Discussion
Metapsychology is a term coined by Freud Sigmund to denote his approach to mental functioning based on an experience of psychoanalysis which had spanned a period of over 30 years (Lacan, 1973). As Freud personally put it, metapsychology is the observation of psychological phenomena what metaphysics is to that of the physical world. Thus, Freud moved from a clinical and descriptive stage to one of abstract approach; he advanced models concerning the manner in which the mind of human functions and how they were generally intended to be applicable. For instance, the idea of drive or instinct was introduced by Freud in order to describe what nudges human beings to eat and to procreate (Freud, 1905).
Freud termed what urges human beings to eat as self-preservation instincts and what impels them to procreate as sexual instincts. Given that instincts are naturally abstract ideas, they are not met as such, rather perceived indirectly through the effects to which they result or the means by which they are represented (Bower, 2005). Therefore, sexual instincts can be viewed in a number of different ways; the urge generated by an erotic desire to the opposite sex, the terms applied to express such desire, or the scenario of a dream (Lacan, 1973). Freud’s thinking underwent gradual evolution that led him to propose a synthesis of the manner in which the human mind functions under both normal and pathological conditions. This was his first structural approach based on the distinction between unconscious, pre-conscious and conscious (Freud, 1905). The approach runs opposite to Freud’s first model of instinctual drives based on pleasure/unpleasurable notions. This paper tries to relate between theory and practice of Freud’s psychoanalysis by explaining; the main goals of Freud’s psychoanalysis theory and practice, Freud in Beyond the pleasure principle, the models of the human mind, the relationship in terms of structure and personal development, the object and relations identification, anxiety and defense mechanisms, relationship in terms of sexuality, and relationship in psychoanalytic contribution to psychiatry.
Relationship of Theory and Practice of Freudian Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis theory and practice development was driven by two main aims. First, it was to understand why and how people developed psychological symptoms and how to assist people to free themselves from psychological symptoms. The purpose of Freud’s psychoanalysis theory and practice was to assist patients to satisfy their potential and become free to love and to work (Bower, 2005). Psychoanalysis is a term used to refer to; an approach of personality and psychopathology, a technique of investigating the mind, and a theory of treatment. Freud was the inventor of psychoanalysis and the father of modern psychotherapy. The primary goal of Freud’s psychoanalysis theory was to develop an approach to the human mind and the second was to relate psychoanalysis theory as a therapeutic modality.
As a comprehensive approach to personality and psychopathology, psychoanalysis has had an impeccable impact on thought and culture in the 20th century (Corey, 2009). It is an impact that is unrivaled by any other conception of personality in terms of theory and practice. In practice, the theory of psychoanalysis addresses the broader domain of normal personality function and personality development besides aiming at understanding and explaining the nature of adult psychopathology (Freud, 1905). In this sense, psychoanalysis theory is regarded as general psychology. As such, psychoanalysis ranges from biological and photobiological explanations of key aspects of mental life, such as; cognition, affect, and motivation to sociocultural, to historical theorizing about the origins of society and the family (Gurman, 2003).
Sigmund Freud’s in Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Freud’s concept is beyond the pleasure theory expounds on the notion of pleasure, tries to explain why UCS is guided by pleasure, reality, the purpose of repression, the notion of the death drive, and the purpose of the model of the mind. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, second paragraph, Freud brought to the surface a new hypothesis and a new usage of binding. He stated that:
…the least rigid hypothesis, it seems to me, will be the best. We have decided to relate pleasure and un-pleasure to the quantity of excitation that is present in the mind but is not in any way ‘bound’; and to relate them in such a manner that un-pleasure corresponds to an increase in the quantity of excitation and pleasure to a diminution (7-8).
In this assertion, Freud retains the notion that most intense pleasures are those of unbound energies but also agrees that effects occur when energies are bound. Much of this theory is concerned with the concept of a compulsion to repeat and the related death instinct, which together make what lies “beyond the pleasure principle” (22). These aspects are assumed to be antagonistic to the pleasure principle and Eros: “there really does exist in the mind a compulsion to repeat which overrides the pleasure principle” (22).
Models of the Mind
In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the conceptualization of the human mind was based on conscious mental processes, such as consciousness of the mind, thoughts, and feelings with the ability to recall them; and the unconscious mental processes that include thoughts and feelings that are outside awareness and are not remembered (Freud, 1905). According to Freud believe, the unconscious part of the human mind is only rarely recognized by the conscious, as in remembered dreams. Freud applied the preconscious to describe unconscious material that is capable of being absorbed in consciousness (Freud, 1905).
Freud (1920) reiterates how the pleasure principle can attain its characteristic predominance;
..it will perhaps not be thought too rush to suppose that the impulse arising from the instincts do not belong to the type of bound nervous processes but of freely mobile processes which press towards discharge…
Since all instinctual impulses have the unconscious systems as their point of impact, it is hardly an innovation to say that they obey the primary process (34-35).
Freud (1920) goes further to describe what Freud has in mind:
We have found that one of the most important functions of the mental apparatus is to bind the instinctual impulses which impinge on it, to replace the primary process prevailing in them by the secondary process and convert their freely mobile cathectic energy into a mainly quiescent cathexis. While this transformation is taking place no attention can be paid to the development of un-pleasure; but…the transformation occurs on behalf of the pleasure principle; the binding is a preparatory act which introduces and assures the dominance of the pleasure principle…The binding of an instinctual impulse would be a preliminary function designed to prepare the excitation for its final elimination in the pleasure of discharge (62).
In this formulation, Freud provides binding a basic task of mastering unruly and dangerous forces and makes them manageable so that the pleasure principle can commence operation (Freud, 1920).
The Structure of Personality and its Development
Freud’s personality structure was made up of the id, ego, and superego. The id was conceptualized by desires that were conceived unconscious, primitive instincts, and unstructured drives, including sexual and aggressive tendencies that arose from the body. The ego, on the other hand, explained particular mental processes associated with perception, memory, and motor control together with specific defense mechanisms (Boyd, 2007). As a personality structure, the ego-controlled movement, perception, and contact with reality (Lacan, 1973). Additionally, the ego had the capacity to form mutually satisfying relationships as a fundamental function, which is not available at birth but is practiced throughout the child’s development. Boyd (2007) states that “the superego was part of the personality structure related with ethics, standards, and self-criticism” (p. 57). In practice, Freud’s personality structure relates to children’s identification with important and esteemed people in early life, particularly their parents (Winer, 1995).
Freud began a discussion of a condition in which love has been transformed into hate of the object:
Here the instinct of destruction has been set free and it seeks to destroy the object (53). After sublimation the erotic component no longer has the power to bind the whole of the destructiveness that was combined with it, and this is released in the form of an inclination to aggression and destruction (54-55).
In further discussions on sublimation, Freud said that it produces a diffusion of instincts. He also discusses a setting free of aggressive drive in the superego.
Object Relations and Identification
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory introduced the object relations concept, the psychological attachment to another person or object. Freud believed that the choice of a love object in adult life and the nature of the relationship would be based on the nature and quality of the child’s object relationship during the early formative years. Normally, children’s first love objects were the mothers, who were sources of nourishment and providers of pleasure. Gradually, as children are detached from their mothers, the nature of their initial attachment influenced any future relationships (Lacan, 1973).
The development of children’s capacity for relationships progressed from a state of narcissism to social relationships, initially within the family and then within the larger society. Although the objects relations concept is fairly abstract, it can well be understood in children who imitate their parents and then become like their parents in adulthood. These children have incorporated their parents as love objects, identify with them, and become like them as adults. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory becomes significant especially in understanding abused children, who under certain situations become adult abusers as well.
Anxiety and Mechanisms of Defense
According to Freud, anxiety was a specific sense of unpleasantness followed by motor discharge along definite pathways, reaction to the danger of object loss. The concept of a defense mechanism shielded an individual from unwanted anxiety. In psychic mental health practice, defense mechanisms play an explanatory role. Freud discussed the concept of defense as a general mental function that could be employed to comprehend certain pathological phenomena. Freud’s ego and mechanisms defense acknowledged that mechanisms of defense served not only pathogenic functions but were also likely to be necessary for normal ego development. Given that a child’s ego is weak, mechanisms of defense protect it from being disrupted by painful effects and therefore enhancing its development (Corey, 2009).
Sexuality
Freud (1905) postulates that the psychic drive associated with the sexual instincts resided in the id. Therefore, when a desire for sex was controlled and not expressed, led to tension and was transformed into anxiety. Adult sexuality was believed by Freud as an end product of a process of development that is complex that started in early childhood and involved a number of body functions that corresponded to stages of relationships, particularly with parents. Fundamentally, Freud asserts that sexuality is the source of all experience. The human basic drives and conflicts are played out through sexuality at each developmental level (Freud, 1905).
Psychoanalysis theory by Freud maintains that it is the body that is the source of human experience. For instance, people react to pain and pleasure spontaneously in early life. In this context, Freud considered the role of sexual excitations in trauma and the fact that traumatic neuroses are more likely to happen when there has been no physical injury. Freud Stated:
Thus, on one hand, the mechanical violence of the trauma would liberate a quantity of sexual excitation which, owing to the lack of preparation for anxiety, would have a traumatic effect; but, on the other hand, the simultaneous physical injury, by calling for a narcissistic hypercathexis of the injured organ, would bind the excess of excitation (33).
In real practice, certain desires and actions are not allowed and are routinely punished by others. Therefore, it becomes necessary to hold back or repress impulses and actions linked to pleasure gratification. In essence, the repression process expresses in it both the action potential to release the desired impulse, as well as the injunction to hold back (Winer, 1995).
As maintained by Freud, ongoing repression of opposing feelings and emotions produces an ever-intensifying pressure within the psych which sometimes overflowing of this damned energy into certain areas of the body. Unable to receive and contain the overabundance of energy, the body becomes numb, pained or diseased. Consequently, the initial emotional conflict is converted into a physical disorder. These converted reactions could be processed or cured through various emotional releases and verbal expressions of the nuclear conflict. This healing process was referred to as catharsis, including stirring memories of the conflict that are buried until they could be brought into conscious awareness, assimilated and accepted by the individual (Corey, 2009).
According to Freud, human pain becomes increasingly emotional as development continues. Therefore, the mind must translate the pain in an effort to derive some meaning in it. However, if the mind is not capable of sufficient objectivity, or knows too little about the translation of psychological pain, we turn to another person for guidance. This person may be better trained, or at least more detached from the issues at hand. In essence, Freud provided meaning to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as an extension of this human striving to attach meaning to painful experiences (Freud, 1905).
Psychoanalytic Contribution to Psychiatry
The theory of psychoanalysis has led to the development of psychoanalysis to the level of specialized science and therapy. As a result, there is a profound effect upon the thought and techniques of general psychiatry. Freud’s study of the unconscious, repression, mechanisms of defense, ego, and others, have been embraced as part of the common vocabulary of psychiatry and clinical psychology (Lacan, 1973). Additionally, the fundamental importance of childhood experience, most important, the psychological attributes of family relationships of the past in the life of the adult is generally accepted in the psychiatry profession. The central focus of psychiatry is the study of ideas, fantasies, emotions, interpersonal relations, conflicts, and personality development; and a reflection of these in the conscious and unconscious experience of the individual patient (Hendrick, 1999).
Freud’s psychoanalysis theory about mental processes, that is, by the study of neuroses, and of dreams, illuminates the psychology of mental diseases. Psychotic people have minds, emotions, personalities, and respond to the same primal requirements for adaptation according to the desire principle as do other human beings. Psychoanalytic theory has provided knowledge of the unconscious, of conflict, of the emotional relationships of ideas, sexuality, and the repressive process (Lacan, 1973). Consequently, this has resulted in a major contribution to understanding human beings afflicted by psychosis.
Conclusion
In sum, Freud assumed that human behavior is a result of an ongoing series of internal conflicts. Competition among the id, ego and superego are routine. This is because the id needs to gratify its urges immediately; however, civilized societal norms frequently dictate otherwise (Freud, 1905). For example, an individual’s id might feel an urge to steal from your neighbor who is rich and meaningful. However, society detests such behavior, so the individual’s ego would try to hold this need in check, and would find him in conflict. In practice, therefore, Freud’s theory dominates people’s lives. In postulating that the early years shape an individual’s personality, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory did not content that personality development comes to an abrupt stop in middle childhood (Hendrick, 1999). However, Freud believed that the base of an individual’s personality in adulthood is entrenched by this time. He strongly maintained that future developments of human personality are grounded in early, formative experiences. Hence, significant conflicts experienced in later years are replays of crises from childhood (Freud, 1905).
In psychoanalysis theory, the ego is the decision-making component of personality that operates according to practical principles. It mediates between the forceful desires of the id for immediate satisfaction, and the external social world, with its norms and expectations regarding acceptable behavior. The ego considers social practices, such as; societal norms, rules, etiquettes, rules, and customs, in choosing how to behave. The superego on the other hand is the moral component of the personality and includes social standards about what represents right or wrong. Throughout the life of individuals, specifically during childhood, individuals get training about what is good or bad behavior (Gurman, 2006).
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