CONTRIBUTION OF FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGY

B.A. IInd (Honors), Lecture Series-3

By

Dr. Masaud Ansari

Department of Psychology,

A.P.S.M. College, Barauni

L. N. M. University, Darbhanga 2 3 J U L Y 2 0 2 0

Contribution of Freudian Psychology

A glimpse of the details of the work can be had from The Standard Edition of the Works of

Sigmund Freud, 24 volumes that has been edited by J. Strachey.

However, Freud’s systematic position can be presented under the following seven headings:

1. Topographical Structure: Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious

2. Structural Model: Id, Ego and Superego

3. Psychic energy and theory of instincts

4. Anxiety and defence mechanisms

5. Stagesof Psychosexual Development

6. Freud’s Social Psychology

7. Mind-body position

1. Topographical Structure: Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious

i. He divided the mind into two parts- conscious and unconscious.

ii. The unconscious has two different levels- the unconscious proper and preconscious.

iii. Consciousness is defined as consist ing of those mental elements that are in awareness at any given

moment.

iv. In his famous “iceberg” analogy, the upper small portion of the ice represents consciousness.

v. The pre-consciousness consists of all those mental elements which are not conscious but can become

readily available to consciousness with little effort.

vi. For this reason this is also sometimes called as available memory.

vii. The unconscious is the most important part of the mind and in terms of “iceberg” analogy, it is equivalent

to the part of the ice that is submerged into the water.

viii. Unconscious is the largest part of the mind.

ix. The unconscious consists of those mental elements that can’t become conscious or which can do so with

much difficulty.

x. The unconscious ideas mostly relate to childhood experiences and sexual desires as well as conflicts.

2. Structural Model: Id, Ego and Superego

i. Freud div ided mind into three provinces- id, ego and superego.

ii. Id refers to the biological elementsof personality.

iii. It is such a mental agency that is inherited and fixed in the indiv idual’sconstitution.

iv. Id impulses are unorganised and obey no rules and no laws. Free from all inhibitions.

v. In fact, they are Id wants immediate gratifications of its wishes and desires by reducing

tensions.

vi. This is called pleasure principle.

vii. Id has no contact with reality.

viii. Therefore, it is not changed by the experiences of person or by the passage of time.

ix. Id employs two mechanisms for reducing tension- reflex action and primary process.

Conti…

x. As infant grows, the ego comes into being, evolving out of the id.

xi. It grows throughout the individual’s lifetime.

xii. The ego of ‘I’ is that region of the mind which remains in contact with reality.

xiii. It is governed by the reality principle which is a principle that enables the person to release gradually theid energy keeping in view the social restrict ions and person’s conscience.

xiv. It allows satisfaction of inst inctual grat ification only when appropriate environmental condit ions havearisen.

xv. Thus the basic purpose of reality principle is to maintain integrity of the individual.

xvi. Since ego remains in contact with the external reality, it becomes the decision-making or the executive

of personality.

xvii. Since the ego is part ly conscious, part ly subconscious and part ly unconscious, it makes decision at eachat three levels.

xviii. The ego basically serves two functions.

xix. First, it t ries to reduce anxiety by preventing threatening impulses from coming into consciousness bymeans of defence mechanisms.

xx. Second, it t ires to maintain communication between the id and the outside world.

xxi. For serving this function smoothly the ego preserves accurate observation and makes use of them at theappropriate places.

Conti…

i. The superego or ‘above-I’ is the moral commander of personality.

ii. It grows out of the ego and like ego, it has no energy of its own.

iii. It is guided by the idealistic principle.

iv . It differs from the ego in the sense that it has no contact with world of reality and

therefore, it is unrealistic in its demand for perfection.

v. Freud divided superego into two subsystems- the conscience and the ego-ideal.

vi. Although Freud did not care to distinguish between these two sub-systems, conscience

results from experiences with punishment for behaviour whereas the ego-ideal develops

as a result of reward given to the child for proper behaviour.

3. Psychic energy and theory of instincts

i. Freud assumed two types of energy- the physiological energy and the psychic energy.

ii. The physiological energy is derived from the food we consumed and it is utilised for purposes like

breathing, walking, running, writing, etc.

iii. The psychic energy is derived from the “neurophysiologic states of excitation” and it is utilised in

the psychological activities like thinking.

iv. He further assumed that these two kinds of energy could be transformed into each other.

v. The id was the mediating point between the psychic energy and the physiological energy.

vi. According to Freud, each person has a limited amount of psychic energy and the total amount

of the psychic energy is expanded in those mental activities that attempt to reduce bodily

excitations created by the various needs.

vii. The psychological or mental representations of these bodily excitations or need is called instinct.

Conti…

viii. Instincts have four major features- a source, an aim, an object and an impetus/motive.

ix. Throughout life the source of an instinct is the bodily need it represents and its aim is to gratify the

need.

x. Both source and aim remain constant over time.

xi. The object of an instinct includes things that can satisfy the instinct.

xii. Freud distinguishes two categories of instincts- the life instinct or eros and death instinct or

thanatos.

xiii. The life instinct includes all those forces that maintain vital life process ad assure propagation of

species.

xiv. The sex instinct is the most important one in development of personality and the energy of the

sex instinct is called libido.

xv. The death instinct or thanatos or also known as destructive instinct includes all those forces that

underline the manifestations of murder, suicide, aggression and cruelty.

4. Anxiety and defence mechanisms

i. Anxiety is another important variable in psychoanalytic system.

ii. He recognised three types of anxiety- realistic anxiety, neurotic anxiety and moral anxiety.

iii. A realistic anxiety or also known as objective anxiety is one in which there occurs emotional

response to real threat or danger present in the environment.

iv. Neurotic anxiety is one in which there occurs emotional response or a threat to ego that the id

impulses may breakthrough into consciousness.

v. Sometimes, the superego gives threats to punish the ego which causes an emotional response

called moral anxiety.

vi. Whatever may be the type of anxiety, the person wants to protect the ego from the ensuring

anxiety.

Conti…

vii. For doing this, ego adopts some strategies which are called defence mechanisms or ego

defence mechanisms.

viii. These mechanisms help the person in protecting the ego from open expression of id impulses

and opposing superego directive.

ix. There are varieties of defence mechanisms and all these mechanisms share two common

characteristics.

x. First, defence mechanisms operate at the unconscious level, that is, they occur without the

awareness of the individual.

xi. Second, they tend to distort the person’s sense of reality.

Major defence mechanisms enlisted in Freudian psychoanalysis:

i. Repression: It has been regarded as the most primary and important ego defense.

Repression is a process that forces the unwanted feelings that are threatening to ego, into

the state of unconscious. Freud used hypnosis, free association and dream in unearthing

such repressed impulses.

ii. Reaction Formation: It is a process in which ego defends itself through adopting a disguise

form or having quite opposite form of the threatening impulses. Therefore, it operates at

two levels. First, the forbidden impulses are repressed. Second, the opposite of the

impulses is expressed on a conscious level.

iii. Fixation: The psychical growth takes place through various stages of psychosexual

development. When due to apprehension of some stress and anxiety at the next stage of

psychosexual development, ego prefers to remain at the present stage which is more

comfortable, it results in what is called fixation. Thus fixation leads a person to remain fix

on some old waysof life.

Conti…

iv. Projection: It is a mechanism by which the person finds in others those unacceptable

feelings and impulses that actually reside in him. In other words, this is a process whereby

the ego may get rid of unwanted and threatening impulses to an external object or

person.

v. Regression: It is a mechanism in which during the times of stress and anxiety, the person

reverts back to the earlier stage of psychosexual development or to some simpler mode

of expression. Regression is very commonly seen in children and adults.

vi. Rationalisation: This mechanism is based upon the old saying, “grapes are sour”. Here the

person tries to distort reality and protect his ego thereby making irrational behav iour

appear rational.

vii. Displacement: In this mechanism, the person protects ego by redirecting the impulses

from threatening persons or situations to less threatening one.

5. Stages of Psychosexual Development

i. One of the basic assumptions of Freudian psychoanalysis is that at birth sex energy (libido)

remains present and subsequently, it passes through a series of psychosexual stages.

ii. The term psychosexual emphasises that the major factor underlying personality development is

sexual instinct.

iii. According to Freud, between birth and the age of 5 or 6, the child passes through three stages

of psychosexual development- oral, anal and phallic.

iv. These three stages are together called infantile stage.

v. Latency stage is the fourth stage that lies between ages 6 or 7 and 11 or 12.

vi. The last stage is genital stage.

A description of these stages is presented below:

i. Oral stage

i. The oral period extends from birth to second year of life.

ii. For Freud, sex remains present at birth and the infant gets pleasure out of sucking and

taking food, this is called oral erotic period.

iii. When teeth appear the child gains pleasure from biting, this is called oral sadistic.

iv . The erogenous zone at this stage is obv iously the mouth.

v. The basic feature of this stage is that the baby shows total dependency upon others for its

care and feeding.

vi. Therefore, a person who is fixated at this stage, is too dependent, pessimistic, and

argumentative.

vii. Smoking cigarettes, biting a pencil, chewing gum are all examples of fixation at oral

stage.

ii. Anal Stage

i. This period extends roughly from second year to third year of life.

ii. At this stage, the erogenous zone shifts from mouth to anal region.

iii. The child gets considerable pleasure from both retention and expulsion of faeces.

iv . In anal expulsion, the pleasure is gained through elimination.

v. As adults such people show orderliness, destructiveness or cruelty.

vi. As adults, such persons show traits like stringiness, stubbornness, punctuality and

extreme messiness.

iii. Phallic Stage

i. The stage covers period between about third and fifth or sixth year of life.

ii. At this stage the erogenous zone shifts from the anal region to genitals.

iii. The children are often observed examining their sex organs, manipulating their sex

organs and showing interest in matter relating to sex and birth.

iv . The male child recognises his penis and touching it appears to him interesting.

v. He also realises that he is different from his little sister.

vi. The girl realises that she does not possess the penis like her brother.

vii. This, according to Freud, leads to the feeling of penis envy (jealousy).

viii. The dominant conflict of the phallic stage is Oedipus Complex in boys and Electra

Complex in girls.

iv. Latency Stage

i. This stage covers the age between 5 to 12/13 years approximately.

ii. At this stage the sexual urges and instincts are repressed.

iii. Boys prefer to mix with boys and girls prefer to mix with girls.

iv . Thus a kind of sex antagonism (oppose) arises.

v. The libido of the person is sublimated into intellectual interests and various types of

athletics.

vi. Some psychologists have taken the v iew that since no new erogenous zone emerges in

this period and the sexual urges remain dormant, this stage does not qualify for one of

the stage of psychosexual development.

v. Genital Stage

i. This stage covers the age between 13 to 20 and onward.

ii. With the start of puberty, there occurs re-arousal of sexual interest but this time interest is

directed towards the opposite sex.

iii. The sex organs mature and the endocrine glands become active with the result that

some secondary sex characteristics appear.

iv . Such changes result courtship and marriage.

v. The genital period continues throughout the years of maturity but it never completely

replaces the earlier four stages together called pregenital stage.

6. Freud’s Social Psychology

▪ Freud published Toten and Taboo in 1913 and showed his concerns for social psychology.

▪ In this book he presented a psychoanalytic interpretation of primitive man and his religion.

▪ In ancient periods, there might had been murder of father by son in the family.

▪ This types of family of the prehistoric time is known as primal horde.

▪ Consequently, some taboos were set up against such act or similar other act such as

incest.

▪ From such taboos gradually evolved the systems of morality and religion.

7. Mind-body Position

▪ Freud was not much concerned with this issue.

▪ He can be declared to be a psychophysical parallelist because he was of view that

physical processes can’toccur in absence of psychological processes.

▪ He also pointed out the physiological process start after the psychical processes.

▪ He may also be regarded as one ardent supporter of psychophysical interaction.

▪ This is because, for him, here is a constant interaction between three provinces of mind- id,

ego and superego as well as the other physical reality.