Intro to crit PSCHOANAYLSIS TERMS

unconscious

In Freudian psychoanalysis, the unconscious is the part of the mind that stores repressed desires, fears, and memories that influence behavior without our awareness.

repression

In Freudian theory, repression is the process of pushing disturbing thoughts and desires into the unconscious to avoid anxiety.

preconscious

In Freudian theory, the preconscious contains thoughts not currently in awareness but easily brought to consciousness.

Oedipal conflict

In Freudian psychoanalysis, a child’s unconscious desire for the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent.

defenses

selective perception, selective memory, denial, avoidance, displacement, projection, regression

In Freudian theory, strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety by distorting reality.

anxiety

In Freudian theory, a signal that repressed conflicts are threatening to surface.

latent content

In Freud’s dream theory, the hidden psychological meaning of a dream.

Dream displacement

In Freud, shifting emotional intensity from important ideas to trivial ones in dreams.

Condensation

In Freudian dreams, multiple ideas combined into one image or symbol.

primary revision

In Freud, the initial distortion of unconscious material into dream images.

manifest content

In Freudian theory, the literal storyline of a dream.

secondary revision

In Freud, the mind’s attempt to make dreams more logical and coherent.

phallic symbols

In Freudian psychoanalysis, objects that symbolically represent male sexuality or power.

Female imagery

In Freudian theory, symbols associated with femininity or the womb.

Thanatos

In Freud, the death drive—an unconscious desire toward destruction or death.

death work

In Freudian theory, expressions of the death drive in behavior or fantasy.

superego

In Freud, the moral part of the psyche that enforces societal rules

id

In Freudian theory, the unconscious source of instinctual desires.

ego

In Freud, the rational part that mediates between id, superego, and reality.

penis envy

In Freudian theory, the concept that girls feel lack due to absence of male anatomy.

Mirror Stage

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the moment a child identifies with its reflection, forming a misrecognized sense of a unified self.

Imaginary Order

In Lacan, the realm of images and illusions where identity is formed.

Desire of the Mother

In Lacan, the child’s initial desire for unity with the mother before entering social structures.

Symbolic Order

In Lacan, the realm of language, law, and social rules that structure identity.

objet petit a

In Lacanian theory, the unattainable object-cause of desire that drives human longing.

Name-of-the-Father

In Lacan, the symbolic authority that introduces law and separates the child from the mother.

Other

In Lacan, the symbolic system (language, society) that shapes identity.

the Real

In Lacan, what cannot be symbolized or expressed in language.