Theories of Psychoanalysis and their Criticism

Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy that aims to release pent-up or repressed emotions and
memories in or to lead the client to catharsis, or healing (McLeod, 2014). In other words, the goal of
psychoanalysis is to bring what exists at the unconscious or subconscious level up to consciousness.

This goal is accomplished through talking to another person about the big questions in life, the things
that matter, and diving into the complexities that lie beneath the simple-seeming surface.

The Founder of Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and His Concepts:

It’s very likely you’ve heard of the influential but controversial founder of psychoanalysis: Sigmund
Freud. Freud was born in Austria and spent most of his childhood and adult life in Vienna (Sigmund
Freud Biography, 2017). He entered medical school and trained to become a neurologist, earning a
medical degree in 1881.

Soon after his graduation, he set up a private practice and began treating patients with
psychological disorders. His attention was captured by a colleague’s intriguing experience with a patient;
the colleague was Dr. Josef Breuer and his patient was the famous “Anna O.,” who suffered from physical
symptoms with no apparent physical cause. Dr. Breuer found that her symptoms abated when he helped
her recover memories of traumatic experiences that she had repressed, or hidden from her conscious
mind. This case sparked Freud’s interest in the unconscious mind and spurred the development of some
of his most influential ideas.

Models of the Mind:

Perhaps the most impactful idea put forth by Freud was his model of the human mind. His model
divides the mind into three layers, or regions:

Conscious: This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and focus live;

Preconscious (sometimes called the subconscious): This is the home of everything we can recall or
retrieve from our memory;

Unconscious: At the deepest level of our minds resides a repository of the processes that drive our
behavior, including primitive and instinctual desires (McLeod, 2013).

Later, Freud posited a more structured model of the mind, one that can coexist with his original
ideas about consciousness and unconsciousness.

Freud's Iceberg Model of the Mind:

In this model, there are three metaphorical parts to the mind:

Id: The id operates at an unconscious level and focuses solely on instinctual drives and desires. Two
biological instincts make up the id, according to Freud: eros, or the instinct to survive that drives us to
engage in life-sustaining activities, and thanatos, or the death instinct that drives destructive, aggressive,
and violent behavior.

Ego: The ego acts as both a conduit for and a check on the id, working to meet the id’s needs in a socially
appropriate way. It is the most tied to reality and begins to develop in infancy;

Superego: The superego is the portion of the mind in which morality and higher principles reside,
encouraging us to act in socially and morally acceptable ways (McLeod, 2013).

Defense Mechanisms:

Freud believed these three parts of the mind are in constant conflict because each part has a different
primary goal. Sometimes, when the conflict is too much for a person to handle, his or her ego may
engage in one or many defense mechanisms to protect the individual.

These defense mechanisms include:

Repression: The ego pushes disturbing or threatening thoughts out of one’s consciousness;

Denial: The ego blocks upsetting or overwhelming experiences from awareness, causing the individual to
refuse to acknowledge or believe what is happening;

Projection: The ego attempts to solve discomfort by attributing the individual’s unacceptable thoughts,
feelings, and motives to another person;

Displacement: The individual satisfies an impulse by acting on a substitute object or person in a socially
unacceptable way (e.g., releasing frustration directed toward your boss on your spouse instead);

Regression: As a defense mechanism, the individual moves backward in development in order to cope
with stress (e.g., an overwhelmed adult acting like a child);

Sublimation: Similar to displacement, this defense mechanism involves satisfying an impulse by acting
on a substitute but in a socially acceptable way (e.g., channeling energy into work or a constructive
hobby) (McLeod, 2013).

The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development

Finally, one of the most enduring concepts associated with Freud is his psychosexual stages. Freud
proposed that children develop in five distinct stages, each focused on a different source of pleasure:

First Stage: Oral—the child seeks pleasure from the mouth (e.g., sucking);

Second Stage: Anal—the child seeks pleasure from the anus (e.g., withholding and expelling feces);

Third Stage: Phallic—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or clitoris (e.g., masturbation);

Fourth Stage: Latent—the child has little or no sexual motivation;

Fifth Stage: Genital—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or vagina (e.g., sexual intercourse; McLeod,
2013).

Freud hypothesized that an individual must successfully complete each stage to become a
psychologically healthy adult with a fully formed ego and superego. Otherwise, individuals may become
stuck or “fixated” in a particular stage, causing emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood
(McLeod, 2013).

The Interpretation of Dreams

Another well-known concept from Freud was his belief in the significance of dreams. He believed
that analyzing one’s dreams can give valuable insight into the unconscious mind.

In 1900, Freud published the book The Interpretation of Dreams in which he outlined his
hypothesis that the primary purpose of dreams was to provide individuals with wish fulfillment, allowing
them to work through some of their repressed issues in a situation free from consciousness and the
constraints of reality (Sigmund Freud Biography, n.d.). In this book, he also distinguished between the
manifest content (the actual dream) and the latent content (the true or hidden meaning behind the
dream).

Jungian Psychology: Carl Jung:

Freud’s work was continued, although in altered form, by his student Carl Jung, whose
particular brand of psychology is known as analytical psychology. Jung’s work formed the basis for most
modern psychological theories and concepts. Jung and Freud shared an interest in the unconscious and
worked together in their early days, but a few key disagreements ended their partnership and allowed
Jung to fully devote his attention to his new psychoanalytic theory.

Criticism:

The three main differences between Freudian psychology and Jungian (or analytical) psychology are
related to:

Nature and Purpose of the Libido: Jung saw libido as a general source of psychic energy that motivated
a wide range of human behaviors—from sex to spirituality to creativity—while Freud saw it as psychic
energy that drives only sexual gratification;

Nature of the Unconscious: While Freud viewed the unconscious as a storehouse for an individual’s
socially unacceptable repressed desires, Jung believed it was more of a storehouse for the individual’s
repressed memories and what he called the collective or transpersonal unconscious.

Causes of Behavior: Freud saw our behavior as being caused solely by past experiences, most notably
those from childhood, while Jung believed our future aspirations have a significant impact on our
behavior as well (McLeod, 2014).

Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Jacques Lacan:

 In the mid to late 1900s, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan called for a return to Freud’s
work, but with a renewed focus on the unconscious and greater attention paid to language. Lacan drew
heavily from his knowledge of linguistics and believed that language was a much more important piece
of the developmental puzzle than Freud assumed.

Criticism:

There are three key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis that set it apart from Freud’s original talk
therapy:

The Real:

While Freud saw the symbolic as being indicative of a person’s unconscious mind, particularly in
dreams, Lacan theorized that “the real” is actually the most foundational level of the human mind.
According to Lacan, we exist in “the real” and experience anxiety because we cannot control it. Unlike
the symbolic, which Freud proposed could be accessed through psychoanalysis, the real cannot be
accessed. Once we learn and understand language, we are severed completely from the real. He
describes it as the state of nature, in which there exists nothing but a need for food, sex, safety, etc. (The
Real, 2002).

Symbolic Order:

Lacan’s symbolic order is one of three orders that concepts, ideas, thoughts, and feelings can be placed
into. Our desires and emotions live in the symbolic order, and this is where they are interpreted, if
possible. Concepts like death and absence may be integrated into the symbolic order because we have at
least some sense of understanding of them, but they may not be interpreted fully.

Mirror Stage:

Lacan proposed that there is an important stage of development not covered by Freud called the
“mirror stage.” This aptly named stage is initiated when infants look into a mirror at their own image.
Most infants become fascinated with the image they see in the mirror, and may even try to interact with
it. But eventually, they realize that the image they are seeing is of themselves. Once they realize this key
fact, they incorporate what they see into their sense of “I,” or sense of self. At this young stage, the
image they see may not correspond to their inner understanding of their physical self, in which case the
image becomes an ideal that they strive for as they develop (Hewitson, 2010).