Have you ever hurt yourself and wanted to say mother (bleeeeeep)?
Hi, I'm Matt and this is Simply Psyc.
(music)
So I said it was probably because of your mother. (chuckles) When you think of psychology,
what name comes to mind?
Probably this guy.That's because Freud was one of the most
influential figures in psychology and he came up with the theory to explain how
the mind
influences the way that we behave which then explains why sometimes we feel like
we want to swear
and we don't. Let's get into this.
We're talking about Sigmund Freud.
(music)
Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential figures in psychology
and his theories were extremely important to our understanding of
psychology today.
Now they have largely been discredited probably because he talked about sex so much
and he did way too much cocaine. But they were still extremely influential.
Freud's theory of psycho dynamics proposes that we have a part of our mind of which
we are largely unaware.
He called it the unconscious. The unconscious contains all of the things in
our mind
that we may not be aware of and yet they are influencing our behavior.
They're influencing our speech. They're influencing pretty much
everything that we do on a regular basis. Now the conscious
is a smaller part of our mind that contains all the things that we are
aware of.
that when we're making choices about how we want to behave. The unconscious is a very
large part.
It's kinda like an iceberg.
What do we know about an iceberg?
An iceberg
is really only 10 percent above the water and about 90 percent below the water.
So the largest part of the iceberg is beneath the water.
But we only see a very small part. (sound of ocean liner horn blowing)
This is very much like the mind. We see a very small part which is the conscious
but then the larger part of the mind is the unconscious.
And in there is contained all of the influences and motivations
that motivate us in the way that we want to behave. Now Freud was a structuralist.
What that means is
is he believed that the mind was divided up into different components.
And he said that there were three primary components in the mind :
the id, the ego and the super ego.
Now these three components interact with one another.
And as they interact with one another they then influence the way that we behave.
Let's start with an understanding of the id. Freud said that in a healthy person
the id would be the largest part of the mind, the largest part
motivating our behavior. Now Freud believed in evolution.
And he believed that we as humans come from animals.
And animals have a lot of instincts, specifically the survival instinct.
And the id contains that survival instinct in humans.
And it motivates our behavior. The id is very much based upon what he called
the pleasure principle. When you look at animals, when you look at a dog,
what is it that they do? They eat, they sleep, they fight, and they wrestle sometimes,
they have sex. So those are things are pleasurable to an animal.
Well because humans, according to Freud, come from animals,
then we have those same instincts, those same motivations in life.
And those motivations are contained within the id.
All we want to do is seek out pleasure in life.
Now another part of the mind, the super ego, contains all of society's
ideals. As we're raised, our parents, our teachers, our
pastors or whatever - all of those individuals -
they teach us how to behave in society and in order to live
in society we must be civil. This is where the word civilization comes from.
In order to be civil, in order to have a civilization
we have to have rules. We have to have limitations.
We have to have ways in which most people behave
so that civilization can actually exist. All of that teaching
is ingrained in our unconscious mind in
the super ego. Now here's something very interesting about the id and the
super ego:
\They are in conflict with one another. The id
wants to have pleasure, unadulterated pleasure all the time.
The super ego however, the super ego wants to enforce the rules.
Well as you can expect, these two things are at odds with one another.
This conflict or this interaction between the id and the superego
influences how we behave. Take swearing for instance.
Swearing is not always socially acceptable. Sometimes,
if you're not around your parents, maybe it's okay to swear. Other times,
if you are around your parents, you may not want to swear.
We took a camera and decided to follow my assistant Simmons around to see what would happen.
Everyone knows he has a dirty mouth and we wanted to find out if we could catch
this on tape
and see exactly how the interaction between his id and superego takes place.
That...
Is this the inside of my mind?
Swear!! You know you want to.
I wouldn't do that.
Don't listen to him. Say it!!.
He's right. Swearing is (bleeep) fun!
That mother (bleeeeep)!!!
So it looks like the id won that round.
But let's see what happens if the superego wins.
That...
Where am I?
Swearing is wrong.
Don't listen to him. Feels gooooood!
But, could offend someone.
He's right -not this time. Go away.
(bleep)
That (mumble) man must have been in a hurry.
Thank you Simmons.
So like the little devil and like the little angel the superego and the id are
in conflict with one another.
But we still have a third component of the mind. Freud called this the ego.
The ego's job was to manage the relationship between the
id and the superego, meaning that the
ego was there to make sure that the id felt the pleasure that it wants to feel
but also follows the rules so we can still be a part of the civilization.
If you have a strong ego you have a healthy person.
You have a weak ego, then the id and the superego fight with one another
and it can develop unhealthy behaviors. The ego is based upon what Freud called the
reality principle.
That it assesses reality, the reality of your situation,
and then makes a decision based on the circumstances.
So if you're by yourself and you want to swear, your ego says
its okay, you go on and swear and feed your id.
But if you're around other people that may not appreciate your swearing
your ego says OK super ego. I hear the rules. I'll go ahead and not swear.
The important thing to remember about Freud's theory of psycho dynamics is that
though the id and the super ego are unconscious and the largest part of the mind,
the ego is conscious and therefore has the final say
in exactly what kind of behavior you're going to show in any given situation.
So swear away or don't. It's your decision. Let's take a seat.
Freud is the most influential figure in psychology
primarily because everyone who came after him was reacting to him.
Now that is the ultimate legacy.
And why I keep a picture of him here on my desk
to remind myself just how (bleeeep) far we've come.
Til next time...
(music)
Have you ever hurt yourself and said frack!!
Flim, flam, fadoosh.
Schlagel!
Mother pheasant plucker!
to remind myself just how frackin far we've come.
That mother father son of a biscuit.
Gahhhhh! Anthills!! Gah!
Have you ever hurt yourself and wanted to say....(laughs) I had a different one in mind.