Introduction to Philosophy Donna Chapman
Take Home Test #2 January 3, 2000
Question 1: Compare the tripartite self of Freud with the multi-layered
self of Jung:
How does the conscious mind function?
What is the structure of the unconscious?
What is the relation between consciousness and the unconscious?
What are the methods and purposes of accessing the unconscious?
Which view best fits your own experience and understanding?
Answer:
As the end of this class approaches and with full understanding that
we have only scratched the surface of the content of ANY of the theorists that
we have looked at this semester I am drawn to the conclusion that all
of the men (in our case, they have all been men, although I know that there
are a few women philosophers.....somewhere) are up to their eyeballs in a desperate
attempt to find the answer to life the universe and everything1
{L/U/E} A major difference between pre-Descartes and post-Descartes philosophers,
in my opinion, is that the post-Descartes philosophers try to validate their
elaborate educated guesses in the framework of scientific method as developed
by Descartes/Locke/Newton.
In the case of Freud and Jung, there is a new extended differentiation
of {L/U/E} which here to fore only Plato seemed to hit on: that is {L/U/E} without,
pertaining to the external world, and its influence on an individual or
personality, and {L/U/E} within, that is with the self/I at the center. Also
to be considered are the pressure these two exert on each other, the fight for
dominance if you will, almost akin to Yin/Yang.
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung have had significant impact on modern
life. Our common language has been modified by words coined for use in their
psychologies. Words like introvert, extrovert, complex, free association, therapy,
analysis, collective, archetype, synchronicity, self, Ego, erogenous zone, oral
fixation, Oedipus complex, penis envy, phallic symbol and the ever wonderful
anal retentive (how many of these people do you know? I know quite a
few.) are all now in use by all of us every day.
I think that it would be easier to discuss each philosopher/psychologist
as a whole before I contrast their views. Im going to start with Carl
Jung because I like his model of consciousness.
Carl G. Jung
Jungs psychology is uniquely androgynous. In the healthy personality there
is balance between the male and female. He comfortably takes into account, and
validates the existence of unprovables like intuition. Jung defines
consciousness as awareness. This is a great word because the root word
aware has two levels of definition, one level being: knowledge gained
through ones own perceptions, the other level being: alert, vigilant or
watchful. The definition of consciousness as an essence alert and watchful gaining
information through the perception of the senses is, in my opinion, delightful
and accurate.
In studying the conscious person, Jung noticed two distinctive attitude types
the extrovert focused on the outside, the social, the physical
and the introvert focused on the inside, on feelings, on ideas, on insight.
Although shy people are often referred to as introverts and outgoing people
as extroverts, this is a bit of an understatement of these personality types.
Extroverts tend to be objective thinkers valuing literal unbiased facts, while
introverts tend to be subjective thinkers valuing opinion, perception and imagination.
The concept of inward/outward is also reflected in Jungs contents
of the conscious mind. The introverted part of consciousness content is called
Personal. The personal contents of consciousness are an individuals thoughts,
feelings and perceptions. The extroverted part of consciousness content is called
the Collective. The collective contents are the parts of an individual influenced
by the outside world such as language and culture.
In analyzing consciousness Jung differentiated four functions: Thinking, Feeling,
Sensation and Intuition. Thinking is rational. Thinking makes judgments about
the physical environment or ideas or a set of ideas, categorizes information
by importance or by types, looks at relationships, probability and looks for
causality. Kind of like a calculator. Linear, mathematical. Feeling is also
rational. Feeling assigns value, makes value judgments on the moral, spiritual
or aesthetic level. Feeling is closely connected to emotion. For example, I
love animals. If anything happens, either by accident or on purpose (heaven
forbid) that causes me to hurt an animal (do something that I dont want
to do) an emotion is invoked: sorrow, maybe even anger depending on the circumstances.
Feeling also assists the thinking function as an auxiliary. For example I VALUE
exercise, particularly in the form of martial arts. Why? Because my body works
better when I exercise, it reduces the effects of aging, my body is more resilient
and resistant to disease, and I feel better both physically and emotionally.
Sensation and Intuition are both non-rational functions. Sensation is the collection
of information through the senses. Information gleaned in this way is subject
to the time and space of the incident of capture. For example, the fragrance
of a rose smelled out doors is influenced by many factors, one of which is whether
or not is it raining outside the smell of ozone and mud change the perfume
of the rose. Intuition is, for lack of a better way to put it, a knowing.
It is understanding without perception or thought. It is an inner knowing of
the significance, consequence, motive and results of human action. Intuition
is sensing without sensation. Emotions interfere with intuition, particularly
fear. Intuition is the closest of the conscious functions to the unconscious.
It is interesting to note that most women accept intuition as a dominant function,
and operate in it a lot of the time. Males tend to invalidate it as not provable.
Im reminded about the student who stayed late after class to try to get
his mind around intuition. He never got it. Interestingly though, he had no
problem accepting Jungs theory about the thinking function, but just could
not accept intuition. The truth is that Jung did no better a job at proving
thinking than he did proving intuition, but the male student could make the
leap of faith to accept thinking, but not intuition.
Jung believes that the functioning of the mind is an organic
process not a mechanical one, hence the use of a water lily as a model.
see fig 2 It is a living process not stimulus/response.
One function is usually dominant in an individual. The remaining functions may
then be auxiliary (assistors) for the dominant, or they may become inferior
(not developed at all). This, as in the above example of the student, is best
illustrated in the personality models of men and women of today. Still today
in spite of all our enlightenment, men tend to be dominated by thinking and
sensation, feelings and intuition arent even auxiliary, they are usually
downright inferior. Women tend to be dominated by feelings and intuition, with
sensation and thinking as auxiliary. Sadly sometimes even today thinking in
women is actually inferior.
Jung uses the symbology of the mandala to diagram the contents sand layers of the mind. The mandala is a circular symbol seen in Eastern philosophy as the representation of the universe with God at the center for Jung the I is the center with the whole of the mandala representing the Self. The conscious mind is the outermost layer thus illustrating the relationship of the conscious to the unconscious. see fig 1
Once again, Jung divides the unconscious into two sections, the Personal unconscious
and the Collective unconscious. And once again they are subjective and objective
in nature and have contents influenced by inner focus (introverted) and outer
focus (extroverted). The personal unconscious contains all the stuff that
simply isn't conscious. It contains stuff that can be made conscious by simple
act of will, stuff that requires some digging as well as stuff that may never
be recalled into consciousness ever again.2
It is made up of memories of daily experiences. It is also a dumping ground
for stuff we dont like and would rather not think about. There are two
sections of the personal unconscious: the Persona and the Shadow. The persona
is us as perceived by the outside world. This mask that we build to show
others is based on external influences such as religion, sexual orientation,
politics or culture. These masks are owned by the personality. For example:
you wont hear a homosexual male refer to himself as I am a homosexual
male he will say I am gay. Gay is the persona. Gay is a social
statement, homosexual is a statement of sexual orientation. Gay encompasses
homosexual plus more. A well adjusted person has many masks and is quick to
know which is appropriate and when. The shadow is the yuck of each of our personalities
that we dont want to think about...the darker elements of our natures.
Frustrated and undeveloped aspects of our selves may also be dumped here as
well. While we can be aware of our persona at any given time, the shadow is
usually totally unconscious to the individual and for good reason. A person
who grew up in a family where level headedness prevailed and such things as
art making were not given much value may discover some artistic aptitude hiding
out in their shadow. There are treasures here, but they are buried in stinking
muck.3 The collective unconscious
is the container of archetypes. Archetypes are Jungs way of explaining
elements of individuals that are common to all humans. For example: everyone
dreams of falling, of running but getting no where. Classical and mythological
symbols are also common to everyones dreams. Jung believes that these
belong to the species. These are elements in our unconscious that did NOT pass
through our conscious mind as experiences and get dumped there to be buried
and forgotten. It is as if we are each born with a copy of the book in our unconscious,
handed down biologically/genetically from generation to generation. Archetypes
are not to be confused with the personal image (persona). Archetypal images
are influenced unconsciously by culture and individuality, and cant be
explained by intellect. Basic archetypal forms are the anima/animus. The animus
is the male soul image of a woman and the anima is the female soul image of
a man. The anima/animus is a messenger between the conscious and unconscious.
Other archetypal forms are: The Wise Old Man, the complete man, The Great Mother,
the complete woman, and Mythological images such as prince, princess, the quest,
the sacred mountain.
The purpose of Jungian analysis is to get in contact with and
become fully aware of deep buried abilities, feelings, and intuitions and to
develop them. To become whole. Access of the unconscious is accomplished by
means of hypnosis, meditation, dream analysis, creative fantasy, and hermineutical
interpretation of images. The goal of Jungian analysis is Individuation
the balance of conscious mind to unconscious mind to outside world. An un-individuated
person may be one who is enticed by the latest exercise or religious guru. They
may identify with their persona to an excessive degree to the point that
only the persona exists and the individual drops away entirely. The individuated
person is rests comfortably between the outside pressure (the social pull to
be one way or another) and the inside pressure to be a man or act
like a lady. Like the constant pressure of Yin to Yang. The individuated
person realizes their own unique individuality, and can be who they need to
be for any given moment in time. What would a fully individuated person look
like?
The individuated human being is just ordinary, therefore almost
invisible...His feelings, thoughts, etc., are just anybodys feelings,
thoughts
etc., quite ordinary, as a matter of fact, and not interesting at all....He
will
have no need to be exaggerated, hypocritical, neurotic, or any other nuisance.
He will be in modest harmony with nature....No matter whether people
think they are individuated or not, they are just what they are...
The criterion is consciousness.4 C.G.
Jung
Sigmund Freud
Freud has been called the father of psychoanalysis. He considers all mental
function to be a mechanical process: stimulus/response. There is no free will.
(It is interesting to note that although he is very analytical in is approach,
the starting point for his system of analysis is often the dreams of his patients.)
Stimulus can be from the outside as in a threat to the physical body
causing the fight or flight response, or from the inside
as in the bodys insatiable demand for pleasure.
Freud holds a tripartite view of the mind. see fig
3 The part of the conscious mind that mediates and integrates the inner
demand for pleasure with the demands and expectations of the outside world and
society at large is called the Ego. The Ego is the focal point of the
conscious mind. The driving force of the Ego is the Reality Principle: maximize
instinctual gratification while minimizing punishment and guilt. A secondary
process of the ego is thinking. This is the part of the interface that deals
with the external world. Freud believes that there are no choices, one drive
merely wins out over the others. (Interesting isnt it that Freud relegates
thinking to a secondary process!)
The subconscious mind is divided into three parts the
Preconscious, the Repressed Contents, and the ID. The preconscious is a storage
area for normal memories that the consciousness can access at will. The repressed
contents area is a stash place for painful or traumatic memories or desires
that cannot be accessed by the consciousness because of willful forgetting.
There are no innate memories, ALL memory whether repressed or consigned to preconscious
came into the mind through the conscious by experience at some time or another.
Repressed memories can pop up at any time, but are most likely to reveal themselves
in dreams, or in verbal faux pas hence the term Freudian slip. According
to Freud, when these slips happen we must ask ourselves what does
this situation really mean to me, that the slip occurred now of all times. Why
now?
The ID contains the instincts the wants, needs and desires
of the body. The focus of the ID is the Pleasure Principle: Maximize
instinctual gratification. Thats it. Who cares about anything else. The
ID has two types of instinct Eros and Thanatos. Eros is the life/sex drive that
wants to continue pleasure indefinitely. Thanatos is the death/destruction instinct,
the drive of life to destroy itself. I recently went to the Grand Canyon. At
one of the viewpoints I ventured out without thinking to see the beauty of the
canyon. When I finally looked at where I was, I found myself out on the end
of a very narrow cliff. The way down was long and rocky. I wasn't even thinking
when I went out there. This is thanatos.
The ID is the originator of neurosis, psychosis and complexes.
The term complex was actually first coined by Jung for an unconscious collection
of ideas. Jung evolved this idea into the term archetype, but complex
has stuck in Freudian circles. The complex that just about everyone has heard
of is the Oedipus complex. Freud blames most mental illness on sex usually
a disturbance, frustration, interference or truncation of normal sexual development
during childhood, and its the parents fault! The Oedipus complex
is a normal state for a well developed male. The complex is initiated at the
age of about 6-8 years old. The boy is becoming sexually mature, he experiences
primal lust for the female in the house mom. He fears what dad will do
to him if he finds out what he is thinking (castration anxiety) at the same
time, he views dad as his rival for moms attention. He wants mom all to
him self. The solution: drop the desire for mom (taboo), identify with dad (make
a friend of the enemy), and repress the whole thing (the best evidence is NO
evidence). The term Electra complex has come to be known as the female version
of Oedipus, but there is no evidence that Freud ever used the term. Freud wasnt
much concerned with female sexuality and never fully developed his psychology
of it. He was obsessed with male sexuality as evidenced by the imposition of
penis envy on females as their part of the Electra complex. So,
we may not have much, us women, but what we do have is penis envy. Freud was
a sexually obsessed nut. (my opinion)
Neuroses are the autonomous operation of complexes which frustrate
conscious intention. Examples of neurosis in action are exaggerated behavior
or excessive emotions. I work with John. John cannot open any doors (touch any
door knob) without covering his hand with his shirt sleeve before he opens the
door. (gotta watch out for them germs, I guess...) He once asked me if it would
be ok if he emptied my trash can for me. John is a salesman not a janitor.
John absolutely cannot help himself he must do these things to feel comfortable.
John is neurotic.
Psychosis is the collapse of the personality causing splintering
of the ego into partial personalities. In the case of a psychotic individual,
one may see the ID in full unfettered control.
As if the egos job isnt massive enough balancing
the world against the ID there is a voice of parental authority exerting
influence on the ego as well. This voice of authority is the part of the mind
which contains the traditional values and taboos of society as interpreted
and taught by the parents. The super ego is Freuds name for this
permanent parent that we carry. Truth be told the super ego of an individual
is actually a mirror of the superego of the parents and their parents before
them flavored only slightly by each subsequent generation. This comes from Freuds
idea that when your situation warrant it, for example when you become a parent,
the super ego comes to the surface and imposes itself on the super ego of the
child. This would explain my mental cringing at my inability to stop myself
when I hear myself saying to my kids the very words that I hated hearing my
father say. Because I said so or Stop or Ill give you
something to cry about. (ugh) Freud compares the action of the super ego
to a paranoid persons feeling that they are being watched with a parental
voice saying now hell do this or now hell say
that before an action occurs. In this way the super ego lurks autonomously
observing...waiting...to judge and punish (by invoking guilt or remorse). Our
moral sense of guilt is the expression of the tension between the ego and super
ego5 The super ego has two parts:
the Conscience and the Ego Ideal. The conscience is all about inhibiting the
satisfaction of desires based on morality imposed by it and enforced by the
administration of punishment usually through the invocation of emotion: shame,
remorse or guilt. In a psychotic individual, the punishment could manifest itself
as self destructive behavior or even physical harm. The voice of the conscience
says bad girl The ego ideal is the rewarding section of the super
ego. Rewards like good feelings are administered. The voice of the ego ideal
says: Ive done a good job on this paper Good girl.
The problem is that the punisher is the stronger force.
In summary: the ego represents the external world to the ID.
It determines need vs action. The ego has 3 masters the outside world,
the ID and the super ego. Ego has to serve all 3. Ego driven by ID confined
by super ego, repulsed by reality struggles to master its economic task
of bringing about harmony among the forces...6
The intention of Freudian analysis is to strengthen the ego and make it more
independent of the super ego, and to align the conscious with the subconscious.
The classic illustration of the Freudian mind is the man in The Boat, see fig
4. By means of dream analysis and free association repressed memories are
brought to the surface, analyzed and thereby neutralized. To this I say: Hah!
(oops, there goes another opinion)
If the ego is obliged to admit its weakness, it
breaks out in anxiety realistic anxiety regarding the external world,
moral anxiety regarding the super ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength
of the passions of the ID...7
Briefly contrasting Jung with Freud:
Freud: All contents of subconscious must have been experienced. (come through
the conscious).
Jung: Some contents of the unconscious are innate to the species
like an owners manual.
Were born with it.
Freud: All problems are rooted in sexual frustration or interrupted sexual development.
Jung: Problems occur when an individual identifies with archetype
and loses awareness of the persona. This can happen for all sorts of reasons,
not just sex.
Freud: Life is a battle, the world is like a stormy sea, to
be battled continuously
Jung: Life is a natural organic process.
Freud: Memories pop up at any time in the form of Freudian
slip or dreams. They threaten to destroy the personality
Jung: Memories are nothing to fear we have survival within
us.
Freud: Exhaustively developed male psyche, no attention to female
psyche
Jung: Androgynous approach honors male in female and female
in male.
Freud: Deals in absolute/rational tries to use scientific method
Jung: Deals in non rational/rational, intuition, non-provables.
In my own experience (and I have some years of analysis in my past) Freuds
ideas of behavior being influenced by the subconscious is valid. However I think
that his notion that once repressed memories are brought to the
surface and analyzed they neutralize is absolute garbage.
I believe that the subconscious/unconscious is more of a place
for the mind to hide true motive than a place for repressed sexual frustration.
It is my experience that once you figure out what it is that influences
your behavior, then the real battle begins. It doesnt go
away, only your excuse for bad behavior because of it does. It
doesnt matter if your parents are responsible for it, YOU
are responsible for dealing with it and getting on with your life.
Sometimes the level of functionality after the discovery of it
is low. And that is sad. I have a friend (not me, honest!) who endured terrible
sexual abuse at the hands of her father. She is no more able to alter her behavior
now than when was before the incest was exposed and analyzed. She still has
to sleep with her back to a wall. She still wears shorts under dresses. And
she is still in therapy more than 20 years after the incidents, and 15 years
after the exposure of the incidents. Today she works responsibly, is married,
is able to be present in a relationship, and has a lovely little girl. She functions
effectively, but is still very damaged emotionally. The damage didnt magically
go away after analysis. Also, she is living breathing proof of Freuds
idea about the imposing of our super ego on to our kids. My friend imposes her
defense mechanisms on her child. (The poor kid has to wear shorts under her
dresses!) Occasionally I get to be her voice of reason..to remind her that she
is not her daughter, and what happened to her will not happen to her daughter,
with or without shorts under her dresses. Sometimes she hears me, sometimes
she doesnt. It all depends on how afraid she is or threatened she feels
at the time.
Without realizing it, I find myself imposing the super ego of
my dad on to my step kids. I lost my mom when I was 13 years old, so there isnt
much of her in my super ego. She lives on in my intuitive and sensitive side...oh,
but thats Jung, Ill get to him in a minute... In my super ego I
see strong elements of my dad, a career U.S. Marine. (poor step kids huh?)
I like Jungs psychology because it strives for balance...for
comfortable moving from one area of consciousness to another. He also takes
into account intuition. There is no burning desire for absolutes, for empirical
proof. He acknowledges that there are unexplainable events that are part of
the personality that are to be developed every bit as much as the tangibles
are to be developed. Emotion and sensitivity matter to Jung. A mans soft
side, a womans strong side matter to Jung. I live for the day when I can
trust and act on my intuition with confidence. To be able to trust it without
needing the validation of the incident almost happening to prove
that the intuition was valid. My mom had an innate psychic sensitivity. She
was a healer. Her profession was nursing, and I am told that she had a healing
touch that actually soothed the pain of people she took care of. That
element of her lives on in me. I have intuition about people, and empathy for
them. Her spirit of compassion lives on in me too. When Im not threatened
or afraid, I have an empathic ability, kind of heightened perception/intuition.
I can sense the emotional state a person is in and sometimes their true motives
in a given situation. I have the occasional premonitory dream, which are usually
goofy images that Ive never seen before and dont make much sense,
so I write them down and wait. They always come true, sooner or later.
The universe of the personality revolves around the I,
the god in myself the same way that the creative power of the universe revolves
around God.
This concludes my answer to the test question however I came across something
about Freud in my research which makes me even less inclined to value his psychology.
I would like to discuss it now.
Freud contends that women have less developed super
egos than men. There is a suggestion in several of my readings that due
to pressure from his peers Freud actually tweaked his psychology to cover a
dark ugly secret. There is a suggestion that Freud, during his research on repressed
memory, found that an alarmingly high number or Viennese women had repressed
memories of sexual abuse from their childhoods. Questions concerning the
traumas suffered by his patients seemed to reveal [to Freud] that Viennese girls
were extraordinarily often seduced in very early childhood by male relatives;
doubt about the actual occurrence of these seductions was soon replaced by certainty
that it was descriptions about childhood fantasy that were being offered.8
What if the whole Oedipus complex theory is Freuds effort to reconcile
the sexual predatorship of the Viennese men of the time? Now I do acknowledge
here that today there are incidents of false suggestion in these cases usually
instigated by either an ambitious therapist or a vengeful child or adult. These
false suggestions certainly wreck havoc in the life of the accused and usually
cause permanent damage but for this argument lets assume that this
is not the case. I would suggest for thought that perhaps Freuds obsession
with male sexuality and the almost ignoring of the female may have been out
of guilt imposed by his super ego. the best evidence is no evidence
Perhaps Freud needed to repress the knowledge of the sexual abuse of the Viennese
girls because he had daughters of his own. Perhaps his apparent obsession with
male sexuality and sexual dominance it was a vain attempt to diagnose and analyze
the drives that would cause Viennese men to prey on your Viennese girls, without
coming right out and saying so. if the super ego is the parent punishing
with shame and guilt and remorse why would Freud say that women
have less developed super egos than men when the men were perpetrating
sexually on the little girls. There is no mention of the women perpetrating
sexually on the little boys. It seems to me that the womens super egos
are developed just fine. OR, if the super ego really is the parents super ego
imposed on the child, then this would indicate a generational abuse that may
have been too disgusting for even Freud to approach. Certainly his peers felt
this way in implying that he would be ruined if he stuck with this line
of study, and published his findings.
Interesting.
Bibliography
Freud, Britannica.com
Sigmund Freud, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep
http://oldsci.eiu.edu/psychology/Spencer/Freud.cfm
Personality & Consciousness Website Jung Bio
http://www.wynja.com/personality/theorists.com
http://www.wynja.com/personality/jungarchf.cfm
http://www.wynja.com/personality/individuationf.cfm
Jung, Britannica.com
http://www.dictionary.com
The American Heritage Dictionary
Introduction to World Philosophy, Eliot Deutsh
1 Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
2 http://www.wynja.com/personality/jungarchf.cfm
3 http://www.wynja.com/personality/jungarchf.cfm
4 http://www.wynja.com/personality/individuationf.cfm
5 Introduction to World Philosophy, p.12
6 Introduction to World Philosophy, p. 19
7 Introduction to World Philosophy, p. 19
8 http://oldsci.eiu.edu/psychology/Spencer/Freud.cfm