Chapter 5 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of development and personality

The concept of the unconscious The ‘Rosetta Stone’ to understanding human psychic life Mental processes and contents not known to the individual Operates autonomously Steers us into behaviours and emotions for which motivations are unknown to our conscious mind Implicated in neurotic symptoms Contains a store of memories, impulses, wishes and fantasies

Differences between infant & adult sexuality Infant Adult Polymorphously perverse Genitally-led Undefined sexual aimDefined sexual aim No sexual object- choice Secure subject-choice Innately bisexualHeterosexual Incestuous Exists in a state of nature Non-incestuous Exists in a state of culture

Psychosexual stages of development The Passive Component The incorporative phase The basis for identification ‘Taking in’ the outside world The Active Component The sadistic phase Pleasure is linked to destructive activities Aggressive tendencies may be linked to this stage 1. The oral stage: birth to 18 months. Erogenous zone = the mouth

The Passive Component Eject the object Concedes to parental demands Often accompanied by parental encouragement, reward, and praise The Active Component Retain the object Defies parental wishes May lead to parental scolding and punishment and 2. The anal stage: 18 months to 3 years. Erogenous zone = the anus Anal expulsive traits. Anal retentive traits.

Infantile, non-orgasmic masturbation. Sexual urges & desires focus on an external object - the primary caregiver. 3. The phallic stage: 3 to 5 years. Erogenous zone = the genital area The scopophilic drive exhibitionism voyeurism Castration anxiety Oedipus complex Penis envy

Oedipus complex (in boys) Characterised by castration anxiety Resolved by:  strong identification with father, and  giving up of opposite- sex parent as object of desire  replaces mother with another (female) sexual object Elektra complex (in girls) Characterised by penis envy Resolved by:  identification with mother  forming an attachment to someone who has a penis: a male  discovers a physical substitute for a penis: a baby

4. The latency stage: 5 years to puberty. Repression: Disturbing impulses or ideas are kept out of the conscious part of the mind by the ego. Sublimation: The build-up of sexual instincts is expressed in socially acceptable ways. (Hopeful) resolution of Oedipus complex. Sexual & aggressive instincts fairly inactive. As a result of the use of defences:

5. The genital stage: puberty onwards. Arrival of puberty Great physiological changes Sexual & aggressive urges resurface, but with better control Adult sexual desires become apparent Masturbation & sexual fantasy become important preoccupations Non-incestuous, (generally) heterosexual, genitally-led eroticism

Conscious Preconscious One-way mental gate Unconscious (Representatives of the instincts. Governed by primary processes, and by the operations of condensation and displacement. Access to preconscious-conscious mind is through compromise formation i.e. distortions of censorship. Childhood wishes ‘fixated’ in the unconscious.) Freud’s Topographical Model of the Mind

Freud’s structural model of the mind THE ID Pleasure principle Primary process thinking Hallucinatory gratification Wish fulfilment THE EGO Reality principle Secondary process thinking THE SUPEREGO Moral imperatives The ego-ideal The conscience

Freud’s structural model of the mind

Reality Ego Superego Id The ego as the ‘slave with three masters’

Defences Identification Repression Suppression Reaction formation Regression Fixation Introjection Idealisation Rationalisation Projection Dissociation Intellectualisation Sublimation

Symptom Defence fails Anxiety Consciousness Defence ____________________________________________________ Preconscious ____________________________________________________Unconscious impulses Model of symptom formation

DREAMS Expressions of unconscious wishes The ego’s dream-work Disguise the latent content through: Allow access displacement to manifest condensation, and content symbolism

Critiques and responses to Freud’s developmental theory Critique: Freudian theory is unscientific: - it lacks experimental support, - it is unverifiable by the normal methods of science.Reply: Criticism reveals an empiricist epistemology. Many Freudian concepts are now supported experimentally. The only criterion for scientific evidence  directly measurable phenomena.

Critique: Freudian theory is culturally relative: - emerges from a particular socio-cultural and historical location, - a product of the restrictive Victorian attitude towards sex, - exhibits a strong cultural bias.Reply: Cultural bias needs to be evaluated in terms of current cross-cultural research. Infant observation supports the notion that the infant comes to understand itself initially through the body. Acknowledge the possibility of universally applicable conditions.

Critique: Freudian theory is deterministic: - psychological development is largely complete by puberty, - human development is reduced to instinctual biological drives, - human development is determined by prior events, - significant change is impossible.Reply: Criticism exhibits a misrepresentation of the theory: - Freudian theory is not deterministic about the particularities in an individual’s internal & external experience of life, - the contents of the psyche are unique to each individual, - the psyche is dynamic in nature.

Critique: Freudian theory reduces human activity to biological instincts: - reduces the finest qualities of human achievement to unconscious instinctual drives, - fails to account for human agency and choice, - aggression is a response to the environment.Reply: Culture (external reality) plays a significant role in curtailing & modifying instincts. The notion of innate aggression explains the widespread horror & destruction that has characterised history.