Psychoanalytic theory had a profound influence on the field of psychology. Its influence can be seen in the fact that it operates under the precept that our unconscious bears the key to understanding our behavior. According to Freud’s brand of psychoanalysis, the psyche of an individual consists of the id, ego and superego with the id serving as the driving force of a person’s personality.
Contained within the id is all the instinctual elements of a person’s personality. It operates solely on the pleasure principle in that it dictates that an individual will tend to do things that are pleasurable and will not do things that cause displeasure. In his topology of the mind Freud delineates a configuration of the mind wherein the mind is made up of three general types of elements—elements that are unconscious, those that are preconscious and those that are totally conscious.
He delineates a system where the mind is made up of three components—the id, the ego and the superego. The id is totally unconscious, while the ego and superego operates on all three level—the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. In his book, the ego and the id, he is emphatic about his belief that many individuals operate at the id level wherein they are driven by the desire to attain pleasure and to avoid pain. Some individuals, however, develop the propensity to rationalize their desire for pleasure.
In such cases, they will realize that immediate pleasure may not be the best for that individual therefore those individuals will delay gratification. In so doing, the ego was in effect. Essentially, in examining Freud’s topology of the mind, one can clearly see that the lion’s share of the activities we partake in are unconscious (Freud, 1923).
Each and every day we see the concepts of the unconscious mind controlling our behavior. One such concept is the notion of a Freudian slip. A Freudian slip or parapraxis is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is believed to be caused by the unconscious mind (Wikipedia, n.d.). Errors such as referring to one person by another person’s name are clear indications of a Freudian slip. Errors such as this can have severe ramifications. Imagine when speaking to your significant other, you call him/her the name of an ex.
This can clearly cause a relationship problem in that your signification other would feel that you are referring to him/her by the name of your ex because you were thinking about your ex or worst, you could be involved with your ex. Freudian slips are not only restricted to speech. Freudian slips may extend to the area of perception in that you may see one thing and because you are preoccupied with another, you would think you saw something else. Have you ever had the occasion when you were in the process of doing some and you were engrossed in that activity when suddenly you see something out of the corner of your eyes?
At first, you thought you saw one image but then you realized that it is something completely different. When you think about your rationale for seeing what you thought you saw originally, you realized that you were previously pre-occupied with elements of what you saw. Your preoccupation did not occur immediately before the incident but it may have subsided the week before. That is an illustration of your unconscious at work.
Another example of your unconscious at work occurs when you often take the same path to different destinations with minor alteration. Often in the course of driving to a destination, I generally take the same path. If I have to go to another destination with the same starting path, I often find myself continuing on the path most frequently traveled. An example of this can be seen in the fact that I take the same path each day to attend classes. If I leave one day taking the path to school and I intend to go to a location which is a few blocks off of the path to school and leave with this thought in mind only to find myself at school and school is not in session, this is the unconscious mind at work.
References
Freud, Sigmund (1923). The Ego and The Id. W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.: New York, NY.
Wikipedia (n.d.). Freudian Slip. Web.