Sigmund Freud's Theory on Human Nature

Sigmund Freud's Theory on Human Nature

Diagnosis

Determinism

Freud's hope was to "restore a harmonious balance" between the parts of the mind and, ideally, to suggest ways to improve individual adjustment to the world. He'd suggest becoming more "self aware" through dream analysis and psychoanalytic treatment. The patient should then replace the unhealthy repression of instincts by a rational, conscious control of them, or may decide to satisfy them after all. However, Freud never thought that psychoanalysis was the answer to every human problem. He was realistic about the limits of therapeutic influence— he famously described the aim of psychoanalysis as only to replace

neurotic unhappiness by ordinary unhappiness- still holding up to his pessimistic view that "Our civilization imposes an almost intolerable pressure on us" and that maybe our culture might also be "neurotic" and in need of some sort of therapy.

The world is simply too much for many-Freud would argue all-of us. We (our instincts, Id, Super Ego, and Ego, etc. collectively) just can't handle all the stress that society, our parents, and life in general puts on us that we constantly, unconsciously are repressing. We can't be human- we can't be happy, until we understand this and adjust. We just need help ourselves.

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Criticism

Prescription

Potential Diagnostic Errors: Things that may have been classified as "hysteria" or neurosis: more subtle symptoms of epilepsy, head injury, cerebral tumours, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, autism, syphilis, encephalitis, torsion dystonia, viral hepatitis, reflux oesophagitis, hiatus hernia and hundreds of other common or uncommon conditions.

Relativity: Freud said he did, but there's not much actual evidence to prove that his patients were in any "better" emotion/mental health than before his treatment- that is because he mainly practiced on women that even he classified as crazy! This is also an issue because what works is so relative to who it's working on! Ex: Any one treatment may work for "hysteric" women, but what about "regular" women- or men in that instance.

• Freud's theory includes a strict application of *determinism- the principle that every event has preceding causes- to the realm of the mental.

• He completely denied Free Will, believing instead that nothing a person thinks, does, or says is really haphazard or accidental; everything (such as slips of the tongue, faulty actions, dreams, and neurotic symptoms) can in principle be explained by something in the person's mind.

• Freud would claim that there are "unknown causes" that determine our choices- we're far from being perfectly "free" and uniquely "rational," instead things are determined by causes of which we are not normally aware.

Sources

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Unconscious Mental States

Dynamic Account

Materialism

Descriptive Account

• To explain puzzling human phenomena such as hysterical paralyses, neurotic behavior, obsessional thoughts, and dreams, Freud postulated the existence of emotionally charged ideas in the *unconscious part of the mind, which actively yet mysteriously exerts influences on what a person thinks, feels, and does.

• Freud also theorized that unconscious desires or memories can cause people to do things that they cannot explain rationally, to others or even to themselves. Some unconscious states may previously have been conscious (e.g., traumatic emotional experience) but have been repressed because they became too painful to acknowledge.

• He also believed that the ultimate driving forces of our mental life are innate and operate unconsciously from infancy.

• Stemming from Determinism- is the third and perhaps most distinctive feature of Freud's theorizing—the postulation of unconscious mental states.

• Freud believed there are lots of mental states and his crucial assertion was that our minds are not co-extensive with what is available to conscious attention but includes items of which we can have no ordinary knowledge.

• For instance, *preconscious (meaning that they can readily become conscious) memories are of particular experiences or facts, of which we are not continually conscious but that can be recalled when appropriate.

• Materialism (the doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency) was Freud's first basic assumption.

• He rejected *metaphysical dualism, however did acknowledge a distinction between mental states and physiological states of the nervous system-which many philosophers would agree with today.

• Based on this assumption Freud boldly attempted to identify a physiological basis for all mental states in his book "Project for a Scientific Psychology" but instead was content with leaving it to the future development of science because such theorizing was "too far ahead of the knowledge of his time."

Developmental Account

Structural Personality Concept

It contains all the rules our parents/teachers try and teach us.

Very strict, perfect, and is hardly realistic.

Ex: 5 years later, society/his mom and dad rigidly tell him he's too old for his favorite passy now, so he should rid himself of it.

*Ego (Reconcile)

A dominant/unconscious collection of urges that we feel have to satisfied quickly; a bundle of instincts aiming only at gaining pleasure and avoid pain.

Ex: A baby greedily cries out for his pacifier.

*Superego (The Conscience)

An inferior/preconscious moderator that cautiously thinks of the real world and compromises the Id and the Superego.

Ex: The now 5-year old is really torn. Though he's told it's bad, he really likes the old thing, so he secretly plans to harbor it, and simply keep it out of their sight."

*ID (Immediate Satisfaction)

• While theorizing that personality depends greatly on experience and heredity, Freud also introduced the psychosexual stages of development through which every child is supposed to grow.

• He suggested that infants first obtain pleasure from the mouth (the oral stage) and then from the other end of the alimentary tract (the anal stage).

• Both boys and girls then become interested in the male sexual organ (the phallic stage). The little boy is alleged to feel sexual desires for his mother and to fear castration by his father- the *Oedipus complex. Both the desire for mother and the hostility to father are then normally repressed.

• From age five until puberty, sexuality is much less apparent. It then reappears and—if all goes well, which it all too frequently does not—attains its full "genital" expression in adulthood.

• Freud suggested that around the time of the Oedipus complex in boys, little girls develop "penis envy."

Instincts or "drives"

Basic Info

Freud fathered 6 children, of which only one, Anna, went on to follow in his footsteps.

Freud and his family fled Austria in 1938 as a result of the Nazi annexation, and they settled in England.

In order to end the suffering that came along with having cancer of the mouth/jaw he died the following year as a result of requested euthanasia. Many scholars believe that it was probably caused by his 20-a-day cigarette habit since the age of 24. Also likely contributing to his health problems was the fact that he was a chronic user of cocaine.

Additional Background Info

• The fourth main feature of Freud's theory is about the motivating forces within the mental apparatus. According to him, all the "energy" in our minds comes from our instincts. Freud thought that all instincts come from a few basic ones: *Eros (the basic "Life" instinct and *Thanatos (the basic "Death" instinct).

• Eros is the drive of life, love, creativity, and sexuality (*libido), self-satisfaction, hunger and self (species) preservation.

• Thanatos from the Greek word for "death" is the drive of aggression, *sadism, destruction, violence, and death.

Some Influences ; Aristotle, Börne, Brentano, Breuer, Charcot, Darwin, Dostoyevsky, Fliess, Goethe, Haeckel, Hartmann, Jackson, Jacobsen, Kant, Mayer, Nietzsche, Plato, Schopenhauer, Shakespeare, Sophocles.

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian psychologist and the founder of *psychoanalysis.

• Born in Moravia (one of 10 kids), his family then moved to Vienna when he was four- where he later attended university. His family was Jewish, however he distanced himself from the traditions.

• He concentrated initially on biology, got his degree in medicine, and then went on, reluctantly, to doctor at Vienna General Hospital in order to better support his future spouse, Ms. Martha Bernays.

• Later, he established a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders. He experimented with hypnosis on his most *hysteric and *neurotic patients, however, he eventually gave up the practice, as he found that he could get his patients to talk by using *free association (merely consisted of putting them on a couch and encouraging them to say whatever came into their minds).

By Kimberly Collins and Katya Toroshchina

Cross Word Key

Psychoanalysis-- A system of psychological theory/therapy;aims...

Hysteric-- A state of wildly emotional and exaggerated reaction.

Neurotic-- Suffering from mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease...

Metaphysical-- Position that claims that there are two kinds of realities.

determinism-- The doctrine that all events, including human action...

ID-- Wants nothing more then immediate satisfaction.

Ego-- The reconciler/compromiser.

Super-Ego-- The conscience/radical do-gooder.

Unconscious-- Mental processes of which individuals make themselves unaware.

Preconscious-- Memories/facts; can readily become conscious.

Sadism- The tendency to derive pleasure, esp...

Eros-- the basic "Life" instinct.

Thanatos-- The basic "Death" instinct.

Libido- Sexual desire.

Oedipus complex-- Unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and a wish to exclude the parent of the same sex.