Psychoanalytic Theory Critical Approaches

20 there are many branches of theory that can be used to analyze one’s personality and identity, and one of it is psychodynamic theories. Psychodynamic theories of personality stress the importance of motives, emotions, and other internal forces as consequences of one’s interaction towards his or her environment Davidoff, 1987: 443. These theories include the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, and other psychologists. And those ideas are based on the assumption that an individual’s personality and reactions at any given time are the product of the interaction between the conscious- unconscious mind and environment. Erikson stresses social implications in psychodynamic theories. In Erikson’s view 1963: 266, people who lack a sense of personal identity have difficulty establishing close relationships. Both of Freud and Erikson cover their theories with personality development described in some developmental stages of the five stages oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages as described in psychoanalytical theory Davidoff, 1987: 451. From another source taken from http:plato.stanford.eduentriesphenomenology accessed on 22 November 2007, psychodynamics, also known as dynamic psychology, is defining as the study of the interrelationship of various parts of the mind, personality, or psyche as they relate to mental, emotional, or motivational forces especially at the unconscious level. It is the study of human behavior from the point of view of motivation and drives, depending largely on the functional significance of emotion, and based on the assumption that an individuals total personality and reactions at any given time are the product of the interaction between their consciousunconscious 21 mind, genetic constitution and their environment In conducting this study, psychodynamic theories are used to analyze the two main characters’ personalities deeply. Factors involved in psychodynamic are usually divided into two types. First, Interaction of Emotional Forces: the interaction of the emotional and motivational forces that affect behavior and mental states, especially on a subconscious level. Second, Inner Forces Affecting Behavior: the study of the emotional and motivational forces that affect behavior and states of mind. And there is relationship between psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theory. A focus in psychodynamic theory is the connection among the emotional experiences, motivation, and desires in the Id, Ego, and Superego. On the other words, psychodynamic focuses on the dynamic interaction between the Id, Ego, and Superego that analyzed in psychoanalytic theory also. And psychoanalytic theory also assumes that personality development is as dynamic psychological conflicts that are resolved Davidoff, 1987: 444. In psychodynamic analysis, the dynamics of the personality is the main object which relates to conflict, anxiety, mechanisms of defense, and psychic energy Mischel, 1976: 33. In conflict which exists between people and environment, a person comes to incorporate the societal code by which he is raised through a process of internalizing parental characteristics. Anxiety is a state of painful tension and people seek to reduce it. And there are three types of anxiety: Neurotic anxiety a person fears that his instinct will get out of control and cause a punishment, Moral anxiety a person feels guilty about unacceptable thing he has done, and Reality 22 anxiety the fear of real dangers in the external world. Then Mechanisms of defense are developed to avoid anxiety and to come to terms with the instinctual impulse or reaction serving as disguises through which a person hides his motives and conflicts from himself as well as from others Mischel, 1976: 34. And according to Mischel’s view, Psychic energy is the essence of motives transformation, the objects at which a person directs and expresses the manner in form of energy or libido attached onto aspects of the internal and external environment 36. Thus, the character’s personality development can be analyzed through the character’s reactions in facing conflict that involve emotional experience.

3. Phenomenological Theory

This theory is another branch of personality theories. It comes from the ideas of some psychologists. Phenomenology can be defined as the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view http:plato.stanford.eduentriesphenomenology accessed on 22 November 2007. As Mischel said in his book, Introduction to Personality, one perceives the interpretation of the self as a result of interaction with the environment that can influence his perception and behavior – as strong or weak, and then may affect how he perceives the rest of his world. Therefore, the experiences of the self become invested with values which may become the result of direct experience with the environment or may be taken from others. According to Husserl Lauer, 1958: 17, phenomenology is an attempt to examine each act of consciousness, seeking to 23 discover in each its essence. They may be things or thoughts, persons or events, categories or states of affairs, or they may be mental constructs such as numbers or geometrical figures. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality the directedness of experience toward things in the world, the property of consciousness that it is a consciousness of or about something, which is directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. The most popular idea comes from Carl R. Rogers who assumes that the best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual itself Rogers, 1951: 494. And behavior depends on how one perceives the world, that behavior is the result of events as they are perceived and interpreted by the individual. According to Husserl http:plato.stanford.eduentriesphenomenology accessed on 22 November 2007, phenomenology studies the structure of various types of experience ranging from perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, and volition to bodily awareness, embodied action, and social activity, including linguistic activity. In recent philosophy of mind, the term phenomenology is often restricted to the characterization of sensory qualities of seeing, hearing, etc.: what it is like to have sensations of various kinds. It is addressing the meaning things have in people’s experiences, notably, the significance of objects, events, tools, the flow of time, the self, and others, as these things arise and are experienced in people’s life-world”. And there is a tendency of people to develop all their capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance themselves Rogers, 1959: 196. Therefore, the