Sigmund Freud

Last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my girlfriend and instead of asking her to pass the butter, I said "You've ruined my life you evil whore!"


Only joking. I don't have a girlfriend.


ANYHOW, Sigmund Freud was a late 19th -20th century neurologist/psychologist/scientist/philosopher, who invented psychoanalysis. He is the most famous name in modern psychological thinking and has had a huge influence in the worlds of philosophy and science.

Freud removed the enlightenment idea of humans being naturally good or naturally bad, he believed that peoples personalities were influenced by 3 important parts; the id, the ego and the super ego. His idea of a human at birth was not completely dissimilar to that of Hobbes, he believed humans were naturally nasty, and fuelled by sex and violence, only seeking their own pleasure. This is the id side of a human personality.

Freud claimed that the id is the most dominant of the three characteristics, this is the natural, subconscious human instinct part of the mind, aiming towards instant self-gratification, an untrained bundle of animalistic instincts. The id doesn't care for morality, or good and evil, it can be seen clearly in a new born baby, crying simply for its own needs and desires.

The id is in constant battle with the ego, which is the second part of the human personality, and unfortunately, the weakest. It is our reason, our principle of reality, it tries to keep control of the id and super ego, but seems to have little luck.

The super-ego is the third part of the human personality and is the only part which is not present at birth, it is something that we develop as we grow through parenting restraints, social norms and religion taught morals. It is our conscience, or the angel on our shoulder battling against the id. The only problem with the angel, is that it has ridiculously high expectations. It wants perfection, and is responsible for the guilt felt when perfection is not achieved.

To make this easier to visualise, let's get Plato involved!

Plato's analogy of a chariot imagines reason (the ego) as a chariot driver, there are two horses pulling the chariot, one is tame and noble (can horses be noble?) And the other is a bit mental. These represent the super-ego and the id. The chariot is hard to steer as both horses want to go in different direction, but in Plato's analogy, the driver would keep control of the two horses. If Freud was to rewrite the analogy, the driver would be dragged along against his will, trying his best to keep a slight bit of control.

Freud had an obsession for sex that some might describe as unhealthy, when conducting his psychoanalysis he came to the conclusion that what was causing many people's neurosis was repressed sexual desire coming to light due to a setback in one of the three key stages in a child's sexual development.

Oral stage 0-1 year: Everything is orally focused, pleasure comes from the mouth, this stems from breast feeding and is why children are constantly trying to put things in their mouths at a young age.

Anal stage 1-3 years - Pleasure comes from the anus, going to the toilet is a thrill! Toilet training can make this a difficult time for a child, and if there is any struggle with toilet training, the child can become anally retentive, meaning that they may suffer from OCDs at an older age.

Phallic stage 3-6 years - This is where Freud becomes a bit strange. Boys begin to focus on their genitals, and decide that they want to have sex with their mum and kill their dad through jealousy. Fortunately at this stage, the wimpy little ego does it's bit and reasons with your sexually aggressive (and confused) id, that your father is stronger than you, he may castrate you and this whole thing might be a bit weird anyway.

Throughout the next few years, a child begins to develop what he has learnt throughout this time, before he eventually hits the latency stage when his own sexuality becomes important, followed by puberty (or the genitals stage) where adult relationships can be focused on.

So, that's what Freud did, in a nutshell. Although he would refer to himself as a scientist, other scientists would reject this. There is little empirical evidence for anything that he says, it is often vague and cannot realistically (or humanely) be tested, but his work for psychology and philosophy of mind cannot be disregarded. He is often scrutinised and criticised and praised, but it seems unlikely that he will ever stop being discussed.