Economic model of psychoanalysis

Personality, as a variable that influences behavior, is well studied. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, approached it from different perspectives. Today we will talk about one of them: the economic model of psychoanalysis.

Have you ever heard of libido, psychic energy and drives? They are concepts that, sometimes, we use without specifying their definition or their origin. Freud took them into account to consolidate his economic theory of personality.

Explore this model of psychoanalysis with us. You will learn another perspective of our personality, you will see what concepts are related to this model, how energy works in our psyche and what other models make up Freudian personality theory.

What is the economic model of psychoanalysis?

This is the field of personality, from a Freudian perspective, which It is about the functioning of energy in our psyche. It arose thanks to the scientific and philosophical spirit of the father of psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud hypothesized that our psychic processes are related to the circulation and distribution of energy. According to this model, The energy of our psychic apparatus will be susceptible to increase, decrease or be equivalent.

So, according to this theory, the psychic apparatus is responsible for the transformation of energy, the postponement of discharge and the elaboration of experiences. Therefore, this perspective can be described as: all those charges, discharges, overloads and equivalences that are mobilized in our psychic apparatus.

Concepts associated with the economic model

There are various concepts associated with this Freudian topic. Let’s see them:

Psychic elaboration. That is, the transformation of energy.Drive. It is the force that drives us to satisfy internal tensions, which do not necessarily have to be sexual in nature.Cathexis. The ability we have to direct our drive energy towards an object or representation. Then, they would be discharges of psychic energy. According to Freud, the id would be the origin of cathexes, that is, that tendency to satisfy our needs by seeking pleasure.Libido. It is the basis of the dynamism of the mind and psychosexual development. Although, it goes beyond the sexual, it is about that energy that comes from our drives and that directs our behavior. Therefore, it can be related to everything that gives us pleasure, for example, eating.

Although those just mentioned are the best-known concepts about the economic model of psychoanalysis. Freud made a great tour of the drives, in fact, he divided them into:

Drive of life. They are the impulses that motivate us not to give up pleasure, in favor of survival and well-being.Death drive. It is about that tendency towards self-destruction, but when well managed it can be assertive.

Now, this model was based on theories developed from approximately 1914 to 1920, especially in books: Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Introduction to narcissism by Sigmund Freud.

Other models

To establish his theory of personality, Freud formulated various models, also called topics. One of them is economic, let’s look at the others:

Topographic. It is a perspective in which there are different levels of consciousness. The unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. Each of these levels is associated with a part of the iceberg that is submerged, that is, they are associated with a metaphor.Dynamic. This model is related to the impulses that seek gratification and those that pursue inhibition through defense mechanisms.Genetic. It is the theory that proposes that our psychosexual development occurs thanks to the search for gratification in the erogenous zones. There are various stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital.Structural model. It proposes that our mind is separated by different instances and that each of them acts on a level, thus forming a personality structure.

Although there are these divisions in Freudian personality theory, It does not mean that each topic acts separately. In fact, in psychoanalysis all concepts complement each other.

The economic model of psychoanalysis provided the conception of the flow of energy in our mind, and how various drives tend to satisfy our instincts and others do not. Furthermore, he realized how these energies are transformed in our internal world. It was and continues to be today: a revolutionary way of appreciating our mind.

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