Some Basic Concepts of Freudian Theory

Sigmund Freud was a pioneer, and the father of psycho-dynamic theory. Many psychologists today disagree with  many of his hypothesis; however, many of his terms are still commonly used and personally, I believe many of them still have great value and in many cases can quickly give us a better understanding of WHY--THE CAUSE behind some of the things we do.

• The Id      At birth, according to Freud's hypothesis, the energy of the mind is bound entirely in primitive biological drives, which Freud gave the collective term id. The id is the foundation of the psychic structure and the source from which the late developments of ego and super-ego must borrow their energy. The drives that make up the id are of two basic types, aggressive and sexual, the latter above all. Freud saw the sexual drive as permeating the entire personality and subsuming, in addition to actual erotic behaviour, a wide range of other life-sustaining pursuits, such as the need for food and warmth, the love of friends and family, and the impulse toward creativity. These and other positive desires , in Freud's view were extensions of a basic sexual drive which he named the libido. The id has two important characteristics. First, it operates entirely on the pleasure principle. That is , it it seeks only its own pleasure or release from tension and taking no account of logic or reason, reality, or morality. The hungry infant, for example, simply wants food and cries for it. According to Freud, that same hungry infant still exists in all of us, no matter how old we are.Does this sound familiar? All corporate/media advertising (CMA) commercials are directed to the id.Thought patterns directed by the id take on a primitive form called primary process thinking. in this style of thinking as in the operations of the pleasure principle, reality and logic play no role. Different time periods are collapsed into one; an image may represent both itself and its opposite; above all, the image may be mistaken for the real thing Infants think this way. So do adults, and especially adolescents when they dream, when they are engaged in artistic creation, and when they succumb to severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia (in which hallucinations and delusions are mistaken for reality).
• The Ego     While the id can imagine what it wants or thinks it wants, it has no way of determining which means of dealing with the world are safe and which are not. To fulfill these functions, the mind develops a new psychic component, the ego, which may be said to appear after the child is about six months old, although ego functions begin developing shortly after birth and emerge slowly over a period of years. The ego, acting on energy from the id, comes to serve as the mediator between the id and the real world. While the id operates on the pleasure principle, the ego operates on the reality principle, of which the most important feature is the concern for safety. When the id signals its desire, anticipates the consequences of using that gratifier, and then either reaches out for it or, if the consequences Could be dangerous, delays the id's satisfaction until a more appropriate means of gratification can be found. This mediating process obviously requires more sober calculations than those of which the id is capable. While the id uses primary process thinking, the ego uses secondary process thinking, a more advanced style of thinking that takes into account reason, logic, and the distinctions among different times, objects,  people, and situations. It is from the ego's weighing of these considerations in order to serve the id that mind develops and refines all of its higher functions: language, perception, learning, discrimination, memory, judgement and planning. All these are ego functions.The ego cannot function, nor can a person act, on a negative expectation (there MUST be an expectation of some form of safe positive gratification.The term ego is also used to describe a person's sense of self esteem and this can, to some, seem rather confusing, at first. But consider; what is it that the ego is keeping safe? It is keeping the animal, the creature-- the self safe from harm and in touch with reality.
• The Superego     The superego is that part of the mind that represents the moral standards of the society as interpreted by the parents'--or in our modern society the day care centre's--standards, and these standards come together to form the third psychic component which like the ego gets its energy from the id. This new superego, which is approximately equivalent to what we now call "conscience" takes no more account of reality than the id does. Instead of considering what is realistic or possible, it embraces an abstract ego ideal ( a composite picture of values and moral ideals) and conscience, which constantly demands that the sexual and aggressive impulses of the id be stifled and that moral goals be substituted instead (alcohol and other drug of course suppress the super ego or conscience).  It is up to the ego to find a way to satisfy the id without giving pain/hurt (experienced as "remorse" or "guilt" to the conscience

Defence Mechanisms     When the ego distorts or simply refuses to acknowledge a reality (whether external or internal) that would arouse unbearable anxiety, this tactic is called a defence mechanism. Even though many psychologists and therapists are now constantly admonishing their clients"don't get defensive"we all use them, all the time. If we did not, we would be psychologically disabled, for the facts they conceal--of the indiscriminate hungers  of the id, of the sternest condemnations of the superego, of the deepest traumas and darkest "sins" of childhood--would produce intolerable anxiety if they were constantly surfacing into the conscious mind. The defence mechanisms, then serve an invaluable adaptive function. They allow us to avoid facing what we cannot or are not ready to face and thus go on with the business of LIFE. For this convenience, however, we pay a price. The more we turn away from anxiety-provoking realities, denying or distorting the truth, the less we are in touch with reality in general and the less we are able to deal with it constructively. When defence mechanisms require that we never leave the house, or a remote, small town, that we hide ourselves in a crowd--or to use a more ordinary example that we play "helpless" when relationships become difficult, then we are sacrificing our adaptive capacities. Furthermore, it it must be kept in mind that it is the ego that engineers these defences. If most of the ego's energy is tied up in the job of maintaining defences, then the ego will have little strength left for its other functions, such as perception, reasoning, and problem solving, all of which are essential to adaptive functioning. Defence mechanisms, then , are adaptive up to a point. Beyond that point, they can become self-defeating, as with one particular country that has devoted so many of its resources to defence that it can no longer afford essential services.

• Repression     In repression, as we have already seen, unacceptable id impulses are pushed down into the unconscious and thereby forgotten. Thus, for example, a girl who is sexually attracted to her father, or a sibling, will simply remove this intolerable thought from her conscious. I may  come up again in her dreams, but upon awakening, these too will be repressed. Freud viewed a persons actions as masked representations of the contents of his or her unconscious. And his technique express dredged up this repressed material, in the belief that once the person faced these banished memories and desires, they would cease to cause anxiety and thus would lose their power to force the person into maladaptive behaviours in the effort to relieve that anxiety. Repression is fundamental also in that it is the basis of all the other defence mechanisms. In every one of the other defences the "forbidden" impulse is first repressed; then,instead of on that impulse, the individual engages in some substitute behaviour that serves either as an outlet for the impulse or as an additional protection against it, or both.
• Projection     Projection is a mechanism whereby internal threats are transformed into external threats. For example, a woman who is threatened by her own homosexual inclinations may repress these impulses and then project them onto others. She will will then proceed to complain that other women are constantly making sexual overtures to her, will accuse other women of being homosexually inclined, and so on. This stratagem relieves the woman's anxiety about her own attraction to women and simultaneously enables her to throw the "guilt" onto others.
• Displacement     Displacement, like projection, involves a transfer of emotion. In this case, however, it is not the source of the emotion that is switched but the object of the emotion. Afraid to display or even to experience certain feelings against whoever has aroused them, the person represses the feelings. Then, when the opportunity arises, he or she transfers them to a safer object and releases them in full force on this new object.
• Rationalization     In most cases, defences occur not in isolation but in combination. In rationalization a person plausible and socially acceptable reasons for something that he or she has actually done (or is going to do) for unconscious and unacceptable reasons. Rationalization is one of the most commonly used defences. While much of our behaviour may be motivated by irrational and infantile needs, we will feel required to explain it to ourselves and others in rational, grown-up terms. When we do so, we are rationalizing.
• Isolation     Related to rationalization, isolation is the avoidance of unacceptable feelings by dutting them off from the events in they are attached, repressing them, and then reacting to the events in an emotionless manner. Isolation, which might be called th Mr. Spock syndrome is a common refuge of patients of psychotherapy. Eager to tell the therapist what the problem is, but unwilling to confront the feelings surrounding the problem, patients will relate the facts in a calm, almost scientific fashion ( yes, my mothers death caused me considerable distress"), whereas it is actually the feelings, more than the facts, that need to be explored. Isolation is sometimes called Intellecualization and is something that I am guilty of. Since it is often accompanied by abstract intellectual analysis, the better to mask the emotions involved ("Yes, my mother's death caused me considerable distress. Young children find it difficult to endure separation, let alone final separation, from their mothers, etc." ).
• Denial     Denial is the refusal to acknowledge the existence of a potential external source of anxiety. In some cases, the person will actually fail to perceive something that is obvious. For example, a person who is diagnosed as terminally ill may go on planning lengthy vacation trips to be made when he or she is well again. In more subtle cases, what the person fails to see is not the facts but their meaning. Thus parents of a retarded child may go on for a long period telling themselves and others that the child doesn't talk because he is shy or his older siblings don't give him a chance.
• Reaction Formation     In reaction formation a person represses whatever feelings are arousing anxiety and then vehemently professes the exact opposite of these feelings. Thus someone who professes to be disgusted by the sexual promiscuity of the young may be engaging in a reaction formation to his or her own sexual impulses or the impulses they had as a young person.