Focusing on the conscious and the unconscious, I will overview the Freudian theory of personality, and I want to share my thought for it. The basic knowledge of psychoanalytic theory is important to apply the theory to literary study. I will write examples of how to apply psychoanalytic theory to literary study in my future blog entries.
In this article, I will explain an infant's stage of mental development after overcoming the Oedipus complex.
Overcoming the Oedipus complex is the first step for the maturity of infantile development. As for the Oedipus complex, I explained in the following article:
Freud's Psychosexual Stages and the Oedipus Complex - Mutsuko Takahashi BLOG
- Superego, Ego, and Id
- The conscious and the unconscious
- Manifestations of the unconscious: Dream, Parapraxis, and Neurosis
Superego, Ego, and Id
Overcoming the Oedipus complex is triggered by the father's prohibition of incest desire which an infant feels in the unity with the mother.The father's real or imagined prohibition of incest is symbolic of all the higher authority to be later encountered; and in introjecting this patriarchal law, the child begins to form what Freud calls its "super-ego", the awesome, punitive voice of conscience within it.
What is produced through overcoming Oedipus Complex is, the unconscious and the superego.
- Unconscious: It is the place where the child repressed his/her forbidden desire.
- Superego: The child internalized father's prohibition within it.
Let's take a look at the following figure.
Freud's structural model of the psyche is classified by three strata. The superego is the ethical component of the personality that plays the critical and moralizing role. The ego is the rational part of personality dealing with the demands of reality, and mediates between the desires of the id and the superego. The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality.
The conscious and the unconscious
In the developmental process through the Oedipus complex produces the subject; however, it is a split subject which is not a coherent one since it is torn between the conscious and the unconscious. Moreover, the unconscious can always come back to the conscious domain to plague it.
Now, take a look at the following figure.
Freud's image of conscious and unconscious is: there is a line, and there is a conscious domain above the line, and the unconscious domain is below the line.
In such an image unconscious domain is repressed by borderline. However, it is not always repressed, but it sometimes breaks the boundary and invades the conscious domain. This phenomenon is appeared by the symptoms like 1) dream, 2) parapraxis, and 3) neurosis.
Manifestations of the unconscious: Dream, Parapraxis, and Neurosis
Now, let's see those three symptoms that occur as a result of the intrusion of the unconscious to the conscious domain.
1) Dream
To begin with, I will explain about "dream". The keywords are "condensation" and "displacement". Dreams for Freud are essentially symbolic fulfillment of unconscious wishes. The dream produces images and messages as latent elements. In the process of wish-fulfillment, those latent objects are "condensed" into a single statement. Alternatively, the meaning of one object can be "displaced" to another meaning which is somehow associated with the original meaning.
Thus, condensation and displacement have constantly done through the the dream-work. Those functional elements: condensation and displacement of meaning, are related to Roman Jakobson's idea for the language that perform two major operations: metaphor and metonymy. This applicability is very important in applying psychoanalytic theory to literary study; for, the psychological idea of "condensation" and "displacement is deeply related to the linguistic concept of "metaphor" and "metonymy".
For example, the idea of metaphor is parallel to "condensation", and the concept of metonymy corresponds to "displacement". Therefore, I think that the dream-work is similar to the narrative-work.
Metaphor is defined as "condensing" meanings together while metonymy is defined as "displacing" one on to another.
These elements are important to understand literary works at a deeper level, so I would like to raise some examples to briefly explain metaphor and metonymy.
At first; "metaphor".
For example, I would say, "Mr. Pedant is a dictionary". If I mean it because Mr. Pedant knows everything; it is a metaphor which is "condensation" of meaning.
Secondly, "metonymy".For example, I would say, "I love the fifth avenue". When I say that, I don't mean the street itself. What I love is not the street itself, but shops along the fifth avenue; and it is metonymy which is "displacement" of meaning. These examples are clearly understandable.
However, how about this one? "Mary is a flower". If I meant Mary is beautiful as a flower, it is a metaphor. But if I meant it because Mary's parents run a flower shop, it is metonymy. Therefore, in this case, it is difficult to distinguish which is which without knowing Mary's background.
The concept of metaphor and metonymy was this which moved the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan to comment that 'the unconscious is structured like a language'. Lacan considers a character appeared in a dream, who is a metaphorical figure, and who is a metonymic figure, and thus he tried to reinterpret Freudian theory of dream by structuralist perspective.
2) Parapraxis
Secondly, I will explain about "parapraxis". One of the major symptoms of parapraxis is slips of the tongue. As for other symptoms, misreadings, bunglings, and failures of memory are also categorized as parapraxes; those symptoms can be derived from unconscious wishes and intentions.
Let's stop for a moment and talk about my personal opinion. I personally don't like "joke" very much. Good jokes are OK; however, there are some people like to say sarcastic jokes. They might think those remarks are merely jokes, but even so, I would stay away from those people. I don't keep company with them, I don't talk to them, and I don't even look at them. In my opinion, what they say is not a joke at all, but a very truth which has come out from their unconscious domain. It is just a disguised truth taking form as a "joke". Now, I'm going back to the theory.
3) Neurosis
Third, "neurosis"; It is undeniable that we all have unconscious desires. On the other hand, we couldn't find a practical outlet for them. Under such circumstances where there is practically no outlet for the unconscious desires, the desires are forced to come out to the conscious domain; however, the desires are blocked by ego defensively. The result of this internal conflict is what Freid call neurosis.
Symptoms of neurosis are:
- Obsession (The patient cannot stop touching every lamp-post in the street.)
- Hysteria (The symptom appears and disappears depending on the mental condition of the patient. Even though there is nothing physically wrong, the patient of hysterical paralysis develops a paralyzed arm for no reason.)
- Phobia (The patient has unreasonaable fear for situations, activities, or objects, such as open spaces, some objects, certain animals, etc.)
Psychoanalysis identifies these symptoms of neurosis is traced to a patient's unsolved inner conflicts in the early developmental stages. The cause of such neurosis can also be focused on the infantile Oedipal moment. In fact, Freud denotes the Oedipus complex as the "nucleus of the neuroses".
