In my CR I mentioned Freud’s theory and how it changed my thinking about my senior project. Since including the theory in my CR would make it too long, decided to make another blog post explaining part of the theory for those who are interested.

Freud theorized that humans have three unconscious processes, which are constantly conflicting, going on in our brains and that our thoughts and actions are products of this internal conflict. He outlines these three processes as id, ego (or self), and superego.

Id: The animal part of oneself, wants to fulfill its desires of eating, drinking, peeing/pooping, warmth, sexual satisfaction. He names it the Pleasure Principle. Some or many of these desires would be considered wrong, inappropriate, unacceptable, even violent.

Superego: The superego is a product of our internalization of the rules of our parents and society at large. The superego tells us what’s right and wrong and attempts to suppress all of the id’s desires through shame. Its goal/job is to keep the more violent/disgusting thoughts/desires of the id from becoming conscious because they are too horrible for us to even think about. Because of the superego, we are not aware of these thoughts, although sometimes they can slip out into dreams and clinical symptoms. 

Ego (self): The ego is the origin of consciousness. It is the product of conflict between the id and the superego and it translates these unconscious processes that we are completely unaware of into actions. 

Freud argues that these unconscious processes cannot truly be discovered, but can be inferred through the actions they result in. The actions produced due to the superego’s repression of desires are what we call defense mechanisms. There are a couple of categories of defense mechanisms that the professor gave examples of:

1. Sublimation → Instead of directing sexual energy at a target (person, object, etc.), some focus it into other things, like art.
2. Displacement → Refocusing socially unacceptable desires to more appropriate ones. The example that the professor gave for this one was in the case of a boy who is abused by his father. The boy hates/wants to hurt his father but because he is not able to do that, he might instead hate/hurt the dog. This is an extreme example but the idea is that the kid truly feels that he hates the dog, he may be unaware of the true desires behind this action
3. Reaction formation → the conversion of a frightening desire into its safer opposite. A common example of this (and the example that the professor used) is when someone (often a man/boy) who is internally, unconsciously struggling with their own sexuality is homophobic or “vigorously [separates] themselves from homosexuality” because they fear the realization of their own sexuality.
4. Projection → when someone projects their own unconscious drives/wishes/experiences on to someone else. For example, a person with intense unconscious anger may project that anger onto a friend, believing that their friend is angry.
5. Rationalization → This one is kind of self explanatory but the example the professor used is a parent who “likes” spanking/slapping their child rationalizes it by saying it’s for the child’s own good. They truly believe they are doing the right thing and are unaware of the desires of the id that the action sprouts from.

Now this theory cannot really be proven (or disproven) because if we truly have these unconscious processes that cannot be made conscious, we cannot really prove them. We can observe behavior and presuppose their origins, but we cannot prove that there is an id, ego, and superego.

Freud’s theory attempts to provide an explanation of the internal mental processes that lead to different behaviors, rather than just the effects of outside factors. While the theory considers that external factors effect how the internal factors function, Freud attributes much of human behavior to individual’s unconscious processes.

I want to reiterate that this is all Freud’s theory, I am not claiming it to be my personal belief, however, I found this theory  fascinating because of its strong ties to explaining child development, the development of our actions, and the development of our personalities. When we are young, our parents– as well as teachers, other adult role models in our lives, and society–tell us, and demonstrate for us, what is right and what is wrong (acceptable and unacceptable). According to Freud, this is what develops our superego, meaning that what we learn from our parents, teachers, adult role models, and society about right and wrong as kids can determine our actions and defense mechanisms for the rest of our lives. Freud explains that our superego not only tells us what not to do but it tells us what not to think. It shames us for our unconscious thoughts. This shame leads to unproductive defense mechanisms that are harmful to ourselves.

Freud’s theory, however, does not consider many proven neurological facts about clinical disorders like depression and anxiety. Clinical depression, for example, happens at a neurological level. It occurs when someone has too little serotonin* (usually due to a smaller hipocampus)

Freud did not believe in medicine for treating things like depression because of his faith in his method of psychoanalysis. He believed that psychoanalysis could help patients find the cause of their depression or anxiety, which in cases where the depression/anxiety is not clinical/due to a chemical imbalance could be true, but this disregards the cases that are caused by a chemical imbalance.

*Neurons relate to/connect to each other chemically, these chemicals are called neurotransmitters. Serotonin is one of many neurotransmitters

Additionally,  “Freud viewed people as basically asocial, forced to live in societies more by necessity than by desire, and whose social interactions derived primarily from sex, aggression, and displaced forms of these drives”, whereas most psychodynamic theorists view humans as “inherently social beings whose motives for interacting with other extend well beyond sex and aggression” (Gray, Peter. “Psychology” 5th edition, pg. 559). To say the least, Freud’s theories were extremely controversial in the 1910s-1930s.