Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis and the Self Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis and the Self

Sigmund Freud • Human consciousness suppresses wishes, where they become part of the subconscious system of ideas • Subconscious conflicts express themselves in dreams, parapraxes, and symptoms

Depth • Fantasies, dreams, and parapraxes are revelatory because they give us information about human nature • Waking life is just the tip of the iceberg

The Id • The id is the part of human which concerns itself with wishes and desires • The id represents animal appetites

The Superego • The superego is the sense of self control which operates according to shame and suppression of desires

The Ego • In the healthy person, the ego is able to harmonize wishes and suppression of wishes • The ego strikes a balance of desire and shame

Sublimation • If the ego is constantly called upon to mediate between desire and shame, it becomes overwhelmed • Desires are sublimated in the subconscious

Pathogenesis • The subconscious is pathogenic • We have no access to our own subconscious in a waking state

Neuroses • If fantasies become overwhelming, the superego controls them too thoroughly, and they become pathological • Nocturnal dreams are uncontrollable fantasies

Day-dreaming • Only unsatisfied people have fantasies • Fantasies are usually erotic and self exalting • They combine elements of past, present, and future

Childhood and fantasies • Based upon some actual experience, stirring up memories of earlier experience • This experience arouses a wish • Imaginative creation is a continuation of the play of childhood

Fantasies and shame • Most people keep fantasies to themselves because they are a source of shame • Hearing other people’s fantasies is a source of disgust