Freud (an Introduction); Using Psychology in your Writing

EQ: What is Psychology & Psychotherapy? What contributions/concepts did Sigmund Freud make to the field of Psychology & Psychotherapy? How can a writer use psychology to understand herself or her characters?

This morning, after Radezia's presentation on race, please watch the following videos: Intro to Psychology & Psychotherapy. As you watch please take notes on key points in the video on your KWL charts. Use the back of the form to take notes on Sigmund Freud. These notes are due at the end of class today and may guide you as you study this topic.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and another video on him.

Freud in a nutshell:

Freud created "Freudian Psychology" (psychoanalysis): interpreting what people say and do in order to figure out what their root problems are.

Freudian psychology is used by literary critics using psychoanalytical criticism. In order to use this type of criticism, you need a basic understanding of Freud's key concepts.

Freud believed that psychological desires influence the forming of a personality.

Theory of Unconscious:
The part of the mind that thinks and feels without you being aware of these thoughts and feelings is called the UNCONSCIOUS.
The UNCONSCIOUS is comprised of 3 sections: The Ego, the Id, and the Superego.

1. The Ego is the self
2. The Id is the animalistic or primitive side of the unconscious.
3. The Superego is the control

Dreams are one way of communicating with the unconscious. They are coded messages mailed to your conscious self.

Freud also stated that:

We all have desires.
Sometimes the self cannot admit that it wants certain things, because we all learn (usually during infancy) that some things are bad for us.
As a result, the mind REPRESSES (repression) or hides these desires in the unconscious until they resurface as expensive psychoanalysis bills.
In general, most repressed desires are sexual in nature.

We are sexually motivated from birth. Freud divided people into three major developmental stages:

1. Oral (infancy to about 1 year old)
2. Anal (2-3 years)
3. Genital (until about adulthood)

Freud had two major principles:

1. Pleasure Principal: we pursue pleasure. From the moment we're born, we want to be comforted, fed, etc. This pleasure seeking can be both physical and emotional.
2. Reality Principle: You can't always get what you want. Sometimes you have to alter your instinctual behavior to get what you want. Often this leads to supression.

These two principles combine to affect our personalities and make us who we are.
Jokes, dreams, myths, compulsions, obsessions, fetishes, hysterical fits, etc. all are part of our repressed desires, says Freud.

Two Famous Complexes:

Oedipus Complex: A desire to get rid of one's father and "marry" one's mother.
Virtually all men deal with this repressed desire, says Freud.
A male child develops an Oedipus complex as a result of having to compete with their fathers for their mother's attention/affection. They have not learned to accept their fathers' authority and are still dependent on the mother.

Girls go through the Electra Complex - basically the same thing, but reversed gender roles: daughter wants father, etc.

Well, well. More about Freudian disorders & defense mechanisms next class. Let's recap some key concepts on Freud. Call off a number 1-3. Get into your group's number and discuss the key information you learned in today's class about Freud. Now is the time to test what you remember, what you learned, etc. If your group has questions--answer them. If everyone knows and remembers everything fine, but together come up with a discussion question--perhaps linking Freud to your own lives or our culture--then use the notecard to ask an intelligent discussion question about the material for the class to discuss next time--we'll cover these questions next class. Turn in your index card.

Then it's off to the lab to do the following:

1. Take a personality test for yourself--OR...take a personality test for one of your characters in a story you are writing or have written. Pretend to be that character and answer as your character would answer. You might get to know her or him better. This can be helpful in fleshing out your character's backstory. Go ahead and try it!

2. Watch the psychology videos and take some notes if you care to remember any of this. Perhaps it was all a dream anyway. What does that say about you?

3. After taking your personality test, work on revising a story or creating a new one about yourself (using the test to reflect). Use some of what you learned today in a short story, poem, essay, or play/scene. Use your time in the lab (whatever we have left today) to write. [If you have drafts for me from last week, please turn those in!] The Standard Creative Writing Rubric applies to the drafts you create.

Personality tests
Personality test #1
Personality test #2
Jungian Personality Test

Psychology videos:
Rorschach & Freudians
Consciousness
Cognition

HOMEWORK: Read the rest of the psychology packet. Take notes, annotate, and/or create questions on the topic for next class. Keep writing or revising your story/poem, etc. you worked on today in the lab.