Basic Psychology

Name- Vyoma Satyajit Joshi

Div-A
PRN-17010224040
Course- B.B.A.LL.B.
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Q1. “What does psychoanalysis focus on? Who popularized and used the principles of
psychoanalysis and how?”
The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to address the repressed emotions and experiences, that
basically ignites the unconscious part of the mind as equivalent to that of the conscious mind.
It was seen that the healing was usually experienced and a person was getting cured with the
usage of this therapy. Psychoanalysis is used to treat depression and anxiety related disorders.
In the therapy the individual usually shares their dreams and childhood memories while the
therapist takes note of it. Due to the nature of defense mechanisms and the inaccessibility of
that deterministic forces operating in the unconscious, psychoanalysis in its classic form is a
lengthy process and is said to go on for quite some time.
In the episode titled Engineering of Consent of the documentary, it is seen that the individuals
who fought in the army have faced multiple mental breakdowns. It showcases an interview of
a soldier opening up to a doctor thereby following the psychoanalysis theory. He talks about
homesickness and cries when he talks about the people he loves. Professor Martin Bergmann
who is a psychoanalyst in the US Army said that people came up to him with several
aspirations and he understood them and further when he interviewed the soldiers, he came
across a display of emotions which was apparently rare. The psychoanalysts used techniques
developed by Freud to take the men back into their past. They became convinced that the
breakdowns were not the direct result of the war but was mostly because of their repressed
feelings and the combat had merely just triggered the old childhood memories. These were
memories of the men's own violent feelings and desires which they had repressed because
they were too frightening. To the psychoanalyst it was overwhelming proof of Freud's theory
that underneath human beings were driven by primitive irrational forces.
The theory of Psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud, a famous Neurologist from
Vienna and the emergence of this field of study was influenced by numerous developments
taking place in different fields such as neurology, psychiatry, psychology etc. Although
psychoanalysis began with Freud’s writing and lectures and the work of a small group of
colleagues primarily in Vienna, by the time of Freud’s death in 1939 it began to grow into an
international movement and a lot of people contributed its own unique way for the
development of different schools and theories of psychoanalysis. Many of Freud's
observations and theories were based on clinical cases and case studies. This made his
findings difficult to generalize to the larger population. Still, Freud's theories changed how
we think about the human mind and behavior and left a lasting mark on psychology and
culture.
Freud developed three principles of Psychoanalysis; the first is the Reality Principle, which
majorly talked about two components of personality identified by Freud. The id seeks instant
gratification of needs, demands and urges, if we acted according to what our id wanted, we
might find ourselves grabbing food off of another person’s plate. Whereas ego, on the other
hand is the personality that deals with the demands of reality. It makes sure that our desires
are satisfied in an effective and appropriate way. The ego is ruled by the reality principle. In
the documentary it has been told that Anna Freud, the youngest daughter of Freud believed
that it was possible to teach individuals how to control these inner forces. Anna Freud
believed if children strictly followed the rules of accepted social conduct then as they grew
up the conscious part of their mind, what was called the ego, would be greatly strengthened in
its struggle to control the unconscious.
The second principle which Freud introduced was the Pleasure Principle, it is also the only
part of the personality that Freud believed was present from birth. The id is one of the
strongest motivating forces, but it is the part of the personality that also tends to be buried at
the deepest, unconscious level. It consists of all of our most basic urges and desires. Freud
notice that very young children often try to satisfy the biological needs with little or no
thoughts given whether or not that behavior is acceptable.
The last principle of psychoanalysis that is, Morality Principle. The superego mainly operates
on the morality principle and motivates us to behave in a socially responsible and acceptable
manner. Freud’s idea of morals was profoundly influenced by his time and the society in
which he lived. The superego develops as an expression of internalized authority figure
originally based on the parents and later reinforced by social representatives such as teachers,
police, and clergy. The episode then goes about and talks about the instillation of societal
norms in the minds of the masses and how big corporations and government are exploiting
mass them.

Q2- What was ‘Engineering of Consent’? How was it sought using psychoanalysis?
Edward Bernays was popularly known as “the father of public relations” and Engineering of
Consent was his brainchild. This idea was motivated by Freud’s understanding of human
beings. According to Freud, human beings are irrational beings and have unconscious evil
desires and irrational thoughts hidden under the surface of the conscious. He viewed
psychoanalysis as a royal road to the unconscious which allows the access to suppressed
desires and primitive irrational thoughts. Freud used psychoanalysis as a way to allow people
to understand themselves better by giving them the access to their unconscious and thereby
treat mental illnesses.
Edward Bernays used the same technique in a different manner. Edward was of the opinion
that one can tap the deep hidden desires and use it to one’s own advantage. According to him,
people did not have a reliable judgment and therefore could be easily manipulated. This
planned process of influencing the public opinion to gain public support to ideas and
programs is called the Engineering of Consent. It mainly functions by tapping into the
irrational forces that drive human behaviour and the same can lead to successful manipulation
of the masses without them even realizing it.
This concept was also used by Edward during cold war to ensure support for democratic form
of government over communism and it had a huge impact on international relations.
During the cold war, the international political scenario was divided into two power groups,
America and USSR were the two main superpowers of that time.
When the world's first atomic bomb was successfully tested by the Soviet Union, the internati
onal atmosphere increased multifold and fear of communism among Americans increased. 
Edward believed that instead of decreasing the fear of communism within the American
population, they must focus upon increasing the quantum of this fear. To contain the spread
of communism, the fear of communism within the Americans was an important tool that
Edward used in a very clever manner. Sadly, Gautemala, a small country in Central America
paid a huge price.
The American United Fruit Company owned most of the land in Gautemala and there was a
huge economic disparity due to the same. To effectively deal with this, the democratic
government of Gautemala declared land reforms in the year 1944. The Fruit Company turned
to Edward for help. Edward decided to give this a communism spin. The Guatemala
government was presented as the supporter of communism and therefore a threat to the
America. The American Journalists were sent to Guatemala and during the visit, anti-
American protests were staged by the Edward. All of this was done in order to gain the
support of the Americans to overthrow the government of Gautemala. The CIA then sent
planes and dropped bomb in Guetamala and the head of the state finally fled the country.
Therefore, the rightfully elected government was successfully over-thrown due to the
intervention of Americans.
While the American public saw this as a civil war for liberation of Gautemala with the
support of the freedom fighters of democracy (i.e. Americans), in reality the whole situation
was a live example of Engineering of Consent in practice.

Q3. What condition of the Burlingham family did Anna Freud treat? What principles of
psychoanalysis did she apply?
Sigmund Freud in his works has mentioned extensively that all human beings have internal
forces, and believed that Psychoanalysis would help people understand their unconscious
strives.
Anna Freud daughter of Sigmund Freud believed in this ideology. She wanted to prove that
individuals can be changed and can take control of their inner feelings. To prove the same,
Anna took into account the lives of Burlingham family. Dorothy Burlingham had fled a failed
marriage in the 1920s and had brought her children to Anna Freud in Vienna. Dorothy
Burlingham was an American millionaire and a close friend of Anna Freud. Her children
were majorly suffering from Anxiety and Aggression.
Anna Freud applied the principles she believed on the children. She was of the view that by
simply changing the environment around them she could change the inner drives of these
children. She thought that since the children didn’t have independent thoughts of their own,
she could change their environment by controlling their school, etc. to influence their external
world. Along with psychotherapy, the children were encouraged to adapt to a good social and
family environment, she was convinced that the conscious part of the mind (ego) would be
able to control the unconscious.
This particular technique of Anna Freud had a lot of drawbacks and the major one was that it
did not recognize homosexuality or anything that did not all under the societal definition of
normal. For instance, she had the fear that one of the children would be homosexual which
was then unacceptable to the society, a lot of efforts were made to prevent the homosexuality
of that child. This entire process was a success, and the children went back to America to live
a ‘good’ life. But soon one of the children slipped into alcoholism and eventually died of
excessive drinking. The second on later committed suicide.
This method was eventually used on the entire America population. Anna Freud believed if
children strictly followed the rules of accepted social conduct then as they grew up the
conscious part of their mind, what was called the ego, would be greatly strengthened in its
struggle to control the unconscious. She was of the view that psychoanalytic thinking could
make for the betterment of society. Because you could change the way the mind functioned;
and you could take the ways in which people did hurtful things to themselves and others and
alter them by enlarging their understanding. And this was the vision psychoanalysis brought.
That you could really change people. And you could change them almost in limitless ways.

Q4. What defense mechanisms did you see in this episode? Mention at least 3.
Defense mechanisms are the psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a
person from anxiety from unacceptable thoughts and feelings. The defense mechanisms that I
saw in the episode are: -

 Repression

Repression is the process of blocking impulse from the conscious expression. It is basically
an unconscious mechanism that prevents some intolerable psychological material from
entering into the conscious. It is a consciousness lowering process. Looking at the
documentary we see that while repression is a term that is frequently used in psychoanalysis
it is considered to be a loaded and controversial topic. Ana Freud had an idea that she could
change and teach individuals how they could control their emotions and inner drives. Ana
Freud through her experiment on Burlingham kids was of the idea that, if they would adapt to
a good family and the right kind social environment, in that case the ego would be
strengthened and could control the unconscious mind.
But the main issue here is that it is always the psychoanalyst that decides what is the right
environment for the individuals and anything contrary to that was considered to be abnormal.
In the documentary too, there are a number of critics who have questioned the very validity
of this method. Repression is often seen as a way through which the reality of an individual
gets distorted which may then lead to neurosis and dysfunction. It was seen that both the
Burlingham Kids suffered several breakdowns. One of them died of heavy drinking and the
other committed suicide.
This method was also used for advertisements and businesses to create model consumers by
Ernest Dichter. He was of the view that real reasons for buying products was rooted in the
unconscious desires and feelings. An example the same was the Betty Crocker cake mix. He
realised that the housewives felt unconscious guilt from the new image of convenience. He
understood that the barrier to the consumption of the product was the housewives feeling
guilty.

 Suppression

Suppression shares similarities with the defense mechanism of repression, but in the latter,
distressing mental contents do not become easily accessible to consciousness, as individuals
more or less involuntarily make efforts for that not to happen, whereas suppression occurs
when a person consciously tries to force these feelings out of awareness.
The Menninger brothers Karl and Will believed that it was possible to apply Ana Freuds idea
on a large scale, and the physiatrists were told to teach the people how to control their
unconscious drives. They were convinced that they could really change people in almost
limitless ways. They were convinced that the road to happiness was in adapting the external
world. They never questioned the reality.

 Denial

Freud was of the idea that denial can basically help to ward off pain by ignoring or
disavowing the very existence of it. It means individuals refuse to acknowledge the existence
of problematic reality at hand. In the context of the documentary, where individuals are
supressing their thoughts, they are simultaneously denying the reality.
An example of the same is that Marlyn Monroe was suffering from despair. Her therapist
followed Ana Freuds theory, and believed that a normal family life could solve her despair.
She was taught to confirm what society thought was the ordinary way of life and thereafter
consciously supressed and consequently denied her despair. Eventually she took her own life.

Q5. What role did psychoanalysis play post world war?

The second world war caused an upheaval in the psychoanalytic movement. The world war
left armies of thousands into great pain and distress. The story in the documentary begins in
the middle of the fierce fighting of the second world war. As the fighting intensified the
American army was faced by an extraordinary number of mental breakdowns among its
troops. Forty-nine percent of all soldiers evacuated from combat were sent back because they
suffered from mental problems. In desperation the army turned to the new ideas of
psychoanalysis.
On the other hand, the founders of the biggest society for psychoanalysis, Freud and his
family were relocated to Britain. Post his demise, daughter Anna Freud took up the
development and application of Freud’s theories and emerged as a leader of the movement.
The psychoanalysts used techniques developed by Freud to take the men back into their pasts.
They were convinced that the breakdowns were not the direct result of the fighting. The
combat was merely the trigger to old childhood memories. These memories were of the
men’s own violent feelings and desires which they had repressed. Here again, there was a
discovery for the psychoanalysts. To them it was an overwhelming proof of Freud’s theory
that underneath human beings were driven by primitive irrational forces.
In order to treat the American soldiers for their mental health, the psychiatrists and relocated
psychologists showed confidence in Psychoanalysis. At the heart of the experiment were a
number of refugee psychoanalysts from central Europe. They worked with American
psychiatrists to guide and shape the project.
The US Government, relied upon the developments made by Anna Freud, which stated that it
was possible to teach individuals how to control these inner forces, in order to help the people
to overcome the issues being faced by them.
The US Government soon after the World War II came up with the National Mental Health
Act of 1946. The same was done to expediently treat depression, anxiety and other related
disorders. Not only this, psychological guidance centers were set up various psychoanalysts
who believed it was there job to help people and wanted to unsure the well-being of everyone
and the movement also received a huge support from other social workers as well.
Therefore, it could be said that psychoanalysis techniques have played a really important part
in every sector.