Lecture 1 - Psychoanalysis

Handout

A: The development of the psyche from birth, B: The development and role of the Unconscious in our 

everyday lives, C: The development of gender identity (psycho-sexual identity), D: Understanding the 

complexities of human subjectivity

Psychoanalysis is not only a form of therapy but a study of human subjectivity. Psychoanalysis 

provides us with a theory of the unconscious, sexuality and the development of the Ego. It can tell us 

a lot about why we are the way we are giving us insight into our daily goings-on. It can also be a great 

tool for gathering a greater understanding of Art & Design.

Key Psychoanalysts: Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, Carl Jung, Juliet Mitchell, Luce 

Irigaray, Julia Kristeva

The Unconscious: Created through infancy to protect our conscious selves from events, ideas and 

thoughts that are not acceptable to consciousness…Continues to affect our conscious selves in 

SOME* ways…The unconscious is chaotic, without order and without language…Makes itself present 

through ticks, slips and symptoms (e.g. Freudian slip)…Hysteria patients developed debilitating 

symptoms as a result of experiences or feelings that had become repressed.

Stages of development: Our development into willful, conscious beings is full of confusing, 

contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas…An attempt to make sense of both our 

biological/instinctual self and our logical/thinking self…We create associations and assumptions 

through sense data…often incorrectly…The developing child goes through stages: oral, anal and 

phallic…Also, the child develops preconceptions that must be dealt with in order to develop 

successfully – oedipus complex, castration complex, penis envy.

Psycho-sexual identity: Oedipus complex – sexual/love feelings towards mother and resentment of 

father…through childhood dependence…feelings of love, rivalry, jealousy all mixed…confusing feelings 

‘to want’ vs. ‘to be wanted’…Development of both masculine and feminine identities in relation to the 

penis/phallus (having or not having)…Castration complex – the boy fears castration while the girl 

accepts that she has already been castrated. (the phallus as a symbol of power)…Penis-envy – the girl 

experiences this when she begins to realise she does not have a penis…not as a sexual organ but a 

way of identifying with the father-figure…Presence/absence – both create possible negative feelings: 

the boy fears his castration (his powerlessness) while the girl feels that she is missing something.

The Uncanny: ‘Unhomely’…Something that is simultaneously unnatural yet familiar…Something that 

was supposed to remain hidden which has come to the open….Where the boundary between fantasy 

and reality break down…Unconscious vs. Uncanny

Models of the psyche: Unconscious, Preconscious, Conscious….Id, Ego, Super-Ego

The Mirror Stage (Lacanian): The child’s recognition of itself in reflection (in objects or other people) 

signifies a split or alienation – it is seen as both subject and other….Rivalry – while the child may 

recognise it’s own image it is still limited in movement and dexterity….Thus…resulting in the 

formation of Ego which aids (and continues to aid) a reconciliation of body and image/subject and 

other….Captation – the process by which the child is at once absorbed and repelled by the image of 

itself (the specular image)

The Lacanian Unconscious: ‘The unconscious is structured like a language’…That’s not to say that the 

unconscious has a language but its structure is LIKE a language….The unconscious is the discourse of 

the Other….Highlighting the ways in which meaning in encoded within linguistic signs – written or 

spoken words….Unconscious details are encoded in various ways as they slip into consciousness.

The Lacanian Phallus: Not the biological penis but a symbol of power/order attained through its 

associated LACK – the potential of lack (male) and the actual lack (female)…Masculinity/femininity are 

not biological definitions but symbolic positions…Our interactions with the symbolic phallus provides 

a ‘speaking position in culture’ / within the symbolic order - a: relating to the signifying nature of the 

phallus b: our sexual identity informed through the phallus.

Lacan’s Orders of reality:  The Real - That which cannot be symbolised/signified…Where our most 

basic, animal selves exist. The Imaginary - The order which exists before symbols and 

signification…Where the Ego is born and continues to develop…No clear distinctions between self and 

others/subject and object. The Symbolic - ‘The order of the Other’…Exists outside ourselves –

language exists before and outside of us…The order that allows us to exist within a culture of others.

• A: The development of the psyche from birth
• B: The development and role of the Unconscious in our everyday lives
• C: The development of gender identity (psycho-sexual identity)
• D: Understanding the complexities of human subjectivity - motivation, desirability, personality
• Not only a form of therapy (‘the talking cure’)…a theory of the mind (psyche) and a model-based theory that can be applied to other objects and processes
• A way of categorising and understanding desire, motivation, dreams.
• That we are not entirely controlled by logical and reasonable thought. Our unconscious plays a part in our day-to-day goings-on.

Sigmund Freud

• Conceived of the idea in late 1890s.
• Treated hysteria patients using psychoanalysis by guiding them to discover and accept repressed thoughts/events. 
• Dreams: Analysed his own and other’s dreams in terms of their hidden associations and ‘wish-fulfillment’ how they were effecting their conscious lives.
• Observed infants in their habits and associations with parental figures.
• Established the psychoanalytic theory that allowed for a ‘dynamic unconscious’ part of the mind.

The Dynamic Unconsciousness

• Created through infancy to protect our conscious selves from events, ideas and thoughts that are not acceptable to consciousness.
• Continues to affect our conscious selves in SOME* ways.
• The unconscious is chaotic, without order and without language.
• Makes itself present through ticks, slips and symptoms (e.g. Freudian slip)
• Freud’s hysteria patients developed debilitating symptoms as a result of experiences or feelings that had become repressed.
• Contains repressed ides we experienced as infants
• Unconsciousness has a link to consciousness in hysteria patients.
• Freudian slip - when something slips out of your mouth when you dont mean to say it

The Stages of Development

• Our development into willful, conscious beings is full of confusing, contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas.
• An attempt to make sense of both our biological/instinctual self and our logical/thinking self.
• We create associations and assumptions through sense data…often incorrectly.
• The developing child goes through stages: oral, anal and phallic.
• Also, the child develops preconceptions that must be dealt with in order to develop successfully – oedipus complex, castration complex, penis envy.

Physco Sexual-identity

• Oedipus complex - sexual / love feelings towards mother and resentment of the father..through childhood dependance and self centered world view
• Our assumed identity through our development in infancy.
• Our development into willful, conscious beings is full of confusing, contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas.
• An attempt to make sense of both our biological/instinctual self and our logical/thinking self.
• We create associations and assumptions through sense data…often incorrectly.
• The developing child goes through stages: oral, anal and phallic.
• Also, the child develops preconceptions that must be dealt with in order to develop successfully – oedipus complex, castration complex, penis envy.
• The child must experience and overcome these mixed feelings and misconceptions in order to gain a sexual identity and a speaking position within the order of language and society.
• Misconceived/contradictory ideas of gender, power and identity continue to work unconsciously throughout our lives.
• Oedipus complex – sexual/love feelings towards mother and resentment of father…through childhood dependence and self-centered world view.
• Oedipus complex – feelings of love, rivalry, jealousy all mixed…confusing feelings ‘to want’ vs. ‘to be wanted’.
• Development of both masculine and feminine identities in relation to the penis/phallus.
• Castration complex – the boy fears castration while the girl accepts that she has already been castrated. (the phallus as a symbol of power)
• Penis-envy – the girl experiences this when she begins to realise she does not have a penis…not as a sexual organ but a way of relating to the father-figure.
• Presence/absence – both create possible negative feelings: the boy fears his castration (his powerlessness) while the girl feels that she is missing something.
• Penis is a symbol of power

The Uncanny

• ‘Unhomely’
• Something that is simultaneously unnatural yet familiar.
• Something that was supposed to remain hidden which has come to the open.
• Where the boundary between fantasy and reality break down.
• Analogies between the unconscious (psychology) and the uncanny (aesthetics)
• Serialists use the uncanny allot to create paintings/objects that have elements hat are familiar but different

Freuden Models

Id, Ego and Superego

•  We are bio-socio-individual beings.
• Id (unconscious) – represents the biological/instinctual part of ourselves.
• Ego (conscious) – represents the individual/personality of ourselves.
• Super-Ego (social order) – represents the part of ourselves in relation to others, to social order and to language.
• Psychic information is distributed into these ‘spaces’, exist differently and may come into conflict with each other.

Unconscious, Preconscious and Conscious

1. Unconscious – Hidden, repressed, chaos. Where things are stored that are unacceptable to our conscious selves.
2. Preconscious – Unconscious yet not repressed. Where memories, word associations, etc. are stored and are thus recalled from.
3. Conscious – Our outward self, personality, identity.

Jacques Lacan

• Used language that relates to the chaos of the unconscious
• Established ideas that have multiple theories. Humans are contradictory, chaotic and complex
• In the 1960s and 1970s Lacan presented his own brand of psychoanalysis claiming a ‘return to Freud’.
• He reconceptualised Freud’s findings through the theoretical model of structural linguistics. Signification.
• Lacan posited that the development of the psyche is entwined within the structures of language…language molds us as much as we mold it
• Without language we do not have any subjectivity.

The Mirror Stage

• The child’s recognition of itself in reflection (in objects or other people) signifies a split or alienation – it is seen as both subject and other.
• What are we going to be, who are we, what image do we want, what are our morals.....
• Rivalry – while the child may recognise it’s own image it is still limited in movement and dexterity.
• Thus…resulting in the formation of Ego which aids (and continues to aid) a reconciliation of body and image/subject and other.
• Captation – the process by which the child is at once absorbed and repelled by the image of itself (the specular image)

Lacanian Unconsciousness

• ‘The unconscious is structured like a language’
• That’s not to say that the unconscious has a language but its structure is LIKE a language.
• The unconscious is the discourse of the Other. (super ego) unwritten rules of social order and language
• Highlighting the ways in which meaning in encoded within linguistic signs – written or spoken words.
• Unconscious details are encoded in various ways as they slip into consciousness.

Metaphor / Metonymy

Symptom:

• Metaphor – a word is used to represent something else which possess similar characteristics.
• Symptoms are translated elements of unconscious material adopting a metaphor-style coding.
• Desire:
• Metonymy – a part of something used to represent the whole or the whole used to represent a small part. Meaning is displaced along a series of associations – a signifying chain.
• Desire for objects (including people) are displaced desire for what cannot be attained…unconscious desire...

Lacanian Phallus

• Not the biological penis but a symbol of power/order attained through its associated LACK – the potential of lack (male) and the actual lack (female).
• Masculinity/femininity are not biological definitions but symbolic positions
• Our interactions/relations to the symbolic phallus provides a ‘speaking position in culture’ / within the symbolic order
• a: relating to the signifying nature of the phallus
• b: our sexual identity informed through the phallus.
• The role of the symbolic phallus is diverse and complex (to have, to be, to possess, to lack)…far too much to discuss in this session!

The orders of Reality

The Real

• That which cannot be symbolised/signified
• Where our most basic, animal selves exist

The Imaginary

• The order which exists before symbols and signification.
• Where the Ego is born and continues to develop.
• No clear distinctions between self and others/subject and object.

The Symbolic

• ‘The order of the Other’ Other - social language that exists outside ourselves
• Exists outside ourselves – language exists before and outside of us.
• The order that allows us to exist within a culture of others.

Physcoanalysis and Art Criticism Theory

• Subjectivity – what it is to be human, motivations, desires, the unconscious.
• To help us understand why things are as they are.
• To help us understand artists/designers motivations for creating.
• Model-based theory/paradigm – Models provide a tool for categorising or breaking down individual and groups of art/design works.
• David Linch Director - looks at hidden desire, fantasy....

Edward Bernays

• Edward Bernays – ‘The godfather of PR’, Freud’s nephew
• Applied knowledge of psychoanlysis, unconscious desire to advertising and PR campaigns.
• Revolutionised advertising by applying manipulation techniques.
• Promoting lifestyle rather than the product. Embedding desire within products.
• Case-Study – ‘Torches of freedom’
• "Torches of Freedom" was a phrase used to encourage women’s smoking during the women’s liberation movement in the United States. Cigarettes were described as symbols of emancipation and equality with men. The term was first used by psychoanalyst A. A. Brill when describing the natural desire for women to smoke and was used by Edward Bernays to encourage women to smoke in public despite social taboos. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their “torches of freedom” in the Easter Sunday Parade of 1929 which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers.

Max Ernst

 Cut out from victorian catalogues and magazines.

Allowed objects to inform the collage, unconscious element

made it

Victor Burgin

Looks at physcoanalysis and its relation to art

Bridge is a metaphor for sexual attraction

Rene Magritte

Louise Bourgeois

Explored relation between male and female struggles

and desires. Looks at both male and female issues.

Conclusion

• Psychoanalysis provides us with a definition of the unconscious
• A definition of subjecthood outside of logic and rationality and the social order
• A tool to help understand motivations and meanings of art works.
• A tool to help us understand how art & design affects us and why.
• Where these thoughts desires and ideas come from
• How are we affected by art and design / advertising