PSYCHOLOGY OF VIOLENCE:Law of Conservation of Energy, Super ego

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Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Lesson 08

PSYCHOLOGY OF VIOLENCE

Objectives:

To understand the basic concepts of Freud's psychoanalytic model

To understand the concept of Id, Ego And super Ego along with life and death instincts

To understand the psychosexual stages of development

Psychological models of violence

Various theories have given different views about that why human beings do things? Why they do not

do things that they should and why they do things that they should not? How they learn, feel and think?

How they react differently to different situations. In this regard few important models are listed below;

Psychoanalytical model

Behavioral Model

Humanistic Model

Social cognitive model

Attachment theory model

Psychobiological model

Psychoanalytical Model

Let's start with the psychoanalytical perspective. Sigmund Freud grounded this perspective in 1890s by

writing about unconscious; he was the first to discover the unconscious mind. According to Freud, the

area of the psyche where unknown wishes and needs are kept that play a significant role in our

conscious behavior. Freud believed that the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying

emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed that

most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious.

Unconscious motivation plays a prominent role in Sigmund Freud's theories of human behavior.

According to Freud, most human behavior is the result of desires, impulses, and memories that have

been repressed into an unconscious state, yet still influence actions. Freud believed that the human mind

consists of a tiny, conscious part that is available for direct observation and a much larger subconscious

portion that plays an even more important role in determining behavior and people do not know why

they show any behaviour.

Example:

One reasonable man went to meet a lady and at conscious level the man totally does not admit and

realize that he has romantic feelings about that lady but at the end of the meeting when he was on his

way back to home he remembered that he has left his keys at that girl's home then he went back and

picked the keys. Now Freud would explain this incidence as it was the trick and planning of his

unconscious to make him to go back to that lady's house again.

Law of Conservation of Energy

In the field of physics the law of conservation of energy states that energy can not be remade or created

and destroyed (made to disappear to no-where) and that energy can be changed from one form to

another, like we can illuminate a bulb by using the energy of falling water. This idea inspired the Freud

and he used the same idea to human behaviour. Now if we apply same thing with human being's

behavior we can get good results, but if we apply same idea to our unconscious mind then we will

become aware that our unconscious wishes are not destroyed but transformed. We suppress a drive and

it will appear in some other way.

Structural Model

According to Freud, our personality is consists of three parts.

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Ego

Super ego

Id.

Id is a Greek word, according to Freud we are born with Id, an important

part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic

needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle.

In other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no

consideration for the reality of the situation. When a child is hungry, the

id wants food, and therefore the child cries. When the child needs to be

changed, the id cries. When the child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot,

too cold, or just wants attention, the id speaks up until his or her needs

are met.

The id doesn't care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction. If you think

about it, babies are not real considerate of their parents' wishes. They have no care for time, whether

their parents are sleeping, relaxing, eating dinner, or bathing. When the id wants something, nothing

else is important. In immature people Id is dominant.

Super ego

As person grows, parents and society start to control that person. The

concept of right and wrong is being taught to them and this is called the

emergence of super ego. The Superego is the moral part of us and

develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our parents

or caregivers. Many equate the superego with the conscience as it dictates

our belief of right and wrong. Child internalizes the parents and makes

them the part of self.

Example:

Parents were leaving out for some work they forbade their children to take the candies from cupboard.

When parents went out of the house, the small brother who was three years old tried to open the door of

cupboard to take candies out but the elder brother warned him "do not eat candies", "this is wrong".

Now in this instance elder brother has internalized his parents and his super ego is playing the role of his

parents.

Ego

Id always leaves you in trouble and least bother about consequences. Like jumping on beds, eating ice-

creams with sore throat. The basic aim of Id is to seek pleasure but on the contrary sides, the super ego

is against pleasure and serves as a constant watchman, In this situation survival is difficult so, super ego

is always in conflict with id. This conflict gives birth to another part and Freud called this part the Ego.

it creates the balance between id and super ego. Starts from childhood and emerges as mediator and

come from survival instincts.

The ego is based on the reality principle and works at conscious level and tries to make a balance of Id

and Super ego's demands by logical and rational way of thinking. The ego

understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes

being impulsive or selfish can hurt us in the long run. It's the ego's job to

meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the

situation.

In a healthy person, according to Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can

satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego, and still take into

consideration the reality of every situation. Not an easy job by any mean, but

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

if the id gets too strong, impulses and self gratification take over the person's life. If the superego

becomes to strong, the person would be driven by rigid morals, would be judgmental and unbending in

his or her interactions with the world. You shall learn how the ego maintains control as you continue to

read.

Instincts

Freud believed that humans were driven by two conflicting central desires Eros and Thanatos.

Eros

Eros is a Greek word meaning god of love and sexual desire. Eros is pleasure and life instinct. Freud's

description of Eros included all creative, life-producing drives.

Thanatos

Is the death drive or death instinct, represented an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of

calm, or ultimately of non-existence. The quest for pleasure balanced with the destructive urge.Three

aspects personality, this idea was taken from Hinduism's concept of trinity, according to this concept

three gods named

Brahma: who is responsible for creating things

Vishnu: who maintains

Shiva: who destroys

Destruction is equally important as Old things are replaced by new things.

Psychosexual Development

Sigmund Freud's Theory is quite complex and although his writings on psychosexual development set

the groundwork for how our personalities developed, it was only one of five parts to his overall theory

of personality. He also believed that different driving forces develop during these stages which play an

important role in how we interact with the world.

Oral Stage 0-2

Anal Stage 2-5

Phallic Stage 5-7

Oedipus/Electra Complex

Latency Period 7- Puberty

Genital Period Puberty

Oral Stage

The oral stage begins at birth, when the oral cavity is the primary focus of pleasure. The child test things

by keeping them into mouth and of course, preoccupies himself with nursing, with the pleasure of

sucking. The oral character who is frustrated at this stage, whose mother refused to nurse him on

demand or who nursing sessions were reduced earlier, is characterized by pessimism, envy, suspicion

and sarcasm. The overindulged oral character, whose nursing urges were always and often excessively

satisfied, is optimistic, gullible, and is full of admiration for others around him. The stage culminates in

the primary conflict of weaning, which both deprives the child of the sensory pleasures of nursing and

of the psychological pleasure of being cared for, mothered, and held. The stage lasts approximately one

and one-half years.

Anal Stage

At one and one-half years, the child enters the anal stage. With the advent of toilet training comes the

child's obsession with the anus and with the retention or expulsion of the feces. This represents a classic

conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and

superego, which represent the practical and societal pressures to control the bodily functions. The child

meets the conflict between the parent's demands and the child's desires and physical capabilities in one

of two ways:

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

1. Either he puts up a fight or he simply refuses to go. The child who wants to fight takes pleasure

in excreting maliciously, perhaps just before or just after being placed on the toilet. If the

parents are too lenient and the child manages to derive pleasure and success from this

expulsion. This character is generally messy, disorganized, reckless, careless, and defiant.

2. Conversely, on other extreme the character that encountered parent's excessive strictness and is

overindulged, will develop into an anal retentive character. This character is neat, precise,

orderly, careful, stingy, withholding, obstinate, meticulous, and passive-aggressive. The

resolution of the anal stage, proper toilet training, permanently affects the individual

propensities to possession and attitudes towards authority. This stage lasts from one and one-

half to two years. Fixation at this stage is said to result in orderliness, meanness, stubbornness,

compulsiveness, etc.

3. Phallic Stage

The phallic stage is the setting for the greatest, most crucial sexual conflict in Freud's model of

development. In this stage the conflict, labeled the Oedipus complex (The Electra complex in

women), involves the child's unconscious desire to possess the opposite-sexed parent and to

eliminate/ kill the same-sexed one.

Oedipus complex

Freud got the idea from a play about Greek mythology, in those days this play got immense fame in

England Freud also went to watch that play. The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus also

known as Oedipus Rex, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. As a baby, Oedipus was

sent to die or be killed because the royal fortune teller made the prediction that Oedipus would kill

his father and would marry his mother. But instead the baby was given to a shepherd and raised in

the court of King.

On the way in jungle while on a hunting quest, Oedipus saw something moving beside the bush, he

thought it was a dear and threw his arrow toward that bush and unknowingly killed his real father

and fulfilled the first half of the oracle's prophecy.

Then he went to save the Thebans from a monster. Thebans had declared that who would kill the

monster would marry the queen. So Oedipus killed that monster and unknowingly married his

mother and fathered a girl. But when he came to know that he is the father of his own step sister

and married his mother, he blinded himself with the brooches of her mother's dress and remorse

bitterly. Freud took this story very seriously and concluded that the fame of the play reflects a real

dilemma.

Then Freud gave the idea of Oedipus complex since the mother is the very first love of every child

when the boy becomes aware that his rival is his own father, who is so loving and caring and he

wants to kill him. A very strange idea emerges, now this idea is strange to the child as well so child

pushes the idea into unconscious and revulsion for father and guilty feelings for this hatred at the

same time are pushed into unconscious, when the unconscious desires come to the conscious level

some thing really interesting happens and unconscious wishes transforms in to totally opposite

behaviour of identifying with the father so child can get the appreciation and attention of the

mother.

Electra complex

Electra complex is the girl's unconscious desire to possess the father and kill the mother. So a girl

tries to identify with mother to impress the father.

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