Monthly Archives: April 2015

I Am… Sasha Freud

When I originally though of the word ego before reading this section of Freud’s work, I imagined he would be explaining more along the lines of confidence or strictly the self-value of the human.  I also thought of a particular artist, Beyonce, and her song “Ego” from 2008 and how she takes about exuding said confidence.  I also thought about her persona in general and how when it comes to the ego, it’s one of those personal components of her being that seem to be very high.  With numerous accolades in the music industry, it would only make sense for Beyonce to have such a high level of self-esteem, and thus, have a big ego.

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Is Rage Really Self-Destructive?

“This is one of the dangers to health by which human beings are faced on their path to cultural development. Holding back aggressiveness is in general unhealthy and leads to illness (to mortification). A person in a fit of rage will often demonstrate how the transition from aggressiveness that has been prevented to self-destructiveness is brought about by diverting the aggressiveness against himself: he tears his hair or beats his face with his fists, though he would evidently have preferred to apply this treatment to someone else. Some portion of self-destructiveness remains within, whatever the circumstances; till at last it succeeds in killing the individual, not, perhaps, until his libido has been used up or fixated in a disadvantageous way.” (Ch. 2, Freud)

In “An Outline of Psycho-Analysis,” Freud talks about how we have two basic instincts: Eros and the destructive instinct (or the death instinct). In the quote that I have above, he talks about the effects of the destructive instinct if it is repressed in every day life. I agree somewhat but not wholly wholly on the conclusion that Freud said about what would happen to people if the destructive instinct was repressed. I do not believe that having rage inside can necessarily lead you to be destructive in such a way that you ” tear [your] hair or beat [your] face with [your] fist.” I believe that people deal with rage in many different ways, ways that can be either constructive or destructive to their psyche. For example, a man has rage toward his mother because while he was growing up, she did nothing to encourage him educationally and give him support in the things that he wanted to do (like sports or school plays). She was always absent and neglectful because she was an alcoholic. Now, the man can deal with his rage in two ways. He can repress it, and decide that he will make something of himself without the support of his mom, and use his rage to drive him to do his best and prove to his mom that he is somebody that should be recognized, or he could take his rage and decide to stop attending school because he figures, what’s the point if his own mother doesn’t even care about him? So he’ll be a high school or middle school drop out, and to cope with his rage he starts to become an alcoholic just like his mother, and his life goes in a downward spiral from then on.

Even though, in the first instance, the man is using his rage and is working hard in life for the wrong reason (in order to prove something to his mother rather than just for personal satisfaction or because he has a desire to make something of his life for himself), he is still using that rage in a constructive way. Of course, maybe later in life he will need some counseling to deal with that rage, but he still got far in life by using his rage in a constructive way. I just think that Freud needs to acknowledge that destructive instinct is not always something that, if repressed, can lead to self-destructedness. What do you guys think?

 

Freud’s Effect on Christian View of Homosexuality and Its Implications

Sigmund Freud is a controversial figure. Beside his theories of the unconscious and Oedipus’s complex, many people don’t know that he played a large role in how Christian perceived homosexuality in the 1980s and 1990s.

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What is a Complex?

Even though I have never taken a psychology class, I am interested in many of their concepts. The idea of a complex in general is defined as a pattern of emotions based around a specific human quality. There is the famous Napoleon complex which states that short people are more envious and harsher towards taller people. I am interested if complexes are naturally within us or if they can change, as a quality such as height can change over a lifetime.

I have not read Freud in depth, but this article presents a strong introduction to his research. It presents his views of the psyche (division of id, ego, and super-ego), and the creation and control of pleasure. One famous theory attributed to Freud is the Oedipus complex, named after the tragic hero of Greek mythology. In the classic play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus unknowingly kills his biological father and marries his biological mother. I’m not sure about Freud’s thought process, but he comes to the conclusion that all males want sex with their mother. He further expands on this by arguing that “the hero of the Oedipus legend too felt guilty for his deeds and submitted himself to self-punishment, although the coercive power of the oracle should have acquitted him of guilt in our judgment and his own” (205). This further makes me question Freud’s philosophy, as this suggests that Oedipus could not help the fact that he had sex with his mother. The morality of his statement hinders my comprehension of his psychology contributions. Any psychology experts want to help me understand Freud’s statements?

Hegel vs. Freud

Both Hegel and Freud venture to explain the consciousness and how we interpret our surroundings. In Freud’s piece, An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, he explains how we interact with internal and external events in terms of the id, ego, and super ego, while Hegel explains his ideas in Sense Certainty using the all-excompassing ‘I’.  Continue reading

Freudian Discourse on Nature v. Nurture

 

The classic argument on learning/experience: what has a bigger influence over an individual’s life, his genetics, or his up-bringing? In Sigmund Freud’s “Outline of Psychoanalysis”, he seems to favor the latter.

Within one’s brain, Freud feels that there is different “psychical agencies” that control ourselves. This includes the id, a primal desire that drives us to achieve basic urges; the super-ego, a sort of moral compass; and the ego, a development from the id that analyzes the simultaneous needs of the id, superego, and the stimuli of reality in order to synthesis choices.

In Chapter 1, Continue reading

Why Can’t the Apple Fall Far from the Tree?

For Freud, our parental figures are extremely important to the development and interactions of our consciousness. His model of consciousness is a little different from the others we have encountered so far in that it takes into deeper account the internalization of our external experiences and influences. Unlike the slave consciousness in the Hegelian Dialectic which eventually transcends external objects, Freud describes a process of token keeping in which external influences like our parents, culture, and “what is taken over from other people” are internalized and ever present in the “psychical province” which he calls our superego (An Outline of Psycho-Analysis 147). Continue reading

nature vs nurture

When reading through chapter 1, the argument of nature vs. nurture appeared. Freud defines the id as everything that is innate, the nurture part. What is interesting is the addition of the ego in this argument. Freud believes that the ego is everything done to satisfy the id, or everything done to satiate innate needs. Freud’s definition of the super-ego is the most interesting. He states “The long period of childhood, during which the growing human being lives in dependence on his parents, leaves behind it as a precipitate the formation in his ego of a special agency in which this parental influence is prolonged. It has received the name of super-ego. In so far as this super-ego is differentiated from the ego or is opposed to it, it constitutes a third power which the ego must take into account.” The way I interpret this statement is that the personality of the child transitions from actions due to nature, to actions due to nurture, which I have never really thought about. Continue reading

Animal Psychology: Complexity of Thought and Emotion

In the end of Chapter I Freud references “Animal psychology” (2), stating that his “general schematic picture of a psychical apparatus may be supposed to apply as well to the higher animals which resemble man generally” (2). I found this point to be fascinating. Do animals experience emotion the way in which people do? Can they distinguish between need and desire? Is their psyche compartmentalized into the same ultimate categorization of id, ego, and superego?

In my opinion, I think that this could be a possibility based off of my own personal experience with dogs and cats in addition to stories I have heard. I believe that animals experience emotion and make decisions based off of such feelings. Just a couple hours ago, a friend was telling me how her dad when he was a kid fell into a deep pit, and would most likely have died if not for his pet dog who ran barking to the nearest adult and led her to the place where his owner had fallen in. How could this event have taken place without the dog recognizing that his owner was in danger, and that in order to save him he had to involve someone who was capable of rescuing the little boy, indicating the capacity of emotion and decision-making based off of it? There are so many stories similar to this one that I consider it true evidence of animals’ capacity for complex emotion and emotional thought.

From my own personal experience, my dog has always gotten extremely excited when my family is enthusiastic about something. He will jump up and down, wagging his tail, any time we talk in loud voices excitedly or start laughing about something. Furthermore, when I am sad or another family member looks a little down he will sit down by our sides, and put his head in our laps, looking concerned.

Some may be skeptical of my theory, but just based off of what I know and have heard, I think that animals do have a certain emotional capacity, and display certain characteristics, behaviors, and actions that imply complex thought. Some species display affection for their offspring in such a way that could only be described as love. They show concern when things are going poorly, and they consistently mourn the loss of their loved ones, some even becoming unable to move past such deaths, slowly wasting away until they pass themselves. Also, just think about animals that became friends with others outside of their species, or who adopt offspring of other animals. These are actions that go beyond instinct, displaying complex emotion.

In conclusion, although I am unsure of how we would measure whether or not animals’ psyche is compartmentalized into id, ego, and superego, or their ability to distinguish between need and desire, I am convinced that animals experience emotion and make decisions based off of these feelings.

Any thoughts?

Independent Study and Technical Schools

Hey guys! So we’ve read a lot on education and about how philosophers like Friere, Foucault, and Gatto strongly dislike the educational system that we have today.However, none of these philosophers, except for Friere (kind of), gave any solution to the problems in education. I think that I might have a partial solution to the problems in education; actually, I didn’t really think of this, but the high school I went to did. I’m thinking that every high school can implement these solutions. The first is allowing a student to do independent study-which I will explain a bit more later- and allowing them to attend a technical school while they are in high school.

So independent study was a really cool program at my school for juniors and seniors. If students were on track with their credits, they could decide to study and research and do projects on things that they found interesting and wanted to learn about. For example, if the only thing that really interested you in high school was molecular biology or learning about the civil war, my high school would partner you with a person who was a professional on that information, and you would work with that person and do research projects for the remaining two years of high school (as well as doing your normal school work).This program is a solution, I feel, because it allows students to be trained in something that actually pertains to the goals that they want to achieve in their life and that can actually be useful to them in the real world. This is one of the big issues that the philosophers had with our educational system, and I think that this program provides a partial solution because students at least have some kind of authority over what they are going to be taught and do in life.

The other program that my high school did was allow juniors and seniors go to a technical school for half of a school day, and then spend the rest of the school day taking their regular classes. So, if the student wanted to become a nurse, or a mechanic, or a cosmetologist, or a photographer, they could get more than basic knowledge and experience in the field of their choice before going into the real world. Also, the technical school is great because it gives students the chance to decide if the program that they’re in is really something that they would like to do for the rest of their lives as a career.

Both of these programs, I believe, give students some power when it comes to their education and what, specifically, they are being taught while in a public/private school system. I believe that if we implement these programs in every school, then education would be a better system overall, and people would be more excited to go to school and obtain a degree. What do you guys think?