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scientific studies. His goal, which he stated in the preface of a book he wrote, was “to mark out a new domain of science.” Adapted from Microsoft Encarta
Reference Library 2005 And among great developments of modern psychology, there was
Sigmund Freud who brought modern psychology into a new level of formal science with his theory of Psychoanalysis.
C. Freudian Psychoanalysis Theory
1. The Unconscious Mind
One of the most essential parts of Freudian psychoanalysis is the existence of the unconscious mind which plays an important role in building human
personality. According to Freud, people behave not entirely due to their conscious consideration but as the result of the formulation between the conscious and
unconscious mind. In his point of view, the structure of human psychological personality drive can be described as follow:
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From the illustration above, the upper part above the surface; is people’s behaviour which is implied in their daily appearances and commonly considered
as the conscious mind. But as we can see here, there are also unseen parts which located below the surface and contribute a role in shaping the whole structure.
These parts, which Freud illustrated like the unseen lower parts of a giant iceberg below, are what he recalled as the unconscious mind. Both conscious and
unconscious mind develop and affect one another which results a formula of how people will behave and take actions based on the characteristics of the dominant
feature that they have in them.
2. Id, Ego, Superego
Freudian psychoanalysis take human personality as a system which mainly consist of three major parts, they are Id, Ego, and Superego. The three is a
functional structure which affects one another and results a system which is portrayed as one’s personality.
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a. Id
Id is the oldest and the most savage form of human personality. It is the first form of the system which exists since people are born, or even before that. It
is passed to people genetically, and reacts instantly due to their biological demands. During the early infants stage, human is a pure Id. When babies are
hungry, they will cry loudly until they are fed and full regardless of the surroundings business. They act only on their biological demands, and ignore any
sociological aspects in their surrounding. In many references, id is also known to work due to the principle of
pleasure. It provides drives which on one hand will comfort and please the people, and on the other hand will stress them when there is no fulfilment of the existing
drives. It does not stop at this point yet, when the need and urge are not fulfilled in a longer period, it can jump out and affect the conscious mind. For example when
we are hungry and unable to get food for a longer period of time, we will reach the phase when we cannot think anything other than gaining food. This is when Id
bursts out and overlaps the other balancing personality construction, ego and superego.
b. Ego
Ego is the realistic part of personality which is employed by id to fulfil its urges. At early stages, ego develops from some part of id. It connects the
organism with the reality of outer world in where he lives. It then seeks the real objects to fulfil the needs and urges from id which represent an organism needs.
As in the simple case in older infants, they slowly process the things which ease
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their way of getting what they want and the things which prevent them of getting it.
Unlike Id which only understand pleasure and the demand to fulfil it, ego works based on the realistic concept. It will seek, within reality, of what the
organism needs as the satisfying device and the stress reliever. And when the required objects are unavailable, it will seek for substitutions. At this point, can be
said that ego is the part of personality which is able to differentiate between reality and fantasy. And it is also, within certain level, having the duty to carry the
stresses in case there is no mean found to fulfil what ego needs. Contrast with id which functions with the principle of pleasure, ego functions with the principle of
reality. It means that ego will adjust the amount of action done to satisfy the pleasure drives according to the real condition found in reality. Ergo, it is able to
delay, minimize, or even substitute the form of pleasure fulfilment due to the affordable means in the real world. In short, ego runs a secondary process to think
rationally of what is needed and what can be achieved in relation to the realistic environment, social environment, and cons
cience. It is the ratio of human’s personality.
c. Superego
While the two other parts concern mainly to the individual demands, superego is developed and functions as the manifestation of norms and values in
where a person live. For example, a child develops his superego through the order and restriction from his parents. From the reward and punishment that he gets, a
child learns the norms and values which exist on his surrounding. Freud
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categorize superego into two sections, conscience and ideal ego. Conscience is the part which is shaped through the results of punishment and guilt got by the child
from his wrong behaviour. And ideal ego is the result of praise and reward which is given to the child for his good behaviour from the parents or society around
him. This ideal ego will later shape self esteem and pride in people. And different from ego which holds the principle of reality, superego demands perfection in
thought, saying, and action which commonly related with social aspects. It enables people to have a self control.
Id, ego, and superego develop through experience and interaction of an individual being with the larger environment around him. The diversity and
complexity of experiences and environments create variety in human personality. The kinds of experience and environmental social issue got by a child will shape
the kinds of personality he will hold on his adulthood. As in adult, people will behave according to the dominant factor of id, ego or superego which the have. In
a larger scale, it will contribute reasonable cause of how people become good or evil, honest or hypocritical, law breaker or someone who convey norms and
values in most aspects in his life. For this case, Freud provided a theory which deals with the development of these parts and how it results in the future
adulthood. The theory is commonly known as the Dynamic Personality
Development. 3.
Dynamic Personality Development
As a scientist from 19
th
century, Freud based his thought on the law of energy. That energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed in shape
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and manifested into certain other forms. This is the foundation of his theory of Dynamic Personality Development. The inner drives and outer forces received by
a person will be extracted and transformed into a manifestation of personality system. The process however, takes time and begun very early along the person’s
first interaction with his own inner drive, and the outer surrounding environment. According to him, there are five stages in human dynamic personality
development.
a. Oral Phase
The oral Phase is the earliest stage which develops since a baby is born until he is about eighteen months. At this age, a baby will be very dependent to his
mother for his survival. Two major activities that he has everyday are breastfeeding and fell asleep within satisfaction. Therefore, his oral organ
becomes his pleasure centre. In this stage, the main form of personality which is shaped is dependency and trust in other people. This is the stage where a baby has
not yet realizes his existence as an individual being. He cannot differentiate the distinct existence between a mother and himself, or even a mother and her breast.
This can be seen fro the occurring cases where a baby sucks his own toe or wrist and thought that it was a feeding nipple. And this stage will end when the mother
stops giving breast feed to the baby. This process is assumed by psychoanalysis to be extremely difficult for baby for this is the phase where a baby has to stop his
major pleasure for the first time.
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The imbalance care at the anal phase is responsible to the various personality imperfections for people in their adulthood. Say, a baby who gets
excess fulfilment to their pleasure drive, breastfeeding in this case, will develop a receptive oral personality. This type of personality is identified with the extra
dependent attitude to the mother or the surrounding environment. Further, baby with this kind of case later on, will develop a passive behaviour which expect the
favour of others, and easily believe in people. Other example is that on baby who recently grows his teeth, their pleasure centre is located on the way they use these
teeth. Excess fulfilment on their pleasure centre at this stage, will develop an aggressive oral personality. The symptom can be identified in the people with
argumentative behaviour, the use of sarcasm, pessimistic acts in some cases, dominating, and manipulating attitude.
b. Anal Phase
The anal phase of a child happens when he is in the range of one and a half year to three years old. This is the phase when a child feels pleasure especially
related to the process of holding and excreting his feces. While at the same time, most children are familiar with “toilet training” in where they learn to do the
excreting process in an appropriate place. This is the first stage they are introduced to the surrounding environment as a distinct thing from themselves.
Thus they have to manage the balance between the drive of id which demands the urge of a relief as the result of excreting process, and the social norms which is
taught by their parents. At this stage, the role of parents in teaching them to do the excreting process appropriately plays a great role to the child’s personality
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development. Too strict teaching method on one hand, might succeed in making the child able to hold the drive of relieving the feces, while on the other hand,
shape their personality to be a neat in the term of perfectionist, economics in the term of stingy, and tendency of stubbornness. Yet, lack of attention and force
in this teaching method results a destructive, unorganized personality, impulsive, and in some cases, sadistic. Further, parents who gives more compliment to the
child which do the learning correctly will develop his pride, self esteem, and creativity.
c. Phallic Phase
The phallic Phase happens to a person when he is on the range between three to six years old. This is the phase when a child libido and sexual urge begin
to grow even though still in an abstract phase. The phenomena which happen in this stage differ between boys and girls. They are oedipal conflict in boys, and
elektra conflict in girls. Oedipal conflict occurs due to the car and protection of a mother that
makes boys idolize her and make them want to have such kind of figure for their own. The dependency of a boy to his mother develops a personality of attraction
to such kind of being. Thus, the very existence of a father in this stage is considered to be an anxiety for the boy as competitor. From the physical features,
a boy will realize the threat that he encounter along the addition of social norms, he will eventually has to accept that he is no match for his father. And at this
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phase, he learns how to let go and keeps the very picture of attraction. This identification of father and mother figure and social norms are one of the most
important phases of superego’s development. While at the boys the existence of superior threat develop their state of
personality, in the phallic phase of girls, it is the disappointment of a non- belonged material within their selves which play the role. The first loveable object
of girls is also their mother. But since during the phallic stage their main interest is genital organ, the fact that she does not find what she finds in her father or
brother, makes up her mind. This phenomenon is known as the penis envy. Therefore, she has to let go and turns her idolization from her mother to her
father. Thus she keeps the social norms and the picture of attraction along within
her personality. d.
Latent Phase
The latent phase happens when children within the age of children commonly start going to school, from four, five, or six years old, to eleven,
twelve, or thirteen years old, or near adolescence. Freud described the latent phase as one of relative stability since at this stage the drive of id or sexual urge is not
gone but seems to be repressed or asleep. The suppressed sexual energy originates from the phallic phase when children realize that hisher wishes and longings for
the parent of the opposite sex cannot be fulfilled and will turn away from these desires. The Children then start to identify with the parent of the same sex. The
libido is transferred from parents to friends of the same sex, clubs and herorole- model figures, and socially superior people around them.
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With the children’s focus in a broader scale of environment other than parent as in the earlier stage, at this latent stage the ego then realize of a broader
aspect that can be both obstacle and facilitator in fulfilling the urge of Id. This is the moment when children realize unwritten values recognized in their
surroundings. Like when the children do something which is considered as good or bad, right or wrong by their parents or socially superior people around them,
they receive reward or punishment from which they react and eventually learn about it. This part of ego which realize the new term of right and wrong, accepted
and unaccepted, good and bad, and other terms used by its surrounding in making perspective of certain objects or behaviours, build a massive constructive
atmosphere for superego to develop maximally. This is the golden age of the development of ego and superego, where
children absorbs most of the social norms and believe, and also formal education from the society. Freud did not discuss much about this phase since theoretically;
it is not related with any erogens organ. Yet, it is the most important part where the children develop their social understanding of law and order.
Seeing the fact that this is the phase when children mostly need guidance, role models, examples, facility and restriction from socially superior individuals,
the researcher find it intriguing to provide a different variable related with the subject of the research. What if at this crucial moment when the superior society
is most required by the children to develop their ego and superego, it is unavailable. With the plot that the characters of the novel are having the similar
age range with the latent phase and a contrast variable where they are deserted on
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an empty island, let the objective mind to seek the varied result. These abnormal circumstances provide the possibility of a broader application and development of
the theory.
e. Genital Phase
The genital phase is the peak of dynamic personality development which happens since adolescence and along the rest of a person’s life. This phase
happens due to the maturity of reproduction organs. The early stage of this phase causes an enormous desire within adolescents. And according to Freud, every
adolescent will go through a homosexuality issue in the form of interest and care to friends, teachers, or someone from the neighbourhood within the same gender.
Yet, this does not mean that they are sexually active in homosexual behaviour. This sub phase will commonly fades in time and substituted with their interest to
the subject from opposite gender. Theses changes are indicated with the process of seeing each other, having a relationship, and getting married.
As the peak of Freudian dynamic personality development, human being at this phase is considered in the most perfect form of his being. People at this
phase have developed both mature social and sexual relationship within the context of heterosexual love. Their libido, the drive of living and surviving, is
channelled appropriately to the beloved opposite sex partner within the socially appropriate way which is agreed by the society. People, at this phase, are expected
and considered as a free social-individual being who has left their childhood passive and receptive behaviour, and become independent beings who can love,
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care, work, play, repress id’s drive as necessary, and actively solve the challenge of life.
Even though the dynamic personality development is formed within a rational arrangement and processes, the shifts between each phase always happens
with a dramatic change to a person’s state. Each of this dramatic change is commonly difficult, and must be face by one in order to survive and develop his
self into a better form of being. And within their survival method, there a structural defence mechanism.
4. Freudian Defence Mechanism
The Freudian defence mechanism is the method of ego to survive and satisfy through both id and superego drives. The process happens when ego, the
realistic part of human being, found his being threatened which result anxiety. The drive of ego will automatically analyze the overwhelming drive of id to survive
and the social force of norms and value, and seek the best way to serve them both. The structural mechanism is as follow:
No Defence
Mechanism Explanation
Example
1
2 Repression
Displacement Unacceptable or unpleasant
impulses are pushed back into the unconscious
The expression of an unwanted A woman is unable
to recall that she was raped
A brother yells at his
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3
4
5 Sublimation
Rationalization
Projection feeling or thought is redirected
from a more threatening, powerful person to a weaker
one
Diversion of unwanted impulses into socially
approved thoughts, feelings, or behaviours.
A distortion of reality in which a person justifies what happens
also known as sour grapes
Attributing unwanted impulses and feelings to someone else
younger sister after a teacher gives him a
bad grade
A person with strong feelings
of aggression becomes a
soldier
A person who is passed over for an
award says
she didn’t really want it
in the first place
A man who is angry at his father acts
lovingly to his father but complains that his
father is angry with him
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6
7
8 Reaction
Formation
Denial
Undoing Thinking or behaving in a way
that is the extreme opposite of unacceptable urges or impulses
Refusal to accept or acknowledge an anxiety-
producing piece of information A form of unconscious
repentance that involves neutralizing or atoning for an
unacceptable action or thought with a second action or thought
Threatened by their awakening sexual
attraction to girls, adolescent boys
often go out of their way to tease and
torment adolescent girls
A person who is convicted for DUI
three times
this year denies that he
has a problem with alcohol.
A woman who gets a tax refund by
cheating on her taxes makes a larger than
usual donation to the church collection on
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9 Regression
People behave as if they were at
an earlier
stage of
development the following
Sunday
A boss has a temper tantrum
when an
employee makes a mistake
Cited from https:teach.lanecc.edukimeMarch30C03.pdf, on March 11
th
2010
D. British Society Lifestyle and education during Post War II Era
