian slips are named after their creator, famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In his 1901
book, "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life," Freud described a variety of different types
and examples of Freudian slips, writing that speech blunders are the result of a "disturbing
influence of something outside of the intended speech" like an unconscious thought, belief, or
wish.

In simple terms, a Freudian slip is a verbal or memory mistake linked to the unconscious
mind. Also known as parapraxis, these slips supposedly reveal secret thoughts and feelings
that people hold. Typical examples include an individual calling their spouse by an ex's
name, saying the wrong word, or even misinterpreting a written or spoken word.

In Freud's view, unacceptable thoughts or beliefs are withheld from conscious awareness, and
these slips help reveal what is hidden in the unconscious.

Essay- The Conscious and the Unconscious

Summary

 The division of the psychic realm into the conscious and the unconscious is the
fundamental premiss of psychoanalysis and this enables psychoanalysis to understand
the pathological (caused by feelings that you cannot control) process that are common
and important feature of psychic life.

 According to Freud, psychoanalysis cannot regard the psyche as being coterminous

with consciousness, but necessarily sees consciousness as just one particular quality
of the psychical which may or may not manifest itself.

 Psyche is not just made of the conscious layer but there are notions or thoughts that
can come into the conscious and there are other thoughts which remain repressed and
hidden from the conscious psyche.

 When you say something is conscious, we use the term in the descriptive sense that is,
it is very lucid and clear. A conscious thought is something which can be described
clearly.

 But Freud points out that the conscious awareness is typically short lived. A notion
tends to be conscious one moment, then no longer conscious the next. For example,
there are times you try hard to remember something but fail to do so. But when you
 are given a hint, you suddenly remember it. According to Freud, such notions are
latent thoughts. Latent thoughts are those thoughts which can be brought any time into
consciousness.

 Freud wanted a new term for such latent thoughts and that is how the new term
‘preconscious’ was introduced.

 Thus, Freud concludes that human psyche is divided into three layers- Conscious,
Preconscious and Unconscious.

 The Unconscious contains two kinds of thoughts- the latent thoughts and the dynamic
thoughts. The latent thoughts can be brought into the consciousness anytime. The
dynamic thoughts are those thoughts which remain suppressed or repressed and
constitutes the unconscious.

 The concept of Unconscious comes from the theory of repressed.

ESSAY NOTES

The famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behaviour and personality were
derived from the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that
operate at three different levels of awareness: the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious
minds. He believed that each of these parts of the mind plays an important role in influencing
behaviour.

In order to understand Freud's theory, it is essential to first understand what he believed each
part of personality did, how it operated, and how these three elements interact to contribute to
the human experience. Each level of awareness has a role to play in shaping human behaviour
and thought.

Freud delineated the mind in distinct levels, each with their own roles and functions. The
three levels of the mind are:

 The preconscious consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the
conscious mind.
 The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of
which we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing
that we can think and talk about rationally. This also includes our memory, which is
not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily and brought into
awareness.
 The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that
are outside of our conscious awareness. The unconscious contains contents that are
unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

Freud likened the three levels of mind to an iceberg. The top of the iceberg that you can see
above the water represents the conscious mind. The part of the iceberg that is submerged
below the water, but is still visible, is the preconscious. The bulk of the iceberg that lies
unseen beneath the waterline represents the unconscious mind, often also referred to simply
as the unconscious.
Effects of unconscious mind on behaviour

While the information in the unconscious mind is outside of awareness, it continues to have
an influence on a person's behaviour. Some of the ways the unconscious can affect behaviour
include:

 Negative thoughts
 Self-defeating thoughts and behaviours
 Feelings of anger
 Compulsive behaviours
 Childhood behavioural problems
 Difficulties in interpersonal relationships
 Distressing patterns in romantic relationships
 Attitudes about others
 Unhealthy habits
 Distressing dreams
 First impressions of other people
 Prejudice and stereotypes

The Freudian Slip

Another example of the unconscious mind can be seen in what are known as slips of the
tongue. Many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip at
some point or another. These misstatements are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious
thoughts or feelings.

Freud believed that while the unconscious mind is largely inaccessible, the contents can
sometimes bubble up unexpectedly, such as in dreams or slips of the tongue.

An example of a Freudian slip is a man who accidentally uses a former girlfriend's name
when referring to a current girlfriend. While most of us might believe this to be a simple
error, Freud believed that the slip showed the sudden intrusion of the unconscious mind into
the conscious mind, often due to unresolved or repressed feelings.

According to Freud, thoughts and emotions outside of our awareness continue to exert an
influence on our behaviours, even though we are unaware (unconscious) of these underlying
influences.

The unconscious mind can include repressed feelings, hidden memories, habits, thoughts,
desires, and reactions. Memories and emotions that are too painful, embarrassing, shameful,
or distressing to consciously face is stored in the enormous reservoir that makes up the
unconscious mind.