MDSA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Freudian Slip, Death Drive, Libido
Chapter 7 – Psychoanalytic Analysis
• Psychoanalytic media scholars explore how media texts reflect these powerful forces (i.e., drive)
o The approach is generally grounded in the origin of individual psychology + the psychology of the
media text = how they interact in the process of media consumption
Psychoanalytic Theory: An Overview
• Drives – somatic demands upon the mind
o Consideration of how the mind registers the body’s internal, biological needs (i.e., comfort, sex) and
transforms them into motivating forces
o Different drives arise from different sources and seek out different objects in the world + object(s) of
a drive and the kind of satisfaction it seeks are highly variable, differing from person to person
! Very often people cannot explain these types of attractions
! It is the variability of objects and aims that distinguishes drive from hard-wired instinct
o Pleasure principle – seek satisfaction through achievement of these objects/drives
! Example: sexual drive arises from biological needs for sex and can be satisfied through
contact with stimulating objects
o If the drive is unmet or cannot be administered to, the drives become frustrated, repressed, or
sublimated (redirected into easier or more socially acceptable channels)
! Reality principle – an interplay between pleasure-seeking and the realistic limits placed on
that activity; constant curbing of the drives according to law, or social conventions
o 2 Topographies according to Freud:
" Unconscious – a mental screen behind which the individual cannot clearly or consciously
recognize
" Repressions – the immersion of a drive beneath the unconscious, temporarily relieves the
sense of frustration, but the drive always waits for an opportunity to make itself known again
in either the pre-conscious or to consciousness
• Pre-conscious is the link between the unconscious and consciousness # it repressed
drives most commonly “bubble up” to consciousness in the form of dreams
o Freud suggests that we often get what we want in our dreams because they
often originate from repressed drives
o Freudian slip – slips of the tongue / unexplainable medical symptoms that
symbolize fixations on wished-for objects
$ Id – part of the mind present from birth, the source of the drives regulated by the pleasure
principle
$ Ego – the part of the id closest to consciousness that develops as the individual becomes
aware of reality; also the part of the mind that takes into consideration the desires of the id
and the superego (tries to satisfy both desires of the id and superego with socially acceptable
actions = reality principle)
$ Superego – part of the ego that functions as the representative of reality; houses an
individual’s understanding of morality and cultural propriety
• It is the part of the mind that equips the ego with common sense, shame, and a host of
other tools that encourage repression/ redirection of drives
o Two topographies are not interchangeable (unconscious does NOT = id…although most often it is
unconscious)
• Psychoanalytic media theorists are primarily interested in the ways that technology and media texts function
as objects of these drives, or at least mimic the interplay between the drives and reality that we have
discussed thus far
Freudian Development = focus on sex drive
• Belief = human motivation results from 2 basic drives:
o Sexual drive (aka Eros) – compels the individual to connect with others and the world, fueling
sexual/reproductive acts as well as lesser drives associated with other physical comforts and the
continuation of life
o Death drive (aka Thanatos) – compels the individual toward division from others and a rejection of
the living world, often manifesting as aggression or other destructive impulses
• Freud believes that human mental development begins with the notion that humans are born
“polymorphously pervers”, or with the ability to experience sexual pleasure in many different ways (oral,
anal, phallic, genitals)
o Freud believes it is possible that adults become fixated in any of these stages (i.e., being anal; as a
result of constant negative reinforcement to “pooping” older adults continue to become very anal in
terms of cleaning, etc.)
o Oedipus complex – where the father intervenes and forbids the child from taking the mother as an
object of the sexual drive under the threat of “castration”
! A child becomes attracted to the opposite sex caregiver (i.e., boy child to mother, girl to
father) and becomes jealous of the same sex caregiver (girl gets jealous of mom’s contact
with father)
! Failure to give up the mother as objects at this stage results in a host of consequently troubled
or even psychotic mental states
Lacanian Development = focus on death drive
• Belief = all drives (including the sexual) are essentially death drive in the sense that there is something
about all drives that compel the individual beyond permanent connections to any real objects
• Example: there is always more to eat and the potential for more sexual partners
• Lacanian proposes the conceptual triad of need, demand, and desire
o Need = biological (human beings are born with needs for nutrition and comfort that must be met)
o Demand = a need made symbolic (act of crying for food)
o Desire – the unquenchable yearning for love or recognition that no one else can ever perfectly or
absolutely fill; it is the “something” in the drives that keeps them from ever settling on a particular
object
• 3 “orders” of human experience that help to trace the transformation of the individual’s need into desire
o The Real – that part of life which cannot be put into language or what cannot be articulated as a
demand
o The Imaginary – pre-linguistic order dominated by images and sensory impressions
! Primary developmental space in which the child learns to make demands; it is the realm of
chaotic images and sensory impressions into which the child is born
! The “mirror stage” – child learns to recognize and identify with its own image
o The Symbolic – cultural order of meaning maintained through words and symbols
! Lack – the part of the self lost in the transition between orders
• Lacan’s development is different from Freud because it uses language instead of sex to explain the infant’s
development and the subsequent mental structures of individuals
Psychoanalytic Studies of Media:
• Films are structured in such a way that they activate the desires of the unconscious
o Freudian # some media are constructed in such a way to allow us to indulge in unconscious,
repressed, or socially prohibited pleasures
o Lacanian # structure of some media allows us to overcome lack and access the imaginary pleasures
which language divides from our conscious mind
• Films can be seen as a tool for temporarily undermining the hold of the reality principle and allowing the
pleasure principle a bit more free reign over our psyche
