He Psychic apparatus Refers to the human mind from the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud. The famous psychologist uses this term to refer to a psychic structure capable of transmitting, transforming and containing psychic energy.
According to the first Freudian theory (1900), the psychic apparatus is divided into three levels, the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious.
This structure is composed of three instances that coexist and interrelate with each other, integrating themselves at different levels.
These instances are the Self, the Self and the Superego, which are described from the second topic or theory proposed by Freud in 1923 to understand the functioning of the psyche.
In this way, the psychic apparatus consists of systems that have their own characteristics and different functions. Interacting with each other and generating the different psychic elaborations.
The main function of the psychic apparatus is to keep the internal energy in constant equilibrium, with the principle of Homeostasis The rule under which he works.
Its objective is to keep the levels of excitement as low as possible, that is to say the increase of the psychic energy that can be produced by both internal and external factors.
For Freud, the psychic apparatus is the result of the elaboration of the Oedipus complex By means of which the identifications with the parents are produced in the child.
Concepts inherent in the functioning of the Psychic Apparatus
Sigmund Freud, a neurologist considered the Father of psychoanalysis , Was interested in understanding the dilemma of the symptoms that did not have a scientific explanation that explained them. As a result of his research, he ran into a psychic functioning hidden behind physical symptoms.
He conceived in each individual the existence of a psychic apparatus whose base is an unconscious full of desires and needs that make up the internal world of each subject.
Out of this unconscious is an external world, full of stimuli, with which the individual interacts constantly.
Freud reduced all emotions and feelings In two main affections: pleasure and displeasure. Pleasure is produced by the satisfaction of need and self-desire, while displeasure by the frustration produced by the non-realization of that desire. Other affections will be derived from those two main affections.
It is through the pleasure principle that the psychic apparatus will govern its functioning. Its function is to moderate the excessive variations of psychic energy to prevent its disorganization and to preserve its structure.
In this way, the psychic apparatus will try to maintain in equilibrium the energy level that tends to be unbalanced by means of the stimuli coming from both inside and outside.
This is a law of the psychic apparatus, called the principle of homeostasis. It is through her that the psychic apparatus tries to level the amount of pleasure and displeasure, keeping these quantities in balance.
Thus, from the psychoanalytic perspective proposed by Freud, psychoanalysis tries to explain the functioning of the psyche, highlighting the importance and existence of an unconscious that is at the base, or is support of this structure.
It stresses at the same time the importance of the role of impulses (understood in terms of sexual energy).
He elaborates a theory of the psyche from a dynamic point of view, while the component instances of the psychic apparatus interrelate with each other, generate and solve conflicts of a different nature.
From an economic point of view, the psychic apparatus works in relation to the amount of energy present in it.
This energy can accumulate and generate a psychic tension which the psyche will have to solve, always trying to maintain its balance to avoid its overflows, and in the meantime, the symptoms in the subject.
The component elements of the psychic apparatus in the first topical Freudian
In his first topical (1900), Freud divided the psychic apparatus into three levels, which are at the same time, three constituent elements of it.
- Aware
- Preconscious
- Unconscious
The conscious system is related to the perception and the memory . Not because he is able to memorize (this corresponds to the preconscious system), but because his functions include recall.
From the outside in, it can be placed as the first system, between the outer world and the preconscious.
This system has as a function to record the information coming from the two worlds, the internal and the external. Being its main responsibility, the one to perceive the stimuli coming from both.
The functions inherent to this system are those related to reasoning, thinking and remembering or remembering. It is the conscious who has the control and control of them.
It is associated with consciousness, understood as the psychic act by means of which the individual perceives himself as being differentiated from the world around him.
This system directly relates the subject to the outside world through perception.
The consciousness is located in the present, so the subject is conscious in the act of all the experiences that is living through the perception of reality. This system is governed by pleasure, which will seek to achieve by all means.
The conscious has a moral character, and is between the three levels, which will demand order to the other two systems with which it relates.
The preconscious system could be located between the other two systems. In it are the thoughts or experiences that ceased to be conscious but that can be again through the effort of the latter in remembrance.
It is in this system that are the thoughts that are not in the consciousness but also in the unconscious system given that they have not been subjected to any censorship.
That is, the thoughts lodged in this system have been stripped of consciousness because it is constantly perceiving.
It is in this way that the information that comes through the perceptions will stop being in the conscious system to pass to the preconscious system, being able to pass from one system to another without major inconveniences.
This system therefore contains elements that come from the outside world and consciousness. Also those that advance from the unconscious towards the conscience, acting like filter to prevent the passage of those that can get to cause him some damage.
The unconscious system is that which contains all the thoughts and perceptions that have been rejected by the conscience and in which a censorship has operated.
These contents are mostly the representatives of those repressed elements in childhood. They refer to all that has been denied by repression, as long as they generate displeasure to consciousness. It is in this way that the unconscious system is governed by the pleasure principle.
These elements try to access the consciousness by generating a force or species of psychic tension that is limited or stopped by means of censorship.
This system is described as the space where impulses, feelings, desires, and repressed memories lie in as much as they conflict with the morality of consciousness. That is why these elements are inaccessible to it.
The unconscious is characterized by being timeless. He has no notion of past or future, but rather is always present. Everything that happens in it is of a current character.
The structure of the psychic apparatus in the second topical Freudian
As Freud progressed in his investigations, in 1923 he made a reformulation of the theory of the psychic apparatus presented so far.
This new theory or second topical, comes to complement the previously proposed. Freud then presents the psychic apparatus divided into three instances:
- Ello
- The I
- The Super Yo
Ello
Ello is the place where the psychic energies of erotic or libidinal nature, the aggressive or destructive psychic energies of origin and those of a sexual nature are found.
This instinct is constituted by impulses of instinctive origin, ruled by the pleasure principle (search for immediate satisfaction of the impulse). That is, it represents instinct.
It is all unconscious, but only a portion of it is possessed of repressed elements, because in the rest, it is where the elements of hereditary and innate character are found.
The I
The ego is the one who comes to represent the consciousness or the conscious of the previous topic. It is in dependence relation with respect to the Ello and the Superego.
It is the psychic instance in charge of defending the subject before the perception of something disagreeable, putting in march the process of repression.
The"I"acts as a mediator between the subject and the reality coming from the outside world and between the Ello and the Superego.
Being in contact with reality, the Self presents itself as adaptive. Being responsible for keeping the organism in balance.
The superego
The Superego is the third component component of the psychic apparatus, resulting from a separation of the Self. Appears as critic and judge censuring him. It is the unconscious part of the personality that controls conscious activities.
The Superego represents the ideas of self-preservation, moral conscience, self-criticism, guilt and self-punishment among others. Its mission is to go against the gratification of the impulses that break with the ethics and moral of the subject.
It is the support of all prohibitions and all social and cultural obligations. It is an instance formed from the complex of Oedipus, where the child manages to make the identifications with the parents, with their demands and prohibitions.
This instance is then representative of the ideals to which the ego aspires to be.
At the end of his theory, Freud makes a synthesis where the elements and the psychic instances are integrated.
These are some Freudian conceptualizations corresponding to the elaboration of the constitutive theory of the psychic apparatus and its functioning.
References
- Assoun, P.-L. (2006). Freud and Nietzsche. A & C Black.
- Elliott, A. (2015). Subject to Ourselves: An Introduction to Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Social Theory.
- Erwin, E. (2002). The Freud Encyclopedia: Theory, Therapy, and Culture. Taylor & Francis.
- Freedman, N. (2013). Communicative Structures and Psychic Structures: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Communication. Springer Science & Business Media.
- Lehrer, R. (1995). Nietzsche's Presence in Freud's Life and Thought: On the Origins of a Psychology of Dynamic Unconscious Mental Functioning. SUNY Press.
- Meissner, W. W. (2000). Freud & psychoanalysis. University of Notre Dame Press.
- Salman Akhtar, M. K. (2011). On Freud's"Beyond the Pleasure Principle". Karnac Books.
- Stewart, W.A. (2013). Psychoanalysis (RLE: Freud): The First Ten Years 1888-1898.
- Toby Gelfand, J.K. (2013). Freud and the History of Psychoanalysis.