Consciousness & Unconsciousness: Some of Freud's Principles
Period 1: Shortened Lab
Use the time in the lab (until 8:00) to read the handout on Dystopian/Utopian fiction. Then proceed with the following:
READ & UNDERSTAND:
UTOPIA: In 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia--a fictional/political satire that described a perfect or ideal setting (in his case a perfect island in the Atlantic--yep, he was hinting at the "new world"). The word Utopia literally means "no place". It was meant to satirize and comment on More's own English society, but our forefathers--those dead white guys who established our government were familiar with it. Religions often refer to an utopian state (usually achieved by death or crossing over into heaven) to satisfy the masses. Hope is an excellent human trait.
The book Utopia by Sir Thomas More is divided into two parts: a dialogue through correspondence (that's like texting a friend back and forth on one topic) about all the horrible things happening in Europe, and in the second part of the book, a discourse with protagonist Raphael Hythlodaeus--a fictional traveler who visits the fictional island of Utopia.
Utopia, though, might not be exactly that for us. Sir Thomas More says this perfect world would have households that employed slaves, that wives would be subservient to their husbands and never complain, there would be no personal belongings--as everything is shared, travel is allowed only by passport, and there is a welfare state (with free medical care), euthanasia would be permissible, priests would be able to marry, divorce would be allowed, but pre-marital sex would be punished. There is, in Thomas More's Utopia, no privacy.
Let all that sink in.
In the next 10-15 minutes (working alone or with a partner) create a perfect world or society. Give your fictional world a name. Feel free to draw your world on the paper provided. Be prepared to share your "vision" of a perfect world/place with the class next week.
Questions to consider:
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?
As we discuss the topic of Sigmund Freud, please practice taking notes. You will use your notes in a creative writing and analysis assignment later.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
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. (i.e., analysis of a text through the lens of psychological theories). 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.
Freud also stated that:
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.
More Freudian Theory: (hang on to your pencils...sometimes a pencil is just a pencil...)
Here's a bit more information about Freud's theories. Feel free to research these links as much as you'd like to get smarter. To learn more about Freud as a person and historical figure, click there.
Mental Defenses
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the concept of self-actualization
Hyperbole & a Half by Allie Brosh
Please read and examine the psychologists and theories in the packet provided for you. See HOMEWORK below.
CLASS/HOMEWORK (do some now, finish during the week):
1. Watch the psychology videos (see below) 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? In any case, use what you learn to write an essay (even a fictional essay) or poem or play scene or story or...you get the idea wrestling with one or more of these psychological ideas. Use the packet o' info for similar creativity. Dust off your creative brain and use it.
2. Write a new story or revise one about yourself. See it's so important it sounds just like #1 above. Write, write, write, write.
3. Work on the dystopian/utopian project idea with your partner. We'll come back to this project when we return from mid-term week.
Psychology videos:
HOMEWORK: Motivate yourself to complete the novel you chose (Brave New World or A Clockwork Orange) by end of next week (Feb. 2). Write short summaries for each chapter to help you remember main plot events, characters, or themes in the author's writing. You will be asked to evaluate the book you read--in which you may use your chapter summary notes to assist your endeavors.
- If you have anything else to print out for your portfolio, print it out now!
- Apply James' theory of "stream of consciousness" to the chapters you were to have read for homework. If you didn't read, please take 5 minutes and surf the internet for a summary of the chapters from the book you ignored. On the index card, connect these theories of the consciousness (see handout on William James and Pierre Janet) with chapters 2-3 of your reading. Explain how events/characters/styles or ideas for these chapters touch upon key ideas in the articles you read. Turn these index cards in for participation credit!
William James (the father of psychology): Consciousness is a process, not a thing. Its prime purpose is to stay alive. Consciousness is a stream of associated thoughts ("transitive parts--moving" and "substantive"--resting.) Thoughts in our consciousness form "the self". The empirical self is connected to our behavior, and might consist of the spiritual self, material self, and the social self to create our SELF. "True beliefs" are those that we find useful. "Old truths" are replaced by "new truths". James' work eventually influences the behaviorist movement in psychology.
Pierre Janet: studied "disassociation"--the separation or "splitting" of mental processes in the consciousness. Janet focused on the area of multiple personality disorders or dissociative identity disorder s(schizophrenia).
READ & UNDERSTAND:
UTOPIA: In 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia--a fictional/political satire that described a perfect or ideal setting (in his case a perfect island in the Atlantic--yep, he was hinting at the "new world"). The word Utopia literally means "no place". It was meant to satirize and comment on More's own English society, but our forefathers--those dead white guys who established our government were familiar with it. Religions often refer to an utopian state (usually achieved by death or crossing over into heaven) to satisfy the masses. Hope is an excellent human trait.
The book Utopia by Sir Thomas More is divided into two parts: a dialogue through correspondence (that's like texting a friend back and forth on one topic) about all the horrible things happening in Europe, and in the second part of the book, a discourse with protagonist Raphael Hythlodaeus--a fictional traveler who visits the fictional island of Utopia.
Utopia, though, might not be exactly that for us. Sir Thomas More says this perfect world would have households that employed slaves, that wives would be subservient to their husbands and never complain, there would be no personal belongings--as everything is shared, travel is allowed only by passport, and there is a welfare state (with free medical care), euthanasia would be permissible, priests would be able to marry, divorce would be allowed, but pre-marital sex would be punished. There is, in Thomas More's Utopia, no privacy.
Let all that sink in.
In the next 10-15 minutes (working alone or with a partner) create a perfect world or society. Give your fictional world a name. Feel free to draw your world on the paper provided. Be prepared to share your "vision" of a perfect world/place with the class next week.
Questions to consider:
- What would make our world better?
- Who would get to live in it?
- Who would govern it?
- How would these improvements be possible?
- What has to happen to make these changes?
- What resources would be needed?
- How would these resources be protected or replicated?
- How would our beliefs or minds need to change to allow this better world to occur?
- How would this world be sustained?
- How would people have to behave?
- What would people have to believe?
- How would this world answer the problems of poverty, freedom, equality, education, economic class, death, disease, health or diet, crime, invasion, wars, or attacks from outsiders, etc.?
Period 1/2: Classroom: Freudian Theory
As we discuss the topic of Sigmund Freud, please practice taking notes. You will use your notes in a creative writing and analysis assignment later.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
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. (i.e., analysis of a text through the lens of psychological theories). 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 selfDreams are one way of communicating with the unconscious. They are coded messages mailed to your conscious self.
2. The Id is the animalistic or primitive side of the unconscious.
3. The Superego is the control
Freud also stated that:
We are sexually motivated from birth. Freud divided people into three major developmental stages:
- 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.
1. Oral (infancy to about 1 year old)Freud had two major principles:
2. Anal (2-3 years)
3. Genital (until about adulthood)
1. Pleasure Principle: 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.These two principles combine to affect our personalities and make us who we are.
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 suppression.
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.
More Freudian Theory: (hang on to your pencils...sometimes a pencil is just a pencil...)
Here's a bit more information about Freud's theories. Feel free to research these links as much as you'd like to get smarter. To learn more about Freud as a person and historical figure, click there.
Mental Defenses
Repression: When painful memories or anxiety or negative thoughts occur, repression is the process of pushing or keeping them out of the mind. Be aware a person is not AWARE of Repression, as it is a subconscious event. The goal in psychoanalysis is that these repressed memories or thoughts break through to the conscious level where they can be worked on and resolved.Need a little motivation this morning?
Suppression: Similar to repression, except that this is in the conscious mind. A person chooses not to think about a desire, wish, etc. instead of seeking for it. (Puts it out of the mind). We do this often when we want to change the subject of a conversation because its too difficult to bear, or if the topic makes us uncomfortable.
Projection: when someone consciously experiences an unconscious drive, wish, or feeling as though it belongs to someone else. A person with intense unconscious anger may project that anger onto her friend and think it is her friend who is angry, for example.
Rationalization: to explain away anxiety provoking thoughts or feelings. Usually a person who cannot face an aspect of himself, may rationalize his actions as being normal or okay.
Reaction Formation: A person says or does the exact opposite of how he or she really feels. A desire or wish may be unacceptable, so this is turned into its exact opposite. We see a lot of this sort of thing when evangelists or preachers go on about hating homosexuality, then later are caught engaging in that sort of behavior. Before the psyche breaks down, the individual is using reaction formation to keep unwanted desires at bay.
Displacement: When an unacceptable desire is redirected toward a more acceptable alternative. Instead of unconsciously desiring sex, a woman might buy a warehouse full of shoes. Shoes are, of course, a symbol for a vagina (something that allows something else to fit into it...)
Sublimation: Like displacement, when you sublimate a desire you turn unacceptable urges into their opposites - an acceptable outlet for ones feelings/desires. Artists often do this when they channel their rage or anger into their art or music. Sylvia Plath is a good example of how her disturbed subconscious bubbled up into her poetry. In sublimation, for example, sexual frustration might end up as an angry heavy-metal album...what might we say about Lady Gaga or Marilyn Manson?
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the concept of self-actualization
Hyperbole & a Half by Allie Brosh
Please read and examine the psychologists and theories in the packet provided for you. See HOMEWORK below.
CLASS/HOMEWORK (do some now, finish during the week):
1. Watch the psychology videos (see below) 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? In any case, use what you learn to write an essay (even a fictional essay) or poem or play scene or story or...you get the idea wrestling with one or more of these psychological ideas. Use the packet o' info for similar creativity. Dust off your creative brain and use it.
2. Write a new story or revise one about yourself. See it's so important it sounds just like #1 above. Write, write, write, write.
3. Work on the dystopian/utopian project idea with your partner. We'll come back to this project when we return from mid-term week.
Psychology videos:
- Rorschach & Freudians
- Consciousness
- Cognition
- How to Train Your Brain: Behavioral Psychology
- The Power of Motivation
HOMEWORK: Motivate yourself to complete the novel you chose (Brave New World or A Clockwork Orange) by end of next week (Feb. 2). Write short summaries for each chapter to help you remember main plot events, characters, or themes in the author's writing. You will be asked to evaluate the book you read--in which you may use your chapter summary notes to assist your endeavors.
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