Psychoanalysis
A: The development of the psyche from birth
B: The development and role of the unconscious in our everyday lives
C: The development of gender identity (psycho-sexual identity)
D: Understanding the complexities of human subjectivity
- It's not just a form of therapy but a way of categorising and understanding desire, motivation, dreams.
- Treated hysteria patients use psychoanalysis by guiding them to discover and accept repressed thoughts/ events.
- Dreams: Freud analysed his own and other's dreams in terms of their hidden associations and 'wish-fulfillments'
- He observed infants in their habits and associations with parental figures
THE DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS - created through infancy to protect our conscious selves from events, ideas, and thoughts that are not acceptable to consciousness. It continues to affect our conscious selves in SOME ways. The unconscious is described as chaotic, without order and without language. It makes itself present through tricks, slips and symptoms (e.g. Freudian slip)
Freudian slip = A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of someunconscious ("dynamically repressed"), subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought. The concept is thus part of classical psychoanalysis.
**Freud's hysteria patients developed debilitating symptoms as a result of experiences or feelings that had become repressed...
Stages of development = Our development into wilful, conscious beings is full of confusing, contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas. This acts as an attempt to make sense of both our biological/ instinctual self and our logical/ thinking self. We create associations and assumptions through sense data which is often incorrect. The developing child goes through 3 stages: oral, anal and phallic.
Also the child develops preconceptions that must be dealt with in order to develop successfully - oedipus complex, castration complex & penis envy.
Psycho-sexual Identity
Oedipus complex - sexual/love feelings towards mother and resentment of father...through childhood dependance and self-centred world view. Oedipus complex - feelings of love, rivalry, jealousy all mixed...confusing feelings 'to want' vs 'to be wanted'. The development of both masculine and feminine identities in relation to the penis/ phallus.
Castration complex - the boy fears castration while the girl accepts that she has already been castrated. (The phallus as a symbol of power).
PENIS ENVY - the girl experiences this when she begins to realise she does not have a penis...not as a sexual organ but a way of relating to the father figure. Presence/ absence - both create possible negative feelings the boy fears his castrations (his powerfulness) while the girl feels that she is missing something. The child must experience and overcome these mixed feelings and misconceptions in order to gain a sexual identity and a speaking position within the order of language and society. Misconceived/ contradictory ideas of gender, power and identity continue to work unconsciously.
THE UNCANNY// only thing freud wrote about that was concerned with the visual world...
- 'Unhomely'
- Something that is simultaneously unnatural yet familiar
- Something that was supposed to remain hidden which has come to the open
- Where the boundary between fantasy and reality break down
- Analogies between the unconcious (psychology) and the uncanny (aesthetics)
“The uncanny is something which is secretly familiar, which has undergone repression and then returned from it. Everything that is uncanny fulfils this condition.” – Freud
“There is no question, therefore, of any intellectual uncertainty here: we know now that we are not supposed to be looking on at the products of a madman's imagination, behind which we, with the superiority of rational minds, are able to detect the sober truth; and yet this knowledge does not lessen the impression of uncanniness in the least degree. The theory of intellectual uncertainty is thus incapable of explaining that impression.” – Freud
“Death and the re-animation of the dead are typically represented as uncanny themes.” - Freud
Freudian Models;
- Id, Ego, Superego
- Unconscious, preconscious and conscious.
We are bio-social individual beings. Freud explains the way the human mind works. Freud describes the human mind as interaction of id, ego, super-ego. The ego, and to some extent the super-ego, is conscious or on the surface. The id remains unconscious. Together they make up the personality...
The ID (unconscious) represents the biological/ instinctual part of ourselves. The id represents a constant in the personality as it is always present. The id is governed by the 'pleasure principle'.
EGO (conscious) - The ego is the surface of the personality, the part you usually show the world. The ego is governed by the 'reality principle', or a practical approach to the world. It seeks to turn the id’s drive to behaviour which brings benefits in the long term rather than grief
Superego - The Super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that part of the personality, mainly unconscious, which includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticises and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions.
ID - I WANT IT NOW
EGO - MAYBE I CAN FIND A COMPROMISE
SUPEREGO - NICE PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT.
THE MIRROR STAGE - Lacans most notable contribution to psychoanalysis.
The childs recognition of itself in reflection (in objects or other people) signifies a split or alienation - it is seen as both subject and other
Rivalry - while the child may recognise its own image it is still limited in movement and dexterity. Thus resulting in the formation of Ego, which aids (and continues to aid) a reconciliation of body and image/subject and other
Captation - the process by which the child is at once absorbed and repelled by the image of itself (the specular image).
- The lacanian unconscious - "The unconscious is structured like a language". Thats not to say that the unconscious has but its structure is LIKE a language
- The unconscious is the discourse of the other
- Highlighting the ways in which meaning is encoded within linguistic signs - written or spoken words.
- Unconscious details are encoded in various ways as they slip into consciousness.
METAPHOR - Where one concept or word is replaced by another - Displacement..Symptom - symptoms are translated elements of unconscious material adopting a metaphor style coding.
Desire - Metonymy - a part of something used to represent the whole or the whole used to represent a small part. Meaning is displaced along a series of associations - a signifying chain. Desire for objects (including people) are displaced desire for what cannot be obtained.
LACANIAN PHALLUS - not the biological penis but a symbol of power/ order attained through its associated LACK* - The potential of lack (male) and the actual lack (female) Masculinity/ femininity are not biological definitions but symbolic positions. Our interactions/ relations to the symbolic phallus provides a 'speaking position in culture/ within the symbolic order
A: relating to the signifying nature of the phallus
B: our sexual identity informed through the phallus. The role of the symbolic phallus is diverse and complex!
THE 'ORDERS' OF REALITY
- The real - that which cannot be symbolised/ signified where our most basic animal selves exist.
- The imaginary - the order which exists before symbols and signification where the ego is born and continues to develop, no clear distinction between self and others/ subject and object.
- The symbolic - the order of the other. Exists outside ourselves - language exists before and outside of us.
Psychoanalysis and art criticism/ theory - Subjectivity - what it is to be human, motivations, desires, the unconscious - the theory helps us to understand why things are as they are. To help us understand artists/ designers motivation for creating artwork....Model based theory/ paradigm models provide a tool for categorising or breaking down individuals and groups of art/ design works.
Designers who've adopted this approach in their work: EDWARD BERNAYS - THE GODFATHER OF PR, FREUDS NEPHEW - He Applies his knowledge of psychoanalysis, and recognises the unconscious desire to advertising and PR campaigns. He revolutionised advertising by applying MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES.
Symbolic metaphor for sexual interaction, the symbology that goes on in dreams. Makes refrences to the painting and Hitchcocks vertigo, he uses this to develop a psychoanalytical metaphor.
Louise Bourgeois - 'Spiral Woman' 1952 - explored the relations between males and females/ struggles and desires. She doesn't just focus on feminine issues.
CONCLUSION
- Psychoanalysis provides us with a definition of the unconscious.
- A definition of subject-hood outside of logic and rationality.
- A tool to help understand motivations and meanings of art works.
- A tool to help us understand how art and design affects us and why.
Background Information/ Secondary research...
The idea of psychoanalysis came into full prominence under Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud formulated his own theory of psychoanalysis in Vienna in the 1890s. Freud was a neurologist interested in finding an effective treatment for patients with neurotic or hysterical symptoms. Freud had become aware of the existence of mental processes that were not conscious as a result of his neurological consulting job at the Children's Hospital, where he noticed that many aphasic children had no apparent organic cause for their symptoms. He then wrote a monograph about this subject. In the late 1880s, Freud obtained a grant to study with Jean-Martin Charcot, the famed neurologist and syphilologist, at the Salpêtrière in Paris. Charcot had become interested in patients who had symptoms that mimicked general paresis (neuropsychiatric disorder affecting the brain and central nervous system, caused by syphilis infection).
He contended that at the root of hysterical symptoms were repressed memories of distressing occurrences, almost always having direct or indirect sexual associations. Around the same time he attempted to develop a neuro-physiological theory of unconscious mental mechanisms, which he soon gave up. It remained unpublished in his lifetime.
Psychoanalytic Feminism
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud".
SYMBOLIC PHALLUS
The symbolic version of the phallus, a phallic symbol is meant to represent male generative powers. According to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, while males possess a penis, no one can possess the symbolic phallus. Jacques Lacan's Ecrits: A Selection includes an essay titled The Significance of the Phallus which articulates the difference between "being" and "having" the phallus. Men are positioned as men insofar as they are seen to have the phallus. Women, not having the phallus, are seen to "be" the phallus. The symbolic phallus is the concept of being the ultimate man, and having this is compared to having the divine gift of God.
Art History and the Concept of the Unconscious
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html - PROPAGANDA BY Edward Bernays.
CASE STUDY ====== 1929 TORCHES OF FREEDOM -
By the mid-1920s smoking had become commonplace in the United States and cigarette tobacco was the most popular form of tobacco consumption. At the same time women had just won the right to vote, widows were succeeding their husbands as governors of such states as Texas and Wyoming, and more were attending college and entering the workforce. While women seemed to be making great strides in certain areas, socially they still were not able to achieve the same equality as their male counterparts. Women were only permitted to smoke in the privacy of their own homes. Public opinion and certain legislation at the time did not permit women to smoke in public, and in 1922 a woman from New York City was arrested for lighting a cigarette on the street.
George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company and an eccentric businessman, recognized that an important part of his market was not being tapped into. Hill believed that cigarette sales would soar if he could entice more women to smoke in public.
In 1928 Hill hired Bernays to expand the sales of his Lucky Strike cigarettes. Recognizing that women were still riding high on the suffrage movement, Bernays used this as the basis for his new campaign. He consulted Dr. A.A. Brill, a psychoanalyst, to find the psychological basis for womens smoking. Dr. Brill determined that cigarettes which were usually equated with men, represented torches of freedom for women. The event caused a national stir and stories appeared in newspapers throughout the country. Though not doing away with the taboo completely, Bernays's efforts had a lasting effect on women smoking.
Handout
Further Research
In an industry that is notable for its mastery of evasions and euphemisms, Bernays stood out for his remarkable frankness. He was a propagandist and proud of it. (In an interview with Bill Moyers, Bernays said that what he did was propaganda, and that he just "hoped it was 'proper-ganda' and not 'improper-ganda.'")
his uncle Sigmund Freud, whose reputation as "the father of psychoanalysis" owes something to Bernays' publicity efforts. Bernays regarded Uncle Sigmund as a mentor, and used Freud's insights into the human psyche and motivation to design his PR campaigns, while also trading on his famous uncle's name to inflate his own stature.
There is, however, a striking paradox in the relationship between the two. Uncle Sigmund's "talking cure" was designed to unearth his patients' unconscious drives and hidden motives, in the belief that bringing them into conscious discourse would help people lead healthier lives. Bernays, by contrast, used psychological techniques to mask the motives of his clients, as part of a deliberate strategy aimed at keeping the public unconscious of the forces that were working to mold their minds.
Characteristically (and again paradoxically), Bernays was remarkably candid about his manipulative intent. "If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it," he argued in Propaganda, one of his first books. In a later book, he coined the term "engineering of consent" to describe his technique for controlling the masses.
The United Fruit Company**
Was Bernays a key source of information? (Important article demonstrating the morals and character of Bernay).
Bernays liked to cultivate an image as a supporter of feminism and other liberating ideas, but his work on behalf of the United Fruit Company had consequences just as evil and terrifying as if he'd worked directly for the Nazis. The Father of Spin sheds new and important light on the extent to which the Bernays' propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company (today's United Brands) led directly to the CIA's overthrow of the elected government of Guatemala.
The term "banana republic" actually originated in reference to United Fruit's domination of corrupt governments in Guatemala and other Central American countries. The company brutally exploited virtual slave labor in order to produce cheap bananas for the lucrative U.S. market. When a mildly reformist Guatemala government attempted to reign in the company's power, Bernays whipped up media and political sentiment against it in the commie-crazed 1950s.
"Articles began appearing in the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, the New Leader, and other publications all discussing the growing influence of Guatemala's Communists," Tye writes. "The fact that liberal journals like the Nation were also coming around was especially satisfying to Bernays, who believed that winning the liberals over was essential. . . . At the same time, plans were under way to mail to American Legion posts and auxiliaries 300,000 copies of a brochure entitled 'Communism in Guatemala -- 22 Facts.'"
His efforts led directly to a brutal military coup. Tye writes that Bernays "remained a key source of information for the press, especially the liberal press, right through the takeover. In fact, as the invasion was commencing on June 18, his personal papers indicate he was giving the 'first news anyone received on the situation' to the Associate Press, United Press, the International News Service, and the New York Times, with contacts intensifying over the next several days."
The result, tragically, has meant decades of tyranny under a Guatemalan government whose brutality rivaled the Nazis as it condemned hundreds of thousands of people (mostly members of the country's impoverished Maya Indian majority) to dislocation, torture and death.
Bernays relished and apparently never regretted his work for United Fruit, for which he was reportedly paid $100,000 a year, a huge fee in the early 1950s. Tye writes that Bernays' papers "make clear how the United States viewed its Latin neighbors as ripe for economic exploitation and political manipulation -- and how the propaganda war Bernays waged in Guatemala set the pattern for future U.S.-led campaigns in Cuba and, much later, Vietnam."
As these examples show, Tye's biography of Bernays is important. It casts a spotlight on the anti-democratic and dangerous corporate worldview of the public relations industry. The significance of these dangers is often overlooked, in large part because of the PR industry's deliberate efforts to operate behind the scenes as it manages and manipulates opinions and public policies. This strategy of invisibility is the reason that PR academic Scott Cutlip refers to public relations as "the unseen power."
Bernays pioneered many of the industry's techniques for achieving invisibility, yet his self-aggrandizing personality drove him to leave behind a record of how and for whom he worked. By compiling this information and presenting it to the public in a readable form, Tye has accomplished something similar to the therapeutic mission that Freud attempted with his patients -- a recovery of historical memories that a psychoanalyst might term a "return of the repressed."
