FREUD
SIGMUND
FREUD: HIS LIFE AND IDEAS
Abridged from "New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis"
Penguin 1973 Strachey
Early
studies
First and foremost, Freud was the discoverer of the first instrument for
the scientific examination of the human mind. Creative writers of genius
had had fragmentary insight into mental processes, but no systematic method
of investigation existed before Freud.
Free association
Freud used an entirely fresh instrument, which was later known as `free
association'. He adopted the unheard-of plan of simply asking the person
whose mind he was investigating to say whatever came into his head. This
crucial decision led at once to the most startling results; even in this
primitive form Freud's instrument produced fresh insight.
He developed a hypothesis of the mind as something dynamic, as consisting
of a number of mental forces, some conscious and some unconscious, operating
now in harmony now in opposition with one another.
His own self analysis
enabled him to discover the nature of the unconscious processes at work
in the mind and to understand why there is such a strong resistance to
their becoming conscious; it enabled him to devise techniques for overcoming
the resistance in his patients; and, most important of all, it enabled
him to realize the very great difference between the mode of functioning
of these unconscious processes and that of our familiar conscious ones.
A word may be said on each of these three points, for in fact they constitute
the core of Freud's contributions to our knowledge of the mind.
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The unconscious contents
The unconscious contents of the mind were found to consist wholly in the
activity of conative trends - desires or wishes - which derive their energy
directly from the primary physical instincts. They function quite regardless
of any consideration other than that of obtaining immediate satisfaction
(the Pleasure Principle), and are thus liable to be out of step with those
more conscious elements in the mind which are concerned with adaptation
to reality and the avoidance of external dangers. Since, moreover, these
primitive trends are to a great extent of a sexual or of a destructive
nature, they are bound to come in conflict with the more social and civilized
mental forces. Investigations along this path were what led Freud to his
discoveries of the long disguised secrets of the sexual life of children
and of the Oedipus complex.
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Dreams
In the second place, his self-analysis led him to an inquiry into the nature of dreams. These turned out to be the product of a conflict and a compromise between the primary unconscious impulses and the secondary conscious ones. By analysing them into their elements, it was possible to infer their hidden unconscious contents; and, since dreams are common phenomena of almost universal occurrence, their interpretation turned out to be one of the most useful technical contrivances for penetrating the resistances of neurotic patients.
Differences between conscious and unconscious processes
Finally, the painstaking examination of dreams enabled Freud to classify the remarkable differences between what he termed the primary and secondary processes of thought, between events in the unconscious and conscious regions of the mind. In the unconscious, it was found, there is no sort of organization or coordination: each separate impulse seeks satisfaction independently of all the rest; they proceed uninfluenced by one another; contradictions are
completely inoperative,
and the most opposite impulses flourish side by side. So, too, the unconscious
associations of ideas proceed along lines without any regard to logic;
similarities are treated as identities, negatives are equated with positives.
Again, the objects to which the conative (impulse, desire, resolve) trends
are attached in the unconscious are extraordinarily interchangeable. One
may be replaced by another along a whole chain of associations that have
no rational basis. Freud perceived that the intrusion into conscious thinking
of mechanisms that belong properly to the primary process accounts for
the oddity not only of dreams but of many other normal and pathological
mental events.
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It is not much of an exaggeration to say that all the later part of Freud's work lay in an immense extension and elaboration of these early ideas.
They were applied to an elucidation of the mechanisms not only of the psychoneuroses and psychoses but also of such normal processes as slips of the tongue, making jokes, artistic creation, political institutions, and religions.
Freud erected on
the basis of these elementary observations a theoretical superstructure,
which he named a 'metapsychology', of more general concepts. These however,
fascinating as many people will find them, he always insisted were in
the nature of provisional hypotheses.
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Quite late in his life, indeed, influenced by the ambiguity of the term 'unconscious' and its many conflicting uses, he pro-posed a new structural account of the mind in which the uncoordinated instinctual trends were called the 'id', the organized realistic part the 'ego', and the critical and moralising function the 'super-ego' – a new account which had certainly made for a clarification of many issues."
Freud constantly analysed mind into basic smaller units, into finer and finer detail. He wanted to find the smallest building blocks of mind. Getting smaller and smaller, towards Ayin in Kabbalistic literature, or in the direction of Yang in the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang.
Freud's hypothesis that the Mind is made up of 3 constituent parts, the Id, Ego and super ego , which are the building blocks of human behaviour is similar to the discovery that atoms that are made up 3 constituent parts, the electron, proton and neutron which are the building blocks of materiality.
The triad of basic
structures of Ego, Id and Superego are each in turn combined and influenced
by a myriad of other factors including anxieties, the pleasure principle,
repression, oedipal urges, narcissistic thoughts, guilt, suppressed sexual
experiences, murderous feelings, insatiable ambitions, etc etc. the list
could go on forever. It is a mistake to think that it is all bad because
normal people have variations of the identical structures, which give
us the rich experiences of variations in other people. Again similar to
the atoms which combine in a myriad of different ways to give us the rich
variations in the creation that we enjoy
Whilst the physicists split the atom containing the fast moving sub-atomic
particles, to release locked up atomic energy, so one aspect of the psychotherapist’s’
job is to find a way of getting into the atoms or smallest units of mind
(as indicated by thoughts) which also are changing from one to the other
at speed. If their locked up energy could be freed, they too could release
their energy outward, instead of inflicting introspective damage. Another
way of describing the process of making the unconscious conscious.
Freud's unique
analyses of mind into the many different ideas and structures is similar
to another process taking place throughout history, where men have tried
to analyse the whole of the creation, including the human and his mind,
to see what it is made of and how it works. Even Psalm 8:5 starts with
“ What is man that thou are mindful of him”.
An interesting coincidence between many of the famous physicists like
Weissenberg, Brill, Bohr etc and psychotherapist contemporaries of Freud
is that they all have strong connections with the legacy of the Chasam
Sopher, Rabbi of Pressburg 1763-1839 (as detailed in a remarkable book,
Triads by Tom Keve).
It is also of interest
to know that Freud considered himself an atheist, despite his rabbinical
father and his wife's connections with the Chasam Sopher Rabbi (see Chasam
Sopher)in contrast to Jung, who also
the son of a Pastor was a God fearing therapist and a devout church goer.
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POWER of THOUGHTS
A great paradox is that these thoughts and feelings, have the power to
accelerate the heart, speed up the breathing and raise the body temperature,
even though they are only transient images in the mind. If the sufferer
is lucky or does a lot of hard work with the help of Psychoanalysis or
other psychological therapies, he may eventually discover for himself
that there is nothing substantial in the thoughts, despite their apparent
power. They are real but have no reality outside the person's mind. The
analytic process eventually ends when the sufferer accepts that there
is nothing there. That the shadow on the wall is only a shadow and not
a dangerous monster. That he can avoid only the next moment of craving
for a drink. That he knows nothing but the next moment of sanity.
Strangely similar
to the atom which has nothing there other than more and more space.(see
space)
It is almost as difficult to break these mental bonds, as the bonds holding
the atom together. (other than with shock therapy or lobotomies).
Meditation...( See
meditation) which has many benefits as detailed
in the Time Magazine August 4 2003 is amongst others, a process to avoid
the unnecessary dissipation of a great deal of energy and use the conserved
energy for metamorphoses. It helps the difficult process of objective
observation of our behaviour, stimulating the desire for change. Meditation
provides the energy to understand that the distress, accelerated heart
rate, accelerated breathing all arise from thinking. Thinking is the end
of a process of an enormous amount of mental activity, like the tip of
the iceberg as cleverly illustrated in the diagram below.
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FILM
“A BEAUTIFUL MIND”
This film is based on a true story of Professor John Forbes Nash, distinguished
professor of Mathematics, who eventually gets the Nobel Prize. The professor,
played by Robert Crow, is plagued by images and voices which seem absolutely
real. They cause him much suffering, until his eventual discovery that
these thoughts and images are all ‘figments’ of his imagination.
He discovers like King Solomon in Eccliastes that they have no reality
and are like the nothingness of hot air, described as Hevel (ref) in Eccliastes.
Also called nothingness like Ayin. The film shows the difficulty of having
to choose, to believe, that these images are not not real, but that they
are "nothing", like AYIN.
After many years of therapy he finally manages to return to his mathematical
insights to win the Nobel prize.
In "Human Traces" a book written by Sebastian Faulks, the writer tells a story “of two doctors in the 1870s united by a determination to understand how the mind works and whether madness is the price we pay for being human”. They compare schizophrenic with normal minds and describe how both are full of uncontrolled thoughts, but the schizophrenic mind is more divorced from reality.
The collective unconscious.
Ein Sof
Jung, who was Freud’s pupil, developed the concept of the collective
unconscious, which includes the individual’s unconscious experience
of their whole of life on this planet, since time immemorial.
Could one find a better description of EIN SOF.
Jung also knew how to analyse people’s minds to free them ( their
minds) of these unconscious, limiting, tenacious bonds and thereby making
space for the natural flow of energy, necessary for change.
Jung would say that, "when you and I meet, the whole of my past life experience meets the whole of your past life's experience!"
Jung said, “on the basis of numerous observations and experiences, I have come to postulate two fundamental attitudes, one of them more interested in the object "which may be seen as looking outward. ( to Ein Sof) and the other looking inward, more interested in himself”. (towards Ayin).
Jung continues, “The spectacle of this dilemma made me ponder the question, ‘are there at least two different human types, namely – introversion and extroversion”.See introvert and extrovert
Jung then goes on
to observe that this needs further delineation into
Rational thinking or Irrational feeling.
Jung used the term rational, because criteria are used in making decisions.
An individual who prefers the "thinking" function, uses analysis
and logic to make decisions (as Jung himself).
An individual who uses the "feeling" function makes their decisions
based on their values and how strongly they or others feel about something.
Today, the words emotion and feelings are used interchangeably. Jung's
use of the word feeling includes, "emotions," but goes far beyond
into a realm of morality and values, one's ethical sense of things and
situations. (See Gevura and Chesed
in the table of the Sephirot for the connection with Kabbalistic concepts)
Jung used the word "irrational" because reason is not used,
calling them
"intuition" and "sensation."
These functions describe how an individual takes in information. The sensate
uses their five senses to take in information about the world and themselves.
Sensates deal more with what is.
The intuitive uses their "sixth sense" and draws from the immaterial
realm of their unconscious. Intuitives use symbols and images as a basis
for experience.
This is an extremely gross over-simplification of Jung's theory but these
are the fundamentals.
He had a strong interest in Kabbalah and in his book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections he describes a number of dreams with a strong Jewish Interest.
Page
324 of Jung's Book MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS
It was as if I were in an ecstasy. I felt as though I were floating in
space, as though I were safe in the womb of the universe-in a tremendous
void, but filled with the highest possible feeling of happiness.
“This is eternal bliss," I thought. “This cannot be described;
it is far too wonderful!"
Everything around me seemed enchanted. At this hour of the night, the
nurse brought me some food she had warmed for me. Only then was I able
to take any, and I ate with appetite. For a time it seemed to me that
she was an old Jewish woman, much older than she actually was, and that
she was preparing ritual kosher dishes for me. When I looked at her, she
seemed to have a blue halo around her head. I myself was, so it seemed,
in the Pardes Rimmonim, the garden of pomegranates, and the wedding of
Tiferet with Malchut was taking place. Or else I was Rabbi Simon Ben Yochai,
whose wedding in the afterlife was being celebrated.
It was the mystic marriage as it appears in the Cabbalistic tradition.
I cannot tell you how wonderful it was. I could only think continually,
“Now this is the garden of pomegranates! Now this is the marriage
of Malchut with Tiferet! “I do not know exactly what part I played
in it. At bottom it was myself; I was the marriage. In addition, my beatitude
was that of a blissful wedding.
Gradually the garden
of pomegranates (See Pardes) faded away and changed. There followed the
Marriage of the Lamb, in a Jerusalem festively bedecked. I cannot describe
what it was like in detail. These were ineffable states of joy. Angels
were present, and light. I myself was the “Marriage of the Lamb."
( Pardes Rimmonim is the title of an old Cabbalistic tract by-Moses Cordovero
(sixteenth century). Often referred to as the Pardes )
It is of interest to know that in contrast to Freud, Jung was a God fearing therapist, the son of a Pastor, and a devout church goer whereas Freud considered himself an atheist, despite his rabbinical family and his wife's connections with the Chasam Sopher (see Chasam Sopher)
