The 8 main concepts of psychoanalysis

I’m always wary of books that try to oversimplify complex subjects. But, after all, we have to start from somewhere. This text seeks to show the main concepts of psychoanalysis. In a way, it does what I suspect. However, I believe that the proposal is valid and I respond to a request from a dear reader of our site. Basically, we are going to describe eight of the main concepts of psychoanalysis. When I say main I mean those concepts without which it is impossible to say what psychoanalysis is.

The first concept must necessarily be the unconscious (Das Unbewusste🇧🇷 Freud did not create the unconscious. Authors such as Leibniz, Von Hartmann and Schopenhauer had already described the existence of the unconscious in the sense of what is not conscious. The difference is that Freud defines the unconscious in another way, not as an adjective but as a noun. Thus, we can imagine the unconscious as a place, as a topos. In psychoanalysis, we study topology. That is, didactically we can think of the psyche as being divided into places. In the first topic, Freud speaks of the unconscious, preconscious and conscious. In the second topic, we have the concepts of Ego, Id and Super ego (Ich, Es, Überich🇧🇷

Unconscious is what we do not know about ourselves, what we forget, what is left behind and continues to exist, although we may not know exactly about these contents. In this sense, the unconscious is an adjective, unconscious contents in the psyche. However, as I said, Freud goes beyond this meaning that already existed in philosophy and defines the unconscious also as a place and as a mode of functioning distinct from the functioning of consciousness.

We have dreams every night and we are not, at least not consciously, creating them. This is perhaps the simplest example to understand what the unconscious is. The Unconscious works in another way: through displacements and condensations.

View the free lesson on Interpretation of Dreams

2) Desire

The second concept is desire (wunsch🇧🇷 We can have a clearly conscious desire, like wanting this or that and knowing that we want this or that. But we also have desires that are obscure, not because they are intrinsically bad or negative, but because we don’t know about them or don’t want to know. These desires, which are unconscious, are at the base of the formation of dreams, slips, jokes, artistic creations and, most importantly for the clinic, symptoms.

I remember a text by Marilena Chauí in which she says that wishing is desiderare🇧🇷 Etymologically, it means failing to consider the stars (sidera🇧🇷 And to consider (consider) is to take them into account… and also Chico Buarque – perhaps because Renato Mezan mentions him in the The Weft of Concepts: “What has no government and never will, what has no limits…”

3) Formation of commitment

The third concept is precisely what brings together all the formations (dreams, symptoms, slips) in the same theoretical framework: the concept of commitment formation (Kompromissbildung🇧🇷 Roughly speaking, we can understand that a part of the psyche wants one thing and another part wants another. Therefore, even a nightmare is a wish fulfillment. And even a symptom, what we complain about and feel bad about, I feel bad, is also a wish fulfillment. In order to understand what a compromise formation is, it is useful to understand the idea of ​​a slip. A faulty act, such as forgetting an appointment, is an error of conscience, which perhaps is justified with an excuse. But from the point of view of the unconscious it is a successful act. Deep down, the guy didn’t really want to go to the appointment, so he forgot about him.

Participate – Course Three Essays on Sexuality (see the free class).

4) Infantile sexuality (Infantile Sexualitat🇧🇷

This is one of Freud’s most shocking theses for anyone who has never studied psychoanalysis. But it’s not hard to understand. For psychoanalysis, sexuality is thought of in a broad way and is not limited to the sexual act, nor does it begin at puberty. Since childhood, the subject experiences pleasure in his body, in the so-called erogenous zones. The fixation of the libido in these zones, beyond what would be “normal”, is consistent with the psychopathological symptoms of neurosis, psychosis and perversion.

5) Oedipus complex (Ödipuskomplex🇧🇷

The subject is formed from identifications with other people. There is no denying that the family, especially the father and mother (or the person who takes their place) has a special impact as an influence. The concept of the Oedipus complex was reformulated throughout the work of the father of psychoanalysis and following his modifications implies studying the progress and alteration of other concepts.

Veja – Oedipus Complex – history and concept

However, the idea that the boy has affection for his mother and rivalry with his father is well known. This formulation, which partly accompanies the Greek myth, is just one of the possibilities of experiencing identification and rivalry. For example, another boy can identify with the father figure and later resemble his father a lot, but he can also have the same type of desire as his mother, that is, a desire that will be directed towards the man, therefore homoaffective. .

6) Structures of the psyche

From the Oedipus relationships (located around 3 to 5 years old) that the permanent structure of the personality is formed, with three possible results: neurosis, psychosis or perversion. This means that all of us will have one or another of these structures and then we cannot “switch”. And this also means that normality for psychoanalysis is not a matter of not having a psychopathic structure, but rather having symptoms that are less severe. The difference is one of degree.

Read – The personality for psychoanalysis

7) Transfer (Übertragung🇧🇷

The seventh concept is transference. In the analysis process, the subject who lies down on the couch begins to associate freely. The technique consists of saying everything that comes to mind, trying to remove any and all resistance. With the analysis process, the subject transfers previous relationships in his life to the analyst. Thus, the analyst can be identified with the father or mother figure, or any other that is important in his life.

8) Death drive (todestrieb🇧🇷

The eighth concept is a little more complicated to understand. At the beginning of psychoanalysis, Freud had the idea that the psyche sought pleasure. What is felt as displeasure, then, was explained as a psychic conflict. But after 1920, Freud understood that the ultimate functioning of the psyche goes beyond the pleasure principle. It is what is translated in Lacanian psychoanalysis as jouissance (jouissance🇧🇷 The paradigmatic example is the boy who keeps bringing back his mother’s absence, in the game that became known in psychoanalysis as Fort-Da. In short, Freud noted that there is a tendency in the psyche that also seeks displeasure and the repetition of displeasure. However, not all psychoanalysts accept this thesis, which forms part of his final work.

Veja – The principle of Nirvana for Freud

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