The Foundation of Psychoanalysis

To understand Freudian theories, one must look at the background information that led to the theses Freud put out. Sigmund Freud born May 6th, 1856, had a rough childhood. His emotionally distant and authoritarian father figure in contrast to his loving mother created a false sense of reality that resulted in Freud developing a theory that helped shape Psychoanalytic Criticism. Though many of the new-age feminist critics and those alike find his ideas to be outdated, the neurologist’s theories were the ground-breaking influence that created the foundation for psychoanalysis to thrive. 

While working as a neurologist, he received many cases he diagnosed as hysteria. He thought that the root of their problems was psychological and not psychical therefore he constructed a theory that suggested suppressed desires would be restored in our brains unconsciously without confrontation thus leading to the many cases that he deemed as hysteric. After suffering from a similar incident, Freud combined his own experience and past studies to further go into the idea of one’s psyche; arguing that not only one’s own experience but also their fantasies played a big part in someone’s neurosis. 

Freud devoted his life to developing this theory and throughout his lifetime he categorized the human psyche into different models.  

The very first of its kind was the dynamic model that divided the human mind into two. The conscious side remained rational and the unconscious side was home to the irrational thinking. With this dichotomy, Freud suggested that the conscious would render and store rational external factors while unaware of the presence of the unconscious. While the conscious seems to be in charge most of the time, Freud was one of the first to argue that most of our actions were derivative from the unconscious where fears, desires, and overall irrational thoughts are restored. As it was common knowledge to many, the unconscious was perceived as just a place to store memories before Freud completely rebuilt this idea by saying that it not only stores memories but also basic instincts like libido and aggression. While these two instincts can co-exist, they can often do the opposite and influence all our actions. Seeing that Freud was the first to propose our hidden desires and truths are stored in our unconscious, whenever one has a slip of the tongue and reveals a hidden truth that was stashed in the unconscious it is called a Freudian slip. With this incident, our unconscious is brought to the conscious just like it can be found in art and literature.  

The economic model dwells on the ideas found in the dynamic model while simultaneously adding up to it to develop an even more expanded version of the previous. Here Freud introduces the pleasure and reality principle. The pleasure principle stems from the pleasures that take satisfaction from instinctual drives without abiding by the moral and sexual boundaries issued by society. Freud defines this instinctual drive as cathexes with its main aim to maximize pleasure. The pleasure principle is not often offered a free reign as the reality principle governs the psyche by seeking approval of the external sources such as society. This act is also referred to as anti-cathexes by Freud. Furthermore, the battle between the two is a never-ending part of our psyche.

Following his previous theories even further, Freud came up with the typographical model which split the human psyche into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The conscious acts as a shield by interacting with the external portion of reality. The preconscious is the place that operates as a warehouse to store memories passed on without a disguise by the conscious part of the mind. As mentioned in his other models the unconscious serves a similar purpose by holding the repressed emotions. Because these subdued thoughts are not in touch with the preconscious, they cannot see the light of the day by going out to the conscious side. Seeing that it is impossible to travel as is, these notions must be passed on in concealment to reveal themselves in our dreams.  

Perhaps the most well-known model of Freud’s, the structural model, is the further developed version of his typographical model. This model yet again divides the psyche into three sections: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, resembling the unconscious, is the unknown portion of our psyche. Imagined as a combination of the unconscious and the pleasure principle, the id serves as a pawn to our darkest desires waiting to be fulfilled. What’s more the core of our psychosexual impulses, the libido, is housed in the id. Although the events caused by the ego rarely leave the unconscious, the main drive is logical compared to the impulsive urges of the id. The ego renders the destructive parts of the id harmless by acting as the reality principle to the id’s pleasure principle. In contrast, the superego performs as a stricter version of the ego. While the ego balances the id’s desire, the superego tries to suppress everything the id stands for by acting as a filtering agent as the id displays a behavior wildly frowned upon by others.  

Additionally, Freud uses stages of human development to fundamentally understand the psyche. Early childhood is home to three stages known as oral, anal, and phallic. These three stages create the environment for sexuality to flourish during the early years of life. With this information, Freud concludes that the childhood years are ruled by the pleasure principle therefore each child must pass through the castration complex meaning that through means of observation a child must deduct his internal desires in hopes that once they enter their adult years, they will unleash the surpassed just like their father did once. Freud deems this progress necessary for once the reality principle takes its rightful place, the moral sensibility will slowly start slipping through the cracks.  

Even if one were to complete this progress successfully, Freud believed that every adult had painful memories of different origins in their unconscious. While different concepts, the conscious and the unconscious are of the same psyche with one affecting the other. In his 1900 work The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud further goes into detail on this subject saying that the unconscious will express the suppressed wishes by redirecting the manners conscious could not handle without guilt, into our dreams and writing. With this process, the psyche makes room for the id to show through. The display might be shown in different ways. For example, it might come in the form of displacement by closely associating a person with an object in a dream or through condensation where the anger shows through a variety of objects and people in a sentence. While not done directly, symbols and metaphors will help the unconscious assert influence over behavior. If repressed feelings fail to be released into the world through dreams, the ego must intervene and block outward response causing a battle between the id and the ego Freud calls neurosis. Neurosis can show itself in a variety of forms such as phobias and according to Freud they must be observed by psychotherapists to identify the reasoning behind a patient’s neurosis. 

Freud claims that the pending quarrels that lead to neurosis are the material of literature. He argues that literature is the reflection of one’s unconscious therefore it ought to be treated like a dream by being monitored by psychotherapists to unveil an author’s hidden desires.