PSYCHOANALYSIS

Disciplines & Ideas in the Social

Sciences
 PSYCHOANALYSIS

 In a school of though developed by

Sigmund Freud
 Refers to a theory of the mind and its direct
connection to personality and behavior
 Its basic premise is that the human mind
has unconscious state
 There are thoughts, memories, emotions,
and feelings that are hidden from a
person’s conscious mind, which, without
him or her knowing, affects the way he or
she thinks, feels, and acts.

 There are also drives & desires in a

person’s unconscious mind that influence
his/her view of the world and how he/she
decides to go about his or her daily life.
 Freud’s theory states that most
unconscious desires originate from
childhood experiences that people
have long forgotten or repressed.
 Although repressed and buried deep
within a person’s thoughts, these
desires and urges propel one to
function in society.
 The practice of psychoanalysis comes
into play when these unconscious
desires hinder the individual to
function in society.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC PRACTICE

 The method by which the troubling

unconscious material, such as memories
and desires, is brought to the level of the
conscious mind so that the individual could
better understand himself/herself better.
 PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT OF
PERSONALITY
 A personality theory developed by Freud
which posits that at different stages of
growth, the individual derives pleasure from
different parts of the body– thus the term
psychosexual.
 PSYCHOSEXUAL – relating to pleasure
and the human body
 The central idea in this theory is how the
mind relates to the body and the
pleasure derived from the activities of
the body.
 An important term in this personality
theory is called libido, which is defined
as the natural mental energy that
operates the mechanisms of the mind.
 For Freud, an unaddressed fixation in
any stage of psychosexual development
results in a personality disorder that
could manifest later in adult life.
 STAGES OF
PSYCHOSEXUAL
DEVELOPMENT
 ORAL STAGE

 1st stage which manifests from birth to

approximately 18 months of age.

 During this period, the child is totally

dependent on others to provide for
his/her needs.
 Pleasure is derived from the use of
the mouth in activities such as
sucking, chewing, & biting.

 The personality developed in this

stage is dependence.
 ANAL STAGE

 2nd stage which begins at 18 months and

lasts until 3 years when the child is being
toilet-trained.
The personality developed in this stage is
independence, self-control, and sense of
accomplishment.
 PHALLIC STAGE

 3rd stage which takes place from 3 to 6

years of age.
During this period, the child develops an
attraction to their parent of the opposite sex
and sees a jealous and rivalrous
relationship with his/her parent of the same
sex.
 This is what Freud termed as the
Oedipus complex for boys and the
Electra complex for girls.
 LATENCY STAGE

 4TH stage which is manifested from 6 – 12

years of age.

 Personality traits developed in this stage

are associated with social skils and social
interactions.
 GENITAL STAGE

 5th stage that manifests from 12 years of

age onward, or from puberty to adulthood.

The personality developed in this stage is

sexual maturity.
Key Concepts in
Psychoanalysis

Id, Ego, Superego

 Freud’s psychoanalytic personality theory
provides 3 levels of awareness:
 CONSCIOUS level of the mind = the
accessible information, memories, &
thoughts that an individual has.
 PRECONSCIOUS = the level where
accessible & retrievable information are
situated, but are not currently in the
conscious level.
 UNCONSCIOUS = is the inaccessible
memories, thoughts, emotions, &
feelings that are populated by
childhood events.
 The popular saying “ You only
see the tip of the iceberg” is a
suitable analogy for the 3 levels
of the mind.
 The tip is the conscious level,
the part right below the sea line
is the preconscious, and the
major portion beneath the sea is
the unconscious.
 The id, ego & superego are the
parts that are constitutive of
personality that occupy these 3
levels of the mind.
 ID

 1st part to develop which occupies the

unconscious level
 Because it is the biological aspect (instincts &
basic urges) of personality, it only seeks
pleasure and demands instant gratification.
 It doesn’t take reality into account as it only
demands what it wants without reason or logic.
 EGO

 2nd to develop which resides in the

conscious & preconscious levels of the
mind.
Because it is considered as the center of
logic and reason, it is also described as the
decision-maker.
 SUPEREGO

 3rd to develop and it resides in all 3 levels of the

mind.
As the moral and social aspect of personality, it is
considered as person’s conscience.
It demands strict adherence to the laws of society
and conformity to social norms.
It makes a person feel guilty.
It does not take reality into accounts as it merely
asserts & demands moral perfection.
IMPORTANT THEORISTS
 SIGMUND FREUD

 An Austrian neurologist and is known as the

Father of Psychoanalysis.
His theory states that behavior & personality are
driven by past events, which are mostly
inaccessible to an individual’s consciousness.
Psychoanalysis involves methods through which
an individual is guided to understand
himself/herself better.
 PSYCHOTHERAPY

 A treatment that the originating event or

circumstance which hinders an individual to
live a healthy life is brought to the surface of
consciousness.
It is mostly interpretative
The psychoanalyst would interpret the
patient’s problem & allows the subject to
directly come to terms with his/her problem.
 Its one technique that is used is called
FREE ASSOCIATION --- that allows the
patient to have an inner dialog with oneself
by saying freely the words that he/she
associates with a thing, person, or an event.
 By having an inner dialog, the unconscious
reveals itself & the words associated with an
object would gradually lead to the originating
event which caused a mental problem to the
patient.
 FREUDIAN SLIP or slip of the tongue to
which Freud relates free association as what
is now known
 When an individual commits a Freudian slip
(or unintentionally saying something as
opposed to what he/she wanted to actually
say), he/she reveals his/her innermost
thoughts.
 His psychoanalysis has been criticized
because its beginnings and many of its
followers have adopted, changed, and
developed it to suit their particular needs.
 Psychology and psychiatry today have almost
abandoned psychoanalysis as a form of
treatment, but most of its concepts– including
the unconscious– are still being used.
 CARL JUNG
(1875-1961)

 A Swiss psychiatrist & psychotherapist

Founded the school of thought called
ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY, which departed
from Freud’s traditional psychoanalysis
“ A healthy mental life is achieved through a
balanced and a well-understood personality.
 His theory of personality has been modified
& changed over time, but what survived
over the years are his concepts of
extroversion and introversion.

 Psychologists still use the terms extrovert &

introvert in describing personality.

 However, popular culture has given these

terms a different definition as to what Jung
originally proposed.
 DEFINITION OF EXTROVERSION

From Popular Culture: From Jungian Psychology:

 A person who goes  The personality which is
to parties or who is motivated by outside
more adventurous. stimuli or factors.
Doesn’t encompass The focus of the
its true meaning. individual tends toward
outside objects, things,
and other people.
 DEFINITION OF EXTROVERSION:

From Jungian Psychology:

 They rely on statistical data to come up with
analysis and conclusion.
 They rely on the outside world when forming
ideas and tend to focus their mental energy
outward.
 They can quickly adapt to environmental &
social changes.
 They are thought to be more social and
outgoing.

 Due to their heavy reliance on outside

stimuli, they are potentially at risk of
going with the crowd even when it is
wrong.
 DEFINITION OF INTROVERSION

From Popular Culture: From Jungian Psychology:

 A person who  The personality which
chooses to stay at is motivated by inner
home, alone and necessity.
quiet. The focus of the
Doesn’t encompass individual tends toward
its true meaning. the self.
 DEFINITION OF INTROVERSION

From Jungian Psychology:

 They derives analysis and conclusion upon
how statistical data make an impression
upon his/her thoughts & ideas.
 They would find difficulty in quickly adapting
to environmental and social changes as
they would be very subjective in the way
they form ideas.
 That is why they are thought to be loners
or antisocial as they tend to focus their
mental energy inward.

 Due to their heavy reliance on personal

and subjective thoughts, they are more
likely to go against the crowd even when it
is correct.
 Jacques Lacan
(1901 - 1981)

A French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst

In his development of Freud’s psychoanalytic
thought, he incorporated the ideas of
Saussure’s linguistics, Levi-Strauss’s
anthropology, Kant’s idealism, Marx’s
communist theory, and Aristotelian logic,
among other thoughts and thinkers.
 He said that psychotherapy requires a
communication between the patient and
the specialist because the medium byb
which psychoanalysis operates is through
language; as such, his psychoanalytic
theory centered on language.

 Compared to Freud’s treatment of

language as a device to ascertain
unconscious truths of the subject, he
claimed that language has the structure
and function of the unconscious itself.
 For him, desire is something unattainable
in the sense that once it has been fulfilled,
there will automatically be another object of
desire.
 Language functions in the same way as
words can never encapsulate an idea or
thought.
 He describes this function as METONYMY.
 Metonymy = is a figure of speech
wherein an object is understood not for
what it actually means, but for the
associations that the object possesses.
E.g.:
A simple tree could be understood by observers
differently as they associate varying meanings to
the tree, making it more than a tree for some. As
such, metonymy is related to and is supported
by Freud’s concept of free association.
 His 1st major paper in a psychoanalytic
conference talked about what he called
MIRROR STAGE.
 The mirror stage can be associated with
Freud’s development of the superego and the
phallic stage of development.
 A child is said to be in the mirror stage upon
seeing himself/herself in the mirror for the
first time and establishes a relationship with
the image he/she sees.
 This mirror could be theoretical; it can be
either an actual mirror or a person, usually
the mother.
 What the child sees in the mirror is a fully
formed self, a body, something whole and
complete.
 However, the child still feels incomplete–
having no ability to control his/her body & still
struggling to stand, walk around, and eat.
 The child then imagines himself/herself to be
whole & complete, and able to move his/her
body with complete control.
 What this image represent is an ideal child or
what is called EGO IDEAL.
 What is formed in this relationship with the
image is what Lacan calls DIVIDED
SUBJECT which becomes split into what
actually is and what the subject imagines it to
be.
 The Lacanian subject is neither truly formed
nor it is ever whole– there’s always a conflict
between itself and what it imagines it to be.
 Eric Fromm
(1900 - 1980)
 A German sociologist, psychologist, &
psychoanalyst.
 He developed a distinct type of
psychoanalysis which he called HUMANISTIC
PSYCHOANALYSIS which uses historical,
anthropological, and psychological
perspectives to approach an individual.
 His psychoanalytic theory assumes that
humans have lost their ties with nature and
are now left with no instincts capable to adapt
to the ever-changing world.
 A dilemma is a problem.
 HUMAN DILEMMA – a rationalization when
humans developed the ability to reason, they
can rationalize their isolated existence or
condition. It is the problem of reuniting with
nature, in a manner similar to the union of our
prehistoric ancestors and their relationship
with the environment.
 However, the second part of the problem is
that a complete going back or a complete
reunion to our prehistoric ancestors & their
relationship with nature is unattainable.
 Hence, human society has, over the course of
history, developed away from nature to the
point that it is quite impossible to go back to
such a state of things.
 His psychotherapy helps the individual realize
how to achieve human needs and to be
productive members of society.
 An unhealthy mind is one which has chosen
the negative components of human needs.
 Louis Althusser
(1918 - 1990)
 A French Marxist philosopher who used
psychoanalytic theory to form and support his
philosophy.
Central to his philosophy is his reinvention of
what Marx termed as IDEOLOGY.
IDEOLOGY – the false consciousness
perpetuated by capital industrialists to further
control the working class.
 IDEOLOGY – is reflection or
misrepresentation of our already imaginary
understanding of the world. In this sense,
ideology becomes the ideology of our
already imaginary worldview and of our
imaginary relationship with other individuals.

 As such, ideology is a mere representation

of our imaginary perspective of reality,
society, and culture.
 What he created in his philosophy is the
idea that an individual is turned into a
subject and a member of society through
ideology.

 Ideology is constitutive of the self, or in

other terms, the self is an ideological
concept in and of itself.
 CRITICISMS
and
LIMITATIONS
 Psychoanalysis is mainly criticized as
UNSCIENTIFIC or, even at times, a
PSEUDOSCIENCE.
 Critics argue that psychoanalysis takes
phenomenological approach instead of a
positivistic approach in investigating the mind.
 This phenomenological approach is
characterized by the lack of quantitative and
experimental research in its theory and
practice.
 Psychoanalytic theory is also allegedly
UNTESTABLE and is NOT FALSIFIABLE.
 It is also argued that it lacks scientific basis
and at times is associated with the mystical
practices of witch doctors.

 Because most of the psychoanalytic

theories are based on case studies, their
applicability is questioned to be limited only
to the specific cases studied and not to the
general public.