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Group Psychology And The Analysis Of The Ego Analysis

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One of history’s well known and most influential psychologist was Sigmund Freud. He founded the study of Psychoanalysis, which is the study of the “unconscious mind”. He also did other studies such as dream interpretations and repression. However, up to this day some of Freud’s theories are controversial in our world today. Freud wrote a book called “Group Psychology & the Analysis of the Ego” where he argues and investigate group behavior is psychoanalysis. His book arises many questions about groups, such as how do groups influence people’s behaviors? Or how much is one willing to do to fit into one’s group? In Freud book “Group Psychology & the Analysis of the Ego”, he talks a lot about Group Psychology and conformity. Conformity refers …show more content…

There are two types of instincts, which is Aggressions and Libido. Aggression is where we destroy and try to conquer and our Libido is based on sexual energy. Freud theory of groups, is that the leader is put in the place of the Ego ideal. This means that each member shares the same Ego ideal, which is the leader. Each member wants the leader’s approval, which makes them become like children again. In a way they are seeking approval and love from a parent. This shows that we would give up our own Superego so there is no criticism. In a way Freud shows us where the object of our love, replaces our Ego ideal and we only want to be close to him or her so we can restrain normal judgement, in order to maintain an ideal view of the person we love. The leader, captures the needs, desires and fears of the group. Members of a group believe in this illusion in which they think they are equal and just as loved by their …show more content…

There was no pressure to conform in others. Milgram experiment was based on an electric shock and the study found that sixty- three percent conformed in the maximum level of shock. Milgram study proves that when one has control and all the power, it can make them overcome their own morals and principles. According to Milgram, people turn to the fundamental attribution error when looking at such situations. The most fundamental lesson of Milgram study is that even ordinary people, who are simply doing their jobs, can become unnoticed with such power in one’s

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In “The Perils of Obedience”, Stanley Milgram describes the situation of obedience to the authority through the series of experiments of testing people and determine if they submit themselves to the authority’s orders or not. Milgram believes that obedience in many people come from their training, attitude and ethical background. This dilemma is inherited in human beings from the beginning of human race e.g. the story of Abraham, Plato’s argument. According to some conservative philosophers, society’s base or strength is being threatened by disobedience. On the other hand, Humanists think that individual’s conscience is very important for society.

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This Milgram research on respect to authority figures was a series of cultural science experiments conducted by Yale University scientist Stanley Milgram in 1961. They assessed the willingness of survey participants, men from a different variety of jobs with varying degrees of training, to obey the authority figure who taught them to do acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to think that they were helping an unrelated research, in which they had to distribute electrical shocks to the individual. These fake electrical shocks gradually increased to grades that could have been deadly had they been true. McLeod's article about the Milgram experiment exposed the fact that a high percentage of ordinary people will

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Freud’s theory breaks the psyche up into 3 elements: the id, superego, and ego. The id is said to be the most powerful part, and solely unconscious. It controls our basic drives and is demanding and has no regard for morality, rules, or order. The superego is the smallest element of the psyche and deals with ethics and provides standards for the other elements of personality to abide by. Lastly, the ego is the “middle-man” between the id and the superego, as they tend to conflict.

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One of Freud’s theories is that the “Id – Ego combination dominates a person’s behavior until social awareness leads to the emergence of the superego, which recognizes that

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In Milgram’s experiment, the longer the teachers were under the influence of the experimenter, the easier it became for them to shock the learner. A specific example of this would be from Fred Prozi, whose results were extremely dramatic. Once the experiment had begun and the learner started to show discomfort from the shocks, Prozi half-heartedly refused to continue. All it took was a little push from the experimenter and the confirmation of having no liability if anything were to happen to get Prozi to continue to give the learner all 450 volts (582-584). Both of these experiments call attention to how easy it is for people to obey a higher authority based on what kind of situation they are

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Similarly, an experiment performed by Stanley Milgram in 1963 proves that obedience to authority figures can become very harmful. In Milgram’s experiment he asks for volunteers to come and “take part in the study of learning” (McLeod 584). This is the first dilemma with his research. He was advertising a completely different experiment. The volunteers are asked to read to a “student” a set of words and if the “student” did not respond correctly then the volunteer must shock the “student” with increasing voltages of electricity.

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“The Perils of Obedience”, written by Stanley Milgram in 1973, explores how her experiment demonstrated people’s affinity to obey orders even if it means someone will get hurt. Milgram is a leading social psychologist who disproved previously considered notions about obedience and authority. Her work demonstrates how obedience trumps morality and gives support for this phenomena with examples from history. By using different participants’ reactions, the author is able to analyze the meaning behind the experiment.

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Groupthink is a process of conformity to a group ideal that may or may not be true. It stems from lack of conflict, disagreement, or challenge to the direction of the group. In simple terms, if a group leader or president were to surround themselves with like-minded individuals there would be very little disagreement or conflict and the decisions of the group may not be the best. Historical examples include Nixon’s Watergate fiasco, and Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs catastrophe. The term groupthink was first introduced by social psychologist Irving Janis in 1972.

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FREUD’S PERSONALITY THEORY IN LORD OF THE FLIES Sigmund Freud had once said, “The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three... The three tyrants are the external world, the superego and the id” (Freud, psychology.about.com) The idea in this quote which is recognized again and again in many movies and books, reminds of the Freud’s Personality Theory which can be seen in “Lord of the Flies”, too. Freud’s Personality theory consists of three main concepts: ego, superego and id. William Golding, the author of “Lord of the Flies”, uses those three concepts as a base when he creates the characters and the places in the book. Freud’s Personality Theory is based on the human mind and it

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The Milgram experiment was conducted to analyze obedience to authority figures. The experiment was conducted on men from varying ages and varying levels of education. The participants were told that they would be teaching other participants to memorize a pair of words. They believed that this was an experiment that was being conducted to measure the effect that punishment has on learning, because of this they were told they had to electric shock the learner every time that they answered a question wrong. The experiment then sought out to measure with what willingness the participants obeyed the authority figure, even when they were instructed to commit actions which they seemed uncomfortable with.

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Obscura! One always has a choice as to whether obey or defy an order given be a superior. In chapter two, Obscura, of the book Opening Skinner’s Box by Lauren Slater, she discusses the controversial experiment of Milgram. In Milgram’s experiment he wanted to if people would obey or disobey orders for someone who was “superior” to them when instructed to shock someone, from low voltages ,15, all the way up to lethal voltages, 450. Stanly Milgram used ordinary people to shock them.

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Freud attached less importance to affect of the environment, culture and the relationship between people. The focus is narrow, those factors also act as key on different personality development. In addition, the mainstream of this perspective is patriarchal(male-dominated) and misogynistic(anti-woman) (Dr.T Manichander,2016). According to the concept of the penis envy, it mentions that girl wishes she could have penis and blame her mother for not providing that. It showed the social bias and inequality among the gender.

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1. The psychoanalytic analysis in general Psychoanalytic criticism was developed by Austrian neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. His theory is based on conscious and unconscious functioning, stages of growth, developments in human behavior and normal and abnormal experiences. If we apply some psychoanalytic techniques like flashbacks, childhood memories and regression, we can uncover the hidden meanings, motivations, repressed dreams and wishes within the text. Major principles of Freud’s theory are the models of human psyche, the psychosexual stages, defense mechanism, the Oedipus complex, dreams and dream symbols.

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Psychoanalysis was first introduced by Sigmund Freud and is now known as classical psychoanalysis. The theory, as defined by Sigmund Freud, is the dynamic between underlying forces that determine behavior and personality. He stressed the importance of human sexuality, childhood experiences, and the unconscious processes. However, his theory was seen as misogynistic and narrow focused. Consequently, classical psychoanalysis was criticized and rejected by many scholars.

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In 1923, Sigmund Freud proposed his theory that the make-up of an individual’s personality is largely governed by three fundamental components: the id, the ego, and the superego. Working through the unconscious and shaping behavior according to psychological fixations and conflicts or lack thereof, these elements evolve through five levels of psychosexual development (Freud, 1962). However, in spite of its compelling approach to the phenomenon, Freud’s structural theory of personality is riddled with limitations and as such, is subject to much criticism. The mind is layered into three states: the conscious, referring to the thoughts currently in our forefront; the preconscious, idle thoughts that can be easily accessed and brought to the conscious; and the unconscious, which houses the more instinctual drives that are repressed because it threatens the conscious’ equilibrium (Cloninger, 1996).

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