Another deeply original branch of psychologism, which does not stand in any continuity with the methods of Saint-Beuve or Potebnya and represents a special variant of psychologism in literary criticism, is the school of the Viennese prof. Sigmund Freud (see). In contrast to the idealistic systems analyzed above, Freud's method was created in the era of expanded capitalism, in its imperialist period. As Marxists have repeatedly noted, the emergence of Freudianism among the Austrian bourgeoisie at the beginning of the century is deeply significant, with its keen attention to the problems of eroticism, aestheticism, individualism (Weininger's Sex and Character, the works of Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, etc.). Due to the exclusive attention that his followers pay to the subconscious biological aspects of the author's psyche, Freud's method is often called the psychoanalytic method. For Freud and his supporters, the human psyche is based on the sexual drive and the homicidal drive; both are indecomposable and represent the initial factors of life - organizing and destructive. This statement - the main one for the school - leads the Freudians to an analysis of those initial stages in the history of art and in individual creativity, where the erotic underlying basis, as it seems to them, is revealed with indisputable evidence. Hence, on the one hand, the “prehistoric” studies of the Freudians (“The Motif of Incest in Poetry and Saga” by O. Rank), and on the other hand, their keen attention to the origins of human maturation, to the child's psyche, their constant operation as a pure form of the human psyche in general, a kind of "infantilism" of the Freudian methodology. As in psychoanalysis, so in art criticism, its mechanics boil down to finding that “oedipal complex” (after the name of the Sophocles king Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother), supposedly necessarily present in one form or another in all world poetry. The motive of Oedipus is organizing, for "artistic creativity is a solution to the conflict, allowing the individual, avoiding real incest (incest - A. Ts.), to escape from neurosis and perversion."
The complete unscientific nature of Freud's method as a method of cognizing human behavior, and thus also a method of analyzing artistic creativity, is quite obvious. Freud detaches this behavior from the class base that gave rise to it, breaks all dependence of the individual on the collective, and explains by biology that which in fact has social conditioning. This vice, common to all idealists, stands out with particular relief among the Freudians because of the utter helplessness of their scientific arguments. A follower of Freud, I. Neifeld, published the book "Dostoevsky", a psychoanalytic essay edited by Z. Freud (there is a Russian translation) - an example of a distortion of the facts of Dostoevsky's social biography, shamelessly "fitting" to a pre-prepared conclusion of the extraordinary diversity of artistic creativity. But Neufeld does not represent an exception to the rule in this respect - the Russian Freudians brought this "method" to the point of complete absurdity (see, for example, works on Pushkin and Gogol by I. D. Ermakov). By elevating sexuality to the root cause of art, glossing over its social organizing significance, the psychoanalytic school fully reveals its idealistic essence.
The psychoanalytic school was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), a heavy smoker (20 cigars a day!), an adherent of cocaine, a bearded Austrian psychologist. Sigmund Freud focused on mental illness, while other schools focused on the typical behavior of a normal person. Freud made the most important observation: patients suffering from hysteria tend to be cured if partially forgotten material is restored to their consciousness. Based on this, he developed the main postulate of psychoanalysis: there is a dynamic subconscious mind that affects every action.
He suggested that our minds, like icebergs, are consciously opened only by a small visible part, while the larger part is hidden or unconscious (the normal mental process cannot remember it). This process of forgetting memories that are nonetheless remembered often serves a purpose, but is also the root cause of many mental problems.
For people suffering from ailments arising from the subconscious, Freud stimulated conscious recognition (recognition) of repressed experiences. Then he brought the hidden part of the subconscious out so that we could understand it and connect with the contradictions that it may have created for us. After experimenting with hypnosis to probe the subconscious, he conducted "free association" therapy. Patients (usually lying on the famous bed) spoke their thoughts aloud as they came to them. His other approach was to interpret dreams.
Freud's system developed gradually and concentrated around the following main points:
- The role of the subconscious
- How can mental illness be treated through therapy?
- The role of motivation
- The role of early development in shaping our adult psychological life
He decomposed personality into three components:
- Ego. Ego is what we think of when we refer to "I" or "me". When something in the outside world poses an objective threat to our ego, we experience "objective trauma"
- Identification. This is the most primitive component of personality, representing biological needs and desires (food, sex, cigarettes). It requires immediate satisfaction. Sometimes the demands of identification pose a threat of ego suppression, and then we may experience "neurotic anxiety"
- Superego. This component contains our ideas, norms and values. It serves the purpose of creating a normally functioning personality that meets the expectations of the surrounding world. If the demands of the superego threaten to overwhelm the ego, we may experience "moral anxiety."
Now what does the ego do to protect itself from this potential anxiety? Freud proposed seven different ways:
- Crowding out. We force unpleasant memories, perceptions or thoughts to go inside the subconscious
- Return. We retreat to an early stage of our lives
- Projection. We attribute personal shortcomings and weaknesses to something external. We may, for example, criticize others or judge them for having the same problems as us.
- Reaction formation. We change our feelings to the opposite, for example, love to hate
- Sublimation. We do something that is accepted by society and we suppress our real desires to do something that is less accepted by society.
- Rationality. We give false but often plausible explanations for our weaknesses.
- Identification. We must reduce the needs of our own personality and try to imitate someone else whom we perceive as more fortunate.
There is no doubt that Freud is a great thinker, but he was not perfect either. His thoughts subsequently became the target of attacks from many quarters. Mainly due to the fact that he put too much emphasis on sexuality, and also generalized too much. The school he founded continued to develop, but soon it was divided into several directions.
founderpsychoanalytic school became Sigmund Freud(1856–1939), Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist
● Most famous works: "On Psychoanalysis" (1911), "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1913), "The Psychology of Everyday Life"(1926) and others.
Main idea - the hypothesis of the existence of the unconscious as a special level of the human psyche. The driving force in the development of mankind is elemental drives, the main of which is the instinct of procreation, i.e. « libido». Switching libido energy (sublimation) Freud viewed creativity as the only healthy and constructive strategy for curbing unwanted impulses. It was the sublimation of sexual instincts, in his opinion, that served as the main premise for great achievements in science and culture.
Thus, strong and unconsciously aggressive drives can be sublimated in a socially useful direction. From the point of view of classical psychoanalysis, the transformation of libido into creative inspiration is most clearly manifested in art. The great and well-known "I remember a wonderful moment ..." A.S. Pushkin dedicated A. Kern because she was inaccessible to him. Three months of forced isolation, spent by him in Boldino, gave 50 inspired works, and a happy "honeymoon" - only five small poems.
Freud's concept contains the assertion that it is the conflicts of the individual's psyche, which have a biological basis, that act as the motivating cause for the development of culture and its content, which includes moral norms, art, the state, law, etc. Religion, according to his views, is a fantastic projection into the outside world of unsatisfied drives. In the most cultured people, Z. Freud noted, the natural principle is suppressed with particular force, which makes them especially prone to mental illness, sexual disorders, and heart attacks. Suicide, which is a characteristic feature of advanced civilizations, is practically absent among primitive peoples. Thus, Freud, exploring human culture from the standpoint of psychoanalysis, in his work “Dissatisfaction with Culture” (1930) warns society against unnecessary restrictions and prohibitions, considering them a threat to the psychophysical well-being of mankind.
Modern researchers see significant shortcomings in the concept of Z. Freud. Nevertheless, undoubted advantages are also noted, which consist in highlighting the significant role of the unconscious in human life and the functioning of culture, the study of the psychotherapeutic function of culture, the formation of scientific interest aimed at studying the relationship between norm and pathology in various cultures, etc.
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) as a scientist began with work in the field of physiology and anatomy of the brain. Gained fame thanks to his work on cerebral palsy and aphasia. Then he, together with P. Breuer, develops a method for the treatment of neuroses ("cathartic method"). Further, Freud puts forward a hypothesis about the exclusive role of sexuality in the etiology of neuroses, uses hypnosis, replaces it with the method of free association of interpretation of dreams, and develops a doctrine of the unconscious. In 1902, a small circle of like-minded people gathered in Freud's house, then the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society was formed. The psychoanalytic movement is spreading in a number of countries. First half of the 20th century characterized by a general interest in psychoanalysis. In the 60-70s. his prestige is waning. But until now, Freud's ideas continue to be popular all over the world.
Freud developed not only an original psychological, but also a philosophical concept (although he himself repeatedly said that his teaching was not philosophical, but scientific). Freud's views relate not only to psychology, their range is much wider - these are ideas about the structure of the human psyche, the driving motives of people's activities, the moral foundations of the individual, the cultural and social factors of human existence. All this gives grounds to consider Freud the author of a peculiar philosophical doctrine, which is sometimes called metapsychological philosophy.
Freud, in principle, proceeds from the reality of the external world. “The mysteries of the world are only slowly being revealed before our research, science at the present time cannot yet answer many questions. But for us, scientific work is the only way that can lead to an understanding of the reality of the external world” (“The Future of an Illusion”). Freud is skeptical of metaphysics, of any philosophical constructs that are not based on science.
Unlike those philosophers who make it their task to study the external world, Freud shifts the focus of research to the "small" world, to man.
Accepting the position that the life behavior of a person is explained by the interaction of organization and “fate”, “internal and external forces”, Freud considers it necessary to comprehend, first of all, the inner world of a person, to identify those driving forces that determine human development from the inside. These driving forces are human drives.
The structure of the psyche. Freud believes that "drives, and not external stimuli, are the real engine of progress", that "the stimulation of drive does not come from the outside world, but from within the body." There is an unconscious area of the human psyche, in which a special life takes place, not yet sufficiently studied and meaningful, but really significant and different from the sphere of consciousness. And Freud seeks to reveal the characteristics of the unconscious, to reveal its processes. The perception of the unconscious requires special procedures and skills, a special ability to interpret perceived phenomena.
In developing psychoanalysis, Freud was based on two ideas.
1. All the most essential mental processes are unconscious. It should be noted that the ideas about the unconscious were expressed before Freud by a number of philosophers, psychologists, and physiologists. Therefore, it would be wrong to consider him the discoverer of the unconscious. But his merit is in assessing the role of the unconscious in the human psyche.
2. The primary role in human life is played by sexual desires. The psychoanalytic interpretation of the role of sexual desires in human life is closely related to the postulate of the “oedipal complex” eternally inherent in him, according to which the boy is constantly attracted to his mother and sees his rival in his father. (For girls, the "Electra complex" is characteristic, according to which the girl is attracted to her father and sees a rival in her mother.)
Freud put forward an original idea about the structure of the human psyche. “In our opinion, there are two thought-forming instances in the mental apparatus of a person, of which the second has the advantage that its products find access to the sphere of consciousness open; the activity of the first instance is unconscious and reaches consciousness only through the medium of the second. On the border of both instances, at the point of transition from the first to the second, there is censorship, which lets through only what it wants, and delays the rest.
Freud believes that every mental process exists first in the unconscious and only then can it appear in the sphere of consciousness. The transition to consciousness is not necessary at all. He compares the sphere of the unconscious with a large front hall, in which all spiritual movements are located, and consciousness with the salon adjoining it. On the threshold between the front and the salon stands a "guardian" ("censorship"), "who carefully examines every spiritual movement separately" and decides whether to let him through from one room to another or not. But even this does not mean that it thereby becomes conscious. Spiritual movement becomes Xia conscious only when it attracts the attention of the consciousness at the end of the salon. Thus, the front room is the abode of the unconscious, the salon is the receptacle of the preconscious, and only at the end of the salon is consciousness. This is one of Freud's spatial ("topical") ideas about the unconscious and consciousness.
Later, in the 1920s, Freud gives the following description of the structure of the human psyche. This structure is three-membered, it includes:
· the unconscious It, a deep layer inherited by a person, in which there are hidden spiritual movements, unconscious inclinations of a person;
· conscious I, mediator between It and the outside world;
· Superego, a certain instance, including imperatives of duty, prohibitions of moral, sociocultural and family origin.
It is guided by the principle of satisfaction, I - by the principle of reality, Super-I - by the principle of duty.
To understand the relationship of these components, Freud resorts to figurative comparisons. It and I are the horse and the rider. The ego tries to subdue the id, just as a rider tries to control a horse. If the rider follows the lead of an untamed horse, then the I actually obeys the will of the It, only apparently being its leader. In general, says Freud, "I personifies what can be called reason and prudence, as opposed to the Id, which contains passions."
The Super-I is dual in its essence; one of his faces is duty, the other is prohibitions. The super-ego can rule over the self, acting as conscience or unconscious guilt. As a result, “I am an unfortunate being who serves three masters and, as a result, is subject to a threefold threat: from the outside world, from the desires of the It and from the severity of the Super-I” (“I and It”). The self depends on the unconscious inclinations of a person, and on the requirements of culture with its moral prescriptions and social prohibitions.
founder psychoanalytic school became Sigmund Freud(1856–1939), Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist
● Most famous works: "On Psychoanalysis" (1911), "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1913), "The Psychology of Everyday Life"(1926) and others.
◘ Main idea - the hypothesis of the existence of the unconscious as a special level of the human psyche. The driving force in the development of mankind is elemental drives, the main of which is the instinct of procreation, i.e. « libido ». Switching libido energy (sublimation ) Freud viewed creativity as the only healthy and constructive strategy for curbing unwanted impulses. It was the sublimation of sexual instincts, in his opinion, that served as the main premise for great achievements in science and culture.
Thus, strong and unconsciously aggressive drives can be sublimated in a socially useful direction. From the point of view of classical psychoanalysis, the transformation of libido into creative inspiration is most clearly manifested in art. The great and well-known "I remember a wonderful moment ..." A.S. Pushkin dedicated A. Kern because she was inaccessible to him. Three months of forced isolation, spent by him in Boldino, gave 50 inspired works, and a happy "honeymoon" - only five small poems.
Freud's concept contains the assertion that it is the conflicts of the individual's psyche, which have a biological basis, that act as the motivating cause for the development of culture and its content, which includes moral norms, art, the state, law, etc. Religion, according to his views, is a fantastic projection into the outside world of unsatisfied drives. In the most cultured people, Z. Freud noted, the natural principle is suppressed with particular force, which makes them especially prone to mental illness, sexual disorders, and heart attacks. Suicide, which is a characteristic feature of advanced civilizations, is practically absent among primitive peoples. Thus, Freud, exploring human culture from the standpoint of psychoanalysis, in his work “Dissatisfaction with Culture” (1930) warns society against unnecessary restrictions and prohibitions, considering them a threat to the psychophysical well-being of mankind.
Modern researchers see significant shortcomings in the concept of Z. Freud. Nevertheless, undoubted advantages are also noted, which consist in highlighting the significant role of the unconscious in human life and the functioning of culture, the study of the psychotherapeutic function of culture, the formation of scientific interest aimed at studying the relationship between norm and pathology in various cultures, etc.
10. The concept of the collective unconscious
Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl Gustav Jung(1875-1961) was strongly influenced by Freud and, in his time, supported his theory. However, in 1913 there was a break in their relationship due to C. Jung's rejection of the completely original statement by S. Freud that the brain is "an attachment to the gonads." K. Jung built his own research on the basis of an analysis of dreams, delusions, schizophrenic disorders, as well as on a deep study of mythology, the works of ancient, late antique and medieval philosophers.
● Main works: "Psychological Types" (1921), "Analytical Psychology and Education" (1936), "Psychology and Alchemy" (1952), "Archetype and Symbol" and etc.
◘ The main idea is to concept of the collective unconscious, i.e. simultaneously with the existence of the unconscious in the individual, recognizes the existence of the unconscious in the collective.
● Jung introduced the concept of "archetype" into cultural studies.
From the fact of the existence of the unconscious in the collective, Jung concludes that the monotonous is a property inherent in all mankind, the structural elements of which are represented by "archetypes". Each individual spirituality subsequently developed from them. “All the basic forms and basic stimuli of thought are collective. Everything that people unanimously regard as universal is collective, as well as that which is understood by everyone, inherent in everyone, said and done by everyone.
According to Jung, the collective unconscious exists in the soul of a person in the form of archetype 1 already at birth. Archetypes accompany a person throughout his life and manifest themselves through symbols. Hence, mythology is an expression of the collective psyche. Jung assigned a special place among the archetypes to the person, shadow, anime, animus and self.
A person(from lat. mask) represents the public face of a person, i.e. how he behaves in the company of other people. It is necessary in everyday life, but at the same time it is also a source of danger to a certain extent, because. can lead to the degradation of personality, constantly replacing individuality.
Shadow represents the unconscious opposite of what the individual seeks to establish in his mind. It is the source of unacceptable aggressive impulses, immoral thoughts, passions, and so on. However, at the same time, the shadow also represents the source of vitality and creativity, because. curbing his own negative impulses, a person forms a personality in himself.
In addition, Jung believed that the unconscious has features inherent in the opposite sex, and a person in its entirety is a bisexual being. In this way, anima acts as the unconscious feminine side of the male personality, which is expressed in such symbols as mother, woman, soul, Virgin Mary. Consequently, animus represents the inner image of a man in a woman, which is associated with the symbols of the father, man, hero, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries of interaction between the sexes, these archetypes have evolved in the collective unconscious.
Self Jung singled out as the most important archetype and called the core of the personality, around which other elements are united. An individual experiences a sense of harmony and integrity of his own personality in those cases when the integration of all aspects of the soul is achieved. Thus, the development of the self is the main goal of human life. Its symbol is the mandala and its many interpretations: an abstract circle, a halo of a saint, etc. According to Jung, these symbols are found in dreams, fantasies, myths, religious and mystical experiences. Moreover, he considers religion to be a unique force that helps a person in his striving for integrity 1 .
K. Jung is credited with creating the theory of psychological types (extrovert-introvert), which became the starting point in his comparative analysis of various types of cultures. According to his point of view, thinking is represented by two types: logical, i.e. extraverted, and intuitive, i.e. introverted. He identifies the development of Western culture with extraverted thinking, traditional, including the countries of the East, with introverted. In cultures with introverted thinking, dreams, hallucinations, rituals, etc., are of particular value, since they allow you to make contact with the collective unconscious and create a kind of balance between the conscious and the unconscious.
Unlike Freud, Jung's concept libido identified with creative energy. In the process of researching and analyzing the development of Western culture, he came to the conclusion that the Enlightenment, which brought a new look at long-familiar things, led humanity to atheism. The realization that the gods do not exist, however, did not lead to the disappearance of their inherent functions, they only went into the sphere of the unconscious. This contributed to the overabundance of libido, previously expressed in the cult of idols. As a result, the reverse flow of libido greatly strengthened the unconscious. It exerted powerful pressure on consciousness and led to the French Revolution, which resulted in massacres. Thus, Jung associated socio-political crises and upheavals in the Western European countries with the intrusion of archetypes into the life of society.
He saw the most important task of culture in the liberation of man from the state of obsession and unconsciousness. Based on this, the person himself, Jung believed, must penetrate the unconscious and make it the property of consciousness, but not remain in it and not identify with it.
Jung's concepts have been the subject of lively controversy and criticism. But it is quite obvious that the initial development of culture is most closely connected with a fairly strong influence of the unconscious, and this influence has left its traces in many areas.
