The Role of Freud on the Current Approach towards Cultural Analysis

To map out and familiarize ourselves with the trends, effects, influences, and effects within various cultures, it is imperative to embark on the practice of anthropology which helps formulate a rationale behind human behavior linguistics, societies, and humanity. As such, anthropology capitalizes on ethnography, whereby it illuminates the scientific description of individuals and cultures through a lens of their predominant habits, customs, and mutual differences. Based on the insights set forth by Martins (2020), such an analysis of the aspect of culture was promoted by Freudian insights on his unconscious theory. From this theory, Freud argued that human beings are influenced by their unconscious, which is developed through their respective societal functioning as well as the culture in which they were brought up. The immediate environment one  is exposed to influences how they develop belief systems, attitudes, and perceptions as they grow and mature.

The external environment to which individuals are exposed is structured around the collective development of practices and ideologies that determine the way of living for a particular group of people, thereby forming their predominant culture. In this regard, the symbolism of culture can be linked to the element of the unconscious in the sense that the individual operates, thinks, and behaves in a manner that aligns with the external environment to which they are exposed, thereby forming the ways in which they organize their thoughts as well as their internal worlds (Prawer, 2017). As a result, people form beliefs or myths that distinguish them from others from different cultural backgrounds.

Through his unconscious theory, Freud depicts how people form cultures or take part in a particular culture. On this note, individuals are motivated by the pursuit of satisfying their fundamental desires of developing a sense of belonging through the superego, which compels them to embark on doing certain things, such as feeling relevant, guilty, shameful, or weak. In this regard, Freud informs the practice of cultural analysis by providing a rationale as to why people develop certain trends and influences within cultures which is the response to the longing of having to deal with worldly realities. Since the id concept of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory depicts uncoordinated instinctual desires, it also forms the basis on which people use their ego to mediate such desires with the superego, thereby forming or participating in certain cultural practices or beliefs.

References

Benveniste, D. (2015). Sigmund Freud and Libido Development. https://www.nwaps.org/sites/default/files/Freud%20and%20Libido%20Development.pdf

Brenkman, J. (2015). Straight male modern: A cultural critique of psychoanalysis. Routledge.

Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (2003). Psychoanalytic theories: Perspectives from developmental psychopathology. Whurr publishers.