There are three highly important theories of his that remain current in our culture today: the subconscious, the mental triumvirate of the Id, Ego and Superego, and psychosexual development.
The Subconscious
This is perhaps Freud's most important theory, as it moves us away from the Enlightenment idea that we are fully in-control of ourselves. The subconscious is a part of our brain we have no control over and that is the foundation of perceptible consciousness. This fundamentally contradicts that Enlightenment idea that the universe - and by extension, a person - is one complete and perfect clockwork. One argument for the subconscious is that there are physical aspects of our body we have no control over: we can't stop ourselves from breathing (imagine if we could? some idiot would do it for a dare and die, then the nanny government would impose breathing regulations), our sensations - touch, taste, etc, but perhaps most importantly pain - are involuntary, and we all have some physical ticks, like tugging our earlobe when we're nervous or tapping our leg when bored. Even the act of crossing our arms is often involuntary.
Freud helped to propagate the idea that we aren't in full control of ourselves, which leads us to the science of psychoanalysis and is easily incorporated into the existential philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries. Though we still haven't learnt much on the topic of existentialism, I can certainly make connections from what little I know. For example, that famous Nietzsche quote, "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you," is applicable with Freud, where the subconscious is the abyss. In this quote (I believe) Nietzsche was warning his readers from becoming the monsters they fight, and in the mental battlefield Freud describes, that abyss would by the Id, our primal instincts, which Freud believed were harmful.
The Id, Ego and Superego
The Id, as I've just defined, is our primal instincts. Eat, poop, sex, sleep, survive. The Id pushes us towards instant gratification, and someone whose mind is ruled by the Id has low self-control.
The Superego is the opposite of the Id; it suppresses, usually through the usage of guilt. It aims for perfection within the ideals set by culture - so the Superego's manifestation varies not just from person but from place to place. If you eat too much when the Superego's idea of perfection requires you to eat less, it will punish you by making you feel guilty. Someone who is controlled by their Superego, says Freud, suffers from melancholy - depression - due to not being able to satisfy their perfectionism.
The Ego is the realistic of the three, acting as a balancer of the Id and Superego. Someone led by their Ego is more balanced than one who is ruled by the other two and is better adjusted as such.
The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development
The Oral Stage is the first a child goes through in its earliest stages, when it develops an obsession for putting things in its mouth, beginning from breast feeding. Freud warns that children who are under- or over-stimulated at this stage will turn out dysfunctional - those under-fed by their mums will grow into manipulative adults, constantly seeking to get the oral stimulation denied as a child; those over-fed won't mature and will try to stay in this childish, taken-cared-of phase for all their life.
The Anal Stage is characterised by potty training, and is when a child learns to distinguish between instant and delayed gratification - do I poop my pants, or wait to poop in the proper place? A difficult question some people never learn the right answer to. Those who get caught up in this stage, claims Freud, develop personal traits such as orderliness, a need to control, pedantry - otherwise known as being anal.
The Phallic Stage is where the craziest part of Freud comes in. This is when the child begins to identify as 'boy', 'girl' or otherwise (though Freud wouldn't have recognised more than two gender-identities in his day). The child begins to experience their first subconscious sexual desires. For boys, says Freud, this is manifested towards the mother, and a jealousy grows in them against their father, their rival. But, says Freud, this then turns from jealousy to emulation of the father, as the child is instilled with a subconscious fear that if they challenge their father, he will castrate him. This is the infamous Oedipus Complex: you want to have sex with your mum and kill your dad. Freud never did manage to apply it properly to women, though Carl Jung coined the term 'Electra Complex' for the female version.
The Latency Stage, spanning from mid-childhood to the onset of puberty, is the period of time when the child begins to develop or resolve the psychological issues begun in the previous three stages. A more concrete picture of who this kid will become appears in this time.
The final stage, spanning from puberty to death, is the Genital Stage, which is similar again to the Phallic Stage as it is ruled from downstairs. But where it differs is that at this point, the Ego - in a well-adjusted person - rules, and manifests the genital desires in interpersonal relationships, from friendships to sexual relationships.
And That's That
Freud's ideas are all a bit ridiculous, to be perfectly honest. The great problem with his theories is that they are completely unfalsifiable. If I say "Well hang on, that's wrong, I've never wanted to have sex with my mum," Freud will just say "You only think you've never wanted to, but deep down in an area locked away to everyone but myself, you really, really want to." You just can't apply the scientific method to him. However, his ideas have embedded themselves into our culture, and it would be true to say we live in a Freudian world. We describe people as anal, we talk about our subconscious and we all make Freudian slips. Freud has had a massive effect on artists, film makers and writers. And by bringing sex to the fore, he broke us away from the Victorian culture that inhibited it, leading eventually to the sexually free culture that would spring out of the post-war, cold war era.
The Anal Stage is characterised by potty training, and is when a child learns to distinguish between instant and delayed gratification - do I poop my pants, or wait to poop in the proper place? A difficult question some people never learn the right answer to. Those who get caught up in this stage, claims Freud, develop personal traits such as orderliness, a need to control, pedantry - otherwise known as being anal.
The Phallic Stage is where the craziest part of Freud comes in. This is when the child begins to identify as 'boy', 'girl' or otherwise (though Freud wouldn't have recognised more than two gender-identities in his day). The child begins to experience their first subconscious sexual desires. For boys, says Freud, this is manifested towards the mother, and a jealousy grows in them against their father, their rival. But, says Freud, this then turns from jealousy to emulation of the father, as the child is instilled with a subconscious fear that if they challenge their father, he will castrate him. This is the infamous Oedipus Complex: you want to have sex with your mum and kill your dad. Freud never did manage to apply it properly to women, though Carl Jung coined the term 'Electra Complex' for the female version.
The Latency Stage, spanning from mid-childhood to the onset of puberty, is the period of time when the child begins to develop or resolve the psychological issues begun in the previous three stages. A more concrete picture of who this kid will become appears in this time.
The final stage, spanning from puberty to death, is the Genital Stage, which is similar again to the Phallic Stage as it is ruled from downstairs. But where it differs is that at this point, the Ego - in a well-adjusted person - rules, and manifests the genital desires in interpersonal relationships, from friendships to sexual relationships.
And That's That
Freud's ideas are all a bit ridiculous, to be perfectly honest. The great problem with his theories is that they are completely unfalsifiable. If I say "Well hang on, that's wrong, I've never wanted to have sex with my mum," Freud will just say "You only think you've never wanted to, but deep down in an area locked away to everyone but myself, you really, really want to." You just can't apply the scientific method to him. However, his ideas have embedded themselves into our culture, and it would be true to say we live in a Freudian world. We describe people as anal, we talk about our subconscious and we all make Freudian slips. Freud has had a massive effect on artists, film makers and writers. And by bringing sex to the fore, he broke us away from the Victorian culture that inhibited it, leading eventually to the sexually free culture that would spring out of the post-war, cold war era.
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