Symbolic Interactionism &

Psychoanalysis
 History of Symbolic Interactionism
History of symbolic interactionism stretches back through the 20th century, it
emerged as a prominent theoretical perspective in American sociology during the
1960s. Symbolic interactionism grew out of the American philosophical tradition
of pragmatism in the late 19th century, especially as elaborated by William James,
John Dewey, and Charles S. Peirce. The most important bridge between the
pragmatic tradition and sociology was George Herbert Mead. One of his most
famous books, Mind, Self, and Society is often taken as a charter for the symbolic
interactionist approach. Along with Mead, two other important early sociologists
who shaped the interactionist tradition were Charles Horton Cooley and William
Isaac Thomas. 

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What is Symbolic
Interactionism?
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 It is the view of social behavior that emphasizes linguistic or
gestural communication and its subjective understanding,
especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a
social being.

 It is an approach used to analyze human interactions by

focusing on the meanings that individuals assign to things in
the world around them, including words and objects.

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 It is a process that is enlivened the reciprocal meaning and values by aid of
the symbols in the mind.
 According to symbolic interactionism, the objective world has no reality for
humans; only subjectively defined objects have meaning. There is no single
objective “reality”; there are only (possibly multiple, possibly conflicting)
interpretations of a situation. Meanings are not entities that are bestowed on
humans and learned by the habituation; instead, meanings can be altered
through the creative capabilities of humans, and individuals may influence the
many meanings that form their society. Human society, therefore, is a social
product.

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 The Looking-Glass Self
The looking-glass self describes
the process wherein individuals
base their sense of self on how they
believe others view them. Using
social interaction as a type of
“mirror,” people use the judgments
they receive from others to measure
their own worth, values, and
behavior.

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Symbolic Interactionism

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 Application of Symbolic
Interactionism
 We consider, interpret, and adapt to other people's acts.
 Symbolic interactions connect us to the society, connect the society to
us, and reflect the society in which we are acting.
 Your understanding of a word or event changes based
on interactions with it.

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 History of Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud started his early career with a
Viennese physician named Josef Breuer. A patient named
Bertha Pappenheim approached Breur when she had
developed symptoms like headaches, blurred vision,
amnesia, partial paralysis, and hallucinations while taking
care of her dying father. These symptoms were referred to
as hysteria at that point in time. After two years of
treatment, Breuer and Freud have a controversy with their
idea of the psychological mind and soon it ended their
work together. But Freud began to show his interest in the
same and continued his work in the same field which later
resulted in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

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 What is Psychoanalysis?
It was founded by Sigmund Freud. Freud
believed that people could be cured by making
conscious their unconscious thoughts and
motivations, thus gaining insight.

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Freud’s Layers of Mind

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 Freudian’s Slip

One way to understand how the conscious

and unconscious minds operate is to look at
what is known as a slip of the tongue. Many of
us have experienced what is commonly
referred to as a Freudian slip at some point or
another. These misstatements are believed to
reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or
feelings.

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 Freud’s Layers of Mind

Conscious. This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and

focus live.
Preconscious. (Sometimes called the subconscious) this is the
home of everything we can recall or retrieve from our memory.
Unconscious. at the deepest level of our minds resides a
repository of the processes that drive our behavior, including
primitive and instinctual desire.

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 Metamorphical
parts of the mind
ID. This is an unconscious part of your
personality. It is basically the childish and
impulsive part of you that just does what it
wants, and it wants things really intensely and
doesn't really think about the consequences.
Freud describes this as operating on a pleasure
principle.
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 Metamorphical
parts of the mind
SUPEREGO. is the part of you that's
super judgmental and moralizing and is
always trying to get you to behave in a
socially appropriate way.

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 Metamorphical
parts of the mind
EGO. is 'that part of the id which
has been modified by the direct
influence of the external world.'

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Application of Psychoanalysis
 Psychoanalytic theories and therapies strive to
understand the unique phenomenology of a person.
In doing so, the meaning and values that give
significance to our lives are honored and supported. 

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 Application of Psychoanalysis
 All civilized societies require that persons conform to the
standards, rules, and expectations that are necessary to live
cooperatively. Our socialization begins at birth and requires
that a person learn to adapt to social demands and to
internalize those demands as one’s own. 

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 Application of Psychoanalysis
 As today’s technology has allowed us nearly
immediate gratification for many of our needs,
such convenience can undermine a person’s
emotional maturity by circumventing the ability to
tolerate frustration. 

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