Sigmund Freud

How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved!

Summary

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the Psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behaviour.

Freud is best known for his theories of the Unconscious Mind and the defense mechanism of Sexual Repression.

He is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including his theory of Transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the presumed value of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.

He created a Structural Model of the Psyche - Conscious/ Unconscious Mind, Ego/ Id/ Superego (see Vital Unconscious, Biocentric Principle, and Psychological Aspects of Biodanza).

Ideas

• The Pleasure Principle - all behavior is motivated by the desire to feel pleasure.
• Topographical Model of the Mind - Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious Mind.
• Structural Model of the Psyche - Id, Superego, and Ego
• Defence Mechanisms - Psychological strategies to cope with reality and to maintain self-image.
• Sexual Repression - Chief psychological problem of mankind.

The Pleasure Principle

All behavior is motivated by the desire to feel pleasure:

• The two principles of mental functioning are survival and pleasure.
• Motivation is organized and directed by two instincts:
  • Eros - Love/ Libido/ Life force, and
  • Thanatos - Death force.
• These instincts are expressions of the Id
• The successful repression of Id impulses is called Sublimation (transfer of emotions), which is a prerequisite of civilization.
• Both these instincts are powered by a form of internal psychic energy - Libido.

Topographical Model of the Mind

Freud divided mind into:

• The Conscious Mind - Consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware,
• The Preconcious Mind - Contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness,
• The Unconscious Mind - Contains our biologically based instincts (Eros and Thanatos) for the primitive urges for sex and aggression.

According to Freud, the unconscious is the source of our motivations, whether they be simple desires for food or sex, Neurotic Compulsions, or the motives of an artist or scientist. However, we are often driven to deny or resist becoming conscious of these motives, and they are often available to us only in disguised form.

Freud's Unconcious (Jung's Personal Unconscious ) is generated by our own personal history when our instincts encounter the Ecofactors that stimulate or inhibit our Human Potential.

It can be accessed by:

• Dream Interpretation:
  • A dream is only apparently meaningless: it is meaningless if interpreted from the conscious motives.
  • The dream is perfectly logical if one considers also the unconscious motives.
  • Meaning of dreams are hidden and reflect memories of emotionally meaningful experience.
  • Dreams rely on memories and are assembled by the brain to deliver a meaning.
  • Dreams are not prophecies but memories.
  • Free Associations are evoked during dreams.
• The technique of Free Association,
• Analysing the Defence Mechanisms of the Ego, and
• Anamnesis - medical history (particularly of the sexual history).

Structural Model of the Psyche

Freud proposed three structures of the Psyche or personality:

• Id - A selfish, primitive, childish, pleasure-oriented part of the personality with no ability to delay gratification:
  • Instinctive impulses manifest as primordial desire,
  • The Id is repressed through social standards imposed from childhood,
  • This creates a psychic conflict between instinct and the force of repression - the Superego
• Superego - Internalized societal and parental standards of good/ bad and right/ wrong behavior.
• Ego - The moderator between the Id and Superego which seeks compromises to pacify both. When the Ego fails to adapt to reality the Superego wins (repression) and fears/ frustration are sent to the unconcious, creating neurotic symptoms.

The model of self is constructed in terms of the Id (which represents Instinct), the Ego (which represents Reason), and the Superego (which represents Compromise).

The iceberg metaphor is often used to explain the psyche's parts in relation to one another.

Defense Mechanisms

Defence Mechanisms are psychological strategies brought into play by individuals, groups, and even nations to cope with reality and to maintain self-image:

• The Ego will employ Defence Mechanisms to protect the individual from anxiety,
• Feelings of guilt, embarrassment and shame often accompany the feeling of anxiety,
• Healthy persons normally use different defences throughout life,
• An Ego driven Defence Mechanism becomes pathological when its persistent use leads to behavior such that the physical/ mental health of the individual is adversely affected.

Sexual Repression

Freud's work on Sexual Repression - re-evaluating of the role of sex and sexual behavior - has perhaps had the greatest impact on human life in the West during the 20th century:

• He taught that sexual repression was the chief psychological problem of mankind and surmised that repression and constriction of sexual behavior in youth would become manifest in adulthood,
• He believed that sexual repression was rampant, unhealthy, and the indirect cause of much crime and illness,
• Western society had long treated sex as a taboo subject and there had been great neglect of appropriate help and correction,
• Through Psychoanalysis, Freud set out to uncover his patients' sexual repression.
• It was his contention that sex surrounds almost every human action and emotion even from infancy, and his teachings have profoundly shaped the everyday thinking of modern society,
• Infant behaviour exhibits primitive sexuality - the roots of neurosis lie in infant experience.
• Children may feel both jealousy and hostility toward one parent and love for the other - Oedipal Complex.
• Unfortunately many people now believe that they are merely victims of the Preconscious Mind, which is shaped by past events and relationships over which they have no control,
• Freud's doctrine of unnatural repression has been used as a broad brush to whitewash behavior that society has traditionally considered inappropriate.
• Together with Franz Alexander and Sandor Ferenczi, Freud developed the concept of Autoplastic Adaptation. They proposed that when an individual was presented with a stressful situation, he could react in one of two ways:
  • Autoplastic Adaptation: The subject tries to change himself, i.e. the internal environment.
  • Alloplastic Adaptation: The subject tries to change the situation, i.e. the external environment.