GE1137

Movies and Psychology

Scene 1: Drama

Psychoanalysis
 Psychoanalysis
• A classical perspective on human mind
(psyche) and personality
 Personality
• The unique way in which a person thinks,
acts, and feels across time and situation
 Psychoanalysis
• Illustrates the structure of human mind
• Explains how personality develops

• Telling us why we are what we are now!

 Freud’s Classical Psychoanalytic Theory
• Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
– Lived most of his time in Vienna (nowadays
Austria)

– A clinical neurologist treating patients with

emotional disorders (with no known physiological
causes)

– Devoted his entire life to develop his theory

– Sex was a primary cause of emotional (and mental)

problems

– Sexual desires and childhood experience:

experience Two
main driving forces for personality development

– Revolutionary in his time (Victoria period)

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 Three-level structure of our Mind
1. Conscious level
– what you are presently aware of / thinking about right now

2. Preconscious level
– memory or information that you are not presently aware of but
can gain access to

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 Three-level structure of our Mind
3. Unconscious level
– the part of our mind of which we cannot become aware

– contains a variety of drives (motivations) for all of our actions

and feelings

– a) biological instinctive drives (e.g., need for food and sex)

– b) aggressive drives
– c) repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories, and feelings,
especially unresolved conflicts from our early childhood
experiences

– dreams

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Freud’s Three-Part Personality Structure

Id
Id

Ego
Ego

Superego
Superego
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 Id
• Means “it” in Latin
– What would “it” usually be referring to?
• The primitive form of personality and is present at birth
• Resides in the unconscious mind
– No memory of infancy experiences

• Reservoir of our basic instincts

– Life instincts for survival, reproduction, and pleasure
– Death instincts, destructive and aggressive drives detrimental to
survival
• Operates on the pleasure principle
– demands immediate gratification

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 Id
• From birth to about 1 or 1.5 yrs… pleasure principle

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 Ego
• Means “I” in Latin

• Starts developing around the 1st or the 2nd year of life

• Operates on the reality principle

– more cunning
– finding gratification for instinctive drives of the Id within the
constraints of reality (e.g., the rules from parents)
– avoiding punishment

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 Ego
• It is partly unconscious (tied to the id) and partly conscious
and preconscious (tied to the external world)

• Serves as the executive manager or boss of personality

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 Ego
• After 1 or 2 yrs…reality principle

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 Superego
• Means “over the self” in Latin

• Represents one’s conscience (moral sense)

• Developed from Ego

• Internalizing ideal standards of behavior in one’s

environment

• Operates on a morality principle

– threatening to overwhelm us with guilt and shame

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 Superego
• The demands of the superego and the id will come into
conflicts
– the ego will have to resolve this turmoil within the constraints of
reality

• Trying to satisfy the id and superego may lead to anxiety

• The ego uses Psychological defense mechanisms to

distort reality and protect us from anxiety

• E.g., with your best friend’s girl friend?

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 Unhealthy Personality
• Why do problems occur?
– E.g., Why some of us get SO nervous at times?
– E.g., Why do we sometimes act impulsively?
– E.g., Why do some people get into psychological
problems?

• Conflicts between id and superego ->

Anxieties -> Psychological disorders

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 Unhealthy Personality
• Develops when…
– we become too dependent on the defense
mechanisms

– either the Id (psychopathic) or Superego

(depressive) is too strong

– the Ego is too weak

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How to handle conflicts?

Psychological defense
mechanisms

S. Freud and A. Freud

Freud’s Defense Mechanisms

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How do the three parts of
personality develop?
Psychosexual Stage Theory
 Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory
• Explains how one’s personality develops

• This theory was developed based on his own childhood

memories and years of interactions with his patients

• *On each stage, the id’s pleasure-seeking psychic energy

is focused on a specific body part (erogenous zone)
– A change in erogenous zone signals the beginning of a new
stage

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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory
• Fixation occurs when a portion of the id’s pleasure-
seeking energy remains in a stage
– because of excessive gratification or frustration of our instinctive
needs
– fixation may continue throughout the person’s life and impact the
person’s behavior and personality

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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory
• Key ideas of the theory
• 1) Different developmental stages (almost all before age 12)

• 2) In each stage, a specific body part is at the focus (erogenous zone)

• 3) Needs of Id are channeled through the erogenous zone

• 4) Either over- or under-fulfilling of the needs would negatively impact

personality development

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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Too less… Too much…

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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Too lenient… Too harsh…

messy; lack of self stubborn;

control; impulsive excessively neat

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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Sexual curiosity and interest in genitals

Boys -> castration anxiety
Girls -> penis envy

Sexual attraction towards the opposite sex parent

- Oedipus complex
- Electra complex
“Identification” with the same sex parent
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 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

“Identification” is the development of super-ego

What if the process of identification goes wrong?

Fixation may occur

-> immature sexual attitudes in adulthood

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 Evaluating Freud’s Theory
• Criticisms
– Too much emphasis on early experiences (below 12)

– Too much faith in unconscious mind’s control

– Too much emphasis on sexual and aggressive instincts (though

understandable)

• Contributions
– Childhood is important to later functioning

– Unconscious processes play a significant role in human

development
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 Evaluating Freud’s Theory
• Although highly controversial, many parts
of his theory are still influential in many
aspects even nowadays including art,
literature, and movies…