Week 8 - A History of Psychoanalysis: Freud

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Sheena Cameron
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1 Week 8 - A History of Psychoanalysis: Freud This week in Key Concepts we studied a history of psychoanalysis but with specific focus on Freud. Psychoanalysis is a philosophy of mind interested in unconscious drives or urges, where mental processes are analysed in symbolic terms. It isn t psychology or psychiatry, where psychology is a science focused on the human mind and largely unconcerned with the unconscious mind (which psychoanalytics is all about) and psychiatry is the treatment of mental illness. Psychoanalysis is as the name implies an analysis of the psyche, and looking at products of the mind from a point of view that focuses on the unconscious mind. Freud as a scientist came from a very specific milieu and thus we should frame our studies of Freud through acknowledgement of this milieu. Coming from mostly bourgeoisie nineteenth century Vienna, a lot of his work is framed through the zeitgeist of that time and place it was on the whole a sexually repressed, strongly patriarchal, middle-class culture (Zeig 1997) and in conjunction with the tension in Freud s work where he tries to prove psychoanalysis as a science (and thus depends on the existence of an empirical, universal truth), we must take this into account when viewing his theories - also notable with Freud is that when referencing Freud s theories we should keep to Standard Edition Freud and Penguin s Freud Library, as Freud developed and changed his theories over the years and these are the academic standard (so if it comes to it I ll be doing the same). In class this week we focused mainly on three of Freud s theories: the structure of the self, dreams, and the Oedipus (ed-ih-pus) and Electra complexes. The Structure of the Self One of the best ways to understand the structure of self is through the analogy of an iceberg. There is a small amount of the self which we consciously observe the tip of the iceberg. Just below the surface is the preconscious, which we can recall if we need to. Then deep

2 below the preconscious is the unconscious which is much deeper and larger and harder to understand. Freud identified the three elements of the self in his work: the ego, super-ego, and the id. The ego: Is mostly conscious Ruled by the reality principle Mediates between the id and the super-ego Is realistic, reasonable and takes things into account Develops from the id Interprets and (usually) acts on the supergo Usually functions as mostly conscious and pre-conscious Super-ego: Is idealistic rather than realistic Knows right/wrong; good/bad Moral conscience Moralising and civilising supresses unacceptable urges Learned through socialisation Develops late Id: Operates with the pleasure principle Largely unconscious We are id at birth Wants immediate gratification The id is also childish and impulsive It doesn t care for consequences and aims to decrease pain and increase pleasure The super-ego often manifests as guilt or idealistic/moralistic goals, the id is self-focused and craves pleasure, and ego moderates between the two. Every individual s self is built in this way, according to Freud. Freud and Dreams The elements of the conscious and unconscious are most clearly shown in Freud s dream theories. For Freud, dreams are a road to the unconscious. In class we explored manifest content and latent content which are main elements of Freud s dream theories. Manifest content/latent content: Manifest content is the surface content that the dreaming person will recall. In Freud s dream analytics, he says that manifest content is smaller and less important than the latent content, which is hidden. The latent content can be exposed through analysis which looks for displacement (which is an allusion or a change in emphasis in the dream), symbolisation (which is thoughts which become images). Freud also states that the secondary revision (the way the dreamer reconstructs the narrative of the dream) is a thing that can be analysed, because it shows the policing and channelling strategy of the ego, i.e. what parts the dreamer censors and what they don t.

3 Oedipus and Electra Complexes Most people have heard of the Oedipus and Electra complexes. It is one of Freud s most questioned arguments but also a very important one to analyse. These complexes try and explain the mental growing-up process of children and talk about how children (should) process jealousy and power to become functioning adults and in order to become functioning adults, these children must work through their complex. The Oedipus complex says that a male child envies the father because of the father s ability to have power over/ own the mother. The male child then wants to have that same power over the mother. Freud says that in order to be functioning adult the son must then process the envy of the father and want to have power of the mother and instead identify with the father and choose a love-object that isn t the mother. Along the same lines, the Electra complex says that a female child will desire the father but resent their identification with the mother because they recognise that essentially the mother is powerless against the father. Girls will have a case of penis-envy where they wish to have the same power over someone as the father and this leads to the want to have children, because they will have power over them. These theories are problematic for a host of reasons and are the reason why we have to view these theories through the context of Freud writing them again emphasising that Freud came from a sexually repressed, patriarchal, middle-class culture, as well as through

4 the tension in Freud s work where he is trying to prove psychoanalytics as a science with an empirical truth. This universalist mentality depends on family structures which include a mother and a father, with a dominant father and submissive mother. Critics of Freud then ask how, if every child must go through an Oedipus or Electra complex, children who grow up in non-nuclear (same sex parents, single parent, dominant mother etc) families will manifest these complexes. So, why might Freud not be correct? We discussed reasons why Freud might not be correct in some aspects of his theories and the main points we identified were: The fact that Freud depends on there being a universal/empirical truth. This can also be seen in his biological determinism where he says that regardless of social constructs that women would always be submissive because it is biologically determined, men always dominant, etc. Freud generally does not respect political and social contexts in his theories. Transference Freud says that the analysand (the individual being psychoanalysed) will project romantic or hostile feelings from their past traumas onto the analyst. It s argued that Freud comes up with this so there is no room for his analysands to criticise him, because he could blame the criticism on transference. So in conclusion it s clear that Freud does have several issues in his theories. However, he was the first to come up with them and really did lay the foundation for further exploration into the unconscious minds and social relationships that s humans have. His work laid the foundation for future generations to follow up on his work and his importance to the fields of the humanities and those which study the human mind should not be discounted.

5 Bibliography Zeig. J. K. (1997) The Evolution of Psychotherapy: The Third Conference Hove: Psychology Press, p.24

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