Discuss and evaluate Freud’s view that the study of the unconscious leads to a better understanding of human behaviour
1.0. INTRODUCTION
Human behaviour is a direct manifestation of biological, psychological, sociological, humanistic, and spiritual aspects of a human being (Understanding Human Behaviour and its Existence nd).These five aspects interact with one another, in a physical and non-physical manner, to produce a person’s tendency or characteristic behaviour. In other words, the physical biological aspects of a person exert influences on the non-physical psychological, sociological, humanistic, and spiritual aspects of him or her to produce a set of influences that make the one in question think, speak and act in a particular way. This “particular way” of thinking, speaking and acting is the person’s behaviour. However, one might want to ask: What makes these physical and non-physical “interact” differently in different people? That is to say, how do human beings come to have behaviours and why do different human beings have different behaviours?
Answers to these significant and investigative questions are in part offered by Freud’s view of the unconscious part of the human mind (the unconscious part as distinct from the conscious part). Freud classified the unconscious part of the mind into three parts: the id, the ego and the super-ego Wagner, KV 2009). He proposed that these three parts interact within a person to determine his or her tendencies, judgement, choices, thinking, and therefore his or her behaviour. Freud was not, however, suggesting that human behaviour is determined by the unconscious only, for the ego and the super-ego encompass both the conscious and the unconscious minds (Wagner 2009, KV 2009)
In an attempt to answer the above two questions, this essay will discuss and evaluate Freud’s proposition on the relationship between the unconscious and human behaviour.
2.0. FREUD’S THEORY ON THE UNCONSCIOUS
2.1. THE ID: According to Freud, the “id” is the part of the unconscious which, “driven by the pleasure principle…, strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs” ( Wagner, KV 2009). It is the part of the human mind that lies at the centre of all instinctive pressure, for instance, the pressure of hunger, thirst and sex. It begins with an urgent call for fulfilment of these urges and ends with their fulfilment. The “id” is neither reasonable nor unreasonable, for it can urge a person to the satisfaction of his or her instincts in situations where it is clearly impossible or unrealistic to seek to express and fulfil the instincts, for instance, the urge to express and satisfy thirst where there is obviously no portable drinking water. It can also urge the individual to gratification in quite realistic situations.
2.2. THE EGO: Belonging to both the conscious and unconscious parts of the human mind, the ego is the realistic part of the mind (This essay is concerned with the effects of the ego on the unconscious.) Unlike the id , the ego is capable of assessing the possibilities and impossibilities of satisfying instinctive urges by considering practical circumstances and situations as well as the benefits and social appropriateness of the fulfilling the urges (Wagner, KV 2009). The ego therefore “screens” and “sifts” the urges of the id, deciding whether to allow the gratification of urges or whether to “modify” these urges before allowing their gratification. It also decides how and when to allow fulfilment of urges. Where the ego decides that satisfying them will be unrealistic, it relieves the pressure the Id exerts for gratification by finding “an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id’s primary process [i.e. by its pressure for the satisfaction of instinctive urges].” (ibid)
2.3. THE SUPEREGO: Also belonging to both the conscious and unconscious parts of the human mind. The superego is the active storehouse of the individual’s conscience as well as his or her moral and social values (ibid). Working coordinatedly with the id and the ego, the superego assesses the decisions of the ego beyond considerations of practicality or impracticality, and considers the rightness or wrongness of the instinctive urges of id against the moral and social values of the person considered. Thus while according to the ego, it might be “realistic” to satisfy the urges of the ego by accepting food from a beggar on a lonely road, the superego, acting according to its conscience and moral values, might forbid accepting such food. Conscience in this context “includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society” and that lead to “bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt or remorse” (Wagner, KV 2009).
2.4. THE INTERACTION OF THE ID, THE EGO AND THE SUPEREGO: From the above descriptions, the interaction of the three sections of the unconscious can be outlined as follows:
Responding to instinctive pressure, the id, so to speak, makes a “demand” upon an individual ( the person whose unconscious mind is being considered) to satisfy the instinctive urge. However, because the individual has a brain and the capacity to think and consider, his ego “considers” the “demand” against the practical realities around the individual, to decide whether it will be proper or improper to gratify the “demand” of the Id. This “demand” is a pressure upon the person (as in the pressure of acute hunger or for sex); therefore, the ego also has the duty of managing the pressure where it is impossible to gratify the pressure at the moment. Further upward in the ladder of rationality is the superego which in turn examines the “judgements” of the ego against the moral and social values as well as the conscience of the individual in question in order to decide the moral or social appropriateness of the urge and of its satisfaction at the moment, where the ego considers the urge of the id satisfiable in the current situations and circumstances.
3.0. HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
The interaction of the Freud’s three components of the unconscious offers a possibility of studying human behaviour and of understanding it better, because it draws attention to the “unseen” forces that determine human action and inaction. Human action and inaction are the equivalent of why a human will decide to express and try to satisfy his or her instinctive urges, and why he will decide not to satisfy them. Human action and inaction can then be said to constitute human behaviour.
Freud postulated that the unconscious obeys “the principle of psychic determinism, which holds that human thoughts, feelings, and impulses, rather than being random, are linked in a system of causally related phenomena, behind which lies some reason or meaning” (Encarta 2005). Freud therefore held that “some reason or meaning” determine and connect conscious and unconscious human thoughts, feelings and impulses. Conscious and unconscious thoughts, feeling and impulses, however, as is shown above, arise to a large extent from the interaction of the id, ego and superego. Therefore, the “reason and meaning” that lie behind and connect thoughts, feelings and impulses must entirely or partially to a significant extent, be the force of the interaction of the three components of the unconscious.
Thoughts, feelings and impulses always underlie behaviour (Understanding Human Behaviour and its Existence nd). Consequently, the study of the unconscious, through an observation of the interaction of the id, the ego and the superego, will afford a better understanding of human behaviour.
“A person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage the pressure” of the conflicts that can easily arise among the id, the ego and the superego (Wagner, KV 2009). It can therefore be said that the behaviour of an individual is the resultant effect of the relative strength of his id, his ego and his superego, that is, the resultant effect of the ability of his superego to “control and manage” his id and ego. This controlling and managing ability naturally vary from individual to individual, and therefore, explain why there are differences in human behaviour. For instance, a very realistic, self-controlled, moral-minded and very socially well-adjusted individual must generally speaking have a superego with a strong controlling and managing ability. His or her superego will not readily indulge the urges and desires of the id and ego, but will typically consider them very carefully against moral and social values, against the likely consequences of satisfying such urges, and against his or her conscience. Only when such examinations have given the individual cause to adjudge the urge properly does the consideration of the ego come into play; that is, considerations of practicality or impracticality of fulfilling the urge. Then, if the ego, which is essentially the individual’s intellect and intelligence, decides that it is possible and realistic to gratify the urge, then only will the id have its way—totally or partially, depending on the judgement of the ego and superego. This interaction will mark the individual with this kind of superego strength as being self-controlled, self-respecting and rational in behaviour.
In contrast, where the superego is weak in relation to the ego and the id, then the ego may distastefully indulge the urges of the id wherever the ego finds a possibility of satisfying the urges; or the id might even bypass the ego and go ahead to drive the individual to unrealistic indulgences of crude instincts. Examples of this psychological disposition can arguably be seen in drunkards, rapists and maniacs of every kind. Such people thus brand themselves as being of loose, lousy, irresponsible or brutish behaviour.
Thus “Our behavior is influenced by not only events around us but biological predisposition as well.” (Understanding Human Behaviour and its Existence nd). The biological predisposition is closely connected with “the psychological, sociological, humanistic, and spiritual” aspects of the human being, which all determine behaviour.
4.0. CONCLUSION
Because human behaviour arises not only from physically visible factors and influences, but mainly from non-physical forces which interact with the physical ones, human behaviour can be explained by the working of the unconscious part of the human mind. The unconscious part plays a significant role in determining the human thoughts, feelings and impulses, all of which manifest in and inform human behaviour. Therefore, a close study of the mechanism of interaction of the parts of the unconscious does indeed leads to a better and useful understanding of human behaviour.
References
Counselling Philosophy, Understanding Human Behaviour and its Existence [online] (Cited 1 February 2009) Available from <URL:http://www.exrx.net/Psychology/HumanBehavior.html>
ENCARTA 05 ENCYCLOPAEDIA (2004) CD-ROM, Microsoft, Redmond, WA
Wagner, KV (2009) The Conscious and Unconscious Mind, the Structure if the mind According to Freud [online] (Cited 1 February 2009) Available from <URL: http://www.psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm>