However, such a moral transformation in the patient would not be effective without a social transformation. Psychoanalysis can only alleviate symptoms or delay them, since the patient learns about his repressed desires and is introduced to an alternate more flexible morality by the psychoanalyst. If the society is still as conservative, then the patient will still face a decision between satisfaction of his deviant libidinal impulses and social acceptance. In time, the ego that has gained strength and flexibility through psychoanalysis, will become rigid again through social influence so that the patient will still hold onto his high moral ideals. Since the development of ego is a social process, it is very hard for the patient to reject the moral values of his society to follow his deviant sexual desires and employ a liberated morality. Therefore, a complete cure to neurosis would not...
THE ROLE OF SOCIETY ON PSYCHE DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH, PART4
April 3rd, 2009THE ROLE OF SOCIETY ON PSYCHE DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH, PART1
April 3rd, 2009THE ROLE OF SOCIETY ON PSYCHE DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
The role of society development and health can be clearly seen in the Freudian theory of the mind and sexuality. Freud claims that humans have to forego some of their libidinal impulses to form a society, so that the tension between social norms and libidinal drive partitions the psyche into two entities: the id and the ego. The ego, which functions controller the desires of the id, is formed and shaped by the moral values of the society. Furthermore, the superego, the ego ideal that watches over the ego, is formed by the resolution of the Oedipus complex and is later influenced by social contact. Since neurosis involves a conflict between the morality of the socially constructed ego, the libidinal impulses of the id and external reality, it stems from social causes. According to Freud psychoanalysis, in which the therapist brings the repressed...