Philosophy if Freud, in His Psychoanalysis Theory,

Philosophy

If Freud, in his Psychoanalysis Theory, believes that each person - from infancy - represses impulses or desires, which its parents reject - and shuts these unwanted impulses out into the unconscious. These are what he calls repressed thoughts. He suggests that, since this process happens throughout life, that infant grows into adulthood, doing things out of the command of those repressed impulses and desires in the unconscious mind. He concludes that the only way a person with overwhelming repressed material can be cured is for an expert therapist to access his unconscious and bring these repressed material to his conscious awareness. And because it is not conscious, and therefore not within the conscious control of the person, he cannot be responsible for what he does from the irresistible command of his unconscious. This makes Freud a determinist in that he believes that human nature, rather than reason, determines a person's culpability in his willful acts.

But Sartre argues that what Freud claims as unconscious repression is only self-deception. He explains this by saying that the patient has the dormant awareness of what ails him. The only trouble is that he is afraid to face or admit that he knows it. Or he rejects such a truth. Sartre illustrates this, using the therapy situation itself: that the patient gets "cured" either by admitting or denying the therapist's analysis of the patient's condition by revealing and interpreting the latter's repressions. If the patient can confirm the therapist's analysis, Freud thinks that it is only because the patient has known the truth itself all along, for he cannot confirm something he has a greater hold of. And if he resists it, it can only be because he is aware of it but does not want to confront it. Either way, the awareness already lies in the patient who is really in control but may not want to exercise it.

There is the sharp difference between their theories: Freud says a person acting from the impulsions of his repressions cannot be responsible for his acts because they are unconscious. But Sartre says otherwise: a person has always had an awareness of what happens to him and is therefore always responsible - and accountable - for his every deed, because it is conscious and free. As he says, man is condemned to be free. If Freud acquits or shields man from culpability - under the guise of the unconscious --, Sartre accuses man for every act he makes because he is free and responsible, but is merely denying or avoiding facing that freedom and that responsibility.

Sartre emphasizes that man can control what enters his mind rather than pretend to fall victim to outside stimuli, e.g., parental wishes, social conventions, etc. Those so-called "repressions" such as norms, self-image and worldview, are really optional, i.e., he does not have to accept or retain them. He is in full possession of his mind and will. This, he believes, man cando from infancy, and he is not excusing the person at any stage of his development.

Instead, Sartre believes that all that man needs is the courage to face the truth -- each truth in his life and he need not shut anything out of his "conscious" mind into the unconscious counterpart. In this case, he is responsible and accountable for every action he performs.

Freud is a psychic determinist, while Sartre holds that man is utterly and irreversibly free.

In the mind of Freud, man is more a victim than a controller of life. But in Sartre's, man can never be a victim and will always remain answerable even if he refuses to answer for his act.

To recap, Freud maintains that the mind has three segments: the unconscious, the conscious and the superego. The unconscious or the id is the garbage receptacle of every thought a person rejects and does not want to face. The conscious part is the ego, which the mind uses to deal with the external world. It is the link between the id in an unconscious way and the superego, half consciously and half unconsciously. The superego is where all the expectations, prohibitions and ideals are lodged.

He further explains that an infant begins life only with the id, which it needs to survive physically. The infant knows itself only and becomes attached to its mother. When obstacles come, such as her fatigue, the father's desire for the mother's attention, or the hostility or absence of either of them, the infant develops a sense of separateness - a self - with which to respond to otherness. Then, at a later age, the child learns to internalize prohibitions, his parents' wishes, social expectations and ideals and these are gathered together and comprise the superego.

If the mother fails in responding to the infant's cry for food, warmth, diaper change or physical nearness, or when a show of rejection and hostility is shown, the infant learns to "repress" its demonstrations of hatred towards them mother or father as something undesirable. This buried hatred is dislodged into the unconscious but never leaves the mind. Later, it surfaces in another form and troubles the patient. As more and more buried impulses are cast into the unconscious mind, a person can get overwhelmed and turn into a neurotic.

A therapist, as earlier mentioned, helps bring the person back to mental and emotional health by reading his repressed thought to him. As far as the patient is cooperative and the therapist is capable, the extent of cooperation from both sides will determine the level and extent of therapeutic success. The person can be made to confront what he has repressed or "forgotten" for so long and, thereon, make conscious changes in his life, instead of continue to be driven by these impulses beyond his control.