Unconscious, anguish, phobia, Oedipus: a psychologist easily explains widely used psychoanalysis concepts

“I am distressed”, “A friend had a psychotic break”, “the baby has a galloping Oedipus with his mother”.

Psychoanalysis

is present in everyday language, although we are not - worth mentioning - fully aware

With this certainty in mind, the psychoanalyst Florencia Casabella set out to shed light on certain categories, precisely the most used.

It is not an easy challenge, since it is about summarizing and recounting

complex concepts in an

However, in

(Editorial Planeta), those people who are interested in having an approach to the best known (but not always understood) notions of this theory, will find

to many of the questions that circulate around them.

1- Oedipus complex

Perhaps one of the most used categories to talk not only about attachment but also about that sort of dazzle that in general terms it could be said that

feel for their mothers, and many girls for their fathers.

Before explaining what it is about, Casabella clarifies that in light of our times in which family modalities are far from being reduced to the classic formula: mom-dad-son-daughter;

The suitability of the concept formulated by Sigmund Freud is based on understanding that

the maternal function is actually alluded to, and when speaking of father, the paternal.

Although that does not necessarily imply that the person who fulfills these roles is the parents. 

The Oedipus complex is a normal stage in psychoinfantile development.

Photo Shutterstock.

And he continues: “This family raises him, and when he is an adult, Oedipus consults the Oracle, which also tells him that

.

Not knowing that his adoptive parents were not his biological ones, he leaves that town and on the way he meets a man and kills him, unaware that it is his biological father.

Oedipus then ends up effectively

.”

Casabella explains that Freud takes this Greek tragedy "to illustrate

, which is what we often hear in many families: when a male child is born, it is said that he has a terrible idyll with his mother, that the bond with the boy is different than with the girl, that there is a perfect bond ”.

And he adds that what happens is that there is a

towards the mother for which she wants to banish the father, and this occurs in the most literal sense: "Many times children are heard who say they are happy when the father goes on a trip because they want to be alone with the mother, or because they want to sleep with the mother and for the father to leave, because the child has the ability to speak freely about his desire”.

For the psychoanalyst, the importance of this theory lies, among other things, in leading to the creation by the child-subject of his

which will imply looking for a loving and sexual object outside of family relationships.

"For what Freud takes this story is to say that although in childhood there are these loving impulses towards the parents, at some point

, it has to be prohibited and the one who exercises that prohibition in terms of functions is the father , who tells him "you can't be with someone from your family, you have to go out looking for that love outside," he points out.

The psychoanalyst is a specialist in childhood and adolescence.

Photo courtesy Florencia Casabella/RetratosProfesionales.

He also clarifies on this point that all this happens at an unconscious level, and that it is not a pathological issue, but something

“It becomes pathological when no limit can be placed on the child's loving demand, when the mother is there unconditionally and

works to cut off that bond (“I have to go to work”, “I can't be with you because I'm with your dad”, are some of those cuts)”, he clarifies.

2- Unconscious

Many times it is said that something is unconscious to refer to something that

However, this category in psychoanalysis is broader and also more complex.

"It is that part of the psychic apparatus that contains thoughts, memories, desires, ideas, that are not currently in consciousness. But not everything that is in the unconscious is

, there are certain ideas or representations that are in the unconscious but are accessible to consciousness if, for example, I remember", says Casabella.

"On the other hand, there are others that are repressed, that is, they were taken to a deeper stage of the unconscious that means that I cannot bring them to my consciousness by making an effort to remember, they are inaccessible to consciousness", difference.

Many concepts that we use actually come from psychoanalysis.

Photo Shutterstock.

—Do we have to think then that what remains in the unconscious is a kind of

of which we will never have clues?

-No.

Those repressed unconscious representations appear precisely through the

: symptoms, dreams, failed acts, forgetfulness, are the way these repressed unconscious representations find to appear consciously and become accessible to consciousness.

3- Failed act

Far from being a simple mistake made at random, in psychoanalysis the failed acts have a

.

"Dreams, symptoms, forgetfulness are formations of the unconscious and are a way that it finds to express those ideas that we have repressed, forgotten or that in some way remain silenced, in consciousness", he emphasizes.

And to differentiate it precisely from a simple mistake, he remarks: "The mistake does not embarrass us, every time we commit a failed act, and if we do it in public and we feel exposed, we feel ashamed, why?" he

.

"Because precisely in the failed act who speaks is not the subject of consciousness, it is not the I, but rather an idea that for some reason remains in the unconscious comes to be expressed in consciousness and is expressed in a stumble,

”, he analyzes.

“That's why we quickly feel embarrassed, we lose the direction of our speech and we wonder

if it was not really what we wanted to say.

Many times, we want to correct ourselves and keep talking, ”she exemplifies.

A failed act is not a mistake, but a way of the unconscious appearing in the discourse.

Photo Shutterstock.

4-Superego

It has probably been heard that a

person is governed by his Superego.

To understand what this means, the psychoanalyst indicates that the Superego is

that Freud develops, which speaks of It, I and Superego.

"The Id is the drive reservoir, all the drives and desires of the person live there and it is fundamentally unconscious, as long as all the desires we have are not expressed. The Id seeks the satisfaction of drives and desires

constantly , and in some way pushes to be satisfied”, he details.

On the other hand, the Superego is the

that in some way punishes or sanctions the Ego every time it gives free rein to the satisfaction of the drives of the It.

“The three instances are constantly in

”, he maintains.

5- Anguish

Casabella explains that anguish

as sadness, defined as a state of mind linked to something specific, and that it is usually temporary.

Anguish is a rather bodily state, it is usually defined as an emptiness in the chest, a sensation of suffocation.

Although for those who feel anguish it is an illness, the professional explains that it is defined in psychoanalysis as "a

in analysis", since it represents "that end of the skein from which to start pulling to somehow untangle that wool ball".

Although it generates suffering, anguish is defined as "the compass of analysis."

Photo Shutterstock.

He says: "Anxiety guides us in the analysis, so when a person presents anguish it is essential to listen to what triggered it, why it occurred and get the person to speak,

by speaking we can orient ourselves towards its origin".

It also differentiates when the anguish is linked to some representation ("that anguish that has a cause, then the person quickly identifies the reason"), and on the other hand that anguish that is very typical of this time "that is freely floating, that state in in which the person feels an enormous emptiness but cannot say what it is due to, the phrase with which many people present themselves for analysis is 'I am distressed and I don't know

'".

6- Phobia

Having clarified the categories of unconscious and anxiety, it is important to note that this

that many people experience in relation to something (it can be an object, an insect, an animal or, for example, the dark) is conceived in psychoanalysis as linked anxiety. to an object.

“A certain amount of anguish that is freely floating in the psychic apparatus

determined object, and finds a destination: the anguish ceases to be simply anguish and is translated into a phobia.

And therefore it generates in the person that state of alert that allows preventing the encounter with that phobic object.

Therefore, what is it that prevents phobia?: the encounter with anguish, he reflects.

And he continues: "In relation to phobia, I like to say that both sides of anguish are expressed."

"On the one hand, that of prevention, because precisely in the phobia a state of alert is reproduced that

the unexpected encounter with the phobic object, it is a mechanism for avoiding anxiety," he analyzes.

"But the phobia

because when a person tells us that they have a phobia, in some way they are telling us about their anguish."

It also clarifies that far from conceiving that an object can produce the phobia by itself, what happens is that

and somehow "takes advantage" of a situation to "bind itself to an object".

The psychoanalyst clarifies that it can be treated and eventually cured, as long as it is treated appropriately: "If it is not treated correctly, the anguish is linked to another object. Treating the phobia is a treatment of the anguish, and when that anguish is He puts in treatment,

", he reassures, to close.

***

Do you want to continue reading about psychology?

These notes may interest you:

➪The three keys to depression and how to differentiate it from sadness, explained by Juan David Nasio, an eminent psychoanalysis

➪A psychologist explains what function they play and how dreams are interpreted

➪Do failed acts always reveal an uncomfortable truth?

***

 ➪Do you have any questions about health and well-being that you would like us to address in section notes?

Enter the Clarín Help Center by clicking here, enter

and then

Write us your query and send.

Ready!

look also

Warning signs: when is it time for an older relative to stop living alone

Mario Alonso Puig provides 5 keys to "change the chip" and learn to manage emotions