APSS1A02 Introduction to Western Theories of Human Nature

Lecture 8
Psychoanalysis: Freud, the Unconscious,
and Human Nature
Key terms to start with
Psychoanalysis: The unconscious:
 A system of  A part of mind to which
psychology we have no access; the
comprising (a) a repository of instincts,
theory of the mind and primitive mental
(b) a method of processes, which do not
clinical treatment, conform to the rules of
both grounded in the logic and rationality.
belief in the existence
of the unconscious.
Background

THE STUDIES OF
MENTAL ILLNESSES
Marxism versus Freudianism
Ideological control is
Not exactly. Ideology surely the most horrible
enslaves us, but its power thing; it enslaves us.
need be explained by our
unconsciousness.
Sigmund Freud: the father of
psychoanalysis
 Born in 1856 in Austria.
 Son of a Jewish merchant.
 Trained as a neurologist in the
University of Vienna; taking his MD
in 1881.
 Beginning to study hypnosis and
‘male hysteria’ in 1885 (with Jean
Martin Charcot).
 Co-publishing with J. Breuer Studies
on Hysteria in 1895; continuing works
on neurosis, psychosis, dreams, jokes,
arts, civilization and religion since
then.
The discovery of the unconscious:
Hysteria
Hysteria:
◦ A nervous disorder characterized by a number of
symptoms, such as vomit, nervous cough, paralysis of
limbs, amnesia, phobia, false pregnancy, and delirium;
formerly believed by Ancient Greeks to be a female
disorder resulting from the displacement of the womb.
Freud’s contribution:
◦ Hysteria is ‘ideational’, and its symptoms can be
removed by finding out the corresponding
‘suppressed’ ideas.
The story of Anna O
 Dr. Josef Breuer reported
to Freud his treatment of
Anna O (Bertha
Pappenheim), who
suffered from hysteria
since a night of nursing
her sick father.
 Breuer used hypnosis to
induce the girl to talk
about her unhappy Bertha Pappenheim
experience. When done, (1859-1936)
a correspondent
symptom disappeared.
Anna O’s case
 'It was in the summer during a period of extreme heat, and the
patient was suffering very badly from thirst; for, without being
able to account for it in any way, she suddenly found it
impossible to drink...This had  lasted for some six weeks, when
one day during hypnosis she grumbled about her English "lady-
companion", whom she did not care for, and went  on to
describe, with every sign of disgust, how she had once gone
into this lady's room and how her little dog - horrid creature! -
had drunk out of a  glass there. The patient had said nothing, as
she had wanted to be polite. After giving further energetic
expression to the anger she had held back, she  asked for
something to drink, drank a large quantity of water without any
difficulty, and awoke from her hypnosis with the glass at her
lips; and thereupon the disturbance vanished, never to return.‘
(http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/annao_case.html)
Anna O’s case
How
disgusting!
Freud’s explanation
A powerful emotion (of anger or disgust) is to
be repressed because its expression is socially
inappropriate.
But what is suppressed remains active, and its
force is channeled to some other bodily
activities: the symptoms.
This finding can be applied to other mental
illnesses.
Repression: The process of keeping unpleasant
feelings and desires into unconsciousness.
 Other methods of exploring the
unconscious
Free association

Oh no! He is
Pink elephant.
in love with Expensive.
me, but is
afraid of being Green snake.
rejected.

Get out, you bitch.

What other phenomena can be explained
by the unconscious?
1. Dreams
2. Jokes and parapraxes
3. Art and literature
4. Morality
5. Religion
Theory

THE TRIPARTITE
THEORY OF THE MIND
Why are some instincts kept from
being conscious?
1. They may lead a person to indulge in
unproductive behaviour.
2. They have sexual or violent contents
which are incompatible with the
demands of society.
The unconscious superego
Freud later on found out that there is a
region of mind, which is also
unconscious:
The superego: A mental structure
which is commonly regarded as our
‘conscience’, something imposed on
us by the parents.
The tripartite theory of the mind
1. The Id
• The seat of sexual and aggressive instincts;
governed by the pleasure principle.
2. The Ego
• The ‘I’, characterized by the recognition of the
external world; governed by the reality principle.
3. The Superego
• The seat of moral and social values; the
internalized version of parental authority; largely
unconscious in character.
How does the ego try to compromise he
demands of the id and the superego?
 The price for civilization
 Because of the needs to perpetuate the human
species, and to get rid of the threats from nature,
we have to
1. form families and cooperate with people in
society;
2. conform to the rules of law and morality;
3. sacrifice our true desires for happiness;
4. turn to be neurotic when we are too unhappy
with the civilized life.
 Freud’s legacies
1. The idea of liberation:
◦ Should we fight for our true freedom and
oppose the control of civilized morality?
2. The idea of rationality:
◦ Should we enlarge the rule of the ego and try
to compromise with the external world?
3. The idea of the collective unconscious:
◦ Carl G. Jung: Are some unconscious patterns
of thinking (archetypes) universally found in all
human beings? Can they help us understand
ourselves better?