2.6 Highlights of psychoanalysis (freud and others)

• Freud had the idea of a prevailing role played by infantile sexuality in the development of human goals.
• Schools of psychoanalytic thought believe that the unconscious is never thought of as an isolated entity that can be studied independently of the total personality.
• The goal-directed quality of the unconscious was a Freudian concept.
• Freud believed that the ego (mainly rational) and the superego (mainly moral) were crystallized out of the id (primitive instinctual). Once crystallized out the provinces of the mind tend to function independently (to a large extent) and act in opposition to the id.
• Freud offered two categories of instincts, ego and sexual. The sexual instincts operate under the pleasure principle , or the pleasure-pain principle. Sexual instincts strive for pleasure or avoidance of pain always and in a very primitive manner. These sexual instincts created often immature sexual wishes (instinctual aims) that were largely unconscious (part of the id , biological impulse) and portrayed an underlying motivation or self interest. People often do not act on these underlying needs, Frued believed they were suppressed by an inner force called the censor , which represented the ego instincts which operated under the reality principle . Ego instincts included cognitive functions, personal ideals, self-protection, and social and moral restrictions. The superego was the conscience.
• Freud distinguished between a primary process, where instinctual drives manifest themselves psychologically, and a secondary process, where drives are ordered and controlled by rational thought and voluntary action. The id can be seen in the primary process, full of instinctual needs with desire for immediate gratification. It makes sense that it is called “primary” because basic desires come before rational thought and control, which could be considered secondary. The ego is a secondary process, which was the result of human development and was not inborn like the id. The ego maintains the whole person, it moderates demands from the id for instant pleasure gratification, and the desire for the superego to control to suppress the impulses of the id. The ego is mature and rational, the id is immature and impulsive. The ego also controls the relations among instinctual drives and between instinctual drives and the outside world.
• Freud’s id, ego and superego were not considered the same as instincts, but were instead thought of as “institutions”, aspects of the mind that develop through experience and function relatively independently, but constantly interact. A personality is considered by Freudians not only as instincts (the dynamic approach) but as forms of “institutions” and their relationships. They are called institutions because they function as separate aspects in the mind.
• The ego needs to take into consideration and balance and reach compromises between the needs of the id, the superego, and external reality.

Importance: What is the significance in saying that people have large unconscious sexual needs? The sexual drive is more aggressive, compulsive and powerful than ordinary motivation. Therefore saying that someone is sexually motivated means that there is a strong drive behind that person. The sexual drive could therefore motivate someone to simply be more aggressive in general, not just in terms of their sexual interest. The sexual theories of Freud indicate how selfish and aggressive people can be. The pleasure/pain principle can explain how every action (from the ego and the id) is a striving for pleasure and an avoidance of pain, and that people reach compromises to achieve a balance (for instance, avoiding social scorn (pain) while achieving getting pleasure). However, from the Freudian standpoint, the pleasure principle was only a part of the sexual instincts, and the reality principle was a part of the ego instincts. So with everything people do, not just sexual things, they want pleasure.