GUERRILLA PSYCHOLOGY: FREUD
| Category: Personal Development For Marketeers | Date: 2003-03-21 |
Traditionally, there have been two schools of thought on how things work, whether we are talking about the physics of the universe, the process of history, or the human mind. These two camps are diametrically opposed. One is mechanism, the other is teleology.
Mechanism says that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences in their more reductionist forms.
Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Teleology is linked with free will and the concept of a guiding principle to the universe, some higher purpose.
Obviously, no discussion of psychology can avoid coming to grips with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. So, we will start there.
Freud's theory of personality is pure mechanism. Jung's is more teleological.
Freud
Freudian theory see the world as a place full of objects. The most important is the organism. The organism acts to survive and reproduce, and it is guided toward those ends by its needs -- hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex.
A very important part of the organism is the nervous system with its sensitivity to the organism's needs. At birth, that nervous system is little more than that of any other animal, an "it" or id. The nervous system, as id, translates the organism's needs into motivational forces called instincts, drives. or wishes - the primary process.
The id works with the pleasure principle, a demand to take care of needs immediately. The prime example is a hungry infant, screaming itself blue even though it does not really "know" what it wants in any adult sense; it just knows that it wants it and it wants it now. The infant, in the Freudian view, is pure id. And the id is the psychic representative of our biology.
When the need is not satisfied, it breaks into consciousness through the senses. As the id starts to break through, during the first year of a child's life, some of the "it" becomes "I," some of the id becomes ego. It is the ego that relates the organism to reality through its consciousness. The ego searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that id creates to represent the organism's needs. This problem-solving activity is the secondary process.
The ego, unlike the id, functions according to the reality principle, which says "take care of a need as soon as an appropriate object is found." It represents what we call "reality" and "rational thought/".
However, as the ego struggles to keep the id (and, therefore, the organism) happy, it meets with both obstacles as well as with objects that assist it in attaining its goals. The ego keeps track of these obstacles and aides. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. This process is usually completed at about seven years of age, but in some people, it never is completed.
There are two aspects to the superego: One is the conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other is the ego ideal, which is an internalization of rewards and positive models. The conscience and ego ideal communicate their requirements to the ego with feelings like pride, shame, and guilt.
Your personality, or character, develops through your life experiences. Freud felt that traumatic experiences had an especially strong effect. Each specific trauma would have its own unique impact on a person, which can only be explored and understood on an individual basis. But those traumas associated with stage development, since we all have to go through them, should have more consistency.
If you have difficulties in any of the tasks associated with these developmental stages -- weaning, potty training, or finding your sexual identity -- you will tend to retain certain infantile or childish habits. He called this long-term effect on personality fixation.
Freud made us aware of two powerful forces and their demands on us. Prior to Freud the accepted theory was that people were basically rational, Freud argued that much of our behavior was based on biology. When everyone conceived of people as individually responsible for their actions, he showed the impact of society. for instance, everyone thought of male and female as roles determined by nature or God, he showed how much they depended on family dynamics and other social forces. The id and the superego -- the psychic manifestations of biology and society -- will always be with us in some form or another.
About the Author
John Botscharow is the owner of 3R Marketing.REAL HELP FROM REAL MARKETERS Unconventional Tactics For Conventional Profits! We PREACH, TEACH and PRACTICE Guerrilla Marketing. http://www.3r-marketing.com
Would you like to receive John's syndicated guerrilla marketing articles for use in your newsletter or on your web site? Then sign up for the 3R Marketing Publisher's list syndication@3r-marketing.com
info@3r-marketing.com
http://www.3r-marketing.com
Mechanism says that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences in their more reductionist forms.
Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Teleology is linked with free will and the concept of a guiding principle to the universe, some higher purpose.
Obviously, no discussion of psychology can avoid coming to grips with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. So, we will start there.
Freud's theory of personality is pure mechanism. Jung's is more teleological.
Freud
Freudian theory see the world as a place full of objects. The most important is the organism. The organism acts to survive and reproduce, and it is guided toward those ends by its needs -- hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex.
A very important part of the organism is the nervous system with its sensitivity to the organism's needs. At birth, that nervous system is little more than that of any other animal, an "it" or id. The nervous system, as id, translates the organism's needs into motivational forces called instincts, drives. or wishes - the primary process.
The id works with the pleasure principle, a demand to take care of needs immediately. The prime example is a hungry infant, screaming itself blue even though it does not really "know" what it wants in any adult sense; it just knows that it wants it and it wants it now. The infant, in the Freudian view, is pure id. And the id is the psychic representative of our biology.
When the need is not satisfied, it breaks into consciousness through the senses. As the id starts to break through, during the first year of a child's life, some of the "it" becomes "I," some of the id becomes ego. It is the ego that relates the organism to reality through its consciousness. The ego searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that id creates to represent the organism's needs. This problem-solving activity is the secondary process.
The ego, unlike the id, functions according to the reality principle, which says "take care of a need as soon as an appropriate object is found." It represents what we call "reality" and "rational thought/".
However, as the ego struggles to keep the id (and, therefore, the organism) happy, it meets with both obstacles as well as with objects that assist it in attaining its goals. The ego keeps track of these obstacles and aides. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. This process is usually completed at about seven years of age, but in some people, it never is completed.
There are two aspects to the superego: One is the conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other is the ego ideal, which is an internalization of rewards and positive models. The conscience and ego ideal communicate their requirements to the ego with feelings like pride, shame, and guilt.
Your personality, or character, develops through your life experiences. Freud felt that traumatic experiences had an especially strong effect. Each specific trauma would have its own unique impact on a person, which can only be explored and understood on an individual basis. But those traumas associated with stage development, since we all have to go through them, should have more consistency.
If you have difficulties in any of the tasks associated with these developmental stages -- weaning, potty training, or finding your sexual identity -- you will tend to retain certain infantile or childish habits. He called this long-term effect on personality fixation.
Freud made us aware of two powerful forces and their demands on us. Prior to Freud the accepted theory was that people were basically rational, Freud argued that much of our behavior was based on biology. When everyone conceived of people as individually responsible for their actions, he showed the impact of society. for instance, everyone thought of male and female as roles determined by nature or God, he showed how much they depended on family dynamics and other social forces. The id and the superego -- the psychic manifestations of biology and society -- will always be with us in some form or another.
About the Author
John Botscharow is the owner of 3R Marketing.REAL HELP FROM REAL MARKETERS Unconventional Tactics For Conventional Profits! We PREACH, TEACH and PRACTICE Guerrilla Marketing. http://www.3r-marketing.com
Would you like to receive John's syndicated guerrilla marketing articles for use in your newsletter or on your web site? Then sign up for the 3R Marketing Publisher's list syndication@3r-marketing.com
info@3r-marketing.com
http://www.3r-marketing.com
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