Freud theory

There are theories which are specific to some domains of psychology, but theories of Freud and Skinner spans accross many different domains of psychology. Freud theory has a very big scope.

Freud is consisdered to be a very hyper personality. He was a cocaine addict. He gave lot of theories, some of which are not rationale.

One of his theory is Penis envy which seems false but also true. Its so vague that you can’t prove it false and also cant prove it to be true. If we dont dive into these irrational theories and focus on other interesting rational theories he proposed then he was quite an extraordinary personality.

Existence of unconscious

Freud said that there is conscious and then there is unconsicous.

• He rejected the claim that you know what you are doing all the time.

• Whatever we are doing is the product of conflict between three different entities which are present in our brain.

• These three entities are:

  1. Id - It is present by birth. It is the animal part which want to eat, sleep, drink, etc. It is stupid. It only wants pleasure and it want it right now.
  2. Ego - We dont get what we want. This system ensures how to satisy the desires or how to suppress them. Origin or ego means there is a consciousness devloping.
  3. Superego - This entity tells us when something is wrong. It is also stupid but in a good way.

  There is constant struggle which happens between id and superego. Some of the struggles spills out and appears in dreams, mood, behaviour or in some cases clinical symptoms.

  There are times when the desires of Id comes out of us unconsciously. Our body takes several steps to stop this from happening and this is called defence mechanism. Few of them are:

  1. Sublimation: We can have high energy which can be related to any emotion. We use it to push ourselves in some other domain.
  2. Displacement: We can have some shameful thoughts so we express it somewhere else.
  3. Projection: I can have some impulses which I am not proud of, I can project it on someone else.
  4. Rationalisation: When we do something bad, we try to justify it by giving logical arguements which may not be correct.
  5. Regression: Returning to earlier stage of development

  Dream: Dream had a manifest content as well as latent content. Dreams are basically a way to fulfill desires. Dreams have symbolism.

Freud theory of child development

Freud believed there are five stages of child development. If there is a lack of development at a certain stage then we will be stuck there. Five stages are:

1. Oral stage: Oral trainings begins. Person who chews a lot, smokes, constantly keeps their mouth busy is due to lack of oral training.
2. Anal stage: Potty training. Ability to let go of the things. People who hold onto things, etc lack this training.
3. Phallic stage: Boys are more attached to their mother and girls to their father.
4. Latency stage: Child interacts with same sex partners because of the conclusion he/she drew out from the phallic stage. This is a long period.
5. Genital stage: We are attracted to opposite sex now.

Criticism of Freud theory

• Theory is so vague that it cant be proved wrong neither can it be proved right.

Unconscious examples in life

• Understanding of language
• Many likes and dislikes