Theoretical psychoanalysis. What is superego? Superego development

CHAPTER 1.

PSYCHODYNAMIC DIRECTION IN THE THEORY OF PERSONALITY

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF Z. FREUD

Purpose: to teach the understanding of the main provisions of the psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud from the point of view of its influence on the psychodynamic direction in the theory of personality.

Tasks: form a view

· About basic research in the field of the unconscious up to the psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud.

• about the main facts of the biography of Z. Freud and about the stages of development of his scientific and practical activities.
• about the structure of personality according to Z. Freud as a unity of three interconnected components: It (ID); I (EGO); Super - I (SUPER-EGO)
• about the instincts of life and death (libido and mortido) in the theory of Z. Freud.
• on the function of anxiety in the concept of psychoanalysis by Z. Freud.
• about psychological defense mechanisms:

(repression, projection, substitution, rationalization, reactive formation, regression, denial, sublimation.)

• about the stages of psychosexual personality development:

1. Oral 0-18 months

2. Anal 1-3 years old,

3.phallic 3-6 years old

4.latent -6-12 years

5.genital 12-22 years old

BIOGRAPHY

Freud Sigmund is an Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Born May 6, 1856 in the small Austrian town of Freiberg, Moravia (on the territory of modern Czech Republic), he lived most of his life in Vienna. Received a classical education. In 1873 he entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. During his studies, he was influenced by the famous psychologist Ernst Brücke, whose ideas were later developed in Freud's views on the dynamics of mental functioning. Freud was distinguished by an extraordinary ambition, which pushed him to make some kind of discovery that could bring him fame already in his student years.

After receiving a medical degree in 1881, Freud took a position at the Institute of Brain Anatomy, where he studied the morphophysiology of the central nervous system.

In 1885, thanks to a research scholarship he received, Freud undertook an internship in Paris with one of the most prominent neurologists of the time, Jean Charcot. Using suggestion and hypnosis, Charcot sought the appearance or, conversely, the disappearance of hysterical symptoms in his patients. Freud was deeply impressed by these clinical demonstrations. He returned to Vienna and switched to research in the field of psychopathology.

Freud's first work appeared in 1895. It focused on the emergence of hysterical symptoms from repressed childhood traumatic experiences. This moment can be called the year of the founding of psychoanalysis and the beginning of the formation of psychoanalytic theory.

Freud's claims that sexual problems are at the root of many mental disorders led to his expulsion from the University of Vienna. Between 1860 and 1900, Freud delved into intense introspection that resulted not only in personal growth, but also in the first and most revolutionary work based on his own experience. The book "The Interpretation of Dreams" was ignored by the conservative scientific community, but this did not stop Freud from further developing the psychoanalytic concept. The period from 1901 to 1905 became especially creative. A number of works have been published on the study of sexuality, psychopathology and personality structure.

In 1909 it became a triumphant one for Freud. The series of lectures given in the USA was very well received and paved the way for the psychoanalytic concept to international recognition. Freud achieved immense fame, his figure became truly iconic. Patients from almost all over the world signed up for his consultations. However, the death of his 26-year-old daughter and fear for the fate of his two sons who fought at the front marred his triumphal march. Partly influenced by the atmosphere of the First World War, 64-year-old Freud supplements his theory with the existence of a universal human instinct - the desire for death. Books of that period are sold in huge editions all over the world: "The Future of One Illusion", "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", "I and It". Freud was an exceptionally gifted writer, as evidenced by the award of the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930.

The rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s also strongly influenced his views on the social nature of man. Shortly after the Nazi invasion of Vienna, Freud fled to England.

The last years of Freud's life were difficult. Since 1923, he suffered from cancer of the pharynx and jaw, but stubbornly refused any medicine, at the same time, smoking up to 20 Cuban cigars a day.

Freud died on September 23, 1939 in London, leaving behind numerous students and one of the most revolutionary psychological theories.

PERSONAL STRUCTURE ACCORDING TO Z. FREUD

For a long time, Freud used a topographic model of personality, in which he distinguished three main components: consciousness, subconsciousness, unconsciousness. Consciousness - sensations and experiences that are realized by a person at a given moment in time. The area of ​​the subconscious is a set of experiences that are not realized at the moment, but potentially activated by a conscious effort. The unconscious is a set of primitive instincts, emotions and memories, latently, unconsciously influencing human behavior.

In the early 1920s, Freud revised his conceptual model of mental life and introduced three main structures into personality anatomy: Id, ego, superego... Moreover, it is assumed that these three components are rather not structural units, but parallel processes.

Although each of these areas of personality has its own functions, properties, components, principles of action, dynamics and mechanisms, they interact so closely that it is difficult and even impossible to untangle their lines of influence and weigh their relative contribution to human behavior. Behavior almost always appears as a product of the interaction of these three systems; it is extremely rare for one of them to act without the other two.

It (id)- a set of innate, primitive instincts (drives) that fill any behavior with energy. Freud viewed the id as a mediator between somatic and mental processes in the body, drawing energy from bodily processes and feeding this energy to the psyche.

It is the original personality system: it is the matrix in which the Ego and Superego are subsequently differentiated. The id includes everything psychic that is innate and present at birth, including instincts. The id is a reservoir of psychic energy and provides energy for the other two systems. Id is closely connected with bodily processes, from where it draws its energy. Freud called the id "true psychic reality" because it reflects the inner world of subjective experiences and does not know about objective reality.

When the energy builds up, Id cannot withstand it, which is experienced as an uncomfortable state of tension. Therefore, when the level of tension in the body rises - either as a result of external stimulation or as a result of internal arousal - Id acts in such a way as to immediately release the tension and return the body to a comfortable constant and low energy level. The principle of voltage reduction, on the basis of which the ID acts, is called the principle of pleasure.

In order to fulfill its task - to avoid pain, to have pleasure - Id has two processes. it reflex action and primary process. Reflex actions are innate automatic responses such as sneezing and blinking; they usually relieve stress immediately. The body is equipped with a number of such reflexes in order to cope with relatively simple forms of arousal. The primary process involves a more complex response. He tries to release energy through the creation of an image of an object, in connection with which, the energy will move. For example, the primary process will give a hungry person a mental image of food. A hallucinatory experience in which the desired object is presented as a memory image is called fulfillment of desire. The best example of a primary process in a healthy person is the dream, which, according to Freud, always represents the fulfillment or attempt to fulfill a desire. Hallucinations and visions of psychotics are also examples of the primary process. Autistic thinking is brightly colored by the action of the primary process. These wish-fulfilling mental images are the only reality known to Id.

Obviously, the primary process itself is not capable of relieving stress. A hungry person cannot eat the image of food. Consequently, a new, secondary mental process develops, and with its appearance the second personality system - the Ego - begins to take shape.

Ego (I)- a component of the mental apparatus responsible for making decisions. The ego strives to satisfy the needs of the body in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the outside world. Ego obeys principle of reality, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism, by postponing the satisfaction of instincts until the moment when the possibility of achieving stress release in a suitable way is found. Freud called this process secondary process.

The ego appears due to the fact that the needs of the organism require appropriate interactions with the world of objective reality. A hungry person must seek, find and eat food before the stress of hunger is relieved. This means that a person must learn to distinguish between the image of food that exists in memory and the actual perception of food that exists in the external world. When this differentiation is carried out, it is necessary to transform the image into perception, which is carried out as determining the location of food in the environment. In other words, a person correlates the image of food existing in memory with the sight or smell of food coming through the senses. The main difference between the id and the ego is that the id knows only subjective reality, while the ego distinguishes between the inner and the outer.

They say, that the ego obeys principle of reality and acts through a secondary process. The purpose of the reality principle is to prevent the discharge of tension until an object suitable for satisfaction is found. The reality principle temporarily suspends the pleasure principle, although, ultimately, when the desired object is found and the tension is reduced, it is the pleasure principle that is "served". The reality principle is concerned with the question of whether experience is true or false — that is, whether it has an external existence — while the pleasure principle is concerned only with whether the experience brings suffering or vice versa.

The secondary process is realistic thinking. Through a secondary process, the ego formulates a plan for satisfying needs and then tests it — usually some action — to see if it works. Hungry man thinks O where you can find food, and then starts looking for it there. It is called reality check. To play its role satisfactorily, the ego controls all cognitive and intellectual functions; these higher mental processes serve the secondary process.

The ego is called the executive organ of the personality, since it opens the door to action, selects from the environment what the action should correspond to, and decides which instincts and how should be satisfied. In carrying out these extremely important executive functions, the ego is forced to try to integrate the often conflicting commands emanating from the id, superego and the outside world. This is not an easy task and often keeps the ego on its toes.

However, it should be borne in mind that the Ego - this organized part of the Ids - appears in order to follow the goals of the Ids and not frustrate them, and that all its power is drawn from the Ids. The ego does not have an existence separate from the id, and in the absolute sense is always dependent on it. Its main role is to be a mediator between the instinctive demands of the organism and environmental conditions; its ultimate goal is to keep the organism alive and to see the species reproduce.

Superego (Super-I)- the third and last developing system of personality, an internalized model of social norms and standards of behavior. This is a moral - ethical structure that appears when a child begins to distinguish between "right" and "wrong", the result of upbringing and social training. Every human act is evaluated by this "internal censor".

The superego is an internal representation of the traditional values ​​and ideals of society in the form in which they are interpreted for the child by the parents and forcibly instilled through the rewards and punishments applied to the child. The superego is the moral strength of a person, it is rather an ideal than a reality, and serves more for improvement than for pleasure, Its main task is to evaluate the correctness or incorrectness of something, based on moral standards sanctioned by society.

The superego as an internalized moral arbiter accompanying a person develops in response to rewards and punishments from parents. In order to receive rewards and avoid punishment, the child learns to build his behavior in accordance with the requirements of the parents. What is considered wrong and for which the child is punished is incorporated into conscience - one of the Superego subsystems. What they approve and reward the child for is included in the child's ego ideal - another subsystem of the Superego, The mechanism of both processes is called introjection. The child accepts, or introjects, the moral norms of the parents. Conscience punishes a person, making him feel guilty, the ego ideal rewards him, filling him with pride. With the formation of the Superego, parental control is replaced by self-control.

The main functions of self-control: 1) hinder the impulses of the id, in particular, impulses of a sexual and aggressive plan, because their manifestations are condemned by society; 2) “persuade” the ego to change from realistic goals to moral ones, and 3) fight for perfection. Thus, the Superego is in opposition to the Id and to the Ego and tries to build the world in its own image. However, the Superego is like the Id in its irrationality and like the Ego in its desire to control the instincts. Unlike the ego, the superego does not just postpone the satisfaction of instinctive needs, it constantly blocks them.

In conclusion of this brief consideration, it should be said that the id, ego and superego should not be regarded as some kind of people who control our personality. These are nothing more than names for various mental processes that obey systemic principles. Under normal circumstances, these principles do not contradict each other and do not cancel each other out. On the contrary, they work as a team under the guidance of the Ego. The personality normally functions as a single whole, and not as something three-part.

In a general sense, Id can be considered as a biological component of a personality, Ego - as a psychological component, Superego - as a social component.

Psychoanalytic theory of personality

He created the first theory of personality, based on the empirical study of its dynamics, that is, its change in the course of psychotherapy.

Freud's doctrine is psychoanalysis. This is both a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy.

Personality structure in Freud's theory:

1) Ego(I AM)

2) Id(it) is congenital

3) Super ego(Over me)

The id contains instincts, innate needs, innate psychic energy - the energy of life - libido.

Id follows the principle of pleasure, striving for immediate satisfaction of needs, release of tension.

Ego formed in vivo, based on Id. Ego formed by birth frustration. Due to the low temperature of the external environment, the child begins to feel the body scheme and separate himself from the environment. This is the very first step in the formation of "I".

Ego strive to increase pleasure and reduce pain through realistic selection of patterns of behavior, that is, the ego is guided by the principle of reality.

Ego rationally and predominantly consciously (oriented towards benefits).

Super-ego contains values, norms of behavior, ideals and conscience, moral prohibitions. Initial Super-ego formed by the values ​​of the parents.

At the beginning Super-ego unconsciously, but then it can be realized. It develops during adolescence.

Id, Ego and Super-ego are in conflict with each other.

Eid's desires are often morally condemned Super-ego(conflict between desire and duty).

Conflict between Id and Ego thing is Ego makes Id postpone the satisfaction of desires.

Main function Ego Is reconciliation Id and Super-ego, that is, the reconciliation of desires and moral standards.

In early childhood reigns Id... As I grow older, the self acquires great power. Maturity Ego leads to partial awareness of drives Id and ideals Super-ego.

The energetic aspect of personality functioning.

Freud identified 2 types of energy:

1) Libido - the energy of life, sexual energy

2) Mortido - energy of death

Personal development is carried out through libido.

5 stages of libido dynamics, stages of mental sexual development :

Psychosexual development is the foundation of personality development.

I. Oral stage(0-18 months) - The libido fixes around the mouth.

II. Anal(1.5-3 years) - Libido fixes around the anus, as it controls the process of defecation (first self-control).

III. Phallic(3-6 years) - another name for the Oedipus stage, at this stage the boy / girl is attracted to the mother / father and jealous of the father / mother. The Oedipus situation ends when the boy begins to copy his father and loses interest in women.

IV. Latent(6-12 years old) - erotic interest is repressed, becomes unconscious. Directs libido to the development of school skills, to the development of personality and intelligence. Fixation on eroticism is not favorable.

V. Genital stage(12-18 years old) - sexual-erotic interest is reawakened and adolescents are able to establish erotic relationships based not only on physiological interest, but also on the basis of deep feelings.

Freud singled out 2 characteristics of personal maturity:

1) Ability to work productively

2) The ability to love another, for his own sake, and not for the sake of his projections.

Theory of psychological defenses of the individual

Developed by Z. Freud and supplemented by his daughter Anna Freud.

Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological strategies that distort reality to reduce anxiety and maintain personal integrity. Performs a protective function against psychological trauma. About 20 psychic defenses are described.

The main 10 defenses :

1) Negation- selective attention, exclusion from the perception of aspects lurking a threat.

2) Regression- return to more primitive forms of behavior and thinking.

3) crowding out- elimination of unacceptable drives and experiences from consciousness.

4) Projection- attribution to others of their own repressed motives, experiences and character traits.

5) Identification- unconscious assimilation to a threatening object.

6) Rationalization- rational explanations of their desires and actions as morally acceptable, although they are morally unacceptable or irrational, stupid.

7) Reactive formation- this is a change in behavior towards an object to the exact opposite (for example, generosity, protection from stinginess, accuracy from slovenliness).

8) Insulation- this is the blocking of negative emotions while preserving memory for events.

9) Bias- a) the object of feelings is displaced (when anger is transferred from one person to another), b) the displacement of feeling to the object (the object is the same, the feeling is changing).

10) Sublimation- the transformation of sexual and aggressive energy into socially acceptable forms of activity (for example, creativity, sports, cleaning). The most productive type of protection.

Usually, an unconscious defense strategy is an obstacle to personal growth.

Coping strategies are an alternative to psychological defenses (these are deliberate strategies of coincidence with frustration, difficulties).

Coping theory developed Lazarus... Are divided into:

1) Responsive

2) Maladaptive

Views :

1) Behavioral(for example, asking for help, turning to religion, rituals).

2) Emotional(for example, emotional release, confidence in a favorable outcome).

3) Cognitive(for example, problem analysis: deep awareness of one's own worth as a person)

The instinct for life and the instinct for aggression.

Conscious and unconscious aspects of personality.

Id, egoandsuper ego.Objective anxiety, neurotic and moral anxiety.

Personal protective mechanisms.

Psychosexual stages of personality development.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) relied little on the usual experimental approach, although he was convinced that his work was strictly scientific in nature, and the analysis of patient histories and his own self-analysis, in his opinion, provided sufficient grounds for conclusions. He did not collect data in a controlled experiment and did not use statistical methods to analyze the results. In creating the theory, he relied most on his own critical instinct. He insisted that only psychoanalysts themselves can judge the scientific value of his work.

To a greater extent, Freud was interested in those plots that, as a rule, were previously ignored: the unconscious motivation of behavior, conflicts between the forces of the unconscious and their consequences for the human psyche.

Instincts are the driving, motivational forces of a person, biological factors that release reserves of mental energy. For Freud, instincts are not innate reflexes, as the term is usually understood, but that part of the stimulation that comes from the body. The goal of instincts is to eliminate or reduce stimulation through certain types of behavior, such as eating or sexual activity. Freud did not set himself the task of giving a detailed classification of all human instincts. He spoke of only two large groups: the life instincts and the death instincts. The instincts of life include hunger, thirst, sex and are aimed at the self-preservation of the individual and the survival of the species. They are creative, life-sustaining forces. The form of psychic energy in which they manifest themselves is called libido. Death instincts are destructive forces that can be directed both inward (masochism or suicide) and outward (hatred and aggression). Towards the end of his life, Freud increasingly came to the conviction that the instinct of aggression could be as powerful as a motivator as sex.

Conscious and unconscious aspects of personality. In his early works, Freud noted that the mental life of a person consists, as it were, of two parts - conscious and unconscious. The conscious part - like the tip of the iceberg - is small and, in general, not significant. It expresses only superficial aspects of the personality as a whole. A vast and powerful area of ​​the subconscious, like the underwater part of an iceberg, contains the instincts and driving forces of all human behavior.

Over time, Freud revised this simple division into conscious / unconscious and began to talk about the relationship of three components - id, ego and super ego, or it, I and super-me. The area of ​​the id, which roughly corresponds to what Freud previously called the unconscious, is the most primitive and least accessible part of the personality. Powerful forces id include sexual instinct and aggression. Incentives id demand immediate satisfaction, regardless of any circumstances of reality. They act in accordance with the pleasure principle, which seeks only to relieve tension by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Id is the main source of our psychic energy, libido, which manifests itself in the form of tension. An increase in libido energy leads to an increase in tension, which we then try to reduce in various ways to an acceptable level. In order to meet our needs and maintain a comfortable and acceptable level of tension, we must interact with the real world. A hungry person, for example, must do something and find food that will relieve the stress caused by hunger. Therefore, it is necessary to establish appropriate links between needs id and real circumstances.

Ego, I AM serves as a kind of intermediary between id and the outside world. Ego orientates, as opposed to not reasoning and full of untamed passions id, on causality and rationality. Id full of blind lust it does not relate to reality. Ego is aware of reality, manipulates it and, thus, regulates the activity id. Ego follows the principle of reality, restraining lustful impulses id until a suitable object is found,

with the help of which the need can be satisfied, and mental stress is removed.

Ego does not exist apart from id. Moreover, the ego draws its strength from id. Itself ego exists, in fact, in order to help id. It aims to facilitate the fulfillment of desires. id. Freud compares their relationship with the relationship between horse and rider: the energy of movement emanates from the horse, thanks to it the rider also moves. But this energy must be constantly directed by the reins, otherwise, at one point, the horse can throw the rider to the ground. Similar id must be directed and controlled, otherwise rational ego will be dropped and trampled.

The third component of the personality structure, according to Freud, is the super-ego, super-me. This education occurs at an early age, when the child learns the rules of behavior that are instilled in him by his parents and educators through the system of rewarding punishments.

Super ego represents morality. According to Freud, it is “a continuous striving, a craving for perfection. In short, it embodies all ideas about the higher sides of a person's personality, which only we are able to psychologically accommodate in ourselves. ”Therefore, it is clear that super ego cannot but conflict with id. Unlike ego, who tries to delay the fulfillment of desires id until a more suitable occasion, super ego intends to completely suppress these lusts.

Id (It) is a source of psychic energy, an aspect of personality, which mainly includes instincts.

The ego is the structural component of the personality, responsible for directing and controlling instincts.

The superego is the moral aspect of the individual responsible for the assimilation of parental and social values ​​and standards.

Eventually, ego appears, according to Freud, as an arena of continuous struggle of powerful and incompatible forces. He constantly has to maneuver between rock and hard place, trying to cope with persistence and impatience id, correlate your actions with reality, relieve mental stress and at the same time still deal with a continuous desire super ego to perfection. In cases where ego is subjected to too much pressure, a situation called anxiety arises.

Anxiety is a kind of warning that the ego is in danger. Freud speaks of three types of anxiety: objective, neurotic, and moral. Objective anxiety arises under the influence of real dangers in the real world. The other two types of anxiety lead away from the world. Neurotic anxiety arises from awareness of the potential dangers that arise from indulging instincts id. It is not a fear of instincts per se, but rather a fear of the punishments that may follow indiscriminate urging. id. In other words, neurotic anxiety is the fear of being punished for manifesting impulsive desires. Moral anxiety arises from the fear of earning someone's judgment. Moral anxiety, therefore, depends on how developed a person's sense of guilt. Less moral people will be less susceptible to this type of anxiety.

Freud suggested that ego erects a kind of barrier against anxiety - defense mechanisms, which represent a subconscious denial or distortion of reality. For example, when using the mechanism identification a person imitates the manners of another person whom he admires and who seems to him less vulnerable in anxious situations. At sublimation there is a substitution of those needs that cannot be met directly for socially acceptable goals. So, for example, the psychic energy of sex can be directed from this sphere to the goals of artistic creation. In a situation projections the source of the alarm is declared to be someone else. V reactive formation man hides his disturbing impulses by turning them into something opposite. For example, it replaces hate with love. Mechanism regressions includes behaviors typical of earlier stages of development, when the person felt more secure and was less prone to anxiety.

Defense mechanisms are certain types of behavior designed to protect the self from the anxiety generated by conflicts in everyday life.

Negation. Denying the presence of an external threat or traumatic event. For example, a terminally ill person denies the inevitability of death.

Substitution. Pulse switching id from one object, inaccessible or fraught with a threat, to another, more accessible. For example, replacing dislike of the barefoot with picky in relation to their own child.

Projection The disturbing impulse is attributed to someone else. For example, someone claims that in fact it is not he at all who hates his professor, but that he dislikes him.

Rationalization Redefining behavior so that it is more comprehensible, more acceptable, and therefore less intimidating to others. For example, you might argue that the job you just got fired from wasn't actually all that good.

Reactive formation Substitution of one impulse id on the other, opposite to the first. For example, someone who is obsessed with sexual desires may suddenly become a passionate fighter against pornography.

Regression Return to earlier, seemingly safer stages of mental life. The appearance in an adult of traits of childish, addictive behavior associated with happy times.

Suppression Denial of the existence of a factor or event causing anxiety. For example, the involuntary repression from consciousness of some memories or experiences that cause strong discomfort.

Sublimation Changing or replacing some impulses id by switching the energy of instinct to socially acceptable goals. For example, the transfer of sexual energy into the field of artistic creation.

Psychosexual stages of personality development. Freud was convinced that the origins of neurotic disorders must be sought in the childhood experiences of patients. Thus, he became the first theorist to point out the importance of the study of childhood for understanding the nature of the psyche. In his opinion, the basic traits of a person's personality are formed almost completely by the fifth year of life.

From the point of view of psychoanalytic developmental theory, the child goes through a series of psychosexual stages in his development. During this period, the child acts as an autoerotic creature, that is, he receives sensual pleasure from the stimulation of the erogenous zones of his body by parents or other people during the normal course of the educational process. It is believed that each such stage is characterized by its own erogenous zone.

Psychosexual stages - stages of a child's development when his psyche is concentrated around certain erogenous zones

Oral the stage begins at birth and lasts until the second year. During this period, all primary sensory pleasures are associated with the child's mouth: sucking, nibbling, swallowing. Inadequate development at this stage - too much or too little - can give rise to an oral personality type, that is, a person who devotes too much attention to the habits associated with the mouth: smoking, kissing and eating food. Freud believed that a very wide range of adult habits and character traits - from over-optimism to sarcasm and cynicism - are rooted in this child's oral stage.

On anal stages, the main source of pleasure moves from the mouth to the anus. The child receives primary satisfaction from this area of ​​the body. It is at this time that the child begins to teach himself how to use the toilet. In this case, the child can both show increased activity, and generally refuse to defecate. Both cases testify to open disobedience to parents. Conflicts at this stage of development can lead to the emergence of two different personality types in adulthood: the anal exorcist (the unkempt, wasteful and extravagant type of person) and the anal retention (the incredibly clean, tidy and organized type).

During phallic the developmental stage, which occurs in the fourth year of a child's life, his main focus is on erotic gratification, which includes admiring and displaying the genitals and sexual fantasies. Freud describes this stage in terms of the Oedipus complex. As you know, Oedipus is a character in ancient Greek mythology who, unknowingly, kills his father and marries his own mother. According to Freud, at this stage, the child develops attraction to the parent of the opposite sex and rejection of the parent of the same sex, who is now perceived as a rival.

As a rule, the child manages to overcome the Oedipus complex by identifying himself with the parent of the same sex and replacing the attraction to the parent of the opposite sex with normal sexual attraction to other people. One of the consequences of identifying with the parent of the same gender is the development super ego. Taking the manners and attitude of the parent, the child thereby assimilates the norms of his super ego.

After all the vicissitudes of these initial stages have been passed, the child enters a long latency period, which lasts from 5 to 12 years of age. After that, according to Freud, under the onslaught of pubertal signals, the child begins genital stage. During this period, heterosexual behavior becomes predominant, and the person begins to prepare for marriage, fatherhood or motherhood, respectively.

Questions:

What is libido?

What defense mechanisms are highlighted in psychoanalysis?

What instances of personality does Freud construct?

What determines psychosexual personality development?

I have already written one article that deals with subconscious processes and am going to write several more, mainly on the behavior of children and adolescents. And then I was asked a question about the protective psychological mechanisms, which were mentioned in passing in the article - “what is this?”. Therefore, I decided to write about the basis of the psychological structure of the subconscious - Id, Ego, Super-Him and defense mechanisms.

Sigmund Freud's theory of personality or structure of the psyche

Of course, there are many theories of subconscious processes, but today the theory of Sigmund Freud is more popular in the scientific world 1. Why? This theory has many enemies and is considered by many to be very “strange”. The teachings of Sigmund Freud were banned, like the Nazis - his books were burned in Nazi Germany. In the USSR, his theory was declared incompatible with Marxism and also banned. According to both, Freud's doctrine makes a person and his desires and aspirations too primitive and does not idealize him, which runs counter to the country's politics.

A famous parody of Sigmund Freud and his teachings. The inscription can be translated: "What is the man's mind"; or: "What's the person's mind."

But despite all this, it is his theory that explains many of the actions of people. No one has yet looked into the subconscious, thanks to his teachings, doctors and psychologists were able to help many patients, including us during our private medical practice.

According to Freud's theory, we are born with Id 2. Id reflects the primary processes (pleasure, aggression, etc.), in fact, demands and desires. We cannot change or influence this, because Id is already embedded or "programmed" in us.

Imagine this component of the psyche as a child who all the time says: "I want, I want ...", "I want right now ...", "Give me this", "I want this."

Meet your ID. It is impulsive and stupid, and requests from him: "I want, give, I want this, give me ..."

At the age of 4-5 years, we begin to actively develop another component of the psyche - Superego 3. Pay attention to the age and remember it. The super-ego already reflects the morality of what can and cannot be done. The super-ego, in contrast to the impulsive and stupid id, begins to understand what is good and what is bad. It would seem that this is great, we have got morality. Everything would be fine, but from the impulsive id, the super-ego is distinguished by another extreme feature - it has an extremely suppressive character. While Id says: “I want it, I want it,” the Super Ego replies: “No, you can't, you don't deserve it, suffer, suffering is better for you. Therefore, let's imagine the Super-Ego as a kind of boring and instructive old woman, exerting psychological pressure.

Meet this your Super-Ego. Such a boring, extremely correct old woman. She suppresses all the desires of the stupid Eid: “You can't! You did not deserve (la) ... ".

On the one hand, Id wants to do something, for example, to perform "whatever you want" and it does not matter whether it is permissible or not. On the other hand, the Super-Ego suppresses any initiative, both good and unacceptable in society. In other words, they howl among themselves. This cannot go on for long, because we must finally make a decision.

And now Ego 4 comes to the rescue, it develops between these two extremes (Id and Super-Ego). Ego, as a diplomat, cooperates with both of them, tries to try them on and come up with an optimal solution that is acceptable to everyone.

Ego, your diplomat, which is located between the Id and the Super-Ego, helps to find the correct and rational solution.

For these purposes, the ego uses protective psychological mechanisms 5. Defense mechanisms are a tool in the hands of the Ego for resolving the conflict between the Id and the Super-Ego. When an overly active, stupid and initiative child and a boring "super-correct" old woman begin to argue, the Ego selects the most acceptable defense mechanism in this situation in order to extinguish the conflict between them. The ego takes into account both the initiative of the id and the wisdom of the superego, and ideally the diagram should look like the one in the picture below.

Defense mechanisms

And finally it was the turn to talk about the tools that the Ego uses - defense mechanisms, i.e. what we were going to. Why are they protective? Because they protect the psyche from unpleasant experiences, when there is an internal, subconscious conflict between those already familiar to you: Id and Super-Ego.

Here are some of the main principles of subconscious defense mechanisms:

• All psychological defense mechanisms are subconscious. If you know what you are doing or why you are doing it, this is not a defense mechanism.
• Defense mechanisms change over time.
• If you have identified a defense mechanism, it is not currently in use, it may have been used in the past.
• Defense mechanisms are adaptive, but they can be pathological.

How effective is the ego and how well and professionally does it use its tools - psychological defense mechanisms? If the ego worked perfectly, you and we would always be perfect people. But we know that we do not always make the right decisions. Sometimes suddenly, the mood disappears, sometimes there are unexplained outbursts of anger or irritation arises ...

The entire subconscious process also depends on how proactive the Id is and how developed the Super-Ego is. Among other things, in these processes, although they are subconscious, age plays an important role. Remember I told you remember the age of development of the superego? If you remember, you can immediately answer at what age the child starts ( just starting) understand what is good and what is bad. Until this age, the child simply adapts. The child remembers when he was praised and when he was scolded. Before the development of the Super-Ego, the child does not understand that it is bad and dangerous to climb into an outlet with a nail - he just remembers that he was scolded and will be scolded again. In this case, Id will no longer take the initiative, because Id tries to do everything, to have fun But what pleasure is there if they scold or punish?

Let's go back to the defense mechanisms. What is the difference between normal psychological mechanisms and already psychopathology? The difference is: how long, to the point, does the Ego use its tools ... In other words, how far has this or that defense mechanism gone? Do we understand reality correctly and is the defense mechanism chosen correctly? Are we perverting reality, deliberately or unknowingly, in order to find agreement?

I hope you understand at least a little the structure of subconscious processes, why psychological defense mechanisms are needed and what it is. In other articles, we will already consider specific defense mechanisms in practical cases.

1 - Sigmund Freud is an Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and neurologist. Born in 1856 into a Jewish family. At the age of 17 he entered the University of Vienna, medical department, in 1881. graduated from it. His writings were greatly influenced by Joseph Breuer and Jean Martin Charcot. Sigmund Freud had six children. One of the daughters followed in her father's footsteps and founded child psychoanalysis. In 1930 Freud received the Goethe Prize for his contribution to the psychology and culture of German literature. In 1933, after the annexation of Austria to Germany, his works were banned, books were burned. The Gestapo begins to take an interest in his family, interrogations begin. Four of Freud's five sisters are sent to concentration camps. He decides to "die free." He is assisted by the Nazi Anton Sauerwald, who was previously a student of one of the professors who often played cards with Freud. Already in England in 1939, Sigmund Freud asked his doctor and friend "to help die", because suffers from cancer, which causes anguish. "Having passed away" he left 24 volumes of his scientific works, but he was not only a pure theorist. He had many patients, including famous people. You can read more about the life and works of Sigmund Freud.

2 - From lat - Id. In Russian-language literature - It. Sigmund Freud used the term "das Es", he took it from another German doctor - Georg Groddeck. English-language literature, and in the world as a whole, it is customary to use the Latin term, i.e. "Id" Do not confuse with the English concept of "Ay-di" ie indentification. The term Id in psychoanalysis is taken from Latin and pronounced as "ed".

3 - Super-Ego in Russian-language literature is often denoted by the term Super-I. In English Super Ego (lat). Freud's own term is "das Über-Ich" (German).

4 - The ego in the Russian-language literature is often denoted by the term "I". In English - Ego (lat.). For Freud, it was "das Ich" (I am dumb).

5 - Psychological Defense Mechanisms, or often just "Defense Mechanisms". In the English-language literature - defense mechanisms.

Superego functions

With the establishment of the superego, a number of mental functions change. Anxiety turns partially into guilt. Fear now arises not in front of an external danger, loss of love or castration, but in front of an internal representative of this danger, threatening from within. The loss of superego protection and internal punishment from the superego is experienced as a very painful infringement of self-esteem, and in extreme cases, a feeling of annihilation arises. It has been repeatedly noted that young children need to replenish their narcissistic resources to maintain balance. The privilege to grant or deny such satisfaction is now given to the superego. The fear of being punished or abandoned by one's superego is the fear of annihilation due to a lack of narcissistic resources.

As long as fear exists, this need to get rid of it is like an instinctive drive. The origin of this drive is an example of how one can generally understand the origin of instincts: they occur through the incorporation of external demands. The ego behaves with the superego in the same way that it once behaved with the threatening parent, whose love and forgiveness needed. There is a need for getting rid of punishment. The need for punishment is a special form of avoidance of punishment: pain as a result of punishment is tolerated and even provoked in the hope that after punishment the great pain caused by the feeling of guilt will end. Thus, the need for punishment can be explained as choosing the lesser evil. A sacrifice is offered in return for castration. Sacrifice is active, and the donation is less unpleasant than the passive expectation of trouble. However, sometimes the situation gets more complicated. Just as the desire to "be beaten by the father" can become a sexual goal for masochists, so the desire to "be beaten by the superego" becomes a sexual goal.

Once established, the superego decides which drives should be allowed and which ones must be suppressed. The logical judgment of whether an incentive is dangerous is complicated by illogical feelings of guilt. In addition to reality, the ego must now also take into account another, often irrational, "representative of reality."

The superego is the heir to the parents, not only as a source of threats and punishment, but also as a source of protection and a "provider" of confidence-inspiring love. A good or bad relationship with the superego takes on the same importance as previously had with the parent. In this sense, the change of parents to the superego is a prerequisite for independence. Self-esteem is no longer governed by approval or rejection from outside entities. rather, it is conditioned by a feeling of the right or wrong of the deed. Concession to the demands of the superego brings not only relief, but also expressed feelings of pleasure and security of the same type that children experience when receiving love from the outside. The reluctance to surrender to the superego leads to feelings of guilt and remorse; a similar condition occurs in a child who believes that no one else loves him. The same defense mechanisms that are commonly used against uncomfortable affects can also work against guilt feelings. The feeling of guilt that accompanies atrocities, and the feeling of well-being that arises in the implementation of ideals, normative models of the pathological phenomena of depression and mania. Since self-esteem depends on the fulfillment of ideals, the ways of regulating it are as numerous as ideals. Ideals are created in a child not only by imitating real models, but also by stories, teachings and dogmas. They are of the nature of tradition, have cultural and social determination.

Attempts are sometimes made to distinguish the ego ideals, the patterns of the aspirations of the individual, from the superego as a threatening, forbidding and punishing force. But Freud, who deeply understood the origin of the superego, showed how closely the two aspects are intertwined. They intertwine like the protective and threatening powers of the parents. Even the ways in which these functions are linked, that is, the promise of protection subject to obedience, are passed on to the superego from the parents.

Freud was criticized for not distinguishing between "true" ideals, fully accepted by the whole person, and "non-typical" ideals, which, according to the individual, must be followed due to the demands of external or introjected authority. But even the most genuine ideals are created through introjection. The difference lies in the proportionality or incommensurability of the introject and the subject, that is, in the history of the relationship to objects, the introjection of which formed the ideal.

The relationship between the superego and the external world is based on the origin of the superego as a result of introjection of a part of the external world, and therefore the superego is a representative of some aspect of the external world. Since the same is true of the ego, in a sense, the superego structure is a duplicate of the ego structure. True, the second ego ("super ego") is an education limited to the sphere of threats and promises, punishments and rewards. The incorporation of this aspect of the outside world occurs relatively late. Thus, the superego is the part of the mental apparatus closest to the outside world. Many individuals in their behavior and self-esteem remain influenced not only by what they themselves consider to be right, but are no less guided by the opinions of others. The superego and the demands on the part of objects are not always clearly delineated. The functions of the superego are easily reprojected, that is, they are mixed on the newly emerging authority figures. (This happens when, for external or internal reasons, active control of the external world becomes impossible.) Clinical confirmation of the close connection between the superego and the external world is found in the delusional relationship. The functions of the superego (since in a certain sense they are half the ego, half the external world) are most easily manifested when the patient, having lost the objective world, tries to re-master it without being fully capable of it.

The fact that the superego is constructed at a higher level than the ego is evident from the following reasoning. The deepest layer of the ego is formed by the sensations of one's own body; kinesthetic (and olfactory) orientation is generally older than visual orientation. Visual orientation, however, also emerges very early and prevails in pre-conscious thinking, built like a fantasy. A decisive step in consolidating the conscious part of the ego is taken when the auditory concept of words is added to the archaic modes of orientation. In contrast, the basis of the superego is formed by the auditory perception of verbal stimuli. Parental admonitions, rewards and threats are incorporated through the organs of hearing. Thus, the commands of the superego are usually given verbally. The “shift within the ego” is felt by the child through “hearing the inner voice of conscience,” and accordingly, the individual's attitude to language generally obeys the rules of the superego.

The superego is associated with id by its genesis. The most important id objects, the objects of the Oedipus complex, continue to live in the superego. This genesis explains the urgency, instinct-like, irrational nature of many of the superego's aspirations, which in normal development must be overcome with the help of ego judgments. "The superego is deeply immersed in the id." On the one hand, the severity of the superego corresponds to the real severity of the parents. On the other hand, according to the intimate relationship between the superego and the id, the degree of severity is determined by the child's instinctual structure (which, in turn, depends on his constitution and previous experience). A child who unconsciously hates his parents fears retribution and may experience this retribution from the superego. Consequently, the severity of the superego also expresses the child's initial hostility to the parents.

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