FREUD - MIND

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>FREUD</FONT><BR> THE PSYCHOLOGIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Mind over Matter</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>UNCONSCIOUS</B></FONT><BR> It was Freud who created a new picture of the <A HREF="../t03/g033.html" TARGET="_top">mind</A>, not as the centre of reason but of unreason. The mind was a kind of sea. At the surface, just a few feet of upper waters, the consciousness. Below, the vast black, unexplored depths of the unconscious, full of strange monsters. This vision resulted in the development of "depth psychology" a process in which the unconscious could be explored through psycho-analysis and some of these monsters identified. Freud hoped to found a science which would provide rational mastery over the unconscious. Some urge that he provided a new myth for modern man, not a new science.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>EGO</B></FONT><BR> For Freud, the mind consists of an <A HREF="../t03/g011.html" TARGET="_top">ego</A> which contains a person's ordinary thoughts and directs daily behaviour, and an <A HREF="../t03/g023.html" TARGET="_top">id</A> containing all the instincts and repressed feelings. A superego maintains the values and prohibitions and controls the ego through guilt. Trauma in childhood can upset the balance between the three and the ego can become the site of intrapsychic conflict between an intruding id and a threatening superego. The result can be neurosis, depression, anxiety.<P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="2007a.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="107" ALT="TRIPARTITE SOUL"></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>TRI-PARTITE MIND</B></FONT><BR> Like <A HREF="../04/04f01.html" TARGET="_top">Plato</A>, Freud evokes the image of the charioteer. <BLOCKQUOTE>"Thus in its relation to the id, the ego is like a man on horseback who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces. The analogy may be carried a little further. Often a rider, if he is not to be parted from his horse, is obliged to guide it where he wants to go; so in the same way the ego is in the habit of transforming the id's will into action as if it were its own."<P> ("The Ego and the Id")</BLOCKQUOTE> <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>