Week 13 - Freud, Mead, DuBois

Question 1

According to Freud, what causes individuals to become discontented?

Answer 1

• individual drives are fundamentally incompatible with society or ‘civilization
• however, the fact that individual drives and society must exist together creates such ‘discontented’ individuals

Question 2

Define Id, Ego, and Superego, and the role of each.

Answer 2

1. Id; self-interested innate primitive, instinctive and pleasure-seeking impulses of one’s personality
   - our physical needs, ex. thirst, hunger
2. Ego; self-interested rationally-driven aspect of one’s personality
   - operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society
   - works to achieve a balance with our moral and idealistic standards (created by the superego)
   - has no concept of right or wrong, something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id
3. Superego; aspect of one’s personality that control’s both the id’s impulses and the ego’s urges
   - results from society’s morals and values

Question 3

What are the 2 Conflicting Forces Within the Id? Why don’t they work together? Which part of the personality is responsible for mediating the two and how does it go this?

Answer 3

1. Stability; drive to be social and create societies ex. families, nations
2. Aggressiveness; hostility against individuals and civilizations
   - aggression can’t be expressed within society, so it is internalized by the individual in the form of guilt
   - superego has learned what society accepts, then guides individual, self-policing based on social rules, mediates aggression to make stability possible
   - replaces external authority

Question 4

Define/explain: cultural superego

Answer 4

• society wide, decides what is rights and wrong, then individuals’ superegos adopt these ideals
• this process enables us to set aside our individual self-interests and come together

Question 5

What is the effect of he 2 Conflicting Forces Within the Id?

Answer 5

• a permanent internal unhappiness and sense of guilt

- neuroses; serious psychological problems that occur when one cannot deal with the tension, aka mental illness

Question 6

Define: Mead’s concept of the ‘self’

Answer 6

• not initially there at birth
• only possible within society because it is hinged on your surrounding social structure and its symbolic systems, ex. language
• the things we learn in context impact the way we think
• distinguished from the body
• duality of mind and body; person knows that his or her body exists, but also that there is a socially-determined self that is somewhat separate from it
• result from social communication/interaction

Question 7

How is the self both subject and object?

Answer 7

• subject; internal
• object; the self becomes an object when we externalize through communicating to ourselves
• we critique and view ourselves objectively, we hear and respond to ourselves
• the process of communicating with others teaches the individual how to communicate with him or herself

Question 8

Define/explain Mead’s concept of multiple selves and the complete self. How are they connected?

Answer 8

• there are more than one socially determined selves that come out in different social contexts
• the way we communicate/interact differs in each context therefore we are a different self in each context
• we are made up of a complete self, which has many components
• the complete self is always there, certain selves stay on the margin/bench until needed

Question 9

Define/explain: Mead’s concept of play

Answer 9

• play is ‘acting like’, child pretends to be someone
• their play is based on the things they have seen, and their interpretations of them
• thier understanding of how others do/should act

Question 10

Define/explain: Mead’s concept of a game

Answer 10

• the player knows the rules, and wants to win
• their stage of development must allow them to understand and work within rules, and understand the motives of others
• the player understands the responses of the other and this, in turn, impacts his or her responses
• in a game the social context determines the individual’s response
• game provides an ‘other’; blend/synthesis of the attitudes of those involved in the same process, seen as one/a whole

Question 11

Define/explain: Mead’s concept of the ‘generalized other’. What is its significance to the development of the self?

Answer 11

• an amalgamation of the individual attitudes of others
• the attitudes, values, ideals of a whole community, based on a majority
• understanding of the generalized other is necessary for the full development of the self
• once we understand the generalized other we then change our actions based on the attitudes of the generalized other, to fit in
• makes common meaning possible

Question 12

Differentiate between the I and Me.

Answer 12

‘I’; an individual’s response to the Me, which allows for personality and individual variance
‘Me’; the internalized and organized set of attitudes of others (the generalized other) that an individual assumes
-the ‘Me’ understand and internalizes rules, the ‘I’ then performs an action and uses agency to individualize where it can

Question 13

Define/explain: The Veil (Du Bois)

Answer 13

• exists for POC, in a racialized society
• similar to the feminist ‘glass ceiling’
• shuts POC out from the same opportunities as the Whites
• only lets him see himself through the eye of a generalized other that looks on in amused contempt and pity, they impose negative stereotypes on you
• stops the process of true self-actualization
• leads to double-consciousness; dealing with conflicting understandings of him or herself in relation to structural racism, ex. both an American and a Negro

Question 14

Describe Du Bois’ process of negotiating the double self.

Answer 14

• in order to negotiate the double self, an individual must acknowledge that each self has something to offer
• they need to find their authentic self with a mix of both the ‘American’ and ‘Negro’ selves
• the idea is not to assimilate to social/structured racism
• the goal is to recognize that you have something valuable to contribute

Question 15

How do the tensions resulting from the double consciousness affect Blacks?

Answer 15

• Black are constantly negotiating imposed double-aims: to escape white contempt and also to simultaneously fight for “his people”
• half-named Negro problem; when we see the struggle from an outsiders perspective it looks like weakness, all we see are the social problems related to that group and it’s easy to blame the race, ex. high rate of incarceration
• rather, they are strong for bearing the strain of racism and oppression

Question 16

How can we prevent a ‘second slavery’ according to Du Bois?

Answer 16

• the “power of the ballot”; freedom and the right to vote, power in the democratic process
• although African Americans were granted the right to vote in the U.S. in 1870, barriers by states and local areas that prevented the implementation of this right were finally made illegal at a national level in 1965
• ex. gerrymandering

Question 17

What causes the desire to be White among Blacks? (Du Bois)

Answer 17

• seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals sometimes diminishes their courage, faith and deeds, sends them wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation
• at times has even seemed to make them ashamed of themselves
• because of internalized feelings of inferiority, Black Americans strive to ‘be white’ through various means, such as studying esoteric texts
• the nation echoed and enforced this self-criticism, saying: Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for halfmen?

Question 18

Why do Blacks have an uneven playing field with Whites? What should be done? (Du Bois)

Answer 18

• Blacks are expected to compete with and achieve at the same level as Whites yet Blacks are burdened social inequalities
• We need time to catch up, focus on fixing internal problems unique to Blacks before we can truly be equal
• a people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems

Question 19

What should be done? (Du Bois)

Answer 19

• work, culture, liberty,all these we need, not singly but together
• fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races
• two world-races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack: Blacks give the pure human spirit of the Declaration of Independence, music, fairy tales and folklore, simple faith, humility and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness
• striving to reclaim the self from structural and systematic racism and its impacts