Category: Sigmund Freud

Biographical Details

Freud was born on may 6th 1856, Freiberg, Moravia to Hasidic Jewish parents. The family moved to Leipzig and then settled in Vienna, where Freud was educated. He was proved an outstanding student, excelling in languages, and English literature.

At the age of 17, Freud joined the medical facility at the University of Vienna to study a range of subjects, such as philosophy, physiology and zoology. He graduated in 1881 and began working at the Vienna General hospital. He worked in various different departments, such as the psychiatric clinic and also combines medical practise with research work. In 1873 he began to study medicine at the university of Vienna. He qualified as a doctor of medicine. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.

He lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practise there in 1886, specialising in nervous disorders. His approach was to encourage patients to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis

Interesting facts

1. He was initially an advocate and user of Cocaine. Freud developed an interest in the potential antidepressant effects of cocaine and initially advocated its use for a variety of purposes and after the addictive and harmful side effects of cocaine became known, Freud’s medical reputation suffered somewhat as a result.
2. He became a doctor to marry the woman he loved: When Freud was 26, he fell madly in love with a 21-year-old woman named Martha Bernays and they became engaged two months later. As a poor student still living with his parents, Freud’s science lab job did not pay enough to support a family. ‘ Six months after they met, Freud gave up his scientific career and become a doctor. He spent three years training at the Vienna General Hospital. After four years of waiting, Freud and Bernays were married on September 14, 1886. The couple went on to have six children. However, that Freud later had an affair with his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays.
3. Freud had more than 30 surgeries to treat mouth cancer. Freud has been a heavy cigar smoker all his life. In 1939, after his cancer had been deemed inoperable, Freud asked his doctor to help him commit suicide. The doctor administered three separate doses of morphine and Freud died September 23, 1939.
4. Freuds daughter, anna, was also a famous and influential psychologist. Anna Freud began her career influenced by her father’s theories. She was far from simply living in her father’s rather long shadow, however made important contributions of her own to psychology. She founded child psychoanalysis and summarised the ego’s defence mechanisms in her book ‘The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence [1936]

Theories of Personality

Sigmund Freud developed a collection of theories which have formed the basis of the psychodynamic approach to psychology. The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within a person, particularly unconscious, and between the different structures of the personality.

Freud believes that personality develops from our efforts to resolve the conflict between our biological urges and our internalized, socialized reactions to these

Key features and basic assumptions

Unconscious mind:

• Freud [1915] described conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware, and this is seen as the ‘tip of the iceberg i.e. your thirsty so you go grab a drink.
• the unconscious mind comprises mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings or behaviour.
• The preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness. Mild emotional experiences may be present but the traumatic and powerful negative emotions are repressed and hence not available in this level of conscious i.e. you’re not presently thinking of your mobile number but you can recall it with ease
• Collected unconscious: like Freud, Jung emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. However, he proposed it consisted of two layers. Personal unconscious, and Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious: comprising latent memories from out ancestral and evolutionary past. According to Jung, the human mind has innate characteristics “imprinted” on it as a result of evolution.

Psyche: Freud describes the personality structure as the interaction of three systems:

• Id: is the primitive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth. The id is the impulsive part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs and desires. Governed by instinctual drives, especially those related to sex and aggression. Obeys the pleasure principle. [entirely in unconscious mind]
• Superego: incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others. Its function is to control the Id’s impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. [divided between conscious and unconscious mind]
• Ego: develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic. It induces people to act with reason and deliberation, and to conform to the requirements of the outside world. Obeys the reality principle. [divided between conscious and unconscious mind]

Defence mechanisms: they are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings. They are used to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt, which arise because we feel threatened, or because our id or superego becomes too demanding. They operate at an unconscious level and help ward off unpleasant feelings or make good things feel better for an individual.

Types of defence mechanisms:

• Repression: employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious
• Denial: blocking external events from awareness
• Projection: involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives onto another person
• Displacement: satisfying impulse with a substitute object
• Regression: this is a movement when one is faced with stress i.e. sucking of the thumb
• Sublimation: satisfying the impulse with a substitute object in a socially acceptable way i.e. sport

Psychosexual development

Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place during I’ve psychosexual stages:

• Oral: the mouth – sucking, swallowing, etc [ego develops]
• Anal: the anus – withholding or expelling faeces
• Phallic: the penis or clitoris – masturbation [superego develops]
• Latency: little or no sexual motivation present
• Genital: the penis or vagina – sexual intercourse

Each stage represents the fixation of libido on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration, pleasure or both.

Psychosocial development: Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. Successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues.

Psychosocial crisis Stages include:

1. Trust vs. Mistrust – [0-18 months]. The infant develops a sense of trust when interactions provide reliability, care and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.
2. Autonomy vs. shame – [18 months-3 years] The infant develops a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence. It is critical that parents allow their children to explore the limits of their abilities within an encouraging environment which is tolerant of failure. Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.
3. Initiative vs. guilt – [3-5 years] The child begins to assert control and power over their environment by planning activities, accomplishing tasks and facing challenges. Success at this stage leads to a sense of purpose, if initiative is dismissed children develop a sense of guilt.
4. Industry vs. inferiority – [5-12 years] It is at this stage that the child’s peer group will gain greater significance and will become a major source of the child’s self-esteem. The child is coping with new learning and social demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
5. Identity vs. role confusion – [12-18 years]. Teenagers explore who they are as individuals, and seek to establish a sense of self, and may experiment with different roles, activities, and behaviours. This is important to process of forming a strong identity and developing a sense of direction in life.
6. Intimacy vs isolation – [19-40 years] during this period, the major conflict centres on forming intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.
7. Generativity vs. stagnation – [40-65 years] people experience a need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often having mentees or creating positive changes that will benefit other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.
8. Ego Integrity vs despair – [65+ years] involves reflecting on one’s lie and either moving into feeling satisfied and happy with one’s life or feelings a deep sense of regret. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Basic assumptions:

Our behaviours and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives: the unconscious mind embodies mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behaviours. According to Freud the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behaviour. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives, and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences and stored in the unconscious.

Our behaviour and feelings as adults [including psychological problems] are rooted in our childhood experiences: psychodynamic theory states that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. Events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious, and cause problems as adults.

All behaviours have a cause [usually unconscious]: Therefore, all behaviour is determined: psychodynamic theory is strongly determinist as it views our behaviour as caused entirely by unconscious factors over which we have no control. Unconscious thoughts and feelings can be transferred to the conscious mind from the form of revealing what is really on our mind by saying something we didn’t mean to. Slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious mind.

Personality is made up of three parts: the id, ego and super-ego: the id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth. The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. The super ego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others.

Parts of the unconscious mind, the id and super ego, are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind, the ego. This conflict creates anxiety, which could be dealt with by the ego’s use of defence mechanisms.

Origins of Personality

Freud is most associated with psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic model; however, he actually first got his idea for his model from an advisor he had worked under, his first-year adviser, Ernst Von Brücke. It is Freud that took the idea and further developed it into a full model. Freud greatly admired Brücke and quickly became indoctrinated by this new dynamic physiology.

He based many parts of his model on actual patients he was working with, which is challenging because the population tended to be wealthy, white women, who were having psychological problems.

Methods of Testing

• Case study: Freud conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses. Case studies are widely used in psychology and amongst the best know were the ones carried by Sigmund Freud, including Anno O and Little Hans
• Dream analysis: it is in dreams that the ego’s defences are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to awareness. Freud went on to propose that a major function of dreams was the fulfillment of wishes. The purpose of dreamwork is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-threatening form, thus reducing anxiety.
• Free association: a simple technique of psychodynamic therapy, is free association, in which a patient talks of whatever comes into their mind. This technique involves a therapist reading a list of words and the patient immediately respond with the first word that comes to mind.
• Projective tests: The ink blots itself don’t mean anything, it’s what you read into it that is important. Different people will see different things depending on what unconscious connections they make.
• Slips of tongue: unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the term of parapraxes, known as slips of tongue. We reveal what is really on our mind by saying something we didn’t mean to.

Contributions of the theory

Freuds psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory but the psychodynamic approach as a whole include all theories that were based on his ideas:

• Jung [1964]: whom made the contribution of collective-unconscious the second layer to personality whereby he emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. However, he proposed it consisted of two layers. Personal unconscious; essentially the same as Freud’s version of the unconscious. And Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious. This level of unconscious shared with other members of the human species comprising latent memories from out ancestral and evolutionary past.
• Alder [1927]: along with the concepts such as traits, the unconscious, and self-actualization, in psychology the concept of inferiority complex is used to explain personality. First developed by Alder in the 1920s, the concept played an important role in his theory of individual psychology.
• Erikson [1950]: who made the contribution of the psychosocial development where the 8 stages of psychosocial development maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. Successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues.
• Anna Freud [1936]: became a major force in British Psychology, specializing in the application of psychoanalysis to children. Among her best-known works are The Ego and the Mechanism of Defense.

Limitations of the theory

1. Simplifying the human mind into the id, ego and superego and the five psychosexual stages make the approach reductionist
2. Too deterministic: there is little free will to the theory and relates to the philosophical doctrine that all events including human interaction are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.
3. Unfalsifiable: it is difficult to prove wrong
4. The psychodynamic approach places too much emphasis on the psychological factors, without considering the biological/genetic factors that influence and contribute to mental health problems
5. The theory ignores mediational processes such as thinking
6. Case studies are too subjective and cannot generalise results from the data

References

1. Bbc.co.uk. (2019). BBC – History – Sigmund Freud. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
2. Betterhelp.com. (2019). History And Principles Of The Psychodynamic Model | Betterhelp. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/behavior/history-and-principles-of-the-psychodynamic-model/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
3. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Carl Jung. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html
4. McLeod, S. A. (2016, Feb 05). Id, ego and superego. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
5. McLeod, S. A. (2019, April 10). Defense mechanisms. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.ht [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
6. McLeod, S. A. (2019, July 18). Psychosexual stages. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.htm [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
7. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
8. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
9. McLeod, S. A. (2017). Psychodynamic approach. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychodynamic.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
10. McLeod, S. A. (2019, Aug 03). Case study method. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/case-study.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
11. McLeod, S. A. (2018, April 05). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud?. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
12. McLeod, S. A. (2014). Psychoanalysis. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html[Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
13. McLeod, S. A. (2015). Unconscious mind. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html[Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
14. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Carl Jung. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
15. McLeod, S. A. (2016, Feb 05). Id, ego and superego. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
16. McLeod, S. A. (2019, April 10). Defense mechanisms. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.ht[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
17. McLeod, S. A. (2019, July 18). Psychosexual stages. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.htm[Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and credited for the discovery of psychoanalysis. He spent much of his life researching and studying psychology and it took him almost nine years to graduate with his medical degree because he spent so much time interested in neurophysiological research. He sought his medical degree for financial reasons but continued to study his true interests and learn about mental health.

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia which is now Příbor, Czechia on May 6, 1856. His full name was Sigismund Schlomo Freud. Jakob Freud, his father, was forty-one when he had Sigmund. Jakob already had two grown children by a previous marriage. Amalia, Sigmund’s mother, was twenty-one when Sigmund was born. He was her first child. Jakob and Amalia had 7 more children later on. Freud talked about how he was his mothers favorite. Jakob was a merchant. Sigmund was four years old when his father’s business failed, and his family was forced to move. They settled in Vienna, Austria.

Freud graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium and began medical school at age seventeen. He was not overly thrilled to study medicine. His true passion was science, but he chose medical for financial reasons and attended the University of Vienna. It took him a very long time to complete his studies because he was distracted with doing scientific research, such as dissecting eels and fish to study their organs.

As Freud was in college, he became more intrigued with research and studies of the mind. In 1882, he became a doctor at the General Hospital in Vienna and trained with psychiatrist Theodor Meynert and Hermann Nothnagel, professor of medicine. By 1885, Freud finished a great research project studying the brain’s medullain and became the lead spokesman on neuropathology. His friend, Josef Breuer, a psychologist, had a large impact on Freud’s career. Breuer introduced Freud to hypnosis with a patient of his. He shared with Freud how he would hypnotize the patient and she would talk through her problems and of things she could not remember in her conscious state. The practice was called the “talking-cure.” Freud opened a practice in Vienna specialized in nervous and brain disorders. He determined that hypnosis did not work as well as he hoped and tried a different approach. He ordered his patients to lay down and relax and talk about their feelings. Freud would write down and analyze their words. He named this method “free association.” After this discovery, he shared his findings with Breuer and together they published a paper called Studies in Hysteria in 1895.

In 1896, Freud developed a process called “depth psychology” or known as the psychoanalysis. This is defined as a system of psychological theory and therapy which aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. Freud was studying dream interpretation and believed dreams were full filled wishes of the unconscious mind. He developed a theory that there were three agencies of the human personality called the id, ego, and superego. Id was primitive instincts such as sex and aggression. Ego was “self” and how it interacted with the world. Superego was defined as the ethical and moral part of the personality that created moral standards for the ego. He published a book called “Interpretation of Dreams in 1990. In 1901 he published “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ which explained his theory that a slip of the tongued was not accidental, but it explained something meaningful about the person. “Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory” was published in 1905 which explained his theories on sexual drive and writes about how everything is centered from sexual drive beginning in infantry. He goes on the assign sexual meaning to everything.

Sigmund Freud made some of the most renown discoveries of his era. He was married to Martha Bernays in 1887 and they had six children. One of those six children, Anna, followed in Sigmund Freuds footsteps and had as much interest in psychology as he. She went on to become a famous psychologist herself. He left a deep footprint in the world of mental health. He taught about the unconscious mind, repression, and denial. It was because of him; mental disorders were no longer considered only “organic” diseases. Despite all his controversial theories and fame, he was a devoted man to his friends and family. He kept a small circle of friends, which he was ever loyal too and was deeply connected with his family. He enjoyed painting, art, music, and had a hobby of collecting mushrooms. He loved traveling and reading. He was a seeker of knowledge. Freud embraced his own discoveries and was eager to share them with the world. He was also intrigued with the works of his colleagues and embraced their work as well. After many years of smoking cigars, in 1923, Freud was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of his palate. He went through over thirty mouth surgeries, removing parts of his jaw, over a sixteen-year span. During this period and through all his pain, he still refused to quit smoking which lead to his death in 1939 through euthanasia from a private physician. He was cremated, and his ashes were placed in an ancient Greek urn with that of his wife’s ashes.

The question I will be answering is

Discuss the impact on an individual of a conflict between the structures of the mind identified by Freud.

Some well-known psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, carl rogers, and Ivan Pavlov made major contributions in the field of psychology in the understanding of the human mind and behaviour, some of these psychologists were major thinkers and others caused controversy, however, all of them have a major impact on the psychology field, Sigmund Freud’s famous theory was the id, ego and superego, there are however thought to be five major theories on psychology these are biological, psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive and humanistic. Today I will be discussing the id, ego and superego conflicts.

Sigmund Freud theory on the id ego and superego states that each part is responsible for different behaviors, the id, in particular, is responsible for the moral conscience and instinct it mediates between the id and superego it also contains inherited genes we have at birth from our parents, the ego is responsible for working by reason it is able to mediate between the unrealistic and the outer real world, it seeks pleasure yet avoids pain yet it has no concept of what is right or wrong, the ego is also problem-solving so it will always run through a plan until it finds a solution, the superego learns values of morals in society, it contains two components the conscience and the ideal self it can punish the ego by feelings of guilt yet it can also reward us by feeling proud.

When all three go into conflict a multitude of problems can arise mainly anxiety, low self-esteem, disruptive behaviour, Sigmund Freud believed that psychological disorders and particularly the experience of anxiety occur when there is an imbalance or conflict in the id, ego and superego, when the ego finds that the id is pressing too hard for immediate pleasure, it attempts to correct this by using a defence mechanism unconscious psychological strategies used to maintain a positive self-image, an example of the id and superego in conflict could be that similar to a stay home and study or go out and party situation, the conscience of superego would urge us to stay home and study whereas the pleasure seeking id would urge us to go out and enjoy the party, Freud believed that defense mechanisms were essential for coping with everyday life, but any of them could be overused thus leading to conflict, (table 11.4 “the major Freudian defense mechanisms”) examples of the table and the conflicts that can arise are displacements diverting a threatening impulse away from the source of anxiety to a more acceptable source projection disguising threatening impulses by directing them towards others, rationalization generating self-justifying explanations for our negative behaviour, reaction formation making unacceptable motives appear as the exact opposite, regression retreating to a child-like state and safer stage of development, repression or denial pushing anxiety arousing thoughts into the unconscious, sublimination channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive thoughts into acceptable desires (table 11.4 “the major Freudian defense mechanisms”).

When the three go into conflict it can also cause behaviour that’s neither lawful or legal with no moral consequences Sigmund Freud contends that crime is is the substitute of symbolic behaviour in a human being, theft would be committed out of financial insecurities and would rid any feelings of spite and dependence a child who had not yet developed the superego could be prone to acts of delinquincy.

According to Sigmund Freud, anxiety is caused by the conflict of the mind between the id and its powerful impulses and the modifying forces of the ego and superego, the more the id-driven urges are stifled through physical reality or societal norms then the greater the level of anxiety will be. people express their anxiety in many different ways these can include nervousness,panic attacks, misplaced aggression and serious anxiety disorders, healthy personalities are those that have learned balance between the id, ego and superego.

Serious anxiety disorders that can occur when the three forces go in to conflict can range from social anxiety, panic disorder, specific phobias, generalized anxiety, displaced aggression is aggression that cannot be expressed to the source of the anger, Its usually displaced on to someone who had nothing to do with the anger, nervousness differentiates from anxiety people with nervousness display symptoms such as depression, suicidal thoughts or self-harm, both anxiety due to unrestrained feelings and nervousness can cause insomnia and general malaise. alongside hallucinations, extreme mood swings or unexplained outbursts. panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected panic attacks that can be recurring, social anxiety is an intense fear of being judged negatively in society, or rejected in a social situation, specific phobias are phobias that are often irrational yet they attribute to the fear of anxiety.

With so many competing forces it is very easy to see how they can go into conflict Sigmund Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the egos ability to work despite the dueling forces of the id and superego, a person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage the other two forces without becoming too disruptive.

Freud thought that the key to a healthy personality is the ability to handle all three forces, if the ego can maintain a healthy balance between the demands of reality, a well-adjusted personality will appear and maintain, a person with an overly dominant id could become impulsive or un controllable, regardless of whether the behaviour is moral legal or acceptable, an overly dominant superego however may lead onto a personality that is moralistic or judgmental, the kind of person who is right even when they are wrong , and unable to accept anyone they see as bad however wrong that judgement may be, an excessively dominant ego can result in to the creation of a personality that’s tied to morals, reality or rules, an almost rigid individual that will not accept wrongness within themselves or admit to right or wrong, paving way for a very self-obsessed egotistical person.

An ego conflict can occur when someone is almost jockeying for the front position for example two people could be left in charge, and this is how conflict can erupt, as one will always want to be solely in charge, very similar to a stroppy pubescent teenager arguing with their parent, they may always assume they know better than the older much wiser parent and thus cause conflict and chaos as they will assume the role of the sole person in charge, however wrong that seems to someone who has control of this force thus leading to damaged relationships or friendships, almost like losing the conflict would be damaging to the person’s self-esteem, the ego tends to develop out of growing awareness, its job is to achieve the id’s pleasure, it denies instant pleasure and it delays gratification, if the ego goes into conflict or it becomes too strong the results can be a cold, uncaring, distant person who appears overly rational and extremely efficient.

An id conflict can occur when basic needs are not met, as it works on an I want basis be that food, water, sleep, love or pleasure as it works really on a pleasure basis, it contains all the basic needs including libido when the needs of the ego are too strong it results in a person that is full of self-gratification and they can appear very uncaring towards other people almost cold-hearted and selfish. (“when the id is denied we experience tension, the ego is modified by direct influence of the external mind”) Sigmund Freud the ego and the id, se19;1 page 25

The superego is the last force to develop, often referred to as the moral part of the mind, it becomes the embodiment of parental and societal ruling, it strives for perfection however unrealistic the idea of perfection may appear, the power it has to enforce rules within the mind often leads to anxiety, it has two systems the ego ideal and the conscience, the ego ideal is rules for good behavior and excellent standards to make the ego thrive, the conscience has the rules for bad or disruptive behaviour, basically all the things that a parent would disapprove of or punish, when the superego is to strong it can lead to anxiety, it can make someone feel guilty constantly or have low self-belief or low self-esteem leading to social anxiety or perhaps feelings of low self-worth.

The conflict between the id and the superego is orchestrated by the ego, this psychological conflict is a very pervasive human experience, It is also the most fundamental battle within all humans, the way a person achieves either instant gratification or long-term reward fundamentally defines many ways to reflect on a person’s character.

Drug and alcohol addiction are often attributed to feelings of low self-worth, anxiety or low self-esteem, they are almost futile attempts to deal with the feelings of inner emptiness unfortunately this is very seldom successful, drug and alcohol use often gves the false feeling of acceptance and self-confidence however these are only temporary measures that often lead to crippling addictions, these individuals attempt to self-medicate and deal with anxiety through self-medication, very often to no success and relief is only ever a temporary measure, addiction is also what could potentially happen when the id ego and superego go into conflict.

My conclusion is that when the id, ego and supergo are in conflict the problems that can arise are anxiety, social anxiety, disruptive behaviour, feelings of guilt, low self-worth, low self-esteem, obsessive compulsive behaviour or even depression, the conclusions are derived are from my research into all of the above and the way that if the the ego in particular has its needs met then a well -adjusted personality should always develop, so if the id has its basic needs met within the pleasure principle as this is what it thrives on then a person will be socially acceptable and well adjusted, when we are born the id is present within basic needs such as the need for food, drink and comfort, this is present before any of the other personality develop with age, a Freud quote regarding the ego and id is “where id is there shall be ego (Sigmund freud 1933,”new introductory lectures on psychoanalysis”)Freud often compared the relationship between the id and ego to that of a horse and its rider, the horse gives the energy it needs to drive forward but the rider guides the horse to determine direction, however the rider may sometimes lose direction, so sometimes the ego may have to steer the id in the direction it wants to go in, (“people live with their id exposed, they’re not good at concealing what is going on inside”phillip seymour hoffman) people cannot hide feelings of self gratification,cold heartedness or selfishness, however a person with good ego strength has the ability to manage the id and superego effectively but if the ego is too strong it can lead to feelings of uncaring,cold,distant or even bored people,the id works on an I want basis and needs its basic needs to be met,when the basic needs are too strong the conflict that can occur is a person who us very cold hearted, uncaring towads others and full of self-gratification, an ego conflict can occur when somebody with a strong superego doesn’t achieve front runner in all aspects of life this leading to a person who can appear cold hearted and selfish, the superego is the last force to develop this strives for perfection and is often referred to as the moral part of the mind, a conflict within the superego would lead to anxiety disorders such as nervousness,social anxiety, feelings of guilt,it has two systems the ideal self and the conscience, whereas the ideal self strives for perfection, good behaviour and excellent standards, the conscience has the rules for bad or disruptive behaviour.

References used

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12. www.cram.com/flashcards/intro-to-psychology-personality-ch-11-1982259

Abstract

In this paper, we will be discussing Freud’s impact on Psychology. We will deep dive into what exactly made Freud the Father of Psychology and his journey leading up to it. We will learn how his theories, mainly psychoanalysis, still affect the field today despite his passing in 1939. Understanding his early life will help us see how his childhood memories helped shape his future theories. We will also dissect the inner mind behind Freud and his reasonings for why he believed in what he did. Moreover, we will discuss how his overall influence in psychology then and now.

Freud’s Early Life

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th, 1856 in a small town that is now known as Czechoslovakia. He was born into a Jewish family and often received discrimination for this. In Chapter 1 of The Life of Sigmund Freud, written by Michael Jacobs, he quotes Freud saying he was “expected to feel myself inferior and an alien because I was a Jew” during University (1999, p. 7). He attached himself to this aspect of his background, and it indicated one of the reasons for his readiness to see the rejection of his ideas (Jacobs, 1999, p. 7). Other memories of Freud’s childhood give rise to questioning about the influence of various incidents upon his later theories, although some of his memories have since been shown to be inaccurate, and based largely upon his dreams in later life (Jacobs, 1999, p.7).

Freud was about four years old when his family moved to Vienna, Austria and stayed there until 1938. Freud was very well educated. In Chapter 1 of Michael Jacob’s book, The Life of Sigmund Freud, he quotes Freud saying, “I was at the top of my class for seven years” (1999, p. 7). While Freud’s father wanted him to pursue a career in the health field, he did not feel the same towards this option at first. Michael Jacobs quoted Freud in Chapter 1 of The Life of Sigmund Freud, about his thoughts on his future career “neither at that time, nor indeed in my later life, did I feel any particular predilection for the career of a doctor” (1999, p. 9). Freud’s initial desire was to study law but Darwin’s theories, topical interest, and an essay on nature was when he decided to become a medical student (Jacobs, p. 9).

Freud’s Previous Experience

Freud received his Doctor of Medicine in 1881. Throughout his time in medical school and over a span of six years, Freud worked in research laboratories. During this time spent on research, Freud studied the central nervous system in fish as well as the sexual organs of the common eel (Jacobs, 1999, p. 10). Freud’s research was very detailed and important but he often failed to see some of his research through far enough to earn the honour of major achievement (Jacobs, 1999, p.10). Michael Jacobs quotes Freud’s biographer, Ernest Jones, in The Life of Sigmund Freud. Vol. I. The formative years and the great discoveries: 1856-1900, saying “that Freud narrowly missed world fame in early life through not daring to pursue his thoughts to their logical – and not far-off – conclusion” (1999, p.10).

In 1882, Freud moved from the laboratory to the world of general hospital (Jacobs, 1999, p.11). In this time he met Martha Bernays, who would soon become his wife. It was his intense desire to marry that awoke professional aspiration in him, which is what eventually lead his to fame (Boring, 1954, p. 433). Yet before he was to get married, he took an intellectual journey and a geographical tour. This trip would provide him with the ideas that would be needed for the development of psychoanalysis.

Freud explored the areas in a general hospital, and during this he discovered the medical properties of cocaine and its value for internal use as an analgesic and euphoric (Boring, 1954, p. 433). After this discovery, Freud was quick to advertise this substance as a non-habit-forming drug, which he later lived to regret. Yet Freud missed out on the opportunity to use cocaine externally by injection as a local anesthetic (Boring, 1954, p. 434). In a peer-reviewed journal of Enerst Jones book, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, its says “he[Freud] handed the preliminary indications of this application over to someone else, who presently and quite properly got the credit” (Boring, 1954, p. 434). If Freud would have stayed in Vienna to proceeded with the experiment on cocaine, it would have undoubtedly advanced his career.

Becoming Freud

Before switching to the field of psychology, Freud was still certain that histology and morphology were easily the best biological authority. He was easily conceived as a physicalist, who preferred easy, functional explanation and said to have disliked what was considered psychology during his time (Boiring, p.343). In Chapter 1 of Michael Jacobs book, The Life of Sigmund Freud, it says that in 1885 Freud was “appointed Lecturer in Neuropathology at the University in Vienna on the strength of his clinical publications; and, with the assistance of a bursary, travelled to Paris to study under Charcot, Professor of Neuropathology” (Boring, 1954, p. 11). While studying under Charcot, he witnessed hypnosis that was used to cure symptoms of paralysis of limbs and senses. It was during this shadowing that Freud began accepting the theory of psychology. In a peer-reviewed journal of Ernest Jones book, The life and work of Sigmund Freud. Vol. I. The formative years and the great discoveries: 1856-1900, it says Freud “turned to psychology, still recognizing the values of the Helmholtz school by characterizing the new psychological principles as ‘mechanisms’ (Boring, 1954, p. 434).

Freud then worked with Josef Breuer, who believed in him. Breuer would lend Freud money, not expecting any repayment. He believed in Freud’s research and his thoughts. In a peer-reviewed journal of Ernest Jones’s book, The life and work of Sigmund Freud. Vol. I. The formative years and the great discoveries: 1856-1900, “it was Breuer who discovered the cathartic method[required doctor to listen without actively seeking etiological clues] and thus in a way began psychoanalysis” (Boring, 1954, p.434-435). The first case in psychoanalysis history would be the case of Anna O.

In the case of Anna O, Breuer used hypnosis and the cathartic method(talk therapy) almost daily with her and in Chapter 1 of The Life of Sigmund Freud, written by Michael Jacobs, she states “being able to recall memories and to discharge emotions that she was unable to get in touch with in her normal waking self” (Jacobs, 1999, p.14). However, on the evening that Breuer told Freud that Anna O’s symptoms were controlled, she experienced abdominal cramps and talked of expecting Breur’s child. It is said that Anna O fantasized too much for Breur, who seemingly couldn’t handle this.

Freud and his Theories

Throughout Freud’s career, he had many theories. The biggest one is psychoanalysis, which was a method of analyzing and treating (emotional)disorders. In a book written by Matthew Shape and Joanne Faulkner, Understanding Psychoanalysis, it explains what psychoanalysis was based on the “idea that a person’s – the analysand’s – recollection of the original cause of their illness, in the presence of their doctor – the analyst – is somehow therapeutic” (2008, p. 4). Treatment sessions were held in which the patient was encouraged to talk about their personal experiences, mainly involving early childhood memories and dreams. Freud’s belief was that people could be cured simply by becoming aware of their unconscious thoughts and urges. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy was to help release suppressed emotions and experiences that were buried within the unconscious mind.

Freud did not discover the concept of the unconscious, rather he gave it a term to what it meant. In Chapter 2 of The Life of Sigmund Freud, author Michael Jacobs quotes Freud saying the “‘Unconscious’ is no longer the name of what is latent at the moment; the unconscious is a particular realm of the mind with its own wishful impulses, its own mode of expression and its particular mental mechanisms which are not in force elsewhere” (1999, p. 28). He defined this due to believing that there was a place in one’s mind where what was deemed unacceptable in the conscious was held, and often reemerged in the conscious mind from time to time.

Freud’s Later Life

In the last years of his life, Freud only took patients who were training to become analysts. In a peer-reviewed journal of Ernest Jones book, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Vol.3: The Last Phase, Freud was still very active in psychology even in his older age, “the way in which in his late seventies and early eighties his mind continued to flourish, the way in which he was able to pick up earlier thoughts and develop them, and the way in which he was able to prune away constructs which had once been central” (Axelrad, 1959, p. 205).

Although Freud suffered immensely from his cancer, he still continued to work. Some of his most important writings came from his last years, which included crucial revisions to the structural theory of the nature of anxiety. Sigmund Freud passed away on September 23rd, 1939 from cancer.

Freud’s Lasting Effect

Despite the criticism surrounding psychoanalysis, many therapists and counselors who are not psychoanalytic are critical of this technique, saying it is a cold and detached method. Also saying that psychoanalysis, through interpretation, presumes to know answers (Jacocs, 1999, p. 53). However, this method played an important role in the development of psychology. It guided our approach in the treatment of mental health and continues to bring an influence in the psychological field to this day. In a book written by Matthew Sharpe and Joanne Faulkner, Understanding Psychoanalysis, they express how “psychoanalysis began in the clinical practice of treating analysands such as Anna O. Yet it quickly became an international institution, and a movement of thought that has affected almost all walks of modern culture, from avant-garde art to popular expressions” (2008, p. 5). In a peer-reviewed journal of Ernest Jones book, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Vol.3: The Last Phase, he explains that “if psychoanalysis has taught us anything, it is about the relationship between effect and activity” (1959, p. 207). Sigmund Freud had his faults. However, he contributed to the field of psychology on a larger scale than anyone could have imagined during his time. He influenced thought in psychology and civilization more than any other person in psychology to date. Some believed he will always be considered one of the founders of the basis of psychology and how it has evolved to what it is today and how it will evolve to in the future.

Behaviourism

Behaviourism looks at human behaviour as being a result of stimulus-response, behaviourism says that not matter what behaviour we look at it can be boiled down to this simple stimulus response. Due to this behaviourism is generally more interested with observable behaviour, and not things such as dreams and thoughts. It also believes that due it being a result of stimulus-responses that all behaviour is learnt, thus planting itself firmly on the nurture side of the nature nurture debate. Behaviourists argue that human behaviour is learned in a very similar way to that of animals, this was originally explained by Pavlov (1897) whilst he was doing a study on dogs salivation, Pavlov noticed that the dogs he was carrying out tests on would begin to salivate before being presented with food, the sound of his colleagues footsteps would cause the dogs to salivate in anticipation of their food arriving, Pavlov realised that the dogs would salivate for anything that they associated with food. Pavlov (1902) went on to do further work to test his new theory, he conducted an experiment to see if he could illicit a response from the dogs with something completely unrelated to the food, such as a metronome.

In behaviourist terms, food is an unconditioned stimulus and salivation is an unconditioned response. (i.e., a stimulus-response connection that required no learning).

Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) > Unconditioned Response (Salivate)

In his experiment, Pavlov used a metronome as his neutral stimulus. By itself the metronome did not elicit a response from the dogs.

Neutral Stimulus (Metronome) > No Conditioned Response

Next, Pavlov began the conditioning procedure, whereby the clicking metronome was introduced just before he gave food to his dogs. After a number of repeats (trials) of this procedure he presented the metronome on its own.

As you might expect, the sound of the clicking metronome on its own now caused an increase in salivation.

Conditioned Stimulus (Metronome) > Conditioned Response (Salivate) (McLeod, 2018)

This study by Pavlov showed how Stimulus-response conditioned behaviour in dogs, this was then linked to how behaviour is conditioned in humans later by Watson and Raynor (1920) in an experiment named “Little Albert”. Little Albert was 9 months old and was introduced to a number of different stimuli to which he showed no fear, one such thing that he was introduced to was a white rat, something that Little Albert was scared of was when a hammer was struck against a metal bar, it caused him to cry. Everytime the rat was introduced to Albert in the future, the hammer was hit against the metal bar, this was done several times for a number of weeks, and each time Albert started to cry, by the end of the weeks Albert only had to be shown the rat for him to start crying, even if the hammer was not hit against the metal bar. From this experiment we can see that just like Pavlovs Dogs, Little Albert was conditioned to responded (crying) to the neutral stimulus (rat) by using the unconditioned stimulus (hammer on the metal bar) and its unconditioned response (crying).

Behaviourism seems to totally ignore biology, and how this can play a part in human behaviour, it would put all humans in the same box and not consider the differences between men and women, in addition it ignores the biological differences between humans and animals and would assume the brains of humans and animals are essentially the same. It is also deterministic and implies that humans have a total lack of free will. The ecological validity in these behaviourist experiments can be called into question, most don’t take part in a natural setting, or with natural people, this could then in part elicit a different response. Behaviourism cannot explain all of learning, as it only focuses on observable behaviour.

Behaviourism can be considered a very scientific study though, all its studies have a clear aim and can be monitored and repeated to get similar results, in addition to this it also has medical applications, and can be used in the treatment of phobias etc. There is also a long list of studies to support their beliefs.

Biological

As far as the nature nurture debate goes, biological psychology is the opposite of behaviourism, it believes us to be consequence of our genetics and physiology. Biological psychology looks at us from a very physical point of view whilst considering our thoughts and behaviours, it has 3 focuses within psychology: –

1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand human behaviour.
2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behaviour. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behaviour through their interaction with the nervous system.
3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next. (Mcleod, 2015)

In the Investigation of inheritance, geneticists use twin studies as a natural experiment to see the likeness, in behaviour terms, of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins. If inheritance of genes causes certain behaviour to happen, then it should be more visible in shared behaviours of monozygotic twins due to them sharing 100% genetical information, where as dizygotic twins only share 50% genetical information. Bouchard and McGue (1981) reviewed studies of IQ tests which compared the IQ tests of family members. Their reviews showed that there was a high correlation of IQ scores between monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins, although dizygotic twins again had higher correlations than general siblings. There are organisational flaws which reduce the validity of twin studies. For example, Bouchard and McGue included many poorly performed and biased studies in their analysis. Also, studies comparing the behaviour of twin raised apart have been criticized as the twins often share similar environments.

Biological Psychology looks at how the nervous system works, and its role within human behaviour. The basic function of the nervous system is dependant on a lot of tiny cells called neurons. The brain has billions of them, and they have many secialized jobs, such as, Sensory Neurons take information from the 5 senses to the brain. Motor Neurons carry messages away from the brain and back to the rest if the body. There is estimated to be anythere between 10 billion and 100 billion Neurons in the human nervous system and 80% of these are in the Cerebral cortex of the brain. Neurons are the communticators of the nervous system, and consist of 3 main parts, Sensory, Motor and Connector, which connect Sensory and Motor Neurons. Below is a typical diagram of a Neuron.

Biological psychology has been able to explain many conditions, such as schizophrenia, where studies have show that people suffering from schizophrenia have different brain structures, smaller brains, as well as having different levels of dopamine to other people. Studies of the chemical make up of the brain have also led to the production of many successful drug treatments within the recent decades that have helped in the treatment of many mental disorders such as depression. In a similar fashion too behaviourism, the biological approach in psychology is highly reductionist in its approach to the complexity of human behaviour and emotion. Reducing our feelings and reactions to robot-like behaviour is not only unethical, it also ignores the factors in our everyday environment – our childhood experiences and the influence and behaviour of friends and media – that have been found to affect us. Many drug treatments have unwanted side-effects, for example, Prozac can cause violent behaviour after taking it, so the claim that the biological approach can produce effective treatments is one that can be argued to be incorrect. Drugs only treat the biologically-visible effects, not the causes of problems. Childhood experiences that cause trauma and depression during adulthood may be better treated by actually confronting the root cause of an issue as opposed to just treating the symptoms of it.

Psychodynamic

The psychodynamic approach focuses on behaviour and feelings being influenced by our unconscious mind, these influences come from both our past experiences and our basic instincts. They also believe that 3 different parts of the mind, which are in conflict with each other, influence our behaviour. Sigmund Freud the father of psychodynamic approach said that the 3 parts are, the id, the ego and the superego.

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex (life) instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and the aggressive (death) instinct – Thanatos. (McLeod, 2017)

The ego is ‘that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.’ (Freud, 1923, p. 25)

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 years during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. (McLeod, 2017)

The psychodynamic approach also believes that there are psychosexual stages of development: –

Oral Stage – from birth to 18 months. In the first stage the enjoyment is centred around the mouth, babies get most of their satisfaction from putting things in their mouths

Anal Stage – 18 Months to 3 years. The enjoyment now becomes more focused towards the anus, babies/children enjoy defecating. During this stage children have learnt that they are a person, and what they want can bring them into conflict with the world around them, Freud said that this is shown primarily through potty training, where a parent tries to stop a child defecating at will and tries to impose restrictions on this

Phallic Stage – 3 years to 5 years. At the phallic stage childrens source of enjoyment is centred around the genitals. This is also when children start to notices the sexual differences anatomically between men and women, which in turn them leads to jealousy, rivalry and fear, which Feud says manifests itself in form of the Oedipus and Electra complexes, which are both resolved when the children adopt the process of identification and end up copying the characteristics of their respective same sex parental figure.

“The Oedipal complex, also known as the Oedipus complex, is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a child’s feelings of desire for his or her opposite-sex parent and jealousy and anger toward his or her same-sex parent. Essentially, a boy feels that he is competing with his father for possession of his mother, while a girl feels that she is competing with her mother for her father’s affections. According to Freud, children view their same-sex parent as a rival for the opposite-sex parent’s attention and affections.” (Cherry, 2019)

Latent Stage – 5 years to 11 years. During this stage no psychosexual development takes pace

Genital Stage – 11 years onwards. This is the final stage of psychosexual development, which takes place during puberty. This is the time of sexual experimentation, which leads to the settling down with a partner in our twenties.

The psychodynamic approach looks at both the nature and nurture debate within psychology and considers the effect of both with regards to human behaviour, Freud argues that human behaviour is made up of our born instincts and our childhood experiences. Psychoanalysis has been a popular form of therapy for people, it has also helped us to realise that mental health problems can be caused by traumatic events that have happened in childhood. Even though Freud gets criticised by some for being educationalist his work on the brain has lead people to see just how complex the workings of the behaviour actually are.

As mentioned above, Freud is critisied for having a reductionalist approach to human behaviour, due to boiling behaviour down to the id, ego and superego as well as the five stages of sexual behaviour. One thing the psychodynamic approach doesn’t do is put much focus on the influence genetics have on behaviour. As with the other 2 approaches we’ve looked at, it would appear through Freuds work that we have no actual free will, thus making this approach determinist, Freud believes that our personality is pre-determined or shaped by things that we have no control of. The main objection to Freuds theory is that it cannot be tested, there is not way of doing replicatory studies to prove this right or wrong.

We can see that all three approaches focus on different aspects to try to explain the complex matter that is human behaviour, and although all three make good claims as to what shapes our behaviour none of them can explain it in its entirety. Through many points we can see that there are things each approach agrees on, the psychodynamic approach and the behaviourist approach both agree that nurturing plays a part in development in human behaviour, as well as the psychodynamic approach agreeing with biological psychology that certain part of human behaviour are genetic dispositions. The psychodynamic approach is different to both the biological and behaviourist approaches in that is cant really be studied and tested as well, where as we can study the other two approaches and find similar results to the findings made previously. Ultimately even in combining parts of all three approaches we can only go part of the way to explain how the complexity of human behaviour actually works.

Narcissism Theory

The essay commented on the fundamental relationship between the developing self (ego) and external “objects,” by which Freud meant people.

Throughout the narrative description of past events, Sigmund Freud’s theory (1914) about narcissism was developed into the presentation of lots of psychological ideas and mind complexities. One of those is the introduction of Narcissism Theory (NT) which was constructed subsequently to his earlier explanation about the series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep, and the state of the unconscious mind (Freud, 1914). However, there are past researches that have shown about this concept involves contrasting ideas, issues, and hypotheses (Palmowski, 1989). But looking at this theory into the broader context, it attempted to provide an interesting viewpoint on the personality trait that manifests exceptional interest and admiration for oneself.

In 2006, Crockatt’s study on Freud’s ‘On narcissism: an introduction stated that this undertaking is pioneering groundbreaking academic work on the expansion of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theories, and metapsychology. Freud defined narcissism as deep love and excessive interest in oneself as a material thing for carnal pleasure. He considers it as a kind of a relatively mild mental illness that is not spawned by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (obsessive behavior, depression, hypochondria, anxiety). To some extent, he likewise surmised that all individuals possess a degree of narcissism in every part of their composition (Freud, 1914).

Fundamentally, he also explained the distinction of two essential types of narcissism i.e. primary and secondary narcissism. Freud postulates that the first type of narcissism is present from the time when a person exists. Intricately, primary narcissism pertains to the grounds of an individual to have a positive feeling of affection towards to an object (i.e. a person or thing to which a determined feeling or action is directed person) without any adulteration and impurities. An example of this is the pure love of a mother for her child. On the other hand, secondary narcissism grows when people extend this profound love and admiration to themselves. This will result to have a feeling of indifference from others through a showing of apathetic attitude from the community. Freud presumes that in view of this kind of people will tend to have a low pride to oneself because of lack of ability to communicate their affection to others and have it expressed back to themselves. Furthermore, these individuals are holding so many feelings of humiliation, and blameworthiness, and are frequently protective and oversensitive.

References

1. Sigmund Freud, “On Narcissism: An Introduction (1914),” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, edited by James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1925), 67-102.

People are no strangers to the concept of family, what it means to play a role in a household in order to paint a portrait of normalcy for society. Yet, since the introduction of Charles Addam’s the Addam’s Family (1938), a family who delights in the macabre and are arguably unaware or do not care, that other people find them bizarre, the appearances of unconventional and noticeably dysfunctional families in media has grown considerably over the past decades. Evident in recent films by the production company LAIKA studios, the families in Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014), and Kubo and The Two Strings (2016) possess similar traits in the fact that they can all be linked to one thing: the uncanny.

In this dissertation, I will dispute that the families presented in the contemporary stop motion films by Laika can be deduced as the source of the uncanny, by connecting Freud’s theory into a singular theme: internal threat. Moreover, I’m will be analyzing the families in terms of the uncanny theory proposed by Freud and how his psychoanalytical theories on the uncanny can be linked to the concept of the threat coming from within the home, with the word uncanny or ‘unheimlich’ being the antonym to ‘Heimlich’ translating to familiar or homely. It is this recognition of the families we see depicted on screen being familiar yet so unfamiliar, or ‘unheimlich’, that potentially provokes a reaction of doubt and unsettlement in the viewer.

The Golden Age of Family

Famulus. The word family in its original Latin form; its meaning is translated to that of “servant”. Whilst the adoption of the term into modern English has evolved its description to that of “household” the fact remains that both the word and concept of family are ever-changing to adapt to the current social and political climate; it is “constantly reworked, contested and remade.” (Tinchnell, 2005). In the words of Bourdieu (1996:19), the normal family is just a “constellation of words”, an apt description of a notion that “while seeming to describe social reality, in fact, constructs it.” Therefore, it can be argued that the introduction of television and film have played an integral part in constructing the ‘reality’ of the ideal family for viewers spanning generations, molding what we consider significant familial kinship ties.

In the history of televised media, it is not difficult to see how in the beginning its main aim with regards to depicting the family sought to legitimize a ‘norm’, mostly commonly by constructing a set of domestic values, obscuring families with opposing ideologies. The 1950s or dubbed by some academics as ‘The Golden Age of the Family, saw the introduction of the nuclear family which reflected the social norms of the time: a working father, a subservient housewife, and tame children.

Specifically, in America, television came at the perfect opportunity to coincide with “the rise of utopian discourses about post-World War II suburban domesticity” (Spigel & Mann, 1992) and as stated by Haralovich (1989:112) became a “primary means of resocializing the American family” explaining how programs broadcasting the ‘American Dream’ lifestyle were so well received by the working and middle class. However, going into the 1960s people witnessed a rise in alternative, less conventional families that contradicted many familial dynamics coinciding with “when social movements, such as the anti-war and counterculture movements, created a tumultuous time for the nuclear family” (Schatz, 1991). The families that emerged including The Munsters and The Addams Family were on the surface viewed as dysfunctional in comparison to other families on television. In these shows, the dynamic of the characters gave the opportunity for the viewer to criticize the image of the nuclear family by contrasting it with the grotesque and bizarre.

Throughout the following decades, the decline in nuclear families became apparent whereas the critique of it and the ‘dysfunctional’ family gained more popularity. Questioning the long-held traditional family values, satirical parodies of the nuclear family such as The Simpsons (1989 – ) and Married With Children (1987 – 1997) took to disrupting the classic ideology. They challenged television’s “sentimental portrayal” (Zoglin, 1992) of the family by showing children undermining authority figures and disparaging the patriarch.

Dysfunctional Kinship: The Addams Family

One TV family previously mentioned known to be especially effective in upheaving the nuclear family image whilst demonstrating strong kinships ties to each other was The Addams Family (1964). Based on the 1938 cartoon by Charles Addams, The Addams Family sitcom revolved around the close-knit group of macabre individuals and their eccentric antics at their home in suburbia. The show made commentary on the hypocrisy of traditional family values whilst contrasting the conventional nuclear family by adopting the gothic aesthetic.

“Gothic figurations of kinship both contest and reinforce orthodox notions of the nuclear family.” (Andeweg, Gothic Kinship, 2016. p.2)

Encapsulating Addam’s family dynamic, the title sequence is a great example of how the family can be perceived as nuclear and anti-nuclear, and therefore arguably dysfunctional, simultaneously. As Morreale (2003) addresses it they simply “[manifest] nuclear familial in a different form with unconventional families trying to live the conventional life.” In the opening sequence, the viewer is greeted with a wide shot of the whole family. Considering the presence of Gomez, the father, Morticia, the mother, and the two children, Pugsley and Wednesday, they are in keeping with the classic nuclear family, but it is contradicted by the presence of the other characters. In addition to this, in the close-up of the children’s faces, they are scowling, displaying their rebellious and unruly nature through a single look to the camera. Reinforcing these different gender roles is Morticia who sits in the center of the frame. Her placement reflects her status in the household as not just a stereotypical housewife but that of the leader of the group.

Despite the ghoulish appearance of their house and their eerie choice of clothing, the family themselves are welcoming and friendly, yet it is the community in the suburbia of their home that shuns them despite their nice demeanor. Subsequently, the lyrics of the upbeat theme song echo the views and opinions of the outsiders who interact with them.

• “They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
• Mysterious and spooky,
• They’re altogether kooky,
• The Addams Family.”

Whilst the overall aim of the song is meant to convey the peculiarity of the family in general, the use of the word “mysterious” implicates there is an element of fear in the unknown. This can be associated with one thing categorically to do with the Addams: The Uncanny.

We Are All Haunted Houses: The Uncanny

Regarded as an important piece of psychoanalytical criticism, Sigmund Freud explored the theory of the Uncanny in his essay of the same name in 1919. In a said essay, Freud defines the uncanny as that which belongs “to the realm of the frightening, of what evokes fear and dread” (p.123) and believed the uncanny to be something “strangely familiar which defeats our efforts to separate ourselves from it’ (Morris). His analysis evolves around the return of the repressed, something that should have stayed hidden but is brought to light, more than often to the detriment and unease of the individual.

Furthermore, it can be noted that Freud explores the origin of the word, from the German ‘Heimlich’ meaning the ‘home’ to the later ‘Unheimlich’, or the unhomely. It is from this word of unhomely that the translation of uncanny derives. Though perhaps coincidental on Freud’s part, there is no mistaking the link between the uncanny and the home, both being linked by language but also in the theories, Freud proposes in his essay. Despite not applying them to familial examples, the topics he discusses such as the castration complex and the double can all be applied to a common factor; the threat from something familiar or “Heimlich” being the source of the uncanny. With at least one theory suited to each of the family in the films I’m analyzing, it implies that all modern families are in some way uncanny; but how or why is this true? To answer this question, I will need to contextualize the technique of stop motion before proceeding with my main analysis.

“It’s Alive!”: The First Stop Motion

“It’s alive, it’s alive!” (Frankenstein, 1931); in 1823, Mary Shelley wrote one of the most memorable lines in literature history, prompting countless film adaptions to depict the powerful moment where Doctor Frankenstein gives life to the once dead monster. Terrific yet also terrifying, the scene is cemented in the minds of many, with comfort in the reality that, although disturbing, the dead once deceased can never roam the land of the living again. Two decades before the 1931 film, however, it seemed Polish filmmaker Ladislas Starevich was making that impossibility, possible.

In 1911 Starevich created the first ever animated puppet film using the corpses of beetles, entitled Lucanus Cervus. Attaching wax to their thorax and using wires for the insect’s legs, his film gave the animals movement and started the revolutionization of stop motion animation.

Knowing the context behind these imaginative short films, it’s undeniable in how watching these animations gives the viewer a profound sense of the uncanny as the “ghostly images of the now-dead [are] resurrected into the appearance of life” (Mulvey, 2006). Being especially applicable to Starevich’s works as he’s using puppets that could be pieceved as real since they used to be living insects, Mulvey in his analysis of stop motion articulates that the “status as a signifier of pastness (of ‘having been there’) and its status as a signifier of presence (that pastness is now here) evokes the threshold of uncertainty between life and death” (2006), a notion that Freud linked strongly to the uncanny. It raises the question whether stop motion will always produce this uncanny effect on the viewer, but as Laika’s main production style, they demonstrate this idea can be used to a story’s advantage.

The uncanny is a Freudian concept1, entirely psychological in nature, where the unknown becomes eerily recognizable, both deplorable and desirable; this perverse attraction to the taboo results in either self or societal rejection. Within the Gothic, the uncanny simultaneously evokes feelings of terror and attraction, Morris citing that it “derives its terror (…) from something strangely familiar2;” the conflict between these two polarising states reflective of the period in which the novels, “The Monk,” written in 1796 and “Dracula,” in 1897, were written, embodying fears of both societal advancement and regression; the desire for tradition evident in the familiar and the intrusive nature of the new, showcased in the “other”- something Freud articulates “arouses dread” of “all that is terrible.” In ‘The Monk’ fear of the unknown is internalized through the character of Ambrosio; his metamorphism from a man equated to that of a Deity into one overtly satanic representing the uncanny within humanity, whereas Dracula embodies an external “other”- a looming threat to traditional British values. His arrival unveils hidden dissatisfaction within society, exemplified in the female characters and decline of social order, contrary to ‘The Monk’ which implies the ease uncanny feelings are exploited and controlled through desires rooted within the Ego, repressed by society. The Gothic uncanny “is a distorting lens, a magnifying lens3” as Punter opines, but one still embedded within reality, insinuating, despite supernatural aspects, fear is curated for both a modern and contemporary audience in the “others” capability to become tangible.

The extremity of psychological frailty is clearly articulated within the novels; the uncanny perverting anything seemingly virtuous implied through Ambrosio’s characterization within ‘The Monk,’ whereas Dracula, the monstrous Gothic archetype’s transition into reality implies the uncanny’s ability to transcend into the realms of possibility. Miles argues Ambrosio is “governed by the desire for novelty, (…) demonic4” as it’s never satisfied; his transgression, when facing the unfamiliar, insinuating morality’s impotency and human’s unwillingness to remain moral; his obsessive desire for divine purity, the “Madonna,” embodied in Matilda, illustrating repressed sexual urges to violate the idealized feminine “other.” In the beginning chapter, this image “suspended above him,” implies physical detachment from female sexuality, male deflection forcing the uncanny upon women, transforming them into objects of suppressed lust, and reflecting contemporary views of waning female morality dictated biblically by “inherent sin” – males synthetically infallible. Implicit of heightened divinity, the placement verb “suspended” implies a simultaneous attempt to repress desires whilst anticipating them; femininity, both unfamiliar and obtainable, reinforces this idea of deserved masculine satisfaction prevalent throughout the novel, the rape a climactic scene of fulfillment. The intensifier “increasing” implies sheer infatuation; a shattered hold on subconscious desires; this devious lust for something wholly divine severely unsettling, especially for a religious contemporary audience citing these sexual implications as sinful; the uncanny wholly manipulative.

Symbolic interactionism is a theological level that focuses on social interaction between human and their environment. How people interact in society portrays a concept that humans believe more in what they think than the truth Puddephatt 111). In contemporary society, individuals rely more on what they believe and ignore the truth even though they know it; for example, in the present social life, the use of drugs is high in schools. The students are educated on the drugs’ adverse effects, but they still use them since they believe that using drugs makes them feel good, forgetting the medication problems they can cause in their bodies. Mead’s theory of social development argues that people obtain self-images when they interact with other people (Puddephatt 98). According to Mead, the self, being a part of one’s personality, consists of self-image and self-awareness and results from social experience.

The theory outlines ideas that help individuals to “take the role of others.” For instance, the theory rejects the fact that biological drives determine one’s personality and argues that the self develops only through social experience. Mead emphasized the use of symbols to build self. This refers to how humans use language and signs to transmit information. Moreover, to know other people’s intentions, it is essential to think of the situation in their view. This is paramount when “taking the role of the other”; thus, how one sees others determines their ability to help them. Mead insisted that understanding others’ roles leads to self-awareness. Mead’s theory fits symbolic interactionism because for individuals to interact freely, they have to understand the self (Byczkowska-Owczarek 168). Self-awareness and image are crucial in how people interpret others’ behaviors. According to Mead’s theory, this is possible if one can understand others’ situations and can convey information using symbols and language.

Freud’s theory of personality argues that human interactional behavior comes from three different components in the individual’s mind: the id, ego, and superego. He explains that the interaction between these three parts of the mind results in psychosexual development in human thinking (Karterud and Kongerslev 37). According to Freud on the three components of the mind, the id is the most basic of all the three. It consists of the biological inherited components that are passed at birth, including sex instinct and aggressiveness. The id is the part of the brain that carries the aggressive drives and memories that are hidden. It is so primitive and does not care when the abusive language is used because it does not care if it hurts anyone.

In the same incident, the superego knows the difference between right and wrong, so it will understand that using abusive language is wrong (Nuckcheddy 4). The last component is the ego, where work is to balance the demands of both the id and the superego in a real context. On the underscore, the ego will come between the superego and conclude that using abusive language is wrong and that learning good speech is the best option. While other sociologies focus on behavior and other things as a drive for human development, Freud focuses on sexuality alone. This perspective has been criticized by many sociologists because there is more to a person than their sexuality. For example, evolution is caused by the environment, social forces, and other external factors like childhood traumas.

References

Byczkowska-Owczarek, Dominika. “Body and Social Interaction—The Case of Dance. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective.” Qualitative Sociology Review, vol.16, vol.4, 2020, pp. 164-179.

Karterud, Sigmund, and Mickey T. Kongerslev. “Psychotherapy of Personality Disorders Needs An Integrative Theory Of Personality.” Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 2020.

Nuckcheddy, Ashveen. “The Effect of Personality on Motivation and Organizational Behavior.” Psychology and Behavioral Science International Journal, vol. 9, no.2, 2018, pp. 001-005.

Puddephatt, Antony J. “George Herbert Mead.” The Interactionist Imagination, edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 95-119.

Introduction

Cherry (2010) asserts that a child development which arises from the time of birth to adulthood was greatly overlooked throughout a great deal of the history of mankind. Essentially, children were appreciated as mare small version of adults and minimal concern was focused on the many improvements in their cognitive abilities, physical growth and language mastery.

Moreover, interest in child development started to crop up the early 20^th century, and was aimed at elucidating abnormal behaviors. The proceeding paragraphs, describes just two of the theories on child development.

Stages of cognitive growth based on Piaget’s theory of development. (Atherton, 2010)

1. The sensory-motor stage (birth – 2 yrs):

According to Piaget, a normal newly born baby will reach a point where it will start to distinguish self from objects. This implies that the infant will begin to appreciate self as the mediator of an action, and start acting deliberately. For instance, shaking a rattle to produce a noise or pulling a cord to set an itinerant in motion. At some level, it attains object permanence whereby it starts realizing that things persist even when they are no more conscious of them.

2. The pre-operational stage (2 – 7 yrs):

At the pre-operational stage, the child learns to exercise language and to characterize things by words and images. At this phase, thinking is still egocentric in the sense that he/she has problems with accommodating others’ views. Also, classification of things is by one feature; for instance, grouping all rectangle blocks in spite of color or all blue blocks in spite of their shapes.

3. The concrete operational stage ( 7 – 11 yrs):

By this period, the child is able to think rationally concerning events and objects. He/she attains conservation of number, mass, and weight; at age 6, 7 and 9, respectively. Also, he/she classifies objects based on several features and can sequence them depending on a single characteristics such as size.

4. The formal operational stage (11 yrs and above):

In this period, the child can think logically concerning abstract intentions, and examine hypothesis methodically. Also, she/he becomes apprehensive of ideological, hypothetical, and the future problems.

Stages of cognitive growth based on Freud’s theory of psychosexual development

Freud held the opinion that the development process of individuals constitutes five stages. However, Freud claims that many people fail to complete these stages because they tied up their libido at one stage, thereby hindering them from utilizing the energy at a later stage. Libido, in this context was used by Freud to signify sexual and spiritual energy. These stages include;

a. Oral phase stage (from birth up to 1 year):

At this stage, the mouth acts as the center of attraction of a child’s libido. This stage is characterized by frustration for dependence on someone for something (Crain, 2005). Obsession at this phase may present as an abuse of oral stimulations such as eating, drinking or smoking.

b. The anal phase of development (2-3 yrs):

The individual are introduced to rules and regulations for the first time since they were familiarized with toilet instruction (Crain, 2005). This familiarity period helps determine the person’s future responses to rules and regulations. At this stage of development, the anus acts as the centre of attraction of the libido. In addition, the child is in the process of discovering novel complex motor.

Furthermore, frustrations could result; from cognitive responses. Obsession during this stage translates to orderliness, stinginess, messiness, or stubbornness. Fundamental behaviors characterized by preservation and expulsion may be connected to the experiences during this stage.

c. The phallic phase of development (4-5 yrs):

Several developmentally crucial events, unique to boys and girls, happen during this phase. Below is a description of the aforementioned events:

The Oedipus conflict: the occurrence of this conflict begins at a time when the boy child starts to feel sexually attracted to his mother. As a result, he views his father as an enemy, because he is also competing for the attention of the mother. He starts to dread the father’s suspicion about his lust for the mother and the imminent penalty by him for the lust. Spontaneously, the dreaded penalty is that of castration.

The castration anxiety: – this anxiety drives the boy child to the conclusion that the father hates him, and may ultimately become excruciating leading to his renouncing of the feelings, and decision to compromise to his father hoping that one day he will develop affection with a different woman just like between his parents.

Despite the similarity in the oral and anal phases of growth for both boy and girl (center of attention and affection being the mother), deviation in the focus occurs when the baby girl realizes her lack of penis, a phenomenon referred to as penis envy.

This causes her to despise her mother on realizing the lack of penis on her mother, while she becomes attracted to her father on the ground of his possession of the penis. Similarly, girls start to be suspicious of her mother’s (same sexuality) knowledge of her attraction towards her father and that the mother hates her for that. These feelings persist for sometimes until it reaches a point where she resents her feeling and chooses to side with the mother.

d. The latency phase (7 yrs – puberty):

This period encroaches following the resolution of the Oedipus conflict and suppression of the feeling that developed during that episode. This phase is characterized by rest devoid of any developmental incidences.

e. The genital phase:

This phase of development starts from puberty and is characterized by development of the genitals and adaptation of libido to its true sexual purpose. Nevertheless, the feelings for the inverse sex cause anxiety since they remind them of the undesirable feelings they possessed towards their parents and the distress associated with them.

Contrast and comparison between Piaget’s and Freud’s developmental theories

Piaget’s theory describes a child development from the cognitive view point. He proposes that children patterns of thought differ from those of an adult. This he described in his stage theory on cognitive development.

On the other hand Freud’s theory explains the child developmental stages from a psychosexual analytic perspective. Based on this theory a child development is explained as sequence of psychosexual phases; oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Every stage concerns the satisfaction of a libido and later determines the adult’s individuality (Cherry, 2010).

A Piagetian –based education syllabus emphasizes a learner centered educational philosophy, which does not fit with the contemporary American school educational system including programmed instruction, teaching machines, tutor lectures, audio visual presentation, and demonstration.

On the contrary Piaget advocates dynamic discovery learning atmosphere in education system. According to the theorist, children should be allowed to search out answers for themselves through questions, experiments, manipulation, and exploration (Wanda, 1988).

Nevertheless, children should not be left to do as they please, instead teachers should be in position to evaluate the child’s current cognitive progress, including their strength and weakness. This theory commends for the personalization of the instructions for each student and the opportunity to debate and argue problems.

He perceived tutors as the facilitators of knowledge by guiding and motivating the learners. The tutor should provide the students with resources, situations and occasion which help them to discern novel knowledge. Eventually, the teacher should express confidence in the child’s capability to learn by self (1988).

According to Cherry (2010), Sigmund Freud’s theory produced shocking reactions following its introduction, and it continues to create debate and controversy particularly on the discipline of art, literature, psychology, anthropology and sociology. The terminology psychoanalysis refers to various aspects of Freud’s research and work including the Freudian therapy, and the methods he employed in his studies.

Conclusion

These theories sometimes are not a perfect match of the real life experiences a child passes. Besides, they do not sometimes accurately describe the exact events which happen in children lives. For instance according to a2zpsychology.com (2006), some limitations to Freud’s psychosexual development theory exist.

The theory cannot be tested with ease, and the evidence collected to proof it is invalid. Additionally, the crucial events such as how the libido is applied lack makers and are not measurable. Again, a long period between the onset of the underlying stimulus and the supposed consequence; weakness and inconsistency between early events and the future traits undermines the theory. Finally, the theory was developed from the studies of psychotic persons while not from studying children.

Similarly, gathered evidence on Piaget’s theory depicts it as overly rigid, since many children have been proven to attain actual operations earlier than theorized, and some individuals completely may fail to attain recognized operations. However, Piaget’s theory forms the foundation for the school of cognitive constructivism where it seem more relevant (Atherton, 2010).

Reference List

Atherton, J. S (2010). Learning and Teaching; Piaget’s developmental theory Piaget’s Developmental Theory.

Cherry, K. (2010). Child development theories: major theories of child development.

Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and application (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, (2010).

Stevenson, D. B. (2001). Freud’s psychosexual stages of Development.

October 19, 2010, from The Victorian web; literature, history, & culture in the age of Victoria

Wanda, G .Y. (1988). Jean Piaget’s –Intellectual development.