Showing posts with label Freud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freud. Show all posts

Monday 25 February 2013

The Freud / Jung Letters - a window into the worlds of two great innovators.

I'm in the middle of reading The Freud / Jung Letters; and  I'm finding it fascinating. It's the personal correspondence between Freud and Jung starting in 1906 and going on for around seven years until their final break with each other - over 300 letters!


Stepping stones across the water.Looking back from 2013, it strikes me that we now live in a such different world from theirs. Things have moved on. Yet would we be where we are now without them?

Both men were pioneers - innovative thinkers exploring new territory. As they clarified their ideas, their differences came more to the fore; and ultimately they found no way to reconcile them with each other. However despite this, (or maybe because of it), they have both contributed a great deal to our understanding of the human psyche.
Reading their letters, you can see how their ideas develop and crystallise, as they explain themselves to each other. Interesting stuff!..
 
Freud also met Salador Dali. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting...
 

Thursday 29 November 2012

Leveson - free speech,responsibility and the 'Reality Principle'.

The Leveson Report came out today, raising discussion on a number of issues including free speech and responsibility. How do we strike a balance between, on the one hand, free speech; and on the other hand, on protecting members of our society, particularly the most vulnerable, from inappropriate and intrusive behaviour. This seems to me to touch on very basic values, both politically and for us as individuals.

Stepping stones across the water.On an individual level, freedom and responsibility can be difficult to balance, just as difficult as they are in our society at large. If I do whatever I want, then how does it impact on you? Therefore if I want to act responsibly, I need to consider how my actions will affect others. This then limits my individual freedom to some degree. How far should these limits on our freedom go? How do we best protect both ourselves and others?

We use rules and regulations to limit our behaviour - some from outside of ourselves, such as rules in our society, and some self-regulation. We need some rules or framework for our lives. These can give us guidance, including ways of behaving ethically and appropriately - part of having a social conscience. We take these rules in, internalise them, and use them in our own judgements and ways of behaving with others.

We therefore interpret our society's rules in our own individual way. We have our own individual social consciences and these can at times do battle with the part of us that wants to have the freedom to do whatever it wants. In Freudian terms, this is the 'superego' versus the 'id'. The superego may be said to voice our social conscience; while the id voices our individual desires and needs. These two therefore come into conflict with each other.

There is however a third part of the internal dynamic, according to Freudian theory. This is the 'ego', the part of us that tries to manage the internal conflict between superego and id; and beyond this with the outside world. The ego then is the part of us that looks at what is 'realistic' for us as individuals for ourselves and in relation to others, as members of society. Freud called this the 'Reality Principle'. We try to be realistic in our perspective and how we behave.

How we interpret rules and react to them therefore seems to me to be quite a fundamental part of human behaviour, part of our individual personalities. Some of us are quicker to follow outside rules than others; some like to position themselves more as outsiders or perhaps as rebels; others as more like campaigners wanting to bring about change - to modify existing rules.

Looking at how we react to changes in rules and regulations in our society therefore can say something about ourselves as individuals. Aren't human beings interesting?

Lin Travis Counselling Services

Friday 5 October 2012

Would Freud have blogged?

Having started this blog just a couple of days ago, I've thought about what I might write as a counsellor - what was OK to write. Then the thought occurred to me today as to whether Freud would be a blogger if he was still around.

Stepping stones across the waterAs a psychodynamic counsellor I've been taught that in the counselling room I should be pretty much like a blank screen - it's not about my stuff, the focus has to be my client. But then while Freud and those coming after him may have advocated a blank screen or tabula rasa stance for the therapist, that did not mean they didn't publish a variety of papers and books concerning their theories and therapeutic work. I'm not about to publish some marvellous new theory, nothing that grand I'm afraid! I just wanted to have a space to talk about topics that interest me concerning my work.

Mindfulness was the first topic that came to me to write about, perhaps because there has been a fair amount written about it recently from a cognitive behavioural, (CBT), point of view. As a psychodynamic counsellor I wanted to say that while the CBT approach is fine, it's not the only way to do it. Psychodynamic counsellors, therapists and analysts have used mindfulness in their work for many years.

Dreams are another topic that interests me. I find them fascinating! I guess these are two quite different topics and how this blog will develop, I'm not sure. I hope though to make it about subjects related to therapy or counselling and the approach I use myself - particularly the psychodynamic approach.

Ways of communicating have became increasingly sophisticated since Freud's time. We can use different media and connect with others worldwide in an instant. I wonder where this will lead us in terms of therapy?

Lin Travis Counselling Services

Dreams - are they worth investigating?

Dreams have always fascinated me. Sigmund Freud saw them as the 'royal road to the unconscious'. How interesting is that? The unconscious, a part of us that we cannot know directly, is there to be explored by looking at our dreams. Freud saw the unconscious as being populated by repressed parts of ourselves, bits we have found difficult to face.

Stepping stones across the waterCarl Jung on the other hand has had a broader view of the unconscious. For him, the unconscious contains a 'shadow' side; but is also the source of our spirituality and creativity. The unconscious in this view is a vital and creative part of our selves and our personalities. Doesn't that make our dreams worth investigating?

There are books where you can look up dream objects and find out what they mean. This may be interesting and a starting point; yet it may tell you little about yourself. The objects in our dreams are our own creations and so may have meanings particular to ourselves. These individual, idiosyncratic, particular meanings can give clues to previously undiscovered, unexplored parts of ourselves.

This view of dreams seems to me to open a door to not so much another world as to another side of ourselves, another perspective that can be useful for us in our everyday lives. Therefore, while fascinating in itself, looking at our dreams can broaden our perspective, unblock our creativity and help us out there in the everyday world.

Lin Travis Counselling Services