BUILT ENVIRONMENT &

SPATIAL CULTURE
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – Father of Psychoanalysis

Freud founded the area of

psychoanalysis, which he
described in 1923 as
• a theory of the mind or
personality,
• a method of investigation of
unconscious process, and
• a method of treatment
Influences on Sigmund Freud

• Childhood- Conflicting emotions for • Interpretation of Dreams

Half brother Philip, emotional crisis
after father’s death

• Contemporary Scientific climate • Concept of Psychic Energy-

• Charles Darwin’s Origin of Cornerstone of Freud’s
Species psychoanalytic theory
• Field of Physics- Conservation of
energy by Helmholz
• Ernst Brucke (professor of
physiology at university)
Freud’s Theory of the Unconscious; The Mental Iceberg

Those thoughts that are the

focus of our attention now, and
this is seen as the tip of the
iceberg.
The preconscious consists
of all which can be
retrieved from memory.

The third and most

significant region is the
unconscious. Here lie the
processes that are the
real cause of most
behavior. Like an iceberg,
the most important part
of the mind is the part
you cannot see.
 The Unconscious
Freud saw the unconscious as holding all the urges, thoughts
and feelings that might cause us anxiety, conflict and pain.
Although we are unaware of them, these urges, thoughts and
feelings are considered to exert an influence on our actions.
Structural model

Alongside the three

levels of
consciousness, in 1923
Freud developed a
structural model of
personality involving
what he called
•the id,
•the ego and
•the superego.
the id functions in the
unconscious and is closely
tied to instinctual and
biological processes. It is
the primitive core from
which the ego and the
superego develop. (Pleasure
principle)
the superego provides moral
guidance, embodying
parental and societal values.
The superego has two sub-
systems: conscience and ego
ideal. (Ethical/moral
principle)

the ego mediates between id impulses,

superego directives and the real world.
Conflicts in this process can lead to anxiety.
When anxiety cannot be dealt with by realistic
methods, the ego calls upon various defence
mechanisms to release the tension. (Reality
principle)
Freud’s Tripartite model of the structure of the mind or personality

• Three structural elements within the mind, id, ego, and super-ego.
• The id is that part of the mind in which are situated the instinctual drives which
require instant gratification and satisfaction.
• The super-ego is that part which contains the “conscience,” namely, socially-
acquired control mechanisms which have been internalized, and which are
usually imparted in the first instance by the parents.
• The ego is the conscious self that is created by the dynamic tensions and
interactions between the id and the super-ego and has the task of reconciling
their conflicting demands with the requirements of external reality.
In a healthy person, according to Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the
needs of the id, not upset the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every
situation. Not an easy job by any means, but if the id gets too strong, impulses and self
gratification take over the person's life. If the superego becomes too strong, the person
would be driven by rigid morals, would be judgmental and unbending in his or her
interactions with the world.
Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams as wish fulfillment:

Freud (1900/1961) claimed that dreams were

attempts to fulfill wishes, arising during sleep,
derived from libidinal urges.

He based this claim on findings from a purely

subjective method: he collected dreamers’
associations to the individual elements of their
dreams and then inferred implicit, underlying
themes from the converging semantic and
affective links.
The house was on fire!

Houses can host many

common dream symbols, but
seeing the building as a whole
represents your inner psyche.

Each room or floor can

symbolize something… such
as different emotions,
memories, interpretations of
meaningful events or even
bodily sensations!

Houses tell us something

about our inner self!
Carl Gustav Jung (1871 – 1965)

Jung was chosen by Freud to succeed him in his

psychoanalytic empire! However Jung disagreed with Freud
on several issues:

•Dream interpretation
•The scope and extension of the unconsious
•The significance of sex and sexuality in a person’s life
• The Rational vs Spiritual debate

Jung was eventually expelled from Freud’s circle and formed

his own branch of psychoanalysis called Analytic Psychology
 Jung: The dream gives
a true picture of the
subjective state, while
the conscious mind
denies that this state
exists, or recognizes it
only grudgingly…

The Collective Unconscious

Freud had assumed the unconscious to be a personal thing contained within
an individual. Jung, on the other hand, saw the personal unconscious mind as
sitting atop a much deeper universal layer of consciousness, the collective
unconscious – the inherited part of the human psyche not developed from
personal experience.
Archetypes
“I have often been asked where the archetypes or primordial images come from. It
seems to me that their origins can only be explained from assuming them to be deposits
of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity”
Jung described archetypal events: birth, death, separation from parents, initiation,
marriage, the union of opposites;
archetypal figures: great mother, father, child, devil, god, wise old man, wise old woman,
the trickster, the hero; and
archetypal motifs: the apocalypse, the deluge, the creation.
Although the number of archetypes is limitless, there are a few particularly notable,
recurring archetypal images, "the chief among them being the shadow, the wise old man,
the child, the mother ... and her counterpart, the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and
the animus in woman".