Freudian Theory, Application, and Assessment

Abstract

Sigmund Freud is the father of psychiatry, and his major accomplishment is the development of the Freudian theory of personality. According to Freud, a psychoanalytical approach is used specifically in order to understand and cure various mental illnesses. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis was accepted as the most influential theory in the 20th century, with respect to the understanding of cognition in humans, but at the same time, the theory has raised a lot of criticism (Mansfield, 2000). His method is believed to have core ideas in relation to mental functioning, whereby he assumes that human beings are controlled by unconscious mental processes. Freud’s theory plays a critical role and as such, has been applied extensively towards the conceptualization of cognition and especially, its effect on human ailments and behaviors.

Introduction

Freud, in the same way as all of the other great academics to ever have lived, makes notable contributions towards his field of study. Freud, in the course of his life time, dedicated himself to conceptualizing cognition. To this end, he devised psychoanalysis, a theory that provided straightforward definitions as to cognition, its essence and further, the processes upon which it was set. 

Freudian Theory

The Unconscious Mind

The unconscious mind, according to Freud, normally acts as a depository of numerous primitive wishes, alongside impulses which are often kept at bay, and then later on, mediated by the preconscious region. Further, he argues that certain events and desires appear to be too frightening and at the same time, might be too painful for an individual to acknowledge, thus, they comprise information in the unconscious mind. Further, it is clear that this often takes place in a process of repression. The unconscious mind specifically governs individual behaviors. Psychoanalysis is, thus, believed to preoccupy itself with making the unconscious conscious.

The Interpretation of Dreams

Freud initially thought that a dream is merely a disguised fulfillment of what he interpreted to be a repressed wish. However, he later differentiated between what he termed wish-fulfilling dreams and dreams that recall recent or even earlier traumata. In Psychoanalysis, a dream is considered as the memory of thoughts that an individual experiences, particularly when he or she is asleep. According to Freud, when we wake up, our dreams become distorted such that we forget a significant part of them (De Masi, 2000). He further divides the unconscious part of the dream into two major groups including manifest content and latent thoughts. The manifest content is highly distorted and also, full of gaps. Further, it often entails images and various metaphoric symbols. On the other hand, latent thoughts involve words and the associations that, in most instances, an individual produces when he or she thinks concerning these same images and symbols. The analyst helps the client by guiding him or her through their sleep-memories, hence, enabling them to produce latent content. The process used to create the dream of the client can be reversed, and as a result, the analyst and client will have gained access to the dream’s real meaning. A dream can be deciphered successfully only by the dreamer himself, since it has been established that one can reverse the association process that resulted in the content of the dream. This rule, therefore, applies to the Psychoanalytical context. However, it is highly neglected, and this results into great misunderstandings of dreams, their interpretation and the associate Psychoanalysis.

Pleasure- and Reality-Principle

According to Freud, the unconscious part of the mind often operates based on a particular set of rules. This is representative of the Pleasure-Principle. It is argued that the Pleasure-Principle often makes the unconscious part of the human mind to strive for pleasure and at the same time, to avoid possible displeasure. Further, Freud claimed that a potential accumulation of tension within an individual’s mental apparatus, often would lead to high levels of displeasure, and that organism try to keep this particular levels of energy at manageable levels. Focusing on the Reality-Principle, it is argued that one has to bear potential displeasure until a specific time, at which point, it is eliminated by a specific sufficient action. This principle applies to the ego (Meissner, 2000).

Ego, Id, and Super-Ego  

Id

According to Freud, the Id symbolizes the dark, animalistic side of the human mind. This part is always believed to yearn for destruction or even extreme self-satisfaction. It has been established that this part comprises of everyday needs and wishes of an individual including; sexual desires, eating or defecation. In most instances, Id acts based on the pleasure principle and often follows inborn drives and instincts.

Super-Ego

The kind of moral instance is believed to act by the rules that a person has been able to learn. In case a person fails to comply with the rules that have been established by them, it will follow that there will be the occurrence of a bad conscience. Further, Freud argued that in the event that the superego is in charge, a person is predisposed to perfectionism, consequent to which they may become highly uptight and at the same time demand too much of themselves. According to Mansfield (2000), taking a closer look into the super-ego, these factors are considerably essential as they educate a person as well as shape individual concepts of ideals and of morals. Friends and neighbors, therefore, play a critical role in shaping the super-ego of a person and at the same time, punishes all of their behavioral irregularities using resentment. Therefore, they support the function of super-ego specifically as a moral instance and at the same time feed the Id through the provision of stimuli.

The Ego

It is located between Id and super-ego, and reality, therefore; it has to cope effectively with the demands of each side. According to Meissner (2000), Super-Ego and the Id struggle in most instances at the expense of ego. This is because ego has to mediate between Id and super-ego and also, has to try to reach compromises based on the Reality-Principle. Freud states that the Id is very stubborn and further, that the super-ego develops during childhood, therefore, the struggle if often between the Ego and the Id. The Id’s power often will express a person’s will to live and entails the innate satisfaction of needs while on the other hand, the ego incorporates an individual’s instinct to stay alive and this is done by protecting itself through the fears of potential danger.

Stages of Psychosexual Development

To fully understand the concept of psychoanalysis, it is also important to focus on Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development. According to Freud, all persons are often born with particular instincts that show the natural tendency of an individual to satisfy significantly their determined biological needs including food, warmth, and even shelter. Therefore, to Freud, the satisfaction of these needs is a source of highly individualized pleasure, which he he refers to as sexual pleasure. Freud argues that sexual life often begins at birth. At this stage, there arises an unresolved conflict that often occurs between the physical drives of the child and the social expectation (Goldhaber, 2000). During the first 18 months, the mouth acts as an erotogenic zone and at the same time, it makes a libidinous demand on an individual’s soul; he refers to this period as an oral stage. In the he next 18 months, these same impulses increase, such that a child’s satisfaction is ultimately obtained by aggression. Also, the child derives satisfaction from the control of the excretive functions; this is the Sadistic-Anal Stage.

The third stage often lasts for about three years, and it is believed to be coined by expressions of the Oedipus complex alongside the concept of Electra complex. At this stage, boys are separated from girls. During this stage, the child’s sexual drive is believed to be directed to a parent of the opposite sex. In this case, the boy gets attracted to the mother while the girl gets attracted to the father. Freud believes that the parent of the same sex turns out to be a rival to the child’s sexual interests. At the same time, an aspect of superiority makes the child to fear potential punishment, hence, leading to what can be considered a bad conscience. Fears such as that of the boy of being castrated by his father, makes this child to repress the desires that he had started to develop towards his mother into an unconscious state, in turn, forcing the boy to be identified with the father. The identification process is thus, believed to form the super ego of the boy, seeing as he attempts to integrate values and ideas associated with the father from it (De Masi, 2000). On the other hand, the Oedipus-Complex and the Electra-Complex are also solved by identification when it comes to girls. As the girl identifies with the mother, she might wish to marry someone like her father. At the Latency stage (5 to 12 years), the child will start to develop healthy but dormant sexual feelings, especially for the opposite sex. Lastly, the genital stage occurs between (12 – adulthood) and at this level, all tasks from all of the above four stages will be integrated into the mind and as a result of this, will permit the onset of healthy sexual feelings in addition to behaviors.

Application of Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development

Freud clearly focuses on inner, conflicting ideas, which he believes are potentially affect the behavior of an individual (Meissner, 2000). Conflicts are considered to be highly critical and must be solved in order for an individual to move normally to the next development stage, seeing as this prevents potential fixation or even maladjustment. 

Students, for instance, can be represented in terms of the Phallic, Latency or even Genital stages of psychosexual development. Therefore, the teacher’s role is specifically to help students solve various forms of conflicts and further, to try help these students go through the existing inner conflicts that are identifiable at every stage. This might be possible through giving these children a kind of attention that’s sufficient, focusing on specific needs. It is clear that play is one of the outlet to which most children direct their sexual drive during the latency stage. Therefore, in such an event as that where this is suppressed, then, it will follow that the child might fixate or at other instances, might continue to play at their adult age.

For children at the adolescent stage, there is the need to be responsible when it comes to discussing issues related to sexuality. We need to be sensitive and very careful since, at this stage, children are usually undergoing serious confusion and crises on the matter of sexuality. They must be taught on ways to be sexually responsible, and this will be through explanations of the various sexual changes that they are experiencing, together with potential consequences of sexual irresponsibility.

There are several mental illnesses that believably place the Id at the forefront when it comes to the process of decision-making. For instance, there are individuals whose lives are specifically set upon a narcissistic level l (De Masi, 2000). On the other hand, there are those individuals that are associated with anti-social personalities or even psychotic like illnesses. Based on Freud’s argument, a neurotic person is mostly affected by his theory’s principles and as such, can only be holistically treated through psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic treatment has been applied for years, and further adaptations have made to it in order to improve its efficiency. Psychoanalysis presents a potential patient with structure and time, both of which are critical in the resolution of various neurotic issues. 

Assessment

It has been established that even though Freud’s theory is relevant when it comes to explaining cognition, it might not be very good at predicting behaviors. Therefore, the theory is arguably unfalsified, in that it is neither possible to refute nor to validate (Somerfield & McCrae, 2000). The unconscious part of the mind can possibly neither be tested nor measured in an objective way. The theory is unscientific. In addition to this, the evidence for Freud’s theories is taken from unrepresentative samples, where he selectively studied himself or his patients. This, therefore, affects the generalization of the findings to a larger population. Freud also shows some level of research bias, focusing on his interpretation, such that he only paid attention to the kind of information that supported his theories and to this end, ignored all other information that he believed did not fit them.

Conclusion

Freud made major contributions towards the conceptualization of cognition in form of his invention of Psychoanalysis, which has influenced most of the works of modern theorists. The essay has critically focused on Freud’s theory. The theory has been applied to the settings of school, community and hospitals in order to treat various mental related illnesses. However, it has been established that associate to psychoanalysis, are several weaknesses, making it unscientific and unfalsified to some extents.

References

De Masi, F. (2000). The unconscious and psychosis: Some considerations on the psychoanalytic theory of psychosis. The International journal of psycho-analysis , 81 (1), 1.

Goldhaber, D. (2000). Theories of human development: Integrative perspectives . McGraw-Hill Humanities Social.

Mansfield, N. (2000). Subjectivity: Theories of the self from Freud to Haraway . NYU Press.

Meissner, W. W. (2000). Freud & psychoanalysis . Univ of Notre Dame Pr.

Somerfield, M. R., & McCrae, R. R. (2000). Stress and coping research: Methodological challenges, theoretical advances, and clinical applications. American Psychologist , 55 (6), 620.