63 FREUDISM - the direction explaining the development and structure of the personality by the irrational

Freudianism is a direction, named after the Austrian psychologist Z. Freud, that explains the development and structure of a person by irrational, mind-opposed mental principles and applies a psychotherapy technique based on these ideas. Having emerged as a concept for the explanation and treatment of neurosis, Freudianism (F.) later elevated its position to the category of a general theory of man, society, and culture, acquiring great influence. Kernel F. defines the idea of ​​an eternal hidden war between unconscious mental abilities hidden in the depths of an individual and the need to survive in a hostile social environment. A veto from the latter, inflicting mental trauma, suppresses the energy of unconscious desires, which is made its way through in the form of neurotic symptoms, as well as dreams, erroneous actions (reservations, misprints), forgetting the unpleasant, etc.

In the structure of personality, there are three components: id (“it”), ego (“me”) and super-ego (“super-me”).

Id is the focus of blind instincts, either sexual or aggressive, which seek immediate satisfaction, regardless of how the subject relates to external reality. It helps to adapt to the real environment of the ego, which reads information about the surrounding reality and the state of the organism, remembers it and regulates the response of the individual in the interests of his self-preservation. The superego uses moral standards, prohibitions and rewards, which are absorbed by the person mostly unconsciously in the process of education, most often from parents. Appearing as a result of the mechanism of identification of a child with an adult, it can manifest itself in the form of conscience and can cause feelings of fear and guilt. Since the demands placed on the ego by the id, the super-ego and external reality (to which the individual is forced to adapt) are incompatible, the person is inevitably in a situation of conflict. This leads to unbearable tension, from which the individual leaves with the help of “protective mechanisms” - repression, sublimation, rationalization, regression. An important role in shaping the motivation of F. is assigned to childhood, which supposedly uniquely defines the role of the nature and attitudes of an adult person. The task of psychotherapy is considered to determine traumatic experiences and to free one’s personality from them by catharsis, awareness of repressed drives, understanding of the causes of neurotic symptoms. To do this, use the analysis of dreams, the method of "free association" and others. F. introduced into psychology a number of important problems - unconscious motivation, the ratio of normal and pathological manifestations of the psyche, its protective mechanisms, the influence of the sexual factor, the role of childhood injuries on the behavior of an adult, etc. .