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Freud's theory and implications
Freud's influence on psychology
Critical evaluation of freuds theories
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Sigmund Freud was greatly idealized from his theory of the unconscious mind, this idea was firstly recorded around 600B.C in the Hindu texts of ‘Vedas’, however it was Freud’s ideas that keeps the idea of the unconscious ever popular in contemporary society. Freud believed our behaviour and persona to be “the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness: the pre-conscious, the conscious and the unconscious”. Freud’s theory regarding the mind and the unconscious comes from the idea “I am there, where I do not think myself to be” causing great implications for all forms of literary, film and theatre criticisms. However, the most popular amongst these criticisms in regards …show more content…
Freud’s theory as previously stated is made up of three parts; the pre-conscious, the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious mind includes all things that we are aware of and it is this that allows us to think and talk rationally, within the conscious is memory, however, as memory is not always in a state of consciousness, but rather has the ability to be brought into our consciousness, Freud referred to this as the pre-conscious. Our feelings, motives and decisions are strongly influenced by our past experiences and memories of this, stored in the pre-conscious and instincts from the unconscious. The preconscious mind is the part of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when needed. Finally, the unconscious mind, it is here where our biological instincts for our primitive urges of sexual desire and aggression are kept according to Freud. Dissimilar to the conscious mind where we are fully aware of everything, the unconscious mind remains a mystery which Freud
The first basis of Freud 's belief system was found in the existence of the personal unconscious. The mind is a substance that incorporates much more than the simple conscious component. The unconscious component is the much larger than the
The unconscious mind can be explained in various ways and can take on various attributes. Carl Jung the author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several Physicists believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking. Scientist believes that understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Experiments such as, reaction to stimuli, have lead cognitive psychiatrist to determine the strength of the unaware and involuntary mind. In addition, many social physicists have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can sometimes be focused on several signs that our conscious self can’t see.
(Act 1, Scene 2 – Act 1, Scene 5) William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, with a reputation as the greatest of all writers in the English language, as well as one of the world's pre-eminent dramatists. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most analysed plays. The play is about Hamlet, Prince of Denmark who hopes to avenge the murder of his father.
One of William Shakespeare’s greatest works is a play entitled Hamlet. This play is about Prince Hamlet whose father, the king, was killed by his Uncle, Claudius, who then took the throne. Shortly after the death of his father, Gertrude, his mother, married Claudius. His father comes back as a ghost and tells him about the murder and asks him to seek revenge on Claudius. This is when a great controversy arises that is debatable to this day. Hamlet begins to act mad to set up his revenge on Claudius. The question is, does Hamlet still truly possess his sanity, or is he really mad?
Kallie Wagner Professor Arevalo World Literature 1 28 April 2014 Hamlet’s Gone Mad Hamlet is without a doubt one of the most complex pieces to interpret for many different scholars and people. The question of the truth behind his madness has become a debate among anyone who lays eyes on the play. In fact, madness plays a large role within the play that will cause many situations as well as effect them. I believe Hamlet unintentionally went mad attempting to act like a mad man.
The psychodynamic approach lends itself to being a controversial yet highly influential theory in the history of psychology. The theory has become one of the most significant psychological approaches and its originator, Sigmund Freud, has become a major influence in modern psychology. The psychodynamic approach largely focuses on motivation and past experiences which develop and individual’s personality. Freud used the iceberg metaphor to outline the three states of consciousness and argued that only twenty percent of the mind represents the conscious. In addition he theorised that there was a pre-conscious mind which represents general memory. Finally, the unconscious mind which is essentially the reservoir of repressed or hidden experiences and desire.
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
The way we see ourselves is often reflected in the way we act. Hamlet views himself as different to those young nobles around him such as Fortinbras and Laertes. This reality leads us to believe that over time he has become even more motivated to revenge his father's death, and find out who his true friends are. How can you be honest in a world full of deceit and hate? His seven soliloquies tell us that while the days go by he grows more cunning as he falls deeper into his madness. This fact might have lead Hamlet to believe that suicide is what he really wants for his life's course.
The driving force behind this theory is that all experiences are internalized and influence the ongoing actions of every individual. The relationship between unconscious and conscious drives is vital to understand, because this is what motivates behavior according to Freud. This theory is a social construction, just as all theories are, of Freud’s own experiences. It is important to understand this, and to take the good with the
The psychodynamic theory focuses on the unconscious mind. Freud’s credence is that different mental forces operate in the mind. The unconscious mind can be described as being like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg represents the part of the mind that is conscious, everyday thoughts. The iceberg just below the water’s surface represents the pre conscious, thoughts and information that can be retrieved easily. And finally the base of the iceberg is the unconscious part of the mind where fears, traumas and bad experiences are contained, almost impossible to retrieve.
Sigmund freud hypothesised the theory of psychoanalyse to treat the symptoms of neurosis and mental illness. Freud “contradicted and in some ways, reversed the prevailing opinions of the learned as well as the common people on many issues of human existance and culture”(Wollheim 1995 p9) Freud gave the common man the opportunity to question thoughts and analyse their own needs and desires through their unconcious. (Lear 2005). Freud's beyond the pleasure principle writings (1920) and later in his The Ego and the ID (1923), stressed the importance of the unconcious and how the mind was built upon a tripartite structure of the ID, Ego and Super-ego. Freud believed that the ID, a biological component of the personality concentrated on the pleasure principle. Freud described this as “everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, that is laid down in the consitution” (freud 1923 p61) freud hypothesises that these are instinctual and that impulses should be satisfied instantly, irrespective of the conseqence. Freud believed that the Ego mind aimed to control the ID by being logical in thought, aiming to mediat...
One of the facets of psychoanalytic theory is the role of the unconscious and the conscious. In the text, Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice Charles Bressler claims that Freud’s contemporaries viewed the conscious as only observing and recording external reality and claimed that the conscious accounted for the basis of reason and analytical thought while the unconscious merely accumulates and retains our memories (121). Therefore, many psychoanalytic theorists believed that the conscious was solely accountable for our behavior and daily actions (Bressler 121). However, Freud challenged this widely accepted notion by claiming that the unconscious not only stores our memories but also includes our suppressed and unresolved conflicts (Bressler 121). Freud also argued that the unconscious also collects and accrues our hidden desires, ambitions, fears and passions (Bressler 121). Consequently, Freud asserted that the unconscious guides a significant part of our actions and behaviors by amassing disguised truths and hidden desires that want to be exposed through the conscious (Bressler 121).
In the tragedy play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare the Prince Hamlet of Denmark is called to seek revenge on Claudius by King’s Hamlet apparition. Claudius has murdered his own brother to steal the throne and has seized power over the state of Denmark. In this journey of Hamlet trying to find retribution for Claudius's sinful acts Shakespeare expounds themes regarding revenge and moral corruption. Shakespeare depicts how Hamlet’s path to revenge and the complexity of taking revenful action leads more often than not to moral corruption. This is primarily depicted with Hamlet who experiences moral degradation as he struggles to take action against Claudius.
In terms of the unconscious and conscious, Freud situates these conceptions in a topographic model of the mind. He divided it into two systems called the unconscious and the preconscious. Their knowledge in the unconscious system is repressed and unavailable to consciousness without overcoming resistances (e.g., defense mechanisms). Thereby, the repression does not allow unconscious knowledge to be completely aware; rather, it is construed by means of concealing and compromise, but only interpretable through its derivatives dream and parapraxes that overcome resistance by means of disguise and compromise. Within the preconscious system, the contents could be accessible, although only a small portion at any given moment. Unconscious thought is characterized by primary process thinking that lacks negation or logical connections and favors the over-inclusions and 'just-as' relationships evident in condensed dream images and displacements. Freud asserted that primary process of thinking was phylogenetically, and continues to be ontogenetically, prior to secondary process or logical thought, acquired later in childhood and familiar to us in our waking life (1900, 1915a).
Freud (1960) said \"that very powerful mental processes of ideas exist which can produce all the effects of the mental life that ordinary ideas do, though they themselves do not become conscious\" (p. 4). This is an indication that there are other parts of the mind in which thoughts occur. According to Freud (1960), \"the state in which the ideas existed before being made conscious is called by us repression\" (p. 4). It is by the theory of repression that the concept of the unconscious is obtained.