Outline Freud's model of the mind or psyche, and consider why this is sometimes referred to as the 'psychodynamic' model

Outline Freud’s model of the mind or psyche, and consider why this

is sometimes referred to as the ‘psychodynamic’ model. Include in your answer relevant key terms that are associated with Freud’s thought.

“An unconscious dimension to the human psyche had been apparent to philosophers and artists for centuries” (Key Sociological Thinkers). Sigmund Freud, however, attempted to put a structure to the ‘unconscious’ in order to define and provide an explanation of some of the ways our unconscious mind is expressed. He divided the model of the psyche into unconscious, pre-conscious and conscious states of mind.

Freud’s work was originally directed towards researching the unconscious psyche after assisting Dr Joseph Breuer to write a book on the theory behind ‘hysteria’. The book charted Breuer’s constant observations of one of his patients. A woman - nicknamed ‘Anna O’ - developed a series of unusual symptoms without legitimate physical causes which began after her father died. “She lost the feeling in her hands and feet, developed some paralysis, and began to have involuntary spasms. She also had visual hallucinations and tunnel vision.” (Personality Theories: Sigmund Freud)

Breuer describes Anna O falling into ‘spontaneous hypnosis’ in which she would talk freely about her anxieties and specific disturbing thoughts. When Anna ‘woke-up’ from her trance, some of her symptoms would be relieved. She referred to this practice as ‘the talking cure’. Freud and Breuer came to the conclusion that the symptoms of hysteria were due to her inability to get rid of repressed memories which usually stem from a traumatic experience earlier in life. “When the client can be made aware of the meanings of his or her symptoms (through hypnosis, for example), then the unexpressed emotions are released and so no longer need to express themselves as symptoms.” (Personality Theories: Sigmund Freud)

Later on, while working on his own, Freud created other theories to explain hysteria. His ‘Seduction Theory’ came to replace the idea that hysteria was created by a repressed memory; instead Freud believed it was due to inappropriate childhood sexual experiences. However, after being confronted with a large number of patients who told stories of their disturbing childhood occurrences, Freud came to the conclusion that only a small number of people had actually lived through these experiences. For the majority of patients, the stories they told were actually ‘phantasies’.

A phantasy is produced without the individual being consciously aware that they have hidden desires. The unconscious mind represses phantasies because in reality the strong desire (for example for sexual pleasure) as a basic human urge can not be satisfied all the time. Second to this, because a phantasy has actually been repressed from conscious thought, it would not be acceptable for the individual to fulfil it while living within conventional society.

A process of ‘sublimation’ takes place: desires which cannot be fulfilled are repressed into the unconscious mind and instead channelled into something productive while in a conscious ...

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A process of ‘sublimation’ takes place: desires which cannot be fulfilled are repressed into the unconscious mind and instead channelled into something productive while in a conscious state of mind. For example, going to work everyday. Freud named this the ‘Pleasure Principle’

The conscious mind comprises the immediate thoughts we have, thoughts which can be channelled into actions within reality. The pre-conscious mind is not as easily available to us. However, it can be accessed, usually by purposely thinking about events and situations which have happened earlier in life. The pre-conscious mind holds memories – ie, thoughts which were once in the conscious psyche but are later ‘stored’ as thoughts without immediate use, but of which can be brought into the conscious mind when needed.

The unconscious mind represses phantasies and desires which can not be accessed by direct conscious thought. However, as Freud discovered in the case of Anna O, there are alternative ways in which the unconscious mind is released. It was Freud himself who said that dreams were “the royal road into the unconscious”. Dreams follow the same unconscious processes as phantasies and can both be revealed by a method of free association: asking patients whatever comes into their minds when they thought about specific dreams. However, it is more difficult to uncover the real meanings within the structure of a dream.

Freud identified that dreams consist of a ‘manifest content’ - which is the exact sequence of events patients had dreamed about - and a ‘latent content’ which was the actual idea underlying the dream. To discover the latent content of a dream it has to be de-coded. To this end, Freud created a series of ‘dream work’ explanations. ‘condensation’ describes the way that one symbol in the manifest content of the dream - ie, the actual dream that the patient recalls - can mean a variety of different things in the latent content. An example of this is shown by Ian Craib: “If I dream of a policeman, it could stand for my father, my boss, and my psychoanalyst, not to mention my own super-ego”. (Key Sociological Thinkers)

Following on from condensation the ‘displacement’ of a dream symbol or latent idea, connects to the manifest content only by a chain of associations. The associations can be through similarity or a linguistic connection. ‘Representation’ or ‘symbolisation’ simply represents latent ideas as pictures; an example given in a lecture on Freud symbolised a king and queen as a representation of someone’s parents.

The final stage in Freud’s ‘dream work’ process is ‘secondary revision’. “The story of the dream which Freud thought was constructed as we awake to hide the dream’s meaning” (Key Sociological Thinkers). Secondary revision makes the separate manifest ideas in the dream into one coherent whole, which only occurs after waking up.

Dreams and phantasies offer a very informative ‘window’ into the unconscious mind. However, ‘Parapraxes’ are mistakes in everyday language which, according to Freud, also provide a direct insight into the unconscious. Parapraxes occur in a variety of ways: misreading or mishearing, forgetting specific things or slips of the tongue. Whilst these ‘Freudian slips’ are accepted and dismissed in society as purely accidental, Freud identifies them as the emergence of subconscious intentions, escaping (without knowledge of the individual) from the unconscious psyche.

Following Freud’s pleasure principle, even though unfulfilled human desires are suppressed into something more productive, the desires don’t simply disappear but are hidden in the unconscious mind. However, to enable strong desires to be channelled into other activities, and for socially acceptable desires to be fulfilled, there needs to be some kind of structure in the psyche which determines and controls this process. Freud created a psychodynamic model for this comprising the ‘Id’, the ‘Ego’ and the ‘Super-ego’.

The Id is the drive source of the pleasure principle and demands satisfaction. A prime example would be a baby with no concept of ‘the world out there’ responding only to its instinctual drives. For example: crying because it is hungry. The Id instinct is biological and present at birth, however the drive that demands satisfaction is psychological and stems from the unconscious. An example of an adult’s Id would be a high sexual desire. As previously discussed, however, satisfaction is not always possible, so during childhood development at around age 5-6 a Super-ego is created. It is an extreme opposite to the pleasure principle – a ‘reality principle’.

“The Super-ego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers” (The Virtual Psychology Classroom: Chapter 4, Psychoanalytic Theory). The super ego is partly conscious and partly unconscious, due to the fact that it has the task of controlling our urges by repression, but to do this it needs to have the concept of an ‘external reality’ - an understanding of its conscious surroundings. This includes an understanding of the values of society which are learnt through growth.

“Many equate the Super-ego with the conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong.” (The Virtual Psychology Classroom, Chapter 4 Psychoanalytic Theory). Freud believed that in between the two extreme sides of the psychodynamic model there must be a ‘middle ground’ to ensure comprehensive decisions can be made. He described this as the ‘Ego’.

The Ego is created as the child grows; as its conscious mind starts to develop, some of the ‘selfish’ Id becomes the Ego instead. “The Ego relates the organism to reality by means of its consciousness, and it searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that the Id creates to represent the organism’s needs.” (Personality Theories: Sigmund Freud). The Ego has the task of controlling a balance between basic human desires and the reality of the outside world – ie, to balance the demands of the Id and the Super-Ego (the unconscious and the conscious).

Sometimes, the Ego is not exactly balanced and perhaps provides us with an explanation for acts of rape or murder; the repressed desires of the unconscious Id overrule the realistic norms and values which are acceptable to society. This is why Freud’s structure of the psyche is sometimes referred to as the psychodynamic model. “This word offers a grasp of the way our psyches are constantly in movement, the three structures behaving like warring armies, forming and breaking alliances in our internal conflicts” (Key Sociological Thinkers)

Our conscious decisions don’t just reflect what is right or wrong; the model is ‘dynamic’ because many sub-conscious decisions and thoughts occur without us even being aware that they were within our mind in the first place. It is only when psychologists (such as Freud) offer us an incisive theory that we gain a window into the unconscious and see how vastly complex the psyche is.