The week of Dec 11

Freud’s Tripartite Definition of Personality

realizes that there is something going on in our brains underneath our regular, day-to-day thinking and behaving

he calls it the subconscious

Freud was trying to find a way to help people who had deep problems that they really couldn’t understand or articulate - these problems were “real” but they were not physical - they were impossible to “see” 

Psychoanalysis

• a process for uncovering “things” that someone has in their subconscious mind - these “things” are sometimes unknown to the person and they are behaving as a result of these “things”

Freud figured that these problems stemmed from childhood trauma or developmental issues

Many of Freud’s ideas seemed to revolve around sex and sexualization at an early age

Though that stereotypical “couch therapy thing”

People don’t just walk around doing what they want. 

They are doing what they are compelled to do by their deeper psychological drives. 

These are sometimes designed and defined in their childhoods (maybe mostly…)

Freud started to come up with all kinds of theories around the basic premises he has figured out

ID

• the first part of one’s self that is created - you kind of come out with an ID intact
• wants to eat, drink, react to the environment in the most immediate way
• reproduce! yell! cry! fight!
• this is the animal self - the lizard brain - the deep core of living creatures
• this is a critical part of the living creature to stay alive - the drive to BE
• this part of the self is a jerk
• it is a very bad part to utilize in social scenarios
• ie grabbing the buttocks of attractive men with generous buttocks
• ie fighting people who hurt your feelings
• ie stealing things you want
• a baby IS the ID incarnate

EGO

• the second part of the self that is created - develops as the baby gets older and starts to realize the world out there isn’t the self - the realization of being a thing in a place
• the logical self - the protector of the self from the dangers of the ID in the context of a world
• “Hey, you had better not grasp the generous buttocks of that officer! He might hit you!”
• “Hey! Don’t steal that phone! You might get caught!”
• the ego is a reaction to learning about the dangers of the world - parents can help, peers can help, laws can help, etc. 
• it’s all about self-protection and taking logical steps to mediate the ID

SUPEREGO

- the last part that is created and, for some, it is not created properly

• the mother’s voice - the conscience - the angel on the shoulder
• this is the development of the true moral self - “the voice of other people in your mind”

- empathy!

The whole person, the happy, socially functioning person is working in balance between these three personality structures

Freud might say that an unhealthy person is out of balance and he might be able to figure out what part is most active and least

RELIGION kind of acts as the superego and some people think that it is the ONLY way to generate the same kind of balance against the animal self

(Mr. Lobb disagrees)

There is something innate in us that respects life and wants to see “harmony”

Freud is a foundational thinker in medicine and psychology, but many of his theories are seen as overly simplistic

He was too focused on sexuality (no surprise)

Thesis idea

some loose notes to support

some quotations to support your support

a general sense of the essay you will write

SMART MONEY says you’ll have a first draft in the middle of next week

SMARTER MONEY says you’ll have essay marks from ME by Friday next week

Plato’s Cave Allegory

Plato is trying to come up with a way of describing how reality works for the viewer (participant) in that reality *in light of this idea of FORMS*

The Cave Allegory is a metaphor that explains some of the thinking behind his version of reality - WHAT IS REAL? WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING A PERSON IN REALITY? 

This metaphor is a useful way of thinking - we start to realize that each person is seeing a different “world of forms” and those forms are subject to the interpretation of each person - consider their biases, upbringing, experiences, teaching, region, age, sex, etc. 

Using one’s own desires and beliefs and so on is an EXCELLENT way to control one’s reality - e.g. MACBETH!

Carl Jung - the collective unconscious

Totems and Symbols in Macbeth

hands - culpability - symbols of the evil action that the “owner” of them took

blood - 

snake

crown

severed head

ghost

line of kings

weather - pathetic fallacy

King Duncan’s clothes

witches

Macduff’s son

Exam questions much?

What is the way to do Recontextualization Assignment 1 for Macbeth? 

Get into a group. 

Break the assignment into pieces. 

Example - one person writes one article for this newspaper, another does a shorter article and a photo/caption/ad/classified/personal/etc (texture), another person might do a front page (may not have a full article, but may have a few starts and “see page A2”

Incorporating information from the play (content) into a new form or medium where you add new CONTEXT 

You can add phony information that gives more new context and adds interest and readability

Why DO People Read it? 

Fantasy

To feel better about life in general 

To satisfy creepy star love (the small people always get curious about the big)

The “stars” of the Medieval period would be the royalty - 

The idea of making a gossip mag about them is pretty fitting. 

Today:

1. Work in groups with similar essay thesis/topic people - compare, contrast, confer with others to get something good going
2. Have a rough outline of your key points - a loose “sketch” of your essay
3. Show Mr. The Lobb your process/progress.