Alexandria Hall Essays - Freudian Psychology, Psychology

Alexandria Hall Brian Lisle PHIL 3500 5 December 2016 Psychoanalytic Theory When Sigmund Freud said, " the first person who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization, " he was highlighting the significance of this moment, as it was an example of one of the first times that anyone denied their primitive urge s for social reasons. This concept of self-denial fascinated Freud; he spent much of his life conducting trials to aid him in studying self-denial and other related phenomena , such as desire, sexuality, consciousness, and free will. He compiled his research to develop psychoanalysis, a clinical practice. This clinical, psychological practice inspired many researchers and philosophers, particularly Jacques Lacan , to branch off of Freud's ideas and eventually develop a new way of looking at literature, the psychoanalytic theory. T hough t his theory is no longer popularly used in modern literary cri ticism, it proves useful in the analyza tion of some of the possible origins of sexism within society. However, before one attempts to embrace this endeavor of determining possible origins of such a complex concept, it is important to gain thorough understanding of both Freud's and Lacan's versions of psychoanalysis. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, contributed many great ideas that have propelled the advancement of both psychology and philosophy. Perhaps the most influential of these ideas was his theory of the id, the ego, and the superego. An id, according to Freud, is the unconscious, instinctual, primitive part of the psyche. What this means is that the id is a part of all human psychology that motivates the impulsive, animal-like drives that are innately instilled in all people. All of this motivation is entirely unconscious, meaning people are never cognitively aware that they are being driven by the id. Furthermore, the id, unlike the ego and the superego, remains infantile throughout the entirety of a person's life. In other words, it does not grow, change, or become influenced by any external force or ideology. This resilience is because the id is never exposed to the external world and therefore cannot be influenced by any of the experiences a person might encounter. T hus, the id remains untainted by social expectations and can consequently be overly-aspirant, self-seeking, and highly chaotic. To help balance out this chaos, according to Freud, the psych developed a mechanism called the ego which acts as a sort of mediator between the id and the external world. Taking the wishes of the id into consideration, the ego operates on the reality principles which uses logic and reason to achieve the best way of satisfying the desires of the id. However, despite its highly reasonable nature, the ego has no moralistic capacity. In other words, the ego is unaware of what is considered m orally right or wrong; according to the id, anything is right if it somehow satisfies the id's desires. Thus, the ego is concerned with social norms, but not with moralistic expectations of society. The ego must work to fight the strength of the id and guide people to make socially-acceptable decisions. In Freud ' s own words, the ego is " like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse , " the horse, in this case, being the id (FREUD CITATION) . However, if the id is the origin of human instinctual desire and the ego is the logical decision-making part of the psyche, and neither of these take moral obligations into account, then what is responsible for the ethical decision making that people practice in their everyday lives? Freud's answer is something called the superego, which develops in children between the ages of three and five. The superego helps to keep both of id and the ego in control by directing the ego to make decisions that not only fulfill desires but also meet the moral expectations of society. The superego achieves this control through what is called the conscience, not to be confused with conscious. The conscience is the part of the superego that disciplines the ego for making morally poor decisions by inducing feelings of remorse, guilt, and regret. Another aspect of the superego