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Psyche (psychology)
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In psychoanalysis, the psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality. The word is borrowed from ancient Greek, and refers to the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind. The Greeks believed that the soul or "psyche" was responsible for behaviour.
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m6887185",this)' onMouseout='hide("m6887185")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Sigmund_Freud">Sigmund Freud, the creator of psychoanalysis, believed that the psyche was composed of 3 components:
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m6887188",this)' onMouseout='hide("m6887188")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Carl_Jung">Carl Jung wrote much of his work in German.
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Encyclopedia
In psychoanalysis, the psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality. The word is borrowed from ancient Greek, and refers to the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind. The Greeks believed that the soul or "psyche" was responsible for behaviour.
Freud's structural theory of the psyche
Sigmund Freud, the creator of psychoanalysis, believed that the psyche was composed of 3 components:
- The id, which represents the instinctual drives of an individual and remains largely unconscious.
- The ego, which is conscious and serves to integrate the drives of the id with the prohibitions of the super-ego. Freud believed this conflict to be at the heart of neurosis.
- The super-ego, which represents a person's conscience and their internalization of societal norms and morality.
Jung's definitions of “psyche” and "soul"
Carl Jung wrote much of his work in German. Difficulties for translation arise because the German word Seele means both psyche and soul. Jung was careful to define what he meant by psyche and by soul.
I have been compelled, in my investigations into the structure of the unconscious, to make a conceptual distinction between soul and psyche. By psyche, I understand the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a "personality". (Jung, 1971: Def. 48 par. 797)
[The translation of the German word Seele presents almost insuperable difficulties on account of the lack of a single English equivalent and because it combines the two words "psyche" and "soul" in a way not altogether familiar to the English reader. For this reason some comment by the Editors will not be out of place.
[In previous translations, and in this one as well, psyche– for which Jung in the German original uses either Psyche or Seele– has been used with reference to the totality of all psychic processes (cf. Jung, Psychological Types, Def. 48); i.e., it is a comprehensive term. Soul, on the other hand, as used in the technical terminology of analytical psychology, is more restricted in meaning and refers to a "function complex" or partial personality and never to the whole psyche. It is often applied specifically to "anima" and "animus"; e.g., in this connection it is used in the composite word "soul-image" (Seelenbild). This conception of the soul is more primitive than the Christian one with which the reader is likely to be more familiar. In its Christian context it refers to "the transcendental energy in man" and "the spiritual part of man considered in its moral aspect or in relation to God." . . . –Editors.] (Jung, 1968: note 2 par. 9)
Consider
The Psyche differs from the soul because the soul is a concept of something independent of a physical and mental existence. The psyche has the potential exist only in the mind but has a relatively strong effect on the share reality of human beings. The perception of a person by another is consider part of the psyche where as the soul isn't subject to view and/or judgement. So the if the psyche does survive a physical death, it is only in the imaginations of the people involve with the dead individual. So then the soul becomes that which survives the psyche. The psyche reiterates an immutable image of an individual, as it is linked to the person's physical appearance, which becomes the persona. To a certain extent the physical being and life of a physical is a progeny of the soul, the psyche is produced by the physical manifestation of the two. The psyche isn't the persona because the persona dependent on the self as an image. Within the self-image there may be denial, if the aspect of denail is included in the totality of the subject then the psyche is the thing in question but if denial in self-image isn't a factor or self-image isn't a factor then the thing in question is the persona. There may be the case where someone in view of another isn't perceived because of a developed qualia, as in conformation bias, so a prejudice or stereotype could be applied to the persona where as the affect of pejudiced or the lack thereof is a part of the psyche.
See also
Further reading
- Valsiner, Jaan; Rosa, Alberto, , Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521854105. Cf. Chapter 1, p.23, "The Myth and Beyond: Ontology of Psyche and Epistemology of Psychology".
- Wilson, Robert Andrew; Keil, Frank C., , MIT Press, 2001. ISBN 0262731444
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