Theory of Mind (Ego)

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

THEORIES OF MIND RELATED TO INDIVIDUAL MINDS. 

IN RECENT YEARS, THE PHRASE "THEORY OF MIND" HAS MORE COMMONLY BEEN USED TO REFER TO A SPECIFIC COGNITIVE CAPACITY. THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THAT OTHERS HAVE BELIEFS, DESIRES AND INTENTIONS THAT ARE DIFFERENT FROM ONE'S OWN. IN PHILOSOPHY, IT REFERS TO THE LARGE AREA OF PHILOSOPHY RELATING TO MIND OR TO PARTICULAR THEORIES ABOUT WHAT MIND IS. 

IN FUNCTIONALIST THEORIES, THE COMPUTATIONAL THEORIES OF MIND THAT ARE INDEPENDENT OF THE PHYSICAL INSTANTIATION OF ANY PARTICULAR MIND.

IN BRAIN-MIND IDENTITY THEORIES, BIOLOGISTS ARE CONCERNED WITH THE DETAILS OF HOW BRAIN ACTIVITY PRODUCES MIND AND WORK WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE IDENTITY THEORY OF MIND

IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, THEORY OF MIND IS A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE MIND WORKS AND HOW IT INFLUENCES BEHAVIOUR.

"THEORY OF MIND" - INTERPERSONAL UNDERSTANDING OF MENTAL STATES.

THIS THEORY OF MIND COVERS TWO SEPARATE CONCEPTS:

GAINING THE UNDERSTANDING THAT OTHERS ALSO HAVE MINDS, WITH DIFFERENT AND SEPARATE BELIEFS, DESIRES, MENTAL STATES, AND INTENTIONS. BEING ABLE TO FORM OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESES (THEORIES), OR MENTAL MODELS, WITH A DEGREE OF ACCURACY, AS TO WHAT THOSE BELIEFS, DESIRES, MENTAL STATES, AND INTENTIONS ARE. 

A THEORY OF MIND APPEARS TO BE A USUALLY INNATE POTENTIAL ABILITY IN HUMANS (AND, SOME ARGUE, IN CERTAIN OTHER SPECIES), BUT ONE REQUIRING SOCIAL AND OTHER EXPERIENCE OVER MANY YEARS TO BRING SUCCESSFULLY TO ADULT FRUITION. IT IS PROBABLY A CONTINUUM, IN THE SENSE THAT DIFFERENT PEOPLE MAY DEVELOP MORE, OR LESS, EFFECTIVE THEORIES OF MIND, VARYING FROM VERY COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ONES, THROUGH TO MINIMALLY FUNCTIONAL. IT IS OFTEN IMPLIED OR ASSUMED (BUT NOT STATED EXPLICITLY) THAT THIS DOES NOT MERELY SIGNIFY CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING. "OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MINDS AND THINK", BUT ALSO SOME KIND OF UNDERSTANDING AND WORKING MODEL THAT THESE THOUGHTS AND STATES AND EMOTIONS ARE REAL AND GENUINE. EMPATHY IS A RELATED CONCEPT, MEANING EXPERIENTIALLY RECOGNISING AND UNDERSTANDING THE STATES OF MIND, INCLUDING BELIEFS, DESIRES AND PARTICULARLY EMOTIONS OF OTHERS WITHOUT INJECTING YOUR OWN, OFTEN CHARACTERISED AS THE ABILITY TO "PUT ONESELF INTO ANOTHER'S SHOES". CHILDREN ARE SUPPOSED TO DEVELOP 'THEORY OF THE MIND' AT AROUND 4 YEARS OF AGE.

DOES THE CHIMPANZEE HAVE A THEORY OF MIND? INDICATES, IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO ASK IF OTHER ANIMALS BESIDES HUMANS HAVE A GENETIC ENDOWMENT AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT THAT ALLOWS THEM TO ACQUIRE A THEORY OF MIND IN THE SAME WAY THAT HUMAN CHILDREN DO. THIS IS A CONTENTIOUS ISSUE BECAUSE OF THE PROBLEM OF INFERRING FROM ANIMAL BEHAVIOR THE EXISTENCE OF THINKING, OF THE EXISTENCE OF A CONCEPT OF SELF OR SELF-AWARENESS, OR OF PARTICULAR THOUGHTS. EACH OF US KNOWS BY INTROSPECTION THAT WE HAVE BELIEFS, DESIRES AND INTENTIONS AND WE INFER BY EXTENSION AND BY USING OUR OWN SELF-DEVELOPED THEORY OF MIND, THAT ALL OTHER HUMANS WITH NORMAL MINDS ALSO SHARE THIS COGNITIVE ABILITY AND USUALLY HAVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS WHICH WE DISCOVER IN FACT DIFFER FROM OUR OWN. RESEARCHERS WHO HAVE SPENT A GREAT DEAL OF TIME WITH NON-HUMAN APES TEND TO ACCEPT THE LIKELIHOOD THAT OTHER APES LIKE CHIMPS ALSO HAVE A THEORY OF MIND.

THERE IS INTEREST IN THE IDEA THAT CERTAIN LEARNED BEHAVIOURS, SUCH AS HUMAN LANGUAGE BEHAVIOUR, FACILITATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A THEORY OF MIND IN BOTH HUMANS AND CHIMPS. THERE HAS ALSO BEEN SPECULATION THAT CERTAIN HUMANS FAIL TO PROGRESS THROUGH THE NORMAL COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES THAT LEAD TO ACQUISITION OF A THEORY OF MIND.

DOES THE AUTISTIC CHILD HAVE A "THEORY OF MIND"? IN WHICH IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT THE HUMAN BRAIN NORMALLY HAS A "THEORY OF MIND MODULE" AND THAT THIS PARTICULAR COMPONENT OF THE BRAIN MAY NOT DEVELOP NORMALLY IN SOME PEOPLE. WITH THE ADVENT OF NEUROIMAGING TECHNIQUES, PARTICULAR BRAIN REGIONS THAT SEEM TO BE IMPORTANT FOR THEORY OF MIND HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED. FURTHER AUTISM RESEARCH CASTS LIGHT ON THE CRUCIAL STAGES OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT.

MIND REFERS TO THE COLLECTIVE ASPECTS OF INTELLECT AND CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH ARE MANIFEST IN SOME COMBINATION OF THOUGHT, PERCEPTION, EMOTION, WILL, MEMORY AND IMAGINATION. THE MIND IS THE RESULT OF THE ACTIVITY OF THE BRAIN. MODERN TECHNOLOGY CAN ACTUALLY SEE WHICH PORTIONS OF THE BRAIN ARE MORE FUNCTIONAL IN RELATIONSHIP TO CERTAIN THOUGHTS, IE, THE MIND. THERE ARE MANY THEORIES OF WHAT THE MIND IS AND HOW IT WORKS, DATING BACK TO PLATO, ARISTOTLE AND OTHER ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. MODERN THEORIES, BASED ON A SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE BRAIN, SHOW THE MIND AS A PHENOMENON OF PSYCHOLOGY AND THE TERM IS OFTEN USED MORE OR LESS SYNONYMOUSLY WITH CONSCIOUSNESS.

THE QUESTION OF WHICH HUMAN ATTRIBUTES MAKE UP THE MIND IS ALSO MUCH DEBATED. SOME ARGUE THAT ONLY THE "HIGHER" INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS CONSTITUTE MIND, PARTICULARLY REASON AND MEMORY. IN THIS VIEW THE EMOTIONS, LOVE, HATE, FEAR, JOY ARE MORE "PRIMITIVE" OR SUBJECTIVE IN NATURE AND SHOULD BE SEEN AS DIFFERENT IN NATURE OR ORIGIN TO THE MIND. OTHERS ARGUE THAT THE RATIONAL AND THE EMOTIONAL SIDES OF THE HUMAN PERSON CANNOT BE SEPARATED, THAT THEY ARE OF THE SAME NATURE AND ORIGIN, AND THAT THEY SHOULD ALL BE CONSIDERED AS PART OF THE INDIVIDUAL MIND.

1 THOUGHT 

2 NATURE OF THE MIND 

3 HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND 

4 CURRENT RESEARCH 

1. THOUGHT.

IN POPULAR USAGE MIND IS FREQUENTLY SYNONYMOUS WITH THOUGHT. IT IS THAT PRIVATE CONVERSATION WITH OURSELVES THAT WE CARRY ON "INSIDE OUR HEADS" DURING EVERY WAKING MOMENT OF OUR LIVES. THUS WE "MAKE UP OUR MINDS," "CHANGE OUR MINDS" OR ARE "OF TWO MINDS" ABOUT SOMETHING. ONE OF THE KEY ATTRIBUTES OF THE MIND IN THIS SENSE IS THAT IT IS A PRIVATE SPHERE. NO ONE ELSE CAN "KNOW OUR MIND." THEY CAN ONLY KNOW WHAT WE COMMUNICATE.

2. NATURE OF THE MIND.

BOTH PHILOSOPHERS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS REMAIN DIVIDED ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE MIND. SOME TAKE WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE SUBSTANTIAL VIEW AND ARGUE THAT THE MIND IS A SINGLE ENTITY, PERHAPS HAVING ITS BASE IN THE BRAIN BUT DISTINCT FROM IT AND HAVING AN AUTONOMOUS EXISTENCE. THIS VIEW ULTIMATELY DERIVES FROM PLATO AND WAS ABSORBED FROM HIM INTO CHRISTIAN THOUGHT. IN ITS MOST EXTREME FORM, THE SUBSTANTIAL VIEW MERGES WITH THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW THAT THE MIND IS AN ENTITY WHOLLY SEPARATE FROM THE BODY, IN FACT A MANIFESTATION OF THE SOUL, WHICH WILL SURVIVE THE BODY'S DEATH AND RETURN TO ITS CREATOR.

OTHERS TAKE WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE FUNCTIONAL VIEW, ULTIMATELY DERIVED FROM ARISTOTLE, WHICH HOLDS THAT THE MIND IS A TERM OF CONVENIENCE FOR A VARIETY OF MENTAL FUNCTIONS WHICH HAVE LITTLE IN COMMON EXCEPT THAT HUMANS ARE CONSCIOUS OF THEIR EXISTENCE. FUNCTIONALISTS TEND TO ARGUE THAT THE ATTRIBUTES WHICH WE COLLECTIVELY CALL THE MIND ARE CLOSELY RELATED TO THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN AND CAN HAVE NO AUTONOMOUS EXISTENCE BEYOND THE BRAIN, NOR CAN THEY SURVIVE ITS DEATH. IN THIS VIEW MIND IS A SUBJECTIVE MANIFESTATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS. THE HUMAN BRAIN'S ABILITY TO BE AWARE OF ITS OWN EXISTENCE. THE CONCEPT OF THE MIND IS THEREFORE A MEANS BY WHICH THE CONSCIOUS BRAIN UNDERSTANDS ITS OWN OPERATIONS.

IF WE FOLLOW THE PANTHEISTIC VIEW, MIND IS SYNONYMOUS WITH SOUL AND EMANATES (SINCE IT IS NON-DIMENSIONAL, OR TRANS-DIMENSIONAL) FROM THE SPIRIT (THE ESSENCE THAT CAN MANIFEST ITSELF THROUGH ANY LEVEL IN PANTHEISTIC HIERARCHY/HOLARCHY. AS A MIND/SOUL OF A SINGLE CELL (WITH VERY PRIMITIVE, ELEMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS). A HUMAN OR ANIMAL MIND/SOUL (WITH CONSCIOUSNESS ON A LEVEL OF ORGANIC SYNERGY OF AN INDIVIDUAL HUMAN OR ANIMAL), OR A (SUPERIOR) MIND/SOUL WITH SYNERGETICALLY EXTREMELY COMPLEX AND SOPHISTICATED CONSCIOUSNESS OF WHOLE GALAXIES INVOLVING ALL SUB-LEVELS. SPIRIT (ESSENCE) MANIFESTS AS SOUL/MIND. AND THE (NON-PHYSICAL) SOUL/MIND IS A 'DRIVER' OF THE BODY. THEREFORE, THE BODY, INCLUDING THE BRAIN, IS JUST A 'VEHICLE' FOR THE PHYSICAL WORLD (IF WE, FOR EXAMPLE, HAVE A WHOLE PLANET AS A 'BODY' THEN ITS BRAIN IS THE SYNERGETIC SUPER-BRAIN THAT INVOLVES ALL THE BRAINS OF SPECIES WITH A BRAIN ON THE PLANET).

3. HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND

NONDUAL SPIRIT MANIFESTS AS SOUL OR MIND. MIND IS SYNONYMOUS WITH SOUL AND EMANATES FROM THE SPIRIT (THE ESSENCE THAT CAN MANIFEST ITSELF THROUGH ANY LEVEL IN THE COSMIC HIERARCHY/HOLARCHY. FROM THE MIND/SOUL OF A SINGLE CELL (WITH PREHENSION, VERY PRIMITIVE, ELEMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS), A HUMAN OR ANIMAL MIND/SOUL (WITH CONSCIOUSNESS ON A LEVEL OF AN INDIVIDUAL HUMAN/ANIMAL), OR AN OVERSOUL, WITH CONSCIOUSNESS OF WHOLE GALAXIES INVOLVING ALL SUB-LEVELS. AND THE (NON-PHYSICAL) SOUL/MIND IS A 'DRIVER' OF THE BODY. THEREFORE, THE BODY, INCLUDING THE BRAIN, IS JUST A VEHICLE FOR THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

A LEADING EXPONENT OF THE SUBSTANTIAL VIEW WAS GEORGE BERKELEY, AN 18TH CENTURY ANGLICAN BISHOP AND PHILOSOPHER. BERKELEY ARGUED THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MATTER AND WHAT HUMANS SEE AS THE MATERIAL WORLD IS NOTHING BUT AN IDEA IN GOD'S MIND, AND THAT THEREFORE THE HUMAN MIND IS PURELY A MANIFESTATION OF THE SOUL OR SPIRIT OR SIMILAR. THIS TYPE OF BELIEF IS ALSO COMMON IN CERTAIN TYPES OF SPIRITUAL NON-DUALISTIC BELIEF, BUT OUTSIDE THIS FIELD FEW PHILOSOPHERS TAKE AN EXTREME VIEW TODAY. HOWEVER, THE VIEW THAT THE HUMAN MIND IS OF A NATURE OR ESSENCE SOMEHOW DIFFERENT FROM AND HIGHER THAN, THE MERE OPERATIONS OF THE BRAIN, CONTINUES TO BE WIDELY HELD.

BERKELEY'S VIEWS WERE ATTACKED, AND IN THE EYES OF MANY PHILOSOPHERS DEMOLISHED, BY T.H. HUXLEY, A 19TH CENTURY BIOLOGIST AND DISCIPLE OF CHARLES DARWIN, WHO AGREED THAT THE PHENOMENA OF THE MIND WERE OF A UNIQUE ORDER, BUT ARGUED THAT THEY CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED IN REFERENCE TO EVENTS IN THE BRAIN. HUXLEY DREW ON A TRADITION OF MATERIALIST THOUGHT IN BRITISH PHILOSOPHY DATING TO THOMAS HOBBES, WHO ARGUED IN THE 17TH CENTURY THAT MENTAL EVENTS WERE ULTIMATELY PHYSICAL IN NATURE, ALTHOUGH WITH THE BIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE OF HIS DAY HE COULD NOT SAY WHAT THEIR PHYSICAL BASIS WAS. HUXLEY BLENDED HOBBES WITH DARWIN TO PRODUCE THE MODERN MATERIALIST OR FUNCTIONAL VIEW.

HUXLEY'S VIEW WAS REINFORCED BY THE STEADY EXPANSION OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. IN THE 19TH CENTURY IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO SAY WITH CERTAINTY HOW THE BRAIN CARRIED OUT SUCH FUNCTIONS AS MEMORY, EMOTION, PERCEPTION AND REASON. THIS LEFT THE FIELD OPEN FOR SUBSTANTIALISTS TO ARGUE FOR AN AUTONOMOUS MIND, OR FOR A METAPHYSICAL THEORY OF THE MIND. BUT EACH ADVANCE IN THE STUDY OF THE BRAIN DURING THE 20TH CENTURY MADE THIS HARDER, SINCE IT BECAME MORE AND MORE APPARENT THAT ALL THE COMPONENTS OF THE MIND HAVE THEIR ORIGINS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BRAIN.

HUXLEY'S RATIONALISM, HOWEVER, WAS DISTURBED IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY BY THE IDEAS OF SIGMUND FREUD, WHO DEVELOPED A THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND AND ARGUED THAT THOSE MENTAL PROCESSES OF WHICH HUMANS ARE SUBJECTIVELY AWARE ARE ONLY A SMALL PART OF THEIR TOTAL MENTAL ACTIVITY. FREUDIANISM WAS IN A SENSE A REVIVAL OF THE SUBSTANTIAL VIEW OF THE MIND IN A SECULAR GUISE. ALTHOUGH FREUD DID NOT DENY THAT THE MIND WAS A FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN, HE HELD THE MIND HAS, AS IT WERE, A MIND OF ITS OWN, OF WHICH WE ARE NOT CONSCIOUS, WHICH WE CANNOT CONTROL AND WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED ONLY THOUGH PSYCHOANALYSIS (PARTICULARLY THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS). FREUD'S THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, ALTHOUGH IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE EMPIRICALLY, HAS BEEN WIDELY ACCEPTED AND HAS GREATLY INFLUENCED THE POPULAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIND.

MORE RECENTLY, DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER'S 1979 PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING BOOK "GÖDEL, ESCHER, BACH - AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID", IS A TOUR DE FORCE ON THE SUBJECT OF MIND, AND HOW IT MIGHT ARISE FROM THE NEUROLOGY OF THE BRAIN. AMONGST OTHER BIOLOGICAL AND CYBERNETIC PHENOMENA, HOFSTADTER PLACES TANGLED LOOPS AND RECURSION AT THE CENTER OF SELF, SELF-AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF ONESELF, AND THUS AT THE HEART OF MIND AND THINKING. LIKEWISE PHILOSOPHER KEN WILBER POSITS THAT MIND IS THE INTERIOR DIMENSION OF THE BRAIN HOLON. THAT IS, THAT MIND IS WHAT A BRAIN LOOKS LIKE INTERNALLY, WHEN IT LOOKS AT ITSELF.

QUANTUM PHYSICIST DAVID BOHM HAD A THEORY OF MIND THAT IS MOST COMPARABLE TO NEO-PLATONIC THEORIES. "THOUGHT RUNS YOU. THOUGHT, HOWEVER, GIVES FALSE INFO THAT YOU ARE RUNNING IT, THAT YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CONTROLS THOUGHT. WHEREAS ACTUALLY THOUGHT IS THE ONE WHICH CONTROLS EACH ONE OF US..."(THOUGHT AS A SYSTEM, D. BOHM, 1992)

4. CURRENT RESEARCH

THE DEBATE ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE MIND IS RELEVANT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. IF THE MIND IS INDEED A THING SEPARATE FROM OR HIGHER THAN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BRAIN, THEN PRESUMABLY IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR ANY MACHINE, NO MATTER HOW SOPHISTICATED, TO DUPLICATE IT. IF ON THE OTHER HAND THE MIND IS NO MORE THAN THE AGGREGATED FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN, THEN IT WILL BE POSSIBLE, AT LEAST IN THEORY, TO CREATE A MACHINE WITH A MIND.

THE MIND/BRAIN/BEHAVIOR INTERFACULTY INITIATIVE (MBB) AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY AIMS TO ELUCIDATE THE STRUCTURE, FUNCTION, EVOLUTION, DEVELOPMENT AND PATHOLOGY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN RELATION TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL LIFE. IT DRAWS ON THE DEPARTMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY, NEUROBIOLOGY, NEUROLOGY, MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY, RADIOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY, ORGANISMIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND LINGUISTICS.

IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY, THE UNCONSCIOUS REFERS TO THAT PART OF MENTAL FUNCTIONING OF WHICH SUBJECTS MAKE THEMSELVES UNAWARE. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC UNCONSCIOUS IS SIMILAR TO BUT NOT PRECISELY THE SAME AS THE POPULAR NOTION OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS.

FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS, THE UNCONSCIOUS DOES NOT INCLUDE ALL OF WHAT IS SIMPLY NOT CONSCIOUS. IT DOES NOT INCLUDE E.G. MOTOR SKILLS BUT RATHER, ONLY WHAT IS ACTIVELY REPRESSED FROM CONSCIOUS THOUGHT.

AS DEFINED BY SIGMUND FREUD, THE PSYCHE IS COMPOSED OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS, OFTEN DEFINED IN THREE PARTS AS

THE PRECONSCIOUS 

THE WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS 

AND BENEATH BOTH OF THESE, THE UNCONSCIOUS. 

FOR FREUD, THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS A DEPOSITORY FOR SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE IDEAS, WISHES OR DESIRES, TRAUMATIC MEMORIES AND PAINFUL EMOTIONS PUT OUT OF MIND BY THE MECHANISM OF PSYCHOLOGICAL REPRESSION. HOWEVER, THE CONTENTS DID NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE SOLELY NEGATIVE. IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEW, THE UNCONSCIOUS IS A FORCE THAT CAN ONLY BE RECOGNISED BY ITS EFFECTS. IT EXPRESSES ITSELF IN THE SYMPTOM.

AT THE PRESENT STAGE, THERE ARE STILL FUNDAMENTAL DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN PSYCHOLOGY ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND (IF INDEED IT IS CONSIDERED TO EXIST AT ALL), WHEREAS OUTSIDE FORMAL PSYCHOLOGY A WHOLE WORLD OF POP-PSYCHOLOGICAL SPECULATION HAS GROWN UP IN WHICH THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS HELD TO HAVE ANY NUMBER OF PROPERTIES AND ABILITIES, FROM ANIMALISTIC AND INNOCENT, CHILD-LIKE ASPECTS TO SAVANT-LIKE, ALL-PERCEIVING, MYSTICAL AND OCCULTIC PROPERTIES.

1. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC UNCONSCIOUS 

2. FREUD'S DEFINITION 

3. JUNG'S COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS 

4. LACAN'S LINGUISTIC UNCONSCIOUS 

5. CONTROVERSY 

6. PRE-FREUDIAN HISTORY OF THE IDEA 

1. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC UNCONSCIOUS

UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS ARE NOT DIRECTLY ACCESSIBLE TO ORDINARY INTROSPECTION, BUT IT IS CAPABLE OF BEING "TAPPED" AND "INTERPRETED" BY SPECIAL METHODS AND TECHNIQUES SUCH AS RANDOM ASSOCIATION, DREAM ANALYSIS AND VERBAL SLIPS (COMMONLY KNOWN AS A FREUDIAN SLIP), EXAMINED AND CONDUCTED DURING PSYCHOANALYSIS.

2. FREUD'S DEFINITION

PROBABLY THE MOST DETAILED AND PRECISE OF THE VARIOUS NOTIONS OF 'UNCONSCIOUS MIND' AND THE ONE WHICH MOST PEOPLE WILL IMMEDIATELY THINK OF UPON HEARING THE TERM IS THAT DEVELOPED BY SIGMUND FREUD AND HIS FOLLOWERS, AND WHICH LIES AT THE HEART OF PSYCHOANALYSIS. IT SHOULD BE STRESSED, INCIDENTALLY, THAT THE POPULAR TERM 'SUBCONSCIOUS' IS NOT A FREUDIAN COINAGE AND IS NEVER USED IN SERIOUS PSYCHOANALYTIC WRITINGS.

FREUD'S CONCEPT WAS A MORE SUBTLE AND COMPLEX PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY THAN MANY. CONSCIOUSNESS, IN FREUD'S TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW (WHICH WAS HIS FIRST OF SEVERAL PSYCHOLOGICAL MODELS OF THE MIND) WAS A RELATIVELY THIN PERCEPTUAL ASPECT OF THE MIND, WHEREAS THE SUBCONSCIOUS (FREQUENTLY MISUSED AND CONFUSED WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS) WAS THAT MERELY AUTONOMIC FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN. THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS INDEED CONSIDERED BY FREUD THROUGHOUT THE EVOLUTION OF HIS PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY A SENTIENT FORCE OF WILL INFLUENCED BY HUMAN DRIVE AND YET OPERATING WELL BELOW THE PERCEPTUAL CONSCIOUS MIND. HIDDEN, LIKE THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN IN THE "WIZARD OF OZ," THE UNCONSCIOUS DIRECTS THE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF EVERYONE, ACCORDING TO FREUD.

IN ANOTHER OF FREUD'S SYSTEMATISATIONS, THE MIND IS DIVIDED INTO THE CONSCIOUS MIND OR EGO AND TWO PARTS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS. THE ID OR INSTINCTS AND THE SUPEREGO. FREUD USED THE IDEA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN CERTAIN KINDS OF NEUROTIC BEHAVIOR.

FREUD'S THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS SUBSTANTIALLY TRANSFORMED BY SOME OF HIS FOLLOWERS, AMONG THEM CARL JUNG AND JACQUES LACAN.

3. JUNG'S COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

CARL JUNG DEVELOPED THE CONCEPT FURTHER. HE DIVIDED THE UNCONSCIOUS INTO TWO PARTS: THE PERSONAL UNCONSCIOUS AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS. THE FIRST OF THESE CORRESPONDS TO FREUD'S IDEA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, THOUGH UNLIKE HIS MENTOR, JUNG BELIEVED THAT THE PERSONAL UNCONSCIOUS CONTAINED A VALUABLE COUNTER-BALANCE TO THE CONSCIOUS MIND, AS WELL AS CHILDISH URGES. AS FOR THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, WHICH CONSISTS OF ARCHETYPES, THIS IS THE COMMON STORE OF MENTAL BUILDING BLOCKS THAT MAKES UP THE PSYCHE OF ALL HUMANS. EVIDENCE FOR ITS EXISTENCE IS THE UNIVERSALITY OF CERTAIN SYMBOLS THAT APPEAR IN THE MYTHOLOGIES OF NEARLY ALL PEOPLES.

4. LACAN'S LINGUISTIC UNCONSCIOUS

JACQUES LACAN'S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY CONTENDS THAT THE UNCONSCIOUS IS STRUCTURED LIKE A LANGUAGE. THE UNCONSCIOUS, LACAN ARGUED, WAS NOT A MORE PRIMITIVE OR ARCHETYPAL PART OF THE MIND SEPARATE FROM THE CONSCIOUS, LINGUISTIC EGO, BUT RATHER, A FORMATION EVERY BIT AS COMPLEX AND LINGUISTICALLY SOPHISTICATED AS CONSCIOUSNESS ITSELF.

IF THE UNCONSCIOUS IS STRUCTURED LIKE A LANGUAGE, LACAN ARGUES, THEN THE SELF IS DENIED ANY POINT OF REFERENCE TO WHICH TO BE 'RESTORED' FOLLOWING TRAUMA OR 'IDENTITY CRISIS'. IN THIS WAY, LACAN'S THESIS OF THE STRUCTURALLY DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS IS ALSO A CHALLENGE TO THE EGO PSYCHOLOGY OF ANNA FREUD AND HER AMERICAN FOLLOWERS.

LACAN'S IDEA OF HOW LANGUAGE IS STRUCTURED IS LARGELY TAKEN FROM THE STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS OF FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE AND ROMAN JAKOBSON, BASED ON THE FUNCTION OF THE SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED IN SIGNIFYING CHAINS. THIS MAY LEAVE LACAN'S ENTIRE MODEL OF MENTAL FUNCTIONING OPEN TO SEVERE CRITIQUE, SINCE IN MAINSTREAM LINGUISTICS, SAUSSUREAN MODELS HAVE LARGELY BEEN REPLACED BY THOSE OF E.G. NOAM CHOMSKY.

THE STARTING POINT FOR THE LINGUISTIC THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS A RE-READING OF FREUD'S, THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. THERE, FREUD IDENTIFIES TWO MECHANISMS AT WORK IN THE FORMATION OF UNCONSCIOUS FANTASIES, CONDENSATION AND DISPLACEMENT. UNDER LACAN'S LINGUISTIC READING, CONDENSATION IS IDENTIFIED WITH THE LINGUISTIC TROPE OF METONYMY AND DISPLACEMENT WITH METAPHOR.

5. CONTROVERSY

THERE IS A GREAT CONTROVERSY OVER THE CONCEPT OF AN UNCONSCIOUS IN REGARD TO ITS SCIENTIFIC OR RATIONAL VALIDITY AND WHETHER THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND EXISTS AT ALL. AMONG PHILOSOPHERS, KARL POPPER WAS ONE OF FREUD'S MOST NOTABLE CONTEMPORARY OPPONENTS. POPPER ARGUED THAT FREUD'S THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS NOT FALSIFIABLE AND THEREFORE NOT SCIENTIFIC. POPPER OBJECTED NOT SO MUCH TO THE IDEA THAT THINGS HAPPENED IN OUR MINDS THAT WE ARE UNCONSCIOUS OF. HE OBJECTED TO INVESTIGATIONS OF MIND THAT WERE NOT FALSIFIABLE. IF ONE COULD CONNECT EVERY IMAGINABLE EXPERIMENTAL OUTCOME WITH FREUD'S THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND, THEN NO EXPERIMENT COULD REFUTE THE THEORY.

IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, JOHN WATSON, CONSIDERED TO BE THE FIRST AMERICAN BEHAVIOURIST, CRITICISES THE IDEA OF AN "UNCONSCIOUS MIND," FOR SIMILAR LINE OF REASONING, AND INSTEAD FOCUSED ON OBSERVABLE BEHAVIORS RATHER THAN ON INTROSPECTION.

6. PRE-FREUDIAN HISTORY OF THE IDEA

THE IDEA ORIGINATED IN ANTIQUITY AND ITS MORE MODERN HISTORY IS DETAILED IN HENRI F. ELLENBERGER'S DISCOVERY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS (BASIC BOOKS, 1970).

CERTAIN PHILOSOPHERS PRECEDING SIGMUND FREUD, SUCH AS LEIBNIZ, SCHOPENHAUER AND NIETZSCHE, DEVELOPED IDEAS FORESHADOWING THE MODERN IDEA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS. THE NEW MEDICAL SCIENCE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS ESTABLISHED BY FREUD AND HIS DISCIPLES POPULARISED THIS AND SIMILAR NOTIONS SUCH AS THE ROLE OF THE LIBIDO (SEX DRIVE) AND THE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE URGE OF THANATOS (DEATH WISH) AND THE FAMOUS OEDIPUS COMPLEX, WHEREIN A SON SEEKS TO "KILL" HIS FATHER TO MAKE LOVE TO HIS OWN MOTHER.

THE TERM WAS POPULARISED BY FREUD. HE DEVELOPED THE IDEA THAT THERE WERE LAYERS TO HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, THE CONSCIOUS, PRECONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. HE THOUGHT THAT CERTAIN PSYCHIC EVENTS TAKE PLACE "BELOW THE SURFACE", OR IN THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS DREAMING, WHICH FREUD CALLED THE "ROYAL ROAD TO THE UNCONSCIOUS".

EGO, SUPER-EGO AND ID

THE EGO, SUPER-EGO AND ID ARE THE DIVISIONS OF THE PSYCHE ACCORDING TO PSYCHOANALYST SIGMUND FREUD'S "STRUCTURAL THEORY". THE ID CONTAINS "PRIMITIVE DESIRES" (HUNGER, RAGE, AND SEX), THE SUPER-EGO CONTAINS INTERNALISED NORMS, MORALITY AND TABOOS, AND THE EGO MEDIATES BETWEEN THE TWO AND MAY INCLUDE OR GIVE RISE TO THE SENSE OF SELF.

STRUCTURAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL MODELS OF MIND

1. HISTORY 

2. FREUD'S STRUCTURAL THEORY 

3. SUPER-EGO 

4. ID 

5. COLLABORATION AND COORDINATION 

1. HISTORY

MOST PEOPLE WHO IDENTIFY WITH THE CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL OF EGO PSYCHOLOGY PLACE THE THEORY'S BEGINNINGS WITH FREUD'S 1923 BOOK THE EGO AND THE ID, IN WHICH HE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED HIS STRUCTURAL THEORY. HOWEVER, THE FIRST TRACES OF THE THEORY APPEAR IN HIS ESSAY BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (1920), IN WHICH IT WAS INTRODUCED DUE TO HIS DISSATISFACTION WITH HIS TOPOGRAPHIC SCHEME (CONSCIOUS, UNCONSCIOUS, PRECONSCIOUS). THE EGO, THE ID AND THE IDEAL OF THE EGO WAS THEN USED IN GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND EGO ANALYSIS (1921); FREUD WOULD LATER REPLACE THE "IDEAL OF THE EGO" BY THE SUPER-EGO.

2. FREUD'S STRUCTURAL THEORY

IN FREUD'S THEORY, THE EGO MEDIATES BETWEEN THE ID, THE SUPER-EGO AND THE EXTERNAL WORLD. ITS TASK IS THUS TO FIND A BALANCE BETWEEN PRIMITIVE DRIVES, MORALS AND REALITY. ITS MAIN CONCERN IS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL'S SAFETY, AND ALLOWS SOME OF THE ID'S DESIRES TO BE EXPRESSED, BUT ONLY WHEN CONSEQUENCES OF THESE ACTIONS ARE MINIMAL.

ALTHOUGH IN HIS EARLY WRITINGS FREUD EQUATED THE EGO WITH THE SENSE OF SELF, HE LATER BEGAN TO PORTRAY IT MORE AS A SET OF PSYCHIC FUNCTIONS SUCH AS REALITY-TESTING, DEFENCE, SYNTHESIS OF INFORMATION, INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING AND MEMORY.

THE WORD EGO IS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM LATIN WHERE IT IS THE NOMINATIVE OF THE FIRST PERSON SINGULAR PERSONAL PRONOUN AND IS TRANSLATED AS "I MYSELF" TO EXPRESS EMPHASIS.

3. SUPER-EGO

THE SUPER-EGO IS A SYMBOLIC INTERNALISATION OF THE FATHER FIGURE AND CULTURAL REGULATIONS. THE SUPER-EGO TENDS TO STAND IN OPPOSITION TO THE DESIRES OF THE ID BECAUSE OF THEIR CONFLICTING OBJECTIVES, AND IS AGGRESSIVE TOWARDS THE EGO. THE SUPER-EGO ACTS AS THE CONSCIENCE, MAINTAINING OUR SENSE OF MORALITY AND THE PROHIBITION OF TABOOS. ITS FORMATION TAKES PLACE DURING THE DISSOLUTION OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX AND IS FORMED BY AN IDENTIFICATION WITH AND INTERNALISATION OF THE FATHER FIGURE AFTER THE LITTLE BOY CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY HOLD THE MOTHER AS A LOVE-OBJECT OUT OF FEAR OF CASTRATION. "THE SUPER-EGO RETAINS THE CHARACTER OF THE FATHER, WHILE THE MORE POWERFUL THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX WAS AND THE MORE RAPIDLY IT SUCCUMBED TO REPRESSION (UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF AUTHORITY, RELIGIOUS TEACHING, SCHOOLING AND READING). THE STRICTER WILL BE THE DOMINATION OF THE SUPER-EGO OVER THE EGO LATER ON IN THE FORM OF CONSCIENCE OR PERHAPS OF AN UNCONSCIOUS SENSE OF GUILT" (THE EGO AND THE ID, 1923). THE CONCEPT OF SUPER-EGO HAS BEEN SUBJECT TO CRITICISM FOR ITS SEXISM. WOMEN, WHO ARE CONSIDERED TO BE ALREADY CASTRATED, DO NOT IDENTIFY WITH THE FATHER AND THEREFORE FORM A WEAK SUPER-EGO, APPARENTLY LEAVING THEM SUSCEPTIBLE TO IMMORALITY AND SEXUAL IDENTITY COMPLICATIONS. IN FREUD'S WORK CIVILISATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS (1930) HE ALSO DISCUSSES THE CONCEPT OF A "CULTURAL SUPER-EGO".

4. ID

THE ID ("DAS ES", CF. LATIN ID, ENGLISH IT, GERMAN ES) IS THE PSYCHICAL SYSTEM "WHICH BEHAVES AS THOUGH IT WERE THE UNCONSCIOUS", OR THE "DYNAMICALLY UNCONSCIOUS REPRESSED", IN EFFECT, THE RESERVOIR OF NEED-GRATIFICATION IMPULSES SUCH AS THE PRIMITIVE INSTINCTUAL DRIVES OF SEXUALITY AND AGGRESSION. FREUD BELIEVED THAT THE ID IS INBORN, OPERATING ON THE DYNAMICS OF THE PRIMARY PROCESS MODE OF THINKING. THE DRIVES OF THE ID ARE SAID TO WORK ACCORDING TO THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, REQUIRING IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION OR RELEASE WITHOUT CONCERN FOR EXTERNAL EXIGENCIES. THOUGH HUNGER ITSELF MAY BE SEEN AS A PURE ID DESIRE, THE CRYING OF THE HUNGRY INFANT IS ALREADY AN INSTINCTIVE ATTEMPT TO RELATE, THAT IS, TO COMMUNICATE THAT NEED TO THE OBJECT OF THE DRIVE IN QUESTION, NAMELY, ONE WHO CAN HELP TO SATISFY THAT NEED. THUS DRIVES ARE LINKED TO OBJECT RELATIONS, AS FREUD OBSERVED IN HIS 1895 ESSAY "PROJECT FOR A SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY".

FREUD MAY HAVE BORROWED THE TERM DAS ES FROM HIS ADVOCATE AND PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE GEORG GRODDECK. GRODDECK, A PIONEER OF PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE AND SELF-PROCLAIMED "WILD ANALYST", PUBLISHED DAS BUCH VOM ES (ROUGHLY, "THE BOOK OF IT") SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE FREUD PUBLISHED THE EGO AND THE ID (1923). GERMAN READERS WOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF NIETZSCHE'S PREVIOUS USE OF "IT" TO DESCRIBE THAT WHICH IS IMPERSONAL AND SUBJECT TO NATURAL LAW WITHIN US.

5. COLLABORATION AND COORDINATION

THE ID, THE EGO, AND THE SUPER-EGO COLLABORATE TO SERVE THE NEEDS OF THE BODY AND TO CONTROL THE CONDUCT OF THE PERSON. FOR EXAMPLE, AN INFANT WILL CRY WHEN HUNGRY, BECAUSE THE LONG EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE SPECIES THAT A CONVENIENT FIGURE OF SPEECH DUBS THE "ID" HAS PROVIDED THIS MEANS FOR ATTRACTING, INDEED, COMPELLING THE ATTENTION OF ONE WHO FILLS A SUITABLY COEVOLVED CAREGIVER ROLE. HOWEVER, AN ADULT WILL NOT NORMALLY CRY WHEN HUNGRY, BECAUSE THE MORE EXPERIENCED EGO HAS LEARNED THAT THE SAME RECOURSE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND ALSO BECAUSE THE ENCULTURATED SUPER-EGO EMBODIES THE INFORMATION THAT CRYING IS NOT A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE REACTION TO BEING HUNGRY. IT MAY BE PERTINENT IN THIS CONNECTION THAT AN INFANT IN GERMAN IS REFERRED TO UNDER A GRAMMATICALLY NEUTER GENDER, IN OTHER WORDS, AS AN "IT".

SIGMUND FREUD (MAY 6, 1856 – SEPTEMBER 23, 1939) WAS AN AUSTRIAN NEUROLOGIST AND THE FOUNDER OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY. ALTHOUGH FREUD'S WRITINGS WERE NOT ALWAYS PERFECTLY SYSTEMATIC, THE RECEIVED VIEWS OF HIS THEORIES GENERALLY INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING HYPOTHESES:

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS BEST UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF CHANGING OBJECTS OF SEXUAL DESIRE. 

THE PSYCHIC APPARATUS HABITUALLY REPRESSES WISHES, USUALLY OF A SEXUAL OR AGGRESSIVE NATURE, WHEREBY THEY BECOME PRESERVED IN ONE OR MORE UNCONSCIOUS SYSTEMS OF IDEAS. 

UNCONSCIOUS CONFLICTS OVER REPRESSED WISHES HAVE A TENDENCY TO MANIFEST THEMSELVES IN DREAMS, PARAPRAXES ("FREUDIAN SLIPS") AND SYMPTOMS. 

UNCONSCIOUS CONFLICTS ARE THE SOURCE OF NEUROSES. 

NEUROSES CAN BE TREATED THROUGH BRINGING THE UNCONSCIOUS WISHES AND REPRESSED MEMORIES TO CONSCIOUSNESS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT. 

FREUD COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS "THE FATHER OF PSYCHOANALYSIS" AND HIS WORK HAS BEEN TREMENDOUSLY INFLUENTIAL IN THE POPULAR IMAGINATION. POPULARISING SUCH NOTIONS AS THE UNCONSCIOUS, DEFENCE MECHANISMS, FREUDIAN SLIPS AND DREAM SYMBOLISM, WHILE ALSO MAKING A LONG-LASTING IMPACT ON FIELDS AS DIVERSE AS LITERATURE, FILM, MARXIST AND FEMINIST THEORIES, LITERARY CRITICISM, PHILOSOPHY AND OF COURSE, PSYCHOLOGY.

1. LIFE 

2. FAMILY/DESCENDANTS 

3. EARLY WORK 

4. THE UNCONSCIOUS 

5. PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT 

6. EGO, SUPER-EGO, AND ID 

7. DEFENSE MECHANISMS 

8.THE LIFE AND DEATH INSTINCTS 

9. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 

10. PSYCHOTHERAPY 

11. PHILOSOPHY 

12. CRITICAL REACTIONS 

1. LIFE

SIGMUND FREUD, SIGISMUND SCHLOMO FREUD WAS BORN INTO A JEWISH FAMILY IN FREIBERG (PŘÍBOR), MORAVIA, IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE (NOW BELONGING TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC). IN 1877, AT THE AGE OF 21, HE ABBREVIATED HIS GIVEN NAME TO "SIGMUND." ALTHOUGH HE WAS THE FIRST-BORN OF THREE BROTHERS AND FIVE SISTERS AMONG HIS MOTHER'S CHILDREN, SIGMUND HAD OLDER HALF-BROTHERS FROM HIS FATHER'S PREVIOUS MARRIAGE. HIS FAMILY HAD LIMITED FINANCES AND LIVED IN A CROWDED APARTMENT, BUT HIS PARENTS MADE EVERY EFFORT TO FOSTER HIS INTELLECT (OFTEN FAVOURING SIGMUND OVER HIS SIBLINGS), WHICH WAS APPARENT FROM AN EARLY AGE. SIGMUND WAS RANKED FIRST IN HIS CLASS IN SIX OF EIGHT YEARS OF SCHOOLING. HE WENT ON TO ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA AT 17, FROM 1873 TO 1881.

OVERALL, LITTLE IS KNOWN OF FREUD'S EARLY LIFE, AS HE DESTROYED HIS PERSONAL PAPERS AT LEAST TWICE, ONCE IN 1885 AND AGAIN IN 1907. ADDITIONALLY, HIS LATER PAPERS WERE CLOSELY GUARDED IN THE SIGMUND FREUD ARCHIVES AND WERE ONLY MADE AVAILABLE TO HIS OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHER ERNEST JONES AND A FEW OTHER MEMBERS OF THE INNER CIRCLE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS.

IN 1886, FREUD RETURNED TO VIENNA AND AFTER OPENING A PRIVATE PRACTICE SPECIALISING IN NERVOUS AND BRAIN DISORDERS, HE MARRIED. HE EXPERIMENTED WITH HYPNOTISM WITH HIS MOST HYSTERIC AND NEUROTIC PATIENTS, BUT HE EVENTUALLY GAVE UP THE PRACTICE. HE FOUND THAT HE COULD GET HIS PATIENTS TO TALK BY PUTTING THEM ON A COUCH AND ENCOURAGING THEM TO SAY WHATEVER CAME INTO THEIR MINDS (A PRACTICE TERMED FREE ASSOCIATION).

IN HIS 40s, FREUD "HAD NUMEROUS PSYCHOSOMATIC DISORDERS AS WELL AS EXAGGERATED FEARS OF DYING AND OTHER PHOBIAS". DURING THIS TIME, FREUD WAS INVOLVED IN THE TASK OF EXPLORING HIS OWN DREAMS, MEMORIES AND THE DYNAMICS OF HIS PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT. DURING THIS SELF-ANALYSIS, HE CAME TO REALISE THE HOSTILITY HE FELT TOWARDS HIS FATHER (JACOB FREUD) AND "HE ALSO RECALLED HIS CHILDHOOD SEXUAL FEELINGS FOR HIS MOTHER (AMALIA FREUD), WHO WAS ATTRACTIVE, WARM AND PROTECTIVE" (COREY, 2001, P. 67). COREY (2001) CONSIDERS THIS TIME OF EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTY TO BE THE MOST CREATIVE TIME IN FREUD'S LIFE.

AFTER PUBLISHING SUCCESSFUL BOOKS ON THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND IN 1900 AND 1901, FREUD WAS APPOINTED TO A PROFESSORSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA, WHERE HE BEGAN TO DEVELOP A LOYAL FOLLOWING.

GROUP PHOTO 1909 IN FRONT OF CLARK UNIVERSITY. FRONT ROW FROM LEFT: SIGMUND FREUD, GRANVILLE STANLEY HALL, CARL JUNG. BACK ROW FROM LEFT: ABRAHAM A. BRILL, ERNEST JONES, SANDOR FERENCZI. FREUD HAD LITTLE TOLERANCE FOR COLLEAGUES WHO DIVERGED FROM HIS PSYCHOANALYTIC DOCTRINES. HE ATTEMPTED TO EXPEL THOSE WHO DISAGREED WITH THE MOVEMENT OR EVEN REFUSED TO ACCEPT CERTAIN CENTRAL ASPECTS OF HIS THEORY (COREY, 2001): THE MOST NOTABLE EXAMPLES ARE CARL JUNG AND WILHELM REICH. FREUD WROTE A STINGING ATTACK ON BOTH JUNG AND ALFRED ADLER IN A PIECE CALLED "ON THE HISTORY OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC MOVEMENT."

IN 1930, FREUD WAS AWARDED THE GOETHE PRIZE BY THE CITY OF FRANKFURT, IN RECOGNITION OF HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY. HIS MOTHER DIED THE SAME YEAR, AT THE AGE OF NINETY-FIVE. IN 1933, AS HITLER AND THE NAZIS SEIZED POWER IN GERMANY, FREUD'S BOOKS WERE BURNT PUBLICLY BY THE S. A..

MEMORIAL PLAQUE OF SIGMUND FREUD AT HIS BIRTHPLACE IN PŘÍBOR, CZECH REPUBLIC. FOLLOWING THE NAZI GERMAN ANSCHLUSS, FREUD FLED AUSTRIA WITH HIS FAMILY WITH THE FINANCIAL HELP OF HIS PATIENT AND FRIEND PRINCESS MARIE BONAPARTE. ON JUNE 4, 1938, THEY WERE ALLOWED ACROSS THE BORDER INTO FRANCE AND THEN THEY TRAVELED FROM PARIS TO HAMPSTEAD, LONDON, ENGLAND, WHERE THEY LIVED AT 20 MARESFIELD GARDENS (NOW THE FREUD MUSEUM). AS HE WAS LEAVING GERMANY, GESTAPO FORCED HIM TO SIGN A STATEMENT THAT HE HAD BEEN TREATED RESPECTFULLY. FREUD WROTE A STATEMENT, "I WARMLY RECOMMEND GESTAPO FOR EVERYONE."

IN ENGLAND, IN 1938, FREUD'S LONGING TO BE EMBRACED BY SOCIETY AS AN IMPORTANT SCIENTIST WAS PARTLY REALISED WHEN TWO SECRETARIES OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY BROUGHT THE BOOK OF THE SOCIETY FOR FREUD TO SIGN. FREUD WROTE TO HIS FRIEND ARNOLD ZWEIG: "THEY LEFT A FACSIMILE OF THE BOOK WITH ME AND IF YOU WERE HERE I COULD SHOULD SHOW YOU THE SIGNATURES FROM I. NEWTON TO CHARLES DARWIN. GOOD COMPANY!"

FREUD SMOKED CIGARS FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, EVEN AFTER HAVING HIS JAW REMOVED DUE TO MALIGNANCY, HE CONTINUED TO SMOKE UNTIL HIS DEATH ON SEPTEMBER 23, 1939. HE SMOKED AN ENTIRE BOX OF CIGARS DAILY. AFTER CONTRACTING CANCER OF THE MOUTH IN 1923 AT THE AGE OF 67, HE UNDERWENT OVER 30 OPERATIONS TO TREAT THE DISEASE. IN THE END, FREUD COULD NO LONGER TOLERATE THE PAIN ASSOCIATED WITH HIS CANCER. HE REQUESTED THAT HIS PERSONAL PHYSICIAN VISIT HIM AT HIS LONDON HOME FOR THE PURPOSE OF HELPING HIM END HIS OWN LIFE. FREUD'S DEATH WAS BY A PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED MORPHINE OVERDOSE.

2. FAMILY/DESCENDANTS

SIGMUND FREUD'S YOUNGEST DAUGHTER, ANNA FREUD, WAS ALSO A DISTINGUISHED PSYCHOLOGIST, PARTICULARLY IN THE FIELDS OF CHILD AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. SIGMUND IS THE GRANDFATHER OF PAINTER LUCIAN FREUD AND COMEDIAN/POLITICIAN/WRITER CLEMENT FREUD, AND THE GREAT-GRANDFATHER OF JOURNALIST EMMA FREUD, FASHION DESIGNER BELLA FREUD AND MEDIA MAGNATES MATTHEW FREUD AND RIA WILLEMS. SIGMUND FREUD WAS ALSO BOTH A BLOOD UNCLE AND AN UNCLE-IN-LAW TO PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PROPAGANDA WIZARD EDWARD BERNAYS. BERNAYS'S MOTHER, ANNA FREUD BERNAYS, WAS SISTER TO SIGMUND. BERNAYS'S FATHER, ELY BERNAYS, WAS BROTHER TO SIGMUND'S WIFE, MARTHA BERNAYS FREUD.

FREUD HAS BEEN INFLUENTIAL IN TWO RELATED BUT DISTINCT WAYS. HE SIMULTANEOUSLY DEVELOPED A THEORY OF THE HUMAN MIND AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR, AS WELL AS CLINICAL TECHNIQUES FOR ATTEMPTING TO HELP NEUROTICS.

3. EARLY WORK

A LESSER KNOWN INTEREST OF FREUD'S WAS NEUROLOGY. HE WAS AN EARLY RESEARCHER ON THE TOPIC OF CEREBRAL PALSY, THEN KNOWN AS "CEREBRAL PARALYSIS." HE PUBLISHED SEVERAL MEDICAL PAPERS ON THE TOPIC AND SHOWED THAT THE DISEASE EXISTED FAR BEFORE OTHER RESEARCHERS IN HIS DAY BEGAN TO NOTICE AND STUDY IT. HE ALSO SUGGESTED THAT WILLIAM LITTLE, THE MAN WHO FIRST IDENTIFIED CEREBRAL PALSY, WAS WRONG ABOUT LACK OF OXYGEN DURING THE BIRTH PROCESS BEING A CAUSE. INSTEAD, HE SUGGESTED THAT COMPLICATIONS IN BIRTH WERE ONLY A SYMPTOM OF THE PROBLEM. IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE 1980s, THAT FREUD'S SPECULATIONS WERE CONFIRMED BY MORE MODERN RESEARCH.

FREUD WAS AN EARLY USER AND PROPONENT OF COCAINE AS A STIMULANT. HE WROTE SEVERAL ARTICLES ON THE ANTIDEPRESSANT QUALITIES OF THE DRUG AND HE WAS INFLUENCED BY HIS FRIEND AND CONFIDANT WILHELM FLIESS, WHO RECOMMENDED COCAINE FOR THE TREATMENT OF THE "NASAL REFLEX NEUROSIS." FLIESS OPERATED ON FREUD AND A NUMBER OF FREUD'S PATIENTS WHOM HE BELIEVED TO BE SUFFERING FROM THE DISORDER, INCLUDING EMMA ECKSTEIN, WHOSE SURGERY PROVED DISASTROUS.

FREUD FELT THAT COCAINE WOULD WORK AS A CURE-ALL FOR MANY DISORDERS AND WROTE A WELL-RECEIVED PAPER, "ON COCA," EXPLAINING ITS VIRTUES. HE PRESCRIBED IT TO HIS FRIEND ERNST VON FLEISCHL-MARXOW TO HELP HIM OVERCOME A MORPHINE ADDICTION HE HAD ACQUIRED WHILE TREATING A DISEASE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. FREUD ALSO RECOMMENDED IT TO MANY OF HIS CLOSE FAMILY AND FRIENDS. HE NARROWLY MISSED OUT ON OBTAINING SCIENTIFIC PRIORITY FOR DISCOVERING COCAINE'S ANESTHETIC PROPERTIES (OF WHICH FREUD WAS AWARE BUT ON WHICH HE HAD NOT WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY). AFTER KARL KOLLER, A COLLEAGUE OF FREUD'S IN VIENNA, PRESENTED A REPORT TO A MEDICAL SOCIETY IN 1884 OUTLINING THE WAYS IN WHICH COCAINE COULD BE USED FOR DELICATE EYE SURGERY. FREUD WAS BRUISED BY THIS, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THIS WOULD TURN OUT TO BE ONE OF THE FEW SAFE USES OF COCAINE. AS REPORTS OF ADDICTION AND OVERDOSE BEGAN TO FILTER IN FROM MANY PLACES IN THE WORLD. FREUD'S MEDICAL REPUTATION BECAME SOMEWHAT TARNISHED BECAUSE OF THIS EARLY ENTHUSIASM. FURTHERMORE, FREUD'S FRIEND FLEISCHL-MARXOW DEVELOPED AN ACUTE CASE OF "COCAINE PSYCHOSIS" AS A RESULT OF FREUD'S PRESCRIPTIONS AND DIED A FEW YEARS LATER. FREUD FELT GREAT REGRET OVER THESE EVENTS, WHICH LATER BIOGRAPHERS HAVE DUBBED "THE COCAINE INCIDENT."

FREUD HOPED THAT HIS RESEARCH WOULD PROVIDE A SOLID SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR HIS THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE. THE GOAL OF FREUDIAN THERAPY, OR PSYCHOANALYSIS, WAS TO BRING TO CONSCIOUSNESS REPRESSED THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. ACCORDING TO SOME OF HIS SUCCESSORS, INCLUDING HIS DAUGHTER ANNA FREUD, THE GOAL OF THERAPY IS TO ALLOW THE PATIENT TO DEVELOP A STRONGER EGO. ACCORDING TO OTHERS, NOTABLY JACQUES LACAN, THE GOAL OF THERAPY IS TO LEAD THE ANALYS AND TO A FULL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS OR HER INABILITY TO SATISFY THE MOST BASIC DESIRES.

CLASSICALLY, THE BRINGING OF UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS TO CONSCIOUSNESS IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY ENCOURAGING THE PATIENT TO TALK IN FREE ASSOCIATION AND TO TALK ABOUT DREAMS. ANOTHER IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS IS A RELATIVE LACK OF DIRECT INVOLVEMENT ON THE PART OF THE ANALYST, WHICH IS MEANT TO ENCOURAGE THE PATIENT TO PROJECT THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ONTO THE ANALYST. THROUGH THIS PROCESS, TRANSFERENCE, THE PATIENT CAN REENACT AND RESOLVE REPRESSED CONFLICTS, ESPECIALLY CHILDHOOD CONFLICTS WITH (OR ABOUT) PARENTS.

4. THE UNCONSCIOUS

PERHAPS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION FREUD HAS MADE TO MODERN THOUGHT IS HIS CONCEPTION OF THE DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS. DURING THE 19TH CENTURY, THE DOMINANT TREND IN WESTERN THOUGHT WAS POSITIVISM, THE BELIEF THAT PEOPLE COULD ASCERTAIN REAL KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING THEMSELVES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT AND JUDICIOUSLY EXERCISE CONTROL OVER BOTH. FREUD, HOWEVER, SUGGESTED THAT SUCH DECLARATIONS OF FREE WILL ARE IN FACT DELUSIONS, THAT WE ARE NOT ENTIRELY AWARE OF WHAT WE THINK AND OFTEN ACT FOR REASONS THAT HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH OUR CONSCIOUS THOUGHTS. THE CONCEPT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS GROUNDBREAKING IN THAT HE PROPOSED THAT AWARENESS EXISTED IN LAYERS AND THAT THERE WERE THOUGHTS OCCURRING "BELOW THE SURFACE." DREAMS, WHICH HE CALLED THE "ROYAL ROAD TO THE UNCONSCIOUS", PROVIDED THE BEST ACCESS TO OUR UNCONSCIOUS LIFE AND THE BEST ILLUSTRATION OF ITS "LOGIC", WHICH WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE LOGIC OF CONSCIOUS THOUGHT. FREUD DEVELOPED HIS FIRST TOPOLOGY OF THE PSYCHE IN THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS (1899) IN WHICH HE PROPOSED THE ARGUMENT THAT THE UNCONSCIOUS EXISTS AND DESCRIBED A METHOD FOR GAINING ACCESS TO IT. THE PRECONSCIOUS WAS DESCRIBED AS A LAYER BETWEEN CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHT THAT WHICH WE COULD ACCESS WITH A LITTLE EFFORT. THUS FOR FREUD, THE IDEALS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT, POSITIVISM AND RATIONALISM, COULD BE ACHIEVED THROUGH UNDERSTANDING, TRANSFORMING AND MASTERING THE UNCONSCIOUS, RATHER THAN THROUGH DENYING OR REPRESSING IT.

CRUCIAL TO THE OPERATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS IS "REPRESSION." ACCORDING TO FREUD, PEOPLE OFTEN EXPERIENCE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS THAT ARE SO PAINFUL THAT PEOPLE CANNOT BEAR THEM. SUCH THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS AND ASSOCIATED MEMORIES COULD NOT, FREUD ARGUED, BE BANISHED FROM THE MIND, BUT COULD BE BANISHED FROM CONSCIOUSNESS. THUS THEY COME TO CONSTITUTE THE UNCONSCIOUS. ALTHOUGH FREUD LATER ATTEMPTED TO FIND PATTERNS OF REPRESSION AMONG HIS PATIENTS IN ORDER TO DERIVE A GENERAL MODEL OF THE MIND, HE ALSO OBSERVED THAT INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS REPRESS DIFFERENT THINGS. MOREOVER, FREUD OBSERVED THAT THE PROCESS OF REPRESSION IS ITSELF A NON-CONSCIOUS ACT (IN OTHER WORDS, IT DID NOT OCCUR THROUGH PEOPLE WILLING AWAY CERTAIN THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS). FREUD SUPPOSED THAT WHAT PEOPLE REPRESSED WERE IN PART DETERMINED BY THEIR UNCONSCIOUS. IN OTHER WORDS, THE UNCONSCIOUS WAS FOR FREUD BOTH A CAUSE AND EFFECT OF REPRESSION.

LATER, FREUD DISTINGUISHED BETWEEN THREE CONCEPTS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, THE DESCRIPTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, THE DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS AND THE SYSTEM UNCONSCIOUS. THE DESCRIPTIVE UNCONSCIOUS REFERRED TO ALL THOSE FEATURES OF MENTAL LIFE OF WHICH WE ARE NOT SUBJECTIVELY AWARE. THE DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS, A MORE SPECIFIC CONSTRUCT, REFERRED TO MENTAL PROCESS AND CONTENTS WHICH ARE DEFENSIVELY REMOVED FROM CONSCIOUSNESS AS A RESULT OF CONFLICTUAL FORCES OR "DYNAMICS". THE SYSTEM UNCONSCIOUS DENOTED THE IDEA THAT WHEN MENTAL PROCESSES ARE REPRESSED, THEY BECOME ORGANISED BY PRINCIPLES DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF THE CONSCIOUS MIND, SUCH AS CONDENSATION AND DISPLACEMENT.

EVENTUALLY, FREUD ABANDONED THE IDEA OF THE SYSTEM UNCONSCIOUS, REPLACING IT WITH THE CONCEPT OF THE EGO, SUPER-EGO, AND ID. THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, HOWEVER, HE RETAINED THE DESCRIPTIVE AND DYNAMIC CONCEPTIONS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS.

5. PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

FREUD ALSO BELIEVED THAT THE LIBIDO DEVELOPED IN INDIVIDUALS BY CHANGING ITS OBJECT, A PROCESS DESIGNED BY THE CONCEPT OF SUBLIMATION. HE ARGUED THAT HUMANS ARE BORN "POLYMORPHOUSLY PERVERSE", MEANING THAT ANY NUMBER OF OBJECTS COULD BE A SOURCE OF PLEASURE. HE FURTHER ARGUED THAT, AS HUMANS DEVELOPED, THEY BECOME FIXATED ON DIFFERENT AND SPECIFIC OBJECTS THROUGH THEIR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT. FIRST IN THE ORAL STAGE (EXEMPLIFIED BY AN INFANT'S PLEASURE IN NURSING), THEN IN THE ANAL STAGE (EXEMPLIFIED BY A TODDLER'S PLEASURE IN CONTROLLING HIS OR HER BOWELS), THEN IN THE PHALLIC STAGE. FREUD ARGUED THAT CHILDREN THEN PASSED THROUGH A STAGE IN WHICH THEY FIXATED ON THE MOTHER AS A SEXUAL OBJECT, KNOWN AS THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX BUT THAT THE CHILD EVENTUALLY OVERCAME AND REPRESSED THIS DESIRE BECAUSE OF ITS TABOO NATURE. (THE LESSER-KNOWN ELECTRA COMPLEX REFERS TO SUCH A FIXATION UPON THE FATHER.)

FREUD HOPED TO PROVE THAT HIS MODEL WAS UNIVERSALLY VALID AND THUS TURNED TO ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY ETHNOGRAPHY FOR COMPARATIVE MATERIAL. FREUD NAMED HIS NEW THEORY THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX AFTER THE FAMOUS GREEK TRAGEDY OEDIPUS REX BY SOPHOCLES. “I FOUND IN MYSELF A CONSTANT LOVE FOR MY MOTHER AND JEALOUSY OF MY FATHER. I NOW CONSIDER THIS TO BE A UNIVERSAL EVENT IN CHILDHOOD,” FREUD SAID. FREUD SOUGHT TO ANCHOR THIS PATTERN OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE DYNAMICS OF THE MIND. EACH STAGE IS A PROGRESSION INTO ADULT SEXUAL MATURITY, CHARACTERISED BY A STRONG EGO AND THE ABILITY TO DELAY GRATIFICATION (THREE ESSAYS ON THE THEORY OF SEXUALITY). HE USED THE OEDIPUS CONFLICT TO POINT OUT HOW MUCH HE BELIEVED THAT PEOPLE DESIRE INCEST AND MUST REPRESS THAT DESIRE. THE OEDIPUS CONFLICT WAS DESCRIBED AS A STATE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT AND AWARENESS. HE ALSO TURNED TO ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES OF TOTEMISM AND ARGUED THAT TOTEMISM REFLECTED A RITUALISED ENACTMENT OF A TRIBAL OEDIPAL CONFLICT.

IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT ORIGINALLY FREUD BELIEVED CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE TO BE THE CAUSE OF HYSTERIA. BUT HE THEN RECANTED THIS SO-CALLED "SEDUCTION THEORY" ("THE INDEX OF SEXUAL ABUSE"), CLAIMING THAT HE HAD FOUND MANY CASES IN WHICH APPARENT MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE WERE BASED MORE ON IMAGINATION THAN ON REAL EVENTS. INSTEAD HE BEGAN TO EMPHASISE THE OEDIPUS THEORY, WHICH ASSERTS THAT EVERYONE UNCONSCIOUSLY WISHES TO POSSESS THEIR PARENTS.

6. EGO, SUPER-EGO, AND ID

IN HIS LATER WORK, FREUD PROPOSED THAT THE PSYCHE WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS: EGO, SUPER-EGO, AND ID. FREUD RELEASED THIS STRUCTURAL MODEL OF THE MIND IN THE 1920 ESSAY BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, AND FULLY ADOPTED IN THE EGO AND THE ID (1923) AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO HIS TOPOGRAPHICAL SCHEME (CONSCIOUS, UNCONSCIOUS, PRECONSCIOUS).

7. DEFENSE MECHANISMS

ACCORDING TO FREUD, THE DEFENSE MECHANISMS ARE THE METHOD BY WHICH THE EGO CAN SOLVE THE CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE SUPER-EGO AND THE ID. THE USE OF DEFENCE MECHANISMS MAY ATTENUATE THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE ID AND SUPER-EGO, BUT THEIR OVERUSE OR REUSE RATHER THAN CONFRONTATION CAN LEAD TO EITHER ANXIETY OR GUILT WHICH MAY RESULT IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS SUCH AS DEPRESSION. HIS DAUGHTER ANNA FREUD HAD DONE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WORK ON THIS FIELD, YET SHE CREDITED SIGMUND WITH DEFENSE MECHANISMS, AS HE BEGAN THE WORK. THE DEFENCE MECHANISMS INCLUDE DENIAL, REACTION FORMATION, DISPLACEMENT, REPRESSION/SUPPRESSION (THE PROPER TERM), PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION, INTELLECTUALISATION, RATIONALISATION, COMPENSATION, SUBLIMATION AND REGRESSIVE EMOTIONALITY.

DENIAL OCCURS WHEN SOMEONE FENDS OFF AWARENESS OF AN UNPLEASANT TRUTH OR OF A REALITY THAT IS A THREAT TO THE EGO. FOR EXAMPLE, A STUDENT MAY HAVE RECEIVED A BAD GRADE ON A REPORT CARD BUT TELLS HIMSELF THAT GRADES DON'T MATTER. (SOME EARLY WRITERS ARGUED FOR A STRIKING PARALLEL BETWEEN FREUDIAN DENIAL AND NIETZSCHE'S IDEAS OF RESSENTIMENT AND THE REVALUATION OF VALUES THAT HE ATTRIBUTED TO "HERD" OR "SLAVE" MORALITY.) 

REACTION FORMATION TAKES PLACE WHEN A PERSON TAKES THE OPPOSITE APPROACH CONSCIOUSLY COMPARED TO WHAT THAT PERSON WANTS UNCONSCIOUSLY. FOR EXAMPLE, SOMEONE MAY ENGAGE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST ANOTHER RACE BECAUSE, THAT PERSON CLAIMS, THE MEMBERS OF THE RACE ARE INFERIOR, WHEN UNCONSCIOUSLY IT IS THAT VERY PERSON WHO FEELS INFERIOR. 

DISPLACEMENT TAKES PLACE WHEN SOMEONE REDIRECTS EMOTION FROM A "DANGEROUS" OBJECT TO A "SAFE" ONE, SUCH AS PUNCHING A PILLOW TO AVOID HITTING A FRIEND. 

REPRESSION OCCURS WHEN AN EXPERIENCE IS SO PAINFUL (SUCH AS WAR TRAUMA) THAT IT IS UNCONSCIOUSLY FORCED FROM CONSCIOUSNESS, WHILE SUPPRESSION IS A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO DO THE SAME. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION OCCURS WHEN A PERSON "PROJECTS" HIS OR HER OWN UNDESIRABLE THOUGHTS, MOTIVATIONS, DESIRES, FEELINGS BASICALLY PARTS OF ONESELF ONTO SOMEONE OR SOMETHING ELSE. AN EXAMPLE OF THIS WOULD BE TO SAY THAT ALICE DOESN'T LIKE BOB, BUT RATHER THAN TO ADMIT SHE DOESN'T LIKE BOB, SHE WILL PROJECT HER SENTIMENT ONTO BOB, SAYING THAT BOB DOESN'T LIKE HER. 

INTELLECTUALISATION INVOLVES REMOVING ONE'S SELF, EMOTIONALLY, FROM A STRESSFUL EVENT. INTELLECTUALISATION IS OFTEN ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH RATIONALISATION RATHER THAN ACCEPTING REALITY, ONE MAY EXPLAIN IT AWAY TO REMOVE ONE'S SELF. 

RATIONALISATION INVOLVES CONSTRUCTING A LOGICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR A DECISION THAT WAS ORIGINALLY ARRIVED AT THROUGH A DIFFERENT MENTAL PROCESS. FOR EXAMPLE, JIM MAY HAVE BOUGHT A TAPE PLAYER TO LISTEN TO SELF-HELP TAPES, BUT HE TELLS HIS FRIENDS HE BOUGHT IT SO THAT HE CAN LISTEN TO CLASSIC ROCK MIXES FOR FEAR OF HIS ACTUAL REASON BEING REJECTED. 

COMPENSATION OCCURS WHEN SOMEONE TAKES UP ONE BEHAVIOUR BECAUSE ONE CANNOT ACCOMPLISH ANOTHER BEHAVIOUR. FOR EXAMPLE, THE SECOND BORN CHILD MAY CLOWN AROUND TO GET ATTENTION SINCE THE OLDER CHILD IS ALREADY AN ACCOMPLISHED SCHOLAR. 

SUBLIMATION IS THE CHANNELING OF IMPULSES TO SOCIALLY ACCEPTED BEHAVIOURS. FOR INSTANCE, THE USE OF A DARK, GLOOMY POEM TO DESCRIBE LIFE BY SUCH POETS AS EMILY DICKINSON. 

8. THE LIFE AND DEATH INSTINCTS

FREUD BELIEVED THAT HUMANS WERE DRIVEN BY TWO CONFLICTING CENTRAL DESIRES. THE LIFE DRIVE (EROS) (INCORPORATING THE SEX DRIVE) AND THE DEATH DRIVE (THANATOS). FREUD'S DESCRIPTION OF EROS AND LIBIDO INCLUDED ALL CREATIVE, LIFE-PRODUCING DRIVES. THE DEATH DRIVE (OR DEATH INSTINCT) REPRESENTED AN URGE INHERENT IN ALL LIVING THINGS TO RETURN TO A STATE OF CALM, OR, ULTIMATELY, OF NON-EXISTENCE. THE PRESENCE OF THE DEATH DRIVE WAS ONLY RECOGNISED IN HIS LATER YEARS, AND THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE TWO REPRESENTS A REVOLUTION IN HIS MANNER OF THINKING.

9. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

FREUD LEAVES VIENNA FOR EXILE IN LONDON, 1938 (MEMORIAL TO THE GERMAN RESISTANCE, BERLIN) FREUD GAVE EXPLANATIONS OF THE GENESIS OF RELIGION IN HIS WRITINGS, INCLUDED IN A REFLECTION ON CROWD PSYCHOLOGY. IN TOTEM AND TABOO (1913), HE PROPOSED THAT HUMANS ORIGINALLY BANDED TOGETHER IN “PRIMAL HORDES”, CONSISTING OF A MALE, A NUMBER OF FEMALES AND THE OFFSPRING OF THIS POLYGAMOUS ARRANGEMENT. ACCORDING TO FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY, A MALE CHILD EARLY IN LIFE HAS SEXUAL DESIRES FOR HIS MOTHER, THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX, WHICH HE HELD TO BE UNIVERSAL. ETHNOLOGISTS WOULD LATER CRITICISE THIS POINT, LEADING TO ETHNO-PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES. ACCORDING TO FREUD, THE FATHER IS PROTECTIVE, SO HIS SONS LOVE HIM, BUT THEY ARE ALSO JEALOUS OF THEIR FATHER FOR HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR MOTHERS. FINDING THAT INDIVIDUALLY THEY CANNOT DEFEAT THE FATHER-LEADER, THEY BAND TOGETHER, KILL AND EAT HIM IN A RITUAL MEAL, THEREBY INGESTING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE FATHER’S HATED POWER BUT THEIR SUBSEQUENT GUILT LEADS THE SONS TO ELEVATE THEIR FATHER'S MEMORY AND TO WORSHIP HIM. THE SUPER-EGO THEN TAKES THE PLACE OF THE FATHER AS THE SOURCE OF INTERNALISED AUTHORITY. A BAN WAS THEN PUT UPON INCEST AND UPON MARRIAGE WITHIN THE CLAN AND SYMBOLIC ANIMAL SACRIFICE WAS SUBSTITUTED FOR THE RITUAL KILLING OF A HUMAN BEING.

IN MOSES AND MONOTHEISM (1939) FREUD RECONSTRUCTED BIBLICAL HISTORY IN ACCORD WITH HIS GENERAL THEORY, BUT BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND HISTORIANS WOULD NOT ACCEPT HIS ACCOUNT SINCE IT DEFIED THE VIEWPOINT OF THE ACCEPTED CRITERIA OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. HOWEVER, HIS POINT WAS PROBABLY MORE IN PROPOSING A JUST-SO STORY AND AN INTERPRETATION OF LEADERSHIP BASED ON MASS PSYCHOLOGY, USING THE PROPHETIC FIGURE OF MOSES. HIS IDEAS ABOUT RELIGION WERE ALSO DEVELOPED IN THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION (1927). WHEN FREUD SPOKE OF RELIGION AS AN ILLUSION, HE MAINTAINED THAT IT IS FANTASTIC STRUCTURE FROM WHICH A MAN MUST BE SET FREE IF HE IS TO GROW TO MATURITY AND IN HIS TREATMENT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS HE MOVED TOWARD ATHEISM. IN THIS SENSE, FREUD APPROACHED THE MARXIST THEORY OF ALIENATION. FREUD ISOLATED TWO MAIN PRINCIPLES: THANATOS IS THE DRIVE TOWARDS THE DISILLUSION OF ALL LIFE, WHEREAS, EROS IS TO STRIVE TOWARDS STOPPING THAT DRIVE. WHEN ONE GOAL IS REACHED, THE OTHER BECOMES OUT OF REACH AND VICE VERSA.

IN GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND EGO ANALYSIS (MASSENPSYCHOLOGIE UND ICH-ANALYSIS, 1920), FREUD EXPLORED CROWD PSYCHOLOGY, CONTINUING GUSTAVE LE BON'S EARLY WORK. WHEN THE INDIVIDUAL JOINS A CROWD, HE CEASES REPRESSING HIS INSTINCTS AND THUS RELAPSES INTO PRIMITIVE CULTURE, ACCORDING TO FREUD'S ANALYSIS. HOWEVER, CROWDS MUST BE DISTINGUISHED INTO NATURAL AND ORGANISED CROWDS, FOLLOWING WILLIAM MCDOUGALL' DISTINCTION. THUS, IF INTELLECTUAL SKILLS (THE CAPACITY TO DOUBT AND TO DISTANCE ONESELF) ARE SYSTEMATICALLY REDUCED WHEN THE INDIVIDUAL JOINS A MASS, HE MAY EVENTUALLY BE "MORALLY ENLIGHTENED". PREFIGURING MOSES AND MONOTHEISM AND THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION, HE STATES THAT THE LOVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LEADER AND THE MASSES, IN THE CHURCH OR IN THE ARMY, ARE ONLY AN "IDEALIST TRANSFORMATION OF THE CONDITIONS EXISTING IN THE PRIMITIVE HORDE". FREUD THEN COMPARES LEADER'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CROWD TO A RELATION OF HYPNOSIS, A FORCE TO WHICH HE RELATES MANA. PESSIMISTIC ABOUT HUMANITY'S CHANCES OF LIBERTY, FREUD WRITES THAT "THE LEADER OF THE CROWD ALWAYS INCARNATE THE DREADED PRIMITIVE FATHER, THE CROWD ALWAYS WANT TO BE DOMINATED BY AN ILLIMITED POWER, IT IS GRASPING AT THE HIGHEST DEGREE FOR AUTHORITY OR, TO USE LE BON'S EXPRESSION, IT IS HUNGRY FOR SUBSERVIENCE".

ACCORDING TO FREUD, SELF-IDENTIFICATION TO A COMMON FIGURE, THE LEADER, EXPLAINED THE PHENOMENON OF MASSES' OBEDIENCE. EACH INDIVIDUAL CONNECTED THEMSELVES VERTICALLY TO THE SAME IDEAL FIGURE (OR IDEA), EACH ONE THUS HAVE THE SAME SELF-IDEAL AND HENCE IDENTIFY TOGETHER (HORIZONTAL RELATION). FREUD ALSO QUOTED WILFRED TROTTER'S THE INSTINCTS OF THE HERD IN PEACE AND WAR (1914). ALONG WITH MOSES AND MONOTHEISM, MASSENPSYCHOLOGIE. WOULD BE ONE OF THE ARTICLES MOST QUOTED BY WILHELM REICH AND THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL IN ITS FREUDO-MARXIST SYNTHESIS.

10. PSYCHOTHERAPY

FREUD'S THEORIES AND RESEARCH METHODS WERE CONTROVERSIAL DURING HIS LIFE AND REMAIN SO TODAY, BUT FEW DISPUTE HIS FAR-REACHING IMPACT ON PSYCHOLOGISTS AND ACADEMICS.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, FREUD POPULARISED THE "TALKING-CURE"--THE NOTION THAT A PERSON COULD BE TREATED SIMPLY BY TALKING OVER HIS OR HER PROBLEMS, WHICH WAS ALMOST UNHEARD OF IN THE 19TH CENTURY. EVEN THOUGH MANY PSYCHOTHERAPISTS TODAY PARTLY OR WHOLY REJECT THE SPECIFICS OF FREUD'S THEORIES, THIS BASIC MODEL OF TREATMENT STEMS LARGELY FROM HIS WORK.

IN ADDITION, FREUD'S DEVELOPMENT OF "UNCONSCIOUS" SOURCES OF BEHAVIOUR AND HIS EMPHASIS ON MOTIVATIONAL STRUCTURES OF THE HUMAN MIND HAVE HAD A LASTING IMPACT ON PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY AND RESEARCH. HOWEVER, MOST OF FREUD'S SPECIFIC THEORIES LIKE HIS STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT AND ESPECIALLY HIS METHODOLOGY, HAVE FALLEN OUT OF FAVOUR IN MODERN EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

SOME PSYCHOTHERAPISTS, HOWEVER, STILL FOLLOW AN APPROXIMATELY FREUDIAN SYSTEM OF TREATMENT. MANY MORE HAVE MODIFIED HIS APPROACH, OR JOINED ONE OF THE SCHOOLS THAT BRANCHED FROM HIS ORIGINAL THEORIES (SEE NEO-FREUDIAN). STILL OTHERS REJECT HIS THEORIES ENTIRELY, ALTHOUGH THEIR PRACTICE MAY STILL REFLECT HIS INFLUENCE.

PSYCHOANALYSIS TODAY MAINTAINS THE SAME AMBIVALENT RELATIONSHIP WITH MEDICINE AND ACADEMIA THAT FREUD EXPERIENCED DURING HIS LIFE.

11. PHILOSOPHY

WHILE FREUD SAW HIMSELF AS A SCIENTIST, HIS THEORIES HAVE HAD A TREMENDOUS IMPACT ON THE HUMANITIES, ESPECIALLY ON THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL AND CRITICAL THEORY. IN ADDITION, MANY PHILOSOPHERS HAVE DISCUSSED HIS THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS, IN THE BROADER CONTEXT OF WESTERN THOUGHT. FREUD'S MODEL OF THE MIND IS OFTEN SEEN AS A CRITICAL CHALLENGE TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT MODEL OF RATIONAL AGENCY, WHICH WAS A KEY ELEMENT OF MUCH MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

RATIONALITY. WHILE MANY ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS VIEWED RATIONALITY AS BOTH AN UNPROBLEMATIC IDEAL AND A DEFINING FEATURE OF MAN, FREUD'S MODEL OF THE MIND DRASTICALLY REDUCED THE SCOPE AND POWER OF REASON. IN FREUD'S VIEW, REASONING OCCURS IN THE CONSCIOUS MIND, THE EGO, BUT THIS IS ONLY A SMALL PART OF THE WHOLE. THE MIND ALSO CONTAINS THE HIDDEN, IRRATIONAL ELEMENTS OF ID AND SUPEREGO, WHICH LIE OUTSIDE OF CONSCIOUS CONTROL, DRIVE BEHAVIOUR AND MOTIVATE CONSCIOUS ACTIVITIES. AS A RESULT, THESE STRUCTURES CALL INTO QUESTION HUMANS' ABILITY TO ACT PURELY ON THE BASIS OF REASON, SINCE LURKING MOTIVES ARE ALSO ALWAYS AT PLAY. MOREOVER, THIS MODEL OF THE MIND MAKES RATIONALITY ITSELF SUSPECT, SINCE IT MAY BE MOTIVATED BY HIDDEN URGES OR SOCIETAL FORCES (E.G. DEFENSE MECHANISMS, WHERE REASONING BECOMES "RATIONALISING").

TRANSPARENCY OF SELF. ANOTHER COMMON ASSUMPTION IN PRE-FREUDIAN PHILOSOPHY WAS THAT PEOPLE HAVE IMMEDIATE AND UNPROBLEMATIC ACCESS TO THEMSELVES. EMBLEMATIC OF THIS POSITION IS RENÉ DESCARTES'S FAMOUS LINE, "I THINK THEREFORE I AM." HOWEVER, FOR FREUD, MANY CENTRAL ASPECTS OF A PERSON REMAIN RADICALLY INACCESSIBLE TO THE CONSCIOUS MIND (WITHOUT THE AID OF PSYCHOTHERAPY), WHICH UNDERMINES THE ONCE UNQUESTIONABLE STATUS OF FIRST-PERSON KNOWLEDGE. 

12. CRITICAL REACTIONS

ALTHOUGH FREUD'S THEORIES WERE QUITE INFLUENTIAL, HE NEVER FACED A SHORTAGE OF CRITICISM DURING HIS LIFETIME OR AFTERWARD, FROM THOSE WHO DESCRIBED HIS THEORIES AS INADEQUATE, LUDICROUS OR REPUGNANT.

SOME CRITICS, LIKE JULIET MITCHELL [CITATION NEEDED], HAVE SUGGESTED THAT FREUD'S BASIC CLAIM THAT MANY OF OUR CONSCIOUS THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS ARE DRIVEN BY UNCONSCIOUS DESIRES AND FEARS SHOULD BE REJECTED BECAUSE IT IMPLICITLY CHALLENGES THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING UNIVERSAL AND OBJECTIVE CLAIMS ABOUT THE WORLD. SOME PROPONENTS OF SCIENCE CONCLUDE THAT THIS INVALIDATES FREUDIAN THEORY AS A MEANS OF INTERPRETING AND EXPLAINING HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.

ANOTHER FREQUENTLY CRITICISED ASPECT OF FREUD'S THEORIES IS HIS MODEL OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. SOME HAVE ATTACKED FREUD'S CLAIM THAT INFANTS ARE SEXUAL BEINGS, AND, IMPLICITLY, FREUD'S EXPANDED NOTION OF SEXUALITY OTHERS HAVE ACCEPTED FREUD'S EXPANDED NOTION OF SEXUALITY, BUT HAVE ARGUED THAT THIS PATTERN OF DEVELOPMENT IS NOT UNIVERSAL, NOR NECESSARY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HEALTHY ADULT. INSTEAD, THEY HAVE EMPHASISED THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES OF PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT. MOREOVER, THEY CALL ATTENTION TO SOCIAL DYNAMICS FREUD DE-EMPHASISED OR IGNORED, SUCH AS CLASS RELATIONS. THIS BRANCH OF FREUDIAN CRITIQUE OWES A GREAT DEAL TO THE WORK OF HERBERT MARCUSE.

FREUD HAS ALSO COME UNDER FIRE FROM MANY FEMINIST CRITICS. FREUD WAS AN EARLY CHAMPION OF BOTH SEXUAL FREEDOM AND EDUCATION FOR WOMEN (FREUD, "CIVILISED SEXUAL MORALITY AND MODERN NERVOUSNESS"). SOME FEMINISTS, HOWEVER, HAVE ARGUED THAT AT WORST HIS VIEWS OF WOMEN'S SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT SET THE PROGRESS OF WOMEN IN WESTERN CULTURE BACK DECADES AND THAT AT BEST THEY LENT THEMSELVES TO THE IDEOLOGY OF FEMALE INFERIORITY. BELIEVING AS HE DID THAT WOMEN ARE A KIND OF MUTILATED MALE, WHO MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT THEIR "DEFORMITY" (THE "LACK" OF A PENIS) AND SUBMIT TO SOME IMAGINED BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE, HE CONTRIBUTED TO THE VOCABULARY OF MISOGYNY. TERMS SUCH AS "PENIS ENVY" AND "CASTRATING" (BOTH USED TO DESCRIBE WOMEN WHO ATTEMPTED TO EXCEL IN ANY FIELD OUTSIDE THE HOME) CONTRIBUTED TO DISCOURAGING WOMEN FROM OBTAINING EDUCATION OR ENTERING ANY FIELD DOMINATED BY MEN, UNTIL THE 1970S.

ON THE OTHER HAND, FEMINIST THEORISTS SUCH AS JULIET MITCHELL, NANCY CHODOROW, JESSICA BENJAMIN, JANE GALLOP, AND JANE FLAX HAVE ARGUED THAT PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY IS ESSENTIALLY RELATED TO THE FEMINIST PROJECT AND MUST, LIKE OTHER THEORETICAL TRADITIONS, BE ADAPTED BY WOMEN TO FREE IT FROM VESTIGES OF SEXISM. FREUD'S VIEWS ARE STILL BEING QUESTIONED BY PEOPLE CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S EQUALITY. ANOTHER FEMINIST WHO FINDS POTENTIAL USE OF FREUD'S THEORIES IN THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IS SHULAMITH FIRESTONE. IN "FREUDIANISM: THE MISGUIDED FEMINISM", SHE DISCUSSES HOW FREUDIANISM IS ESSENTIALLY COMPLETELY ACCURATE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE CRUCIAL DETAIL: EVERYWHERE THAT FREUD WRITES "PENIS", THE WORD SHOULD BE REPLACED WITH "POWER".

FINALLY, FREUD'S THEORIES ARE OFTEN CRITICISED FOR NOT BEING REAL SCIENCE. THIS OBJECTION WAS RAISED MOST FAMOUSLY BY KARL POPPER, WHO CLAIMED THAT ALL PROPER SCIENTIFIC THEORIES MUST BE POTENTIALLY FALSIFIABLE. IF A THEORY CANNOT POSSIBLY BE FALSIFIED, THEN IT CANNOT BE CONSIDERED SCIENTIFIC. POPPER ARGUED THAT FREUD'S THEORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY CAN NEVER BE PROPERLY "VERIFIED," BECAUSE NO TYPE OF BEHAVIOUR COULD EVER FALSIFY THEM (E.G. SOMEONE WHO DENIES HAVING ANY SORT OF OEDIPAL CONFLICT IS INTERPRETED AS REPRESSING IT). HOWEVER, POPPER'S OWN THEORY ABOUT FALSIFIABILITY AS THE CRITERION FOR SCIENCE HAS COME UNDER CRITICISM AND FREUD'S THEORIES STILL HAVE MANY ADHERENTS.

DR. J. VON SCHNEIDT WAS THE FIRST TO PROPOSE THAT MOST OF FREUD'S PSYCHONALYTICAL THEORY WAS A BYPRODUCT OF HIS COCAINE USE. COCAINE ENHANCES DOPAMINERGIC NEUROTRANSMISSION INCREASING SEXUAL INTEREST AND OBSESSIVE THINKING. CHRONIC COCAINE USE CAN PRODUCE UNUSUAL THINKING PATTERNS DUE TO THE DEPLETION OF DOPAMINE LEVELS IN THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX.