demands on the caretaker, such as demanding food when they are out walking”.
The SUPER-EGO develops at around the age of five, this works on the “Morality
Principle” our conscience warning us against allowing the ID to control us, D E James
(1970 Pg 275) explains…” the Super-egos function is to maintain standards of
behaviour at a level demanded by society and its effect is to produce a feeling of guilt
when it is not observed”.
A person with a weak ego may resort to: - Defence Mechanisms
These operate unconsciously and are a key aspect of our personality, there are quite a
few defence mechanisms, these are the ways in which we deal with trauma, horror, or
unacceptable situations, three examples are Denial, Repression and Projection: -
Denial occurs when a person who has experienced horror blocks out the events from
awareness, refusing to acknowledge reality.
Repression is explained as a person not being able to recall a threatening situation,
person or a specific event in their lives for fear of alarm or anxiety, these incidents or
times have been repressed into the unconscious.
Projection is a person attributing their own unacceptable feelings or characteristics onto
someone else e.g. a husband, who is good and faithful, finds himself terribly attracted to
the flirtatious lady next door, but rather than acknowledge his feelings he becomes
jealous of his wife and worried about her faithfulness.
Freud believed that the personality developed through five Psychosexual Stages.
The Oral Stage (birth - 18 months), The Anal Stage (18 months - 3 years), The Phallic
Stage (3 – 6 years), The Latency Stage (6 years – puberty) and The Genital Stage
(puberty onwards).
In the Oral Stage, the child focuses on the mouth for stimulation and satisfaction
achieved through sucking.
In the Anal Stage the child’s anus becomes the focus of stimulation and pleasure is
derived from expelling faeces, however at this age the Ego is developing so the child is
becoming aware of the demands of reality and potty training is a major issue.
From the age of three the child enters the Phallic Stage, the penis and clitoris become
the main areas of interest for stimulation and according to Freud the child becomes
attracted to the parent of the opposite sex and dismisses the parent of the same sex, this
is referred to as the Oedipus Complex in boys and the Electra Complex in girls.
Once the child reaches the age of six years onwards into puberty the child resolves these
conflicts whilst he or she is in the Latency Stage, described by Freud as the stage in
which social and intellectual development proceeds and gender identity is consolidated.
The final Psychosexual Stage is the Genital Stage; this is the beginning of mature adult
sexuality.
Our behaviour is always driven by Sex or Aggression according to Freud; these were
the two elements that he based his Psychoanalytic approach on.
Freud used the Case Study method to analyse his patients, the techniques were varied,
Hypnosis, Free Word Association, Clinical Interviews, Slips of the Tongue (Freudian
Slips), and Dream Analysis.
Freud originally used hypnosis, this involved placing the patient into a trance-like
state to enable him to investigate unconscious thoughts and memories. He abandoned
this technique as he found it to be unreliable; people are very suggestible and can be
made to manufacture memories of events, which never took place “False Memory
Syndrome”.
However Freud continued to investigate the realms of the unconscious, developing the
Clinical Interview, he would ask his patients to lay on a couch and talk openly in a
relaxed atmosphere about their lives, concentrating on their childhood experiences.
Freud would attempt to gain the trust of his patients and analyse any emotional
memories or experiences that emerged from within the unconscious.
If a patient had very little to say during the Clinical Interview, Freud would use free
word association. He would say a word aloud and the patient would respond
spontaneously with whatever entered their thoughts, their responses could indicate
unconscious motives or desires for him to analyse.
During the interview if an accident of speech occurred (the patient had a Slip of the
Tongue, saying something they didn’t mean to say), Freud would analyse such slips
believing that they reflected the real unconscious thoughts – hence the term “Freudian
Slip”.
For Freud, Dream Analysis was another way of exploring the unconscious, he would
attempt to analyse his patients dreams, calling them “the royal road to the unconscious”,
he referred to The Manifest Content – As what we consciously remember and The
Latent Content – As the true meaning of the dream. Most of Freud’s conclusions were
sexual in nature e.g. Objects dreamt about such as Swords, Guns, Snakes etc suggested
penetration symbolising the penis, where as Purses, Boxes, Caves etc symbolised the
vagina.
Freud’s theories have and still do receive criticism, Davies and Houghton (1995 Pg
267) describe Freud as…” inconsistent about some aspects of his theories, such as the
Electra Complex on female development” “Freud did not use scientific methods even
though he had been trained in these methods early in his career”
Most critics believe he placed far too much emphasis on sexuality, and his patients
were described as unrepresentative, being mainly Venetian women with abnormal
behaviours, upper-class and single.
Case studies according to Davies and Houghton (1995 Pg 267) were…”retrospective,
(that is based on what he could remember) as he did not take notes, believing this would
interfere with the concentration of both the patient and himself”.
Freud’s theories did however contribute to show that childhood events and abuse can
affect adult personality, and allowed us to realise that deep within our unconscious lays
the true reasons for our behaviour.
Though the debate as to the reliability of the Psychoanalytic concept as a whole will
continue to rage, it also will continue to produce a valuable insight into the area of
human behaviour and motivation.
Bibliography
James D E, 1970, Introduction to Psychology, 2nd Revised ed, London, Constable.
Davies R and Houghton P, 1995, Mastering Psychology, 2nd ed, Hampshire, Macmillan
Press Ltd.
[Online] Available from: -
19/10/04
