Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
strengths and weaknesses of the freudian theory
freuds key concepts
strengths and weaknesses of the freudian theory
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: strengths and weaknesses of the freudian theory
We follow Lacan and return to Freud, only to find ourselves arriving at the knowledge that the unconscious operates like translating without the original text. There goes a process of representing activity in which we achieve a representation without knowing what is the "represented." Lacan leads us back to so many of Freud's decisive terms, thereby prefiguring the way those terms slip away from the grasp of traditional conceptual discourse. In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis we are told that "the unconscious is structured like language" (FFC 20). This is a turn-away from Freud, a radical change bringing us to the understanding that the unconscious can be described only in reference of the Other, and thus has no identity at all. For Lacan, no less than for Freud, it is never an accident when language and intention diverge from each other. Such a divergence derives from the signifying structure of language. Language, as the medium of signification, becomes the articulation of non-identity. It is this notion that allows the unconscious to be described as the discourse of the Other.
This relation of the unconscious to language is of decisive importance for Lacan's treatment of Freud's text. With this distinctive character, Lacan's return to Freud is often treated as more than only a paraphrase or translation of some original text. It is an act of repetition, an act that calls for a reconsideration of language and a further consideration of its particular relation to psychoanalysis. However, the process that Lacan studies involves repetition not as a return of the same, but rather as the recurrence of a difference separating what is repeated from its repetition. It is the distance between t...
... middle of paper ...
...ge, 1989). Hereafter quotations refer to this edition.
Louis Althusser, Essays on Ideology (London: Verso, 1984) 159.
For an extensive discussion about metaphor and metonymy, see Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, Lacan: The Absolute Master, tran. Douglas Brick (Stanford, Ca.: Stanford UP, 1991) 169-96.
Joan Copjec, Read My Desire: Lacan against the Historicists (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994) 221.
Samuel Weber, Return to Freud, tran. Michael Levine (Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1991) 62.
Erik Erikson, Toys and Reasons: Stages in the Ritualization of Experience (New York: Norton, 1987) 85- 113.
Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Standard Edition of the Works of Sigmund Freud, tran. and ed. James and Alix Strachey (London: Hogarth, 1953-1974) vol. xviii, 14-15.
Freud, S., Strachey, J., Freud, A., Rothgeb, C., & Richards, A. (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (1st ed.). London: Hogarth Press.
This essay is going to describe in depth and detail the theories of Sigmund Freud's psycho dynamic approach. The strengths and weakness as an evaluation of Sigmund Freud's work. A summary and evaluation of the cognitive perspective as an alternative of human behaviour will also be identified in this essay.
Thornton, Stephen. "Freud, Sigmund [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 16 Apr. 2001. Web. 08 Mar. 2011. .
For Freud the outcome of the child's fear of castration is its submission to the reality principle and hence its entry into the social order. For Lacan this must coincide with the child's entry into the language system.....Language is thus the Law of the father; a linguistic system within which our social and gender identity is always already structured. (p. 104)
Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Ed. James Strachey. Trans. James Strachey. Standard. Vol. 22. London: Hogarth Press, 1964.
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
Sigmund Freud believed that he “occupies a special place in the history of psychoanalysis and marks a turning point, it was with it that analysis took the step from being a psychotherapeutic procedure to being in depth-psychology” (Jones). Psychoanalysis is a theory or therapy to decode the puzzle of neurotic disorders like hysteria. During the therapy sessions, the patients would talk about their dreams. Freud would analyze not only the manifest content (what the dreamer remembers) of the dreams, but the disguise that caused the repressions of the idea. During our dreams, the decision making part of personality’s defenses are lowered allowing some of the repressed material to become more aware in a distorted form. He distinguished between
In order to examine the titular character and his desire, you must first understand the underlying concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The Lacanian school of psychology is a stark departure from the earlier Freudian school of psychology as it is concerned with the relationship to culture as opposed to biology (Eagleton 142). The main tenet of this ideology, according to Lacan in the eleventh of his seminars, states that humans are born into a condition of ‘lack’ (IX). This ‘lack’ is to mean an absence of something important. This object is referred to as the ‘real’, which can in turn described as the existence we inhabited before birth (Eagleton 161). According to these ideals, the ultimate goal in life is to chase after the ‘real’ by finding ‘signifiers’ that signify the ‘real’ (Eagleton 161).This means that throughout your life you will try and find the ‘real’ you once had using the different ‘signifiers’ that are encountered acting as waypoints on the journey to your ‘desire’.
Freud, Sigmund, James Strachey, and Peter Gay. An Outline of Psycho-analysis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Print.
Sigmund Freud created strong theories in science and medicine that are still studied today. Freud was a neurologist who proposed many distinctive theories in psychiatry, all based upon the method of psychoanalysis. Some of his key concepts include the ego/superego/id, free association, trauma/fantasy, dream interpretation, and jokes and the unconscious. “Freud remained a determinist throughout his life, believing that all vital phenomena, including psychological phenomena like thoughts, feelings and phantasies, are rigidly determined by the principle of cause and effect” (Storr, 1989, p. 2). Through the discussion of those central concepts, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis becomes clear as to how he construed human character.
One of Freud's major contributions was his appreciation of unconscious processes in people’s lives. According to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, the dream images and their symbolic messages can be observed as one's fulfilled wis...
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
Freud, Sigmund. An Outline of Psycho-Analysis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1969.
works of Sigmund Freud. Ed James Stachey. Trans. James Strac hey. London: Hogarth press, 1961. 1-19. Print.
The longevity of success using psychoanalysis becomes a testimony to Freud’s in-depth study of the human mind. His forty plus years of work in the field were spent on the development of the main principles of psychoanalysis along with the techniques and methods used by the analyst. His work was furthered by his daughter and later adopted then adapted by Erikson. What seemed so revolutionary in the 1890’s and beyond has now become widely accepted by most all schools of psychological thought and its study.