TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE……………………………………………………..ii
CERTIFICATION……………………………………….iii
DEDICATION……………………………………………iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………v
TABLE OF
CONTENTS……………………………….vii
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
1.1 A short Biography of Sigmund Freud……………………..…....3
1.2 Statement
of Problem……………………………………….…..5
1.3 Purpose
of Study…………………………………………….….6
1.4
Scope of Study………………………………………………….7
1.5
Method of Research………………………………………….…7
1.6 Division
of work. ……………………………………….……...7
CHAPTER
TWO
THE FREUDIAN MODEL OF THE HUMAN MIND
2.1 The
Triplet Model………………………………..……………10
2.1.1
The Id……………………………………………….………..12
2.1.2
The Ego………………………………………………..……..14
2.1.3
The Superego……………………………………………..….21
2.2
The Topographic Model…………………………….……..…..25
2.2.1
The unconscious………………………………………..…….26
2.2.2 The preconscious. ………………………………………....…28
2.2.3
The Conscious. ………………………………………………29
2.3 The Dependent Relationship of the Ego………………….…….32
2.4 Summary. ……………………………………………………....36
CHAPTER THREE
PHILOSOPHICAL ASSESSMENT OF FREUDIAN
ANTHROPOLOGY
3.1 The
Existence of the Freudian Man………………………...….37
3.2 Freedom
and Authentic Structure………………………..…….40
3.3 Are
the Phenomena Really as they present Themselves?...........45
3.3.1 Basic themes of
positivism……………………………….…46
3.4
Summary……………………………………………………….50
CHAPTER
FOUR
4.1 Criticisms on Freudian View……………..52
4.2 Evaluation
and Conclusion…………………………………….54
BIBLIOGRAPHY…..………………………………………….…58
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In the anal of
history, quest for meaning as a quest for knowledge has remained
an existential fact in every human endeavour. Hence, it propelled man’s meaning-attaching
trait which satisfies his concept of existence. Philosophy as it were has been
the vanguard of such innovation traceable from the time of Thales. More still,
events and time have rolled out trajectories of philosophy that now constitute
different field of studies. Most of these fields hold man as an object of inquiry.
All their concern was to conceptualise man.
Many philosophers,
psychologists, sociologists, scientists have made an incredible contribution in
understanding man and his place in this world. Sigmund Freud is among these
great men who have sought to make man and his life more comprehensible.
Basically, Freud sees man as driven through life by two tides of psychic energy
– Eros and Thanatos. These express
themselves through the three structures of the mind, namely the Id, the Ego and
the Superego. These three structures operate in three regions of the mind- the
conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious.
As Freud explained: “the Id is the wholly unconscious domain
of the mind, consisting of drives and of material later repressed. The Ego is
partly conscious and contains the defence mechanism and capacities to
calculate, reason and plan. The Super-Ego is also partly conscious but harbours
the conscience and, beyond that ‘unconscious feeling of guilt’. The Id is
viewed as the primitive and unconscious primary urges in the psyche. The Ego is
developed when the Id realises that there is a world ‘out there’. The Super-Ego
is an introverted parental authority which ultimately takes the place of the
Oedipus impulse”.
This approach by
Freud, brought to bare a contrast on a claim that man could accumulate real
knowledge about himself and his world and exercise rational control over them. This
claim in Freudian view is a delusion. Hence, he displayed the intricacies of
man in relation to his conception of the “unconscious” as detailed in his work
‘The Ego and the Id’.
But to what
extent can this Freudian view of the mind withstand the examination of some
philosophical currents, especially existentialism and positivism?
1.1
A Short Biography
of Sigmund Freud.
Freud, an
Austrian neurologist, author, psychiatrist, and founder of almost all the basic
concepts of psychoanalysis, was born on May 6, 1856, in the small Moravian town
of Freiberg to the family of Jacob Freud and Amalia. In 1860, when he was
almost four, he moved with his family to Vienna
and entered the University
of Vienna in 1873 at the
age of seventeen studying Psychology and neurology. He graduated with a Masters
Degree in 1881.
For some months
in 1885, he studied under Jean Martin Charcot in Paris whose work in hysteria
converted Freud to the cause of Psychiatry. Dissatisfied with hypnosis and
electrotherapy as treatment techniques, he evolved the psychoanalytic method,
founded on dream analysis.
For some thirty
years he worked to establish the truth of his theories through his publications.
He published Beyond the Pleasure
Principle in 1920 which first announced his theory of the death drive; Totem and Taboo in 1913 which set about
tracing the Oedipus complex back to the origins of humanity, The Moses of Michelangelo in 1914. The Future of an Illusion which is a
convinced atheist’s dissection of religion, was published in 1927, Civilization and Its Discontents which
is a disillusioned look at Modern civilization on the verge of catastrophe, came
out in 1930. But it was in 1923, that he published his classical study The Ego
and the Id improved “structural theory” of the mind.
Despite his
growing reputation in May 1933 the Nazis publicly burnt Freud’s books in Berlin and fleeing this
Nazi anti-Semitism, he left Vienna
for London in
1938 and died on September
23, 1939, asking his physician for a lethal dose of morphine.
1.2
Statement of the
Problem.
Man has always
been an object of study. But, in ancient and medieval times, when the cosmocentric
and theocentric perspectives prevailed, he was studied together with and
subordinately to other primary realities such as the world or God. It was with
Descartes, that man became the centre and the point of departure for philosophy,
as such.
In this way, the
modern and contemporary philosophers have obtained a whole new series of images
of man, images which have often sparked great interest. For example: anguished
man (Kierkegaard), economic man (Marx), existent man (Heidegger), symbolic man
(Cassirer), problematic man (Marcel), erotic man (Freud) etc.
These explain the
enigma in conceptualising man. Hence, the examination of Freudian Ego and Id
would to a large extent promote the understanding of man and his place in the
world.
1.3
Purpose of this
work.
The purpose of
this work is to expose and critically examine the Freudian concept of man as
detailed in his work the Ego and the Id. This examination
is necessary in order to assess the contributions of Freud to philosophical
knowledge and the excesses of his assumptions.
1.4
Scope of study
This work is
particularly centred on the concepts of the Ego and the Id, and how they help
us have a deeper understanding of man and his life. To substantiate our points,
views from philosophers will be considered where necessary.
1.5
Method of
Research
The method
applied in this research is both expository and critical. It is expository in
the sense that it shows in great detail the Freudian view of man in relation to
the Ego and the Id.
It is also critical because we shall subject Freud’s view to a philosophical analysis.
1.6 Division of the work.
This work is
divided into four chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction. In chapter
two, the researcher will dwell on the development of the concepts of Ego and
the Id, and there relation to super-Ego and to the classes of instincts.
Chapter three is the philosophical examination of this Freudian view. In
chapter four, we shall evaluate and conclude the entire work.
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