1. INTRODUCTION TO FREUD Psychoanalysis Id, Ego, Superego
Development of the Individual
Society as a Self-Governing Organism

2. Part I: Biography Sigmund Freud Born May 6, 1856
One of 8 children, Jewish family
Age 4, Freud’s father moved family to Vienna, Austria
In the last years of his life to London (to avoid Nazi persecution)

3. Famous for Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis: “The Talking Cure” therapy that investigates the workings and interactions between conscious and unconscious mind.
Think of: “revealing,” “unearthing” what we have hidden, repressed, in order to become healthy.
The image of the therapist’s couch is from Freud’s practice where patients would lie as Freud interrogated them

4. The Self: Id, Ego, Superego
Freud: We have a tri-partite (three-part) self
Id – That most infantile and demanding part of the self that is insatiable; ruled by the “Pleasure Principle” that aims to find pleasure and avoid pain
Ego – The part of the self that battles against the Id and Superego with reason, logic, and rationale; ruled by the “Reality Principle”: You can’t always get what you want; helps the Id make it until urges/desires can be satisfied
Superego – Unreasonably abuses you for shirking your responsibilities and not living up to your potential; contains rules concerning what constitutes good or appropriate behavior as well as standards concerning what constitutes bad, immoral, or embarrassing behavior

5. Conflict: Id, Ego, Superego
Conflict Model: The self is NOT UNIFIED; it is not a coherent, singular entity. We’re not entirely rational, not entirely in control
There are competing elements within ourselves.
No way to resolve competing elements; the only way to stay healthy is to not let any one of them “get the upper hand” or sickness (i.e. neurosis or psychosis) can occur.

6. Unbalanced Id, Ego, Superego
If, as an adult, your Id is too dominant? (very self-absorbed, don’t care about others, only out for yourself)
If, as an adult, your Ego is too dominant? (distant, rational, efficient, unemotional, cold)
If, as an adult, your Superego is too dominant? (guilt-ridden or sanctimonious).

7. Freud vs. Ancient Philosophy
Plato saw the self as tri-partite (three components)
Reason (>> ego)
Spirit/conscience (>> superego)
Desire (>> id)
Plato believed reason could and should rule the personality
REASON keeps desires in check and uses them to motivate
Freud’s viewpoint is that reason can never control the passions
We are driven by unconscious instincts we can never possibly know
Knowledge of the self is beyond reason

8. Individual’s Development
Three stages of development early in life, all centered around seeking pleasure
Oral
Anal
Phallic

9. Oral Stage Mouth, lips, and tongue are primary erogenous zones.
When feeding, the child experiences pleasure; when the mother takes away the breast/bottle, child experiences displeasure
If one develops an oral personality:
Can be dependent/needy as adults.
If fixation on oral satisfaction occurs after the child has teeth this may result in excessive aggression as an adult.
Adults who smoke or drink excessively, or who constantly put their hands over their mouths may have oral personalities

10. Anal Stage
Child becomes interested in cleanliness; experiences pleasure and displeasure through exerting self-control and control over the parent.
Most children are being toilet trained at this time.
Traumatic toilet training may result in fixation and an anal personality.
May be excessively orderly, stubborn or generous, depending on how their toilet training progressed.

11. Phallic Stage Occurs when the child is approximately 6 years old.
This stage is often labeled as “sexist” b/c of its focus on the male.
Freud claims females experience penis envy – feelings of jealousy and inferiority develop (Freud would have loved the feminist movement)
Oedipus Complex – occurs in the later part of the phallic stage; children at this age develop an attraction to their opposite-sex parent.

12. Resolution of the Oedipus Complex
Children repress their desire for their opposite-sex parent; they realize that they will never have them as long as the other parent is around.
Upon resolution the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent.
Desires replaced with “healthy” love for parent/family
Development of the superego.
Child adopts values and standards of the parents.

13. Suppression of Desires
REVIEW: Our base instincts are repressed as we deal with the Oedipal Complex
NOTICE: Life requires our base instincts be pushed down in order to become functioning members of society
QUESTION: If we’re all essentially violent, sexual beings, then why isn’t there anarchy?

14. Man’s Main Aim
For Freud, the Id desires pleasure through sexual satisfaction; therefore, we all desire to find acceptance from the opposite sex
In order to be accepted by another, we must act in a way to attract others; therefore, we must act desirably

15. How and Why Man’s Aims are Inhibited
We “behave” so we can attract others to satisfy us
If we do not behave, we are separated from society – something we cannot accept b/c we can’t find satisfaction when we’re put in jail (banished)
Our LAWS and societal rules help keep our instinctual desires in check
RELIGION keeps us in check through the threat of GUILT

16. Work and Hobbies Help Society
Some people throw their energies into work, others into hobbies
These distractions help us keep our desires in control and focus our energy that would otherwise seek an unacceptable outlet
These distractions help society evolve by developing technologies, for example

17. Review: Man and Society
Man can’t just go around doing whatever he wants all the time – he values acceptance in order to gain sexual gratification, and besides, his actions would destroy society
He gains acceptance by doing something “acceptable:” going to school, earning a degree, working hard
The individual may, by working and through hobbies, develop new techniques and technologies
Thus by sublimating his instincts, he helps society evolve

18. Freud’s Theories: Psychoanalytic Model of Identity
Note that the Id exists exclusively in the unconscious. The Ego and Superego battle to keep the Id in check. Likewise, the Ego battles with reason against the unreasonable demands of both the Id and the Superego.

19. Conscious Mind
Top of the iceberg: Conscious mind (smallest part ). We can access this, we are aware of this part of “us.” We understand it logically.

20. Preconscious Mind
Middle of iceberg: Preconscious (medium size). Ordinary memory. You don’t keep a lot of information in your conscious mind all the time – why?
If you need to know something (where you parked your car, your sister’s birthday, your 7th grade Stardust Dance, etc.) you can bring it “up”) to your Conscious mind.

21. Unconscious Mind
Bottom of iceberg: Unconscious (huge – dwarfs the other two, 75-80% of our mind). “Underwater”
The unconscious: Plays a very large role in how we function as human beings. Most of the work among the Id, Ego, and Superego happens here.

22. The Unconscious Mind
A “dumping ground” for all of our desires, anxieties, urges, especially those which are painful – why?
Nothing in the unconscious goes away. Even if we aren’t aware of it, what is in the unconscious influences us every day in every way.
Can’t directly or easily access the unconscious with conscious mind. “Speaks” a different language (ex. Dreams).

23. SOURCES
Freud, Sigmund. A Note upon the “Mystic Writing-Pad,” General Psychological Theory. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1991.
_______. The Ego and the Id. (Trans. Joan Riviere.) New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1960.
Lecture Notes, Professor Debra Bergoffen, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, George Mason University, 1994.