A Freudian Psychoanalytic Approach

A Freudian Psychoanalytic Approach

1. Freud explained Psychoanalysis as the procedure for the investigation of mental processes which are almost inaccessible any other way

   • He saw it as interpretative art
   • He explained that we resist knowing the contents of our unconscious
     • It is the hidden meanings & symbolic significance of artifacts.

2. Artifacts & The Unconscious: Freud's Topographic Hypothesis

   • Three levels of the Human Psyche: Consciousness, Pre-Conscious (material we can access & of which we are dimly aware), & the unconscious, which we cannot access without guidance from psychoanalytic trained therapists.
     • Analogy of the Iceberg
       • Consciousness is what we see above water.
       • Preconscious is what we can barely see in the water
       • Unconscious is what we cannot see.
     • These three levels have to be undertood when it comes to artifacts.
       • Unconscious: Unrecognized symbolic meanings connected to the artifact.
       • Preconsciousness: Other aspects of the artifact's functionality of which we may be aware.
       • Consciousness: What an artifact does.
       • When we analyze an artifact, we should consider the meanings it has for different levels of our psyche.
         • Ernest Dichter- "the father of motivation research"
           • His research uncovered that people often have attitudes towards objects of which they are unaware, attitudes that are hidden in the unconscious areas of their psyches.
   • Topographic Hypothesis

3. Id, Ego & Superego: Freud's Structural Hypothesis.

   • Structural Hypothesis
     • Suggests that our psyches have 3 components: an id, an ego, & a superego
       • The id provides energy, the superego provides restraint, the ego stores experiences which guides us between the id & superego.
     • The ego can employs a number of defense mechanisms to help it control the id & the superego elements in our psyches.
       • Ambivalence: a simultaneous feeling of attraction & repulsion. Avoidance: refusal to face matters that distress us. Denial: inability to accept reality of things that generate anxiety.
       • Fixation: obsesssive attachment to something, generally as result of trauma. Identification: desire to be like someone. Rationalization: offering excuses for untoward behavior.
       • Regression: individuals return to an earlier stage of development. Repression: barring certain phenomena from consciousness. Suppression: putting certain things out of mind.
     • we use rationalization to justify our longing for.
   • Charles Brenner
     • "We may say that the id comprises the psychic the psychic representatives of the drives, the ego consists of those functions which have to do with the individual's relation to his environment, & the superego comprises the moral precepts of our minds as well as our deal aspiration.

4. Symbolic Aspects of Material Culture

   • Symbolism is the act or process of representing an order or idea by a substitute object, sign, or signal.
   • Freud suggested that most of the symbolic phenomena in dreams have a masked sexual content, & this masking protects dreamers & prevents the superego from waking them.
   • Sex plays such an important role in our unconscious wishes, desires, & fantasies, & in our conscious activities we incorporate sexual symbols.
   • Geertz points our that much of our thinking is based on "significant" symbols & that we use symbols to "impose meaning" on things.

5. Sexual Development & Material Culture.

   • Freud Says we go through a number of different stages in the sexual development.
     • First year and a half-Oral
     • Around three years old-anal
     • Towards the end of the third year, it stays in the genitals.
     • Oedipus Complex towards the age of 5.

6. Conclusion

   • Psychoanalytic Theory provides us with a large number of concepts that enable us to analyze material culture in terms of the way artifacts reflect various unconscious needs & desires & relate to our psychological makeup.