Freudian Fairytales



Sorcha Doyle N00092100VygotskyLab WorkLab Questions, Revision work Why do we dream according to Freud?Sigmund Freud famously theorized that dreams were the "royal road to the unconscious". He suggested that the unconscious is the part of the mind that is the most difficult to access because it contains people's deepest fears, desires, and emotions. Freud believed that our brain protects us from disturbing thoughts and memories by repressing them; he also believes that human beings are almost entirely driven by our unconscious sexual desire. Our dreams are our way of reaching the unconscious. Freud claims that our thoughts are the product of the id. Our thoughts would then be repressed and suppressed in ego, or super- ego. Our thoughts would then find their way to our dreams. Freud believes that people are driven by aggressive and sexual instincts that are repressed from conscious awareness. While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, Freud suggested that they find their way into our awareness via dreams. For this reason, our dreams are extremely important. A dream can consist of images, emotions, thoughts, experiences from that day, wishes and wants, a dream can be anything. Freud suggests that a dream was a representation of the unconscious desired thoughts and motivations. Through dreaming he thought that people have wishes satisfied, even wishes of things they are oblivious of wanting. Freud believed that nightmares were also wishes of the unconscious mind. However he believed that a nightmare was the minds was of expressing events that the unconscious did not want to occur. A nightmare is almost like a warning to the conscious mind.What is Adler best known for?Alfred Adler a well known psychiatrist from Vienna. While writing papers for Freud’s discussion group, Adler wrote papers concerning aggression instinct and a paper on children’s feelings of inferiority which suggested that Freud's sexual ideas be taken more metaphorically than literally. After serving time in the army during world war one, his experience led him to turn his thoughts to the concept of social interest. Adler believed that if humanity was going to survive it was going to have to change. For Adler, motivation was the force that would lead to perfection. Adler was clear with his responses when he heard complaints. He used his common sense and was straight forward with his approach to people’s problems. Adler’s theory suggested that every person has a sense of inferiority. From a young age people work their way up to overcome their sense of inferiority and asses their superiority amongst others. Adler referred to this as?concept as 'striving for superiority'?and believed that this drive was the motivating force behind human behaviours, thoughts and emotions. Adler's theories have played an essential responsibility in a number of areas, including therapy and child development. Alder's ideas also influenced other important psychologists, including Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Karen Horney.What is an inferiority complex?An inferiority complex is a feeling that a person has, that they are inferior to others in some way. An inferiority complex is a mainly unconscious sense of inadequacy. It can manifest in strange ways, in which people may try and compensate because of their inferiority complex. They may think that they are not as worthy as others, that their skills are not as high as their peers. Such a complex can cause psychological distress on the person and self esteem issues. A person’s awareness of their psychological stress content is on a conscious level. Inferiority does not act like a normal feeling; it acts like an incentive for over achievement but it is actually at an advanced stage of discouragement, which often embeds itself into a person’s lifestyle which can cause someone to retreat when difficulties arise. Some causes for an inferiority complex are physical defects, which may be due to something like a weight problem, a disproportionate facial feature, a hair growth, a speech impediment etc. Social disadvantages and discriminations such as sex, race, family, sexual ordination etc. A parent’s upbringing and attitude towards their child for example focusing on the negative, emphasizing on mistakes disapproving on unnecessary things can all determine a child’s attitude as young as six. Mental limitations can also be the cause of someone having a superiority complex. For example, when superior achievements by others are praised and only satisfactory achievements by the person with the complex are accepted. This psychological condition can be treated through?psychotherapy, in which the roots of the?complex?are explored to help the patient process and accept it and move forward.Name any 3 of Horney’s 10 neurotic needs Karen Horney was a psychoanalyst who developed one of the world’s best known theories on neurosis. Horney believed that the reason for anxiety was interpersonal relationships. Horney suggests that basic anxiety could result from a variety of things including, " . . . direct or indirect domination, indifference, erratic behaviour, lack of respect for the child's individual needs, lack of real guidance, disparaging attitudes, too much admiration or the absence of it, lack of reliable warmth, having to take sides in parental disagreements, too much or too little responsibility, over-protection, isolation from other children, injustice, discrimination, un-kept promises, hostile atmosphere, and so on and so on" (Horney, 1945). One of her neurotic needs was the Neurotic Need for Personal Admiration. Individuals with a neurotic need for personal admiration are narcissistic and have an exaggerated self-perception. They want to be admired based on this imagined self-view, not upon how they really are. The dread of losing this admiration can be seen as humiliating. Another is the Neurotic Need for Personal Achievement. Horney believes that people push themselves to achieve greater and greater things as a result of basic insecurity. These individuals fear failure and feel a constant need to accomplish more than other people and to top even their own previous successes. The dread of failure is also seen as humiliation. A third neurotic need is the Neurotic Need to Exploit Others. These individuals view others in terms of what can be gained through association with them. People with this need generally pride themselves in their ability to exploit other people and are often focused on manipulating others to obtain desired objectives, including such things as ideas, power, money, or sex. The dread of being exploited themselves can be seen to them as looking stupid to others.Freudian FairytalesRapunzelAutumn C.A.Submitted: 3rd Nov 2010ByMegan McDonnell, Jessica Gilroy,Sorcha Doyle&Orla CurranSummary of original fairytale:Rapunzel herself is the main character in this story, as suggested by the title. At birth, Rapunzel is handed over to an enchantress by her parents as a result of her father stealing rampion (a seasonal vegetable) from the enchantress’ back garden. She raised Rapunzel as her own and locked her in a tower with only one window and no door to keep her from the outside world. When she wanted access, she would cry “Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!” and Rapunzel would dutifully drop her long tresses out of her window so her enchantress mother could climb up.One day a prince was passing by on his horse and heard Rapunzel singing. He was instantly mesmerized, and wanted to gain access to the tower despite the fact that he saw no door. The prince returned the next day however and witnessed the enchantress climb up Rapunzel’s hair. The prince returned the next day and mimicked the enchantress. Rapunzel was shocked, not having seen a man before, but the prince was kind to her and they soon agredd to be married. They created an escape plan; Rapunzel would fashion a ladder made from skeins of silk brought by the prince. However, one day Rapunzel, not thinking asked the witch: “How is it good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young prince?”. The enchantress, enraged at Rapunzel’s betrayal grabbed Rapunzel’s long hair and cut it all off. Furthermore she banished her to a lonely desert. That evening, the prince arrived for his visit, but to his surprise, it was the witch in the tower, tricking him by throwing down Rapunzel’s removed tresses. Beside himself with grief, the prince threw himself out of the tower window, blinding himself. He wandered for years through the wilderness, blind and depressed until he stumbled upon Rapunzel’s desert home, where she was living with her recently born twins. He heard Rapunzel singing and recognized it immediately; Rapunzel ran to him and wept. Her tears fell upon his eyes, and his blindness was cured. Finally, they all returned to the prince’s kingdom where they lived happily ever after. Freudian interpretation: Rapunzel’s character in this story is interesting. The story states that Rapunzel is locked away at 12 years of age. According to Freud, this places her in the genital stage of psychosexual development. She is naive due to a lack of relationships in her life, and also due to her solitary confinement. Upon meeting the prince she is frightened as he is like an alien creature to her, however her instinctual urges and libido cause her to be attracted to him. We also discover that a sexual relationship was quickly built, as we discover that Rapunzel gives birth to twins by the end of the fairytale.An Electra complex emerges throughout this story also. The enchantress locks Rapunzel in a tower to keep her from the all outside contact. It’s fair to say that Rapunzel resents her “step-mother” (“Psychology and fairytale, n.d.), and longs for a Father, who, according to Freud, could be compared to the prince. The enchantress stands in the way of Rapunzel being with the prince by banishing her to the desert. An Oedipus complex manifests itself too. The prince wishes to be seen as a hero and a rescuer in Rapunzel’s eyes, much like an Oedipal boy wishes to be the hero to his mother. A poetic interpretation of “Rapunzel” by Anne Sexton details an almost reverse Electra complex throughout it; she implies that there is a lesbian relationship between Rapunzel and the enchantress (“A woman who loves a woman is forever young”), that is until the entrance of the prince where Rapunzel realizes her sexuality (“He dazzled her with his dancing stick”). Rapunzel is not the naive and child-like character that she is in the Grimms’ brother’s famous tale, but instead a mature woman who has experienced the physical bond of both a man and a woman. The theme of castration is also present in this story. Freud has stated that climbing has obvious sexual connotation (S.Freud, "Introductory Lectures on Psycho - Analysis; Symbolism in Dreams",?op.cit., p. 164, as cited in Levi, 2005), and it is clear that Rapunzel’s tresses can be seen as a female penis. Thus, we can then interpret the narrative “In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground” as obvious castration. Castration is also common fear among boys experiencing the Oedipus complex, according to Freud. The young boy is in competition with his father for his mother’s affections, however the boy is frightened of his father as his father has the power to castrate him. Girl’s can have castration anxiety also, in fear of their mothers, however as they do not possess a penis Freud believes the anxiety is considerably less than boys (Day, Macaskill & Maltby, 2007, p.28). This can explain why the prince is adamant to find Rapunzel, even when depressed and blind. His castration anxiety is greater than hers, and so she stays exiled while he searches and longs for a wife. It is not only the main characters of the story that can be interpeted in a Freudian manner, but minor characters such as Rapunzel’s biological parents also. The Mother’s lust for rampion at the beginning of the story illustrates conflict between the Id, the Ego and the Superego. The Id lusts for the rampion, although the Mother knows it is not hers to take. The Ego realises that this, and the Superego tries to find a socially acceptable method of obtaining the object in question; and this comes in the form of the Father. He acts as a type of Superego for the Mother and steals the rampion by night, in order not to offend the owner, but also in order to please his pregnant wife.The Father eventually does get caught stealing, however. When accused, he rationalises, stating that he only stole the rampion to please his wife. This is an obvious Freudian “defence mechanism”.It’s clear that Rapunzel oozes Freudian theories. They manifest themselves via characters, objects, themes and actions and make us view Rapunzel, the innocent fairytale in a totally different manner.Word Count (Excluding titles and references): 1,058References: Day, L., Macaskill, A., & Maltby, J. (2007). Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence, England: Pearson Education Limited. Gonzalez, M. M., Fairy Tales Revisited and Transformed: Anne Sexton’s Critique of Socialized Femininity. Retrieved October 27, 2010: 's%20Critique%20of%20Social%20(ized)%20Femininity.pdfLevi, I. (2005). Rapunzel and Other Stories of Beautiful Hair. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from : and Fairytale. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from : ................
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