As a psychologist, I might be biased, but I think psychology is indispensable in creating compelling, complicated characters. This quick look into Freud\u2019s teachings will give you tools to do just that.<\/p>\n
What makes a character compelling? On one hand, they must be nuanced and complicated and new to us on some level. On the other hand, we must find ourselves understanding the character even though we may have no common ground.<\/p>\n
Today I\u2019m going to focus on the last part, the part we all connect with in every character, whether it\u2019s a hero, a villain, or those wonderful secondary characters that add richness to our narratives. And believe it or not, Sigmund Freud was one of the first psychologists to propose a theory that allows us to delve into the universality of human experience.<\/p>\n
Sure, a lot of what Freud proposed has been debunked by the objectivity of science (and the critical voice of feminism), but one theory in particular has held strong, so much so that it is now part of our vernacular.<\/p>\n
Freud gave voice to what we intuitively understand about ourselves: we all have internal struggles, and we all have moments where it\u2019s difficult to cope with our competing wants and needs. It\u2019s the internal battle that we all experience, and if you weave that into your characters, that\u2019s what your reader will connect with, often on quite a primal level.<\/p>\n
Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: the id, ego, and super-ego.<\/p>\n
The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive portion of the psyche that is the source of basic impulses and drives. Think of it as the demanding child that is driven by the \u2018pleasure principle\u2019, seeking immediate pleasure and gratification. Freud believed that the id represents biological instinctual impulses in humans, such as aggression and sexuality.<\/p>\n
The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche. The superego contains internalized societal and parental standards of \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019, \u2018right\u2019 and \u2018wrong\u2019 behavior. I think of the super-ego as an authoritarian teacher who reminds us of rules and expectations, expecting them to be applied irrespective of the situation.<\/p>\n
The rational ego has the role of maintaining balance between the impractical\u00a0hedonism<\/a>\u00a0of the id and the equally impractical moralism of the super-ego. The ego seeks to pacify both and is the part of our personality that is usually reflected most directly in our actions.<\/p>\n The imagery of a horse and chariot has been used to explain the three components. The id is the horse, impulsively charging after the pleasures in life. The ego is the driver of the chariot, guiding the id, but never fully in control (I imagine a lot of straining and pulling of the reins). The super-ego is the chariot driver’s father sitting behind him, criticizing and moralizing.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, this tug-of-war between the id and the ego, compounded by the critical super-ego isn\u2019t fun. Freud predicted this internal war will result in unpleasant feelings of anxiety. As the mediator, the ego\u2019s job is to reduce these unpleasant feelings. How? By using defense mechanisms.<\/p>\n Guilt<\/a>,\u00a0embarrassment<\/a>, and\u00a0shame<\/a>\u00a0often accompany anxiety, and when these feelings become overwhelming, it\u2019s the ego’s place to protect by employing defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms work by either distorting the id impulses into acceptable forms–or by unconscious or conscious blockage of these impulses. Defense mechanisms, in a nutshell, are ways we think or behave to protect ourselves from feeling bad, sad or mad. Here are a few of the most common:<\/p>\n Here, your character will simply refuse to accept the truth (we all know reality can sometimes be much too confronting and painful). As a psychologist, I wish I could earn a dollar for every time I\u2019ve heard \u2018I\u2019m not addicted, I can quit any time I want\u2026\u2019 because if that was the case I\u2019d be sitting in a much larger room, one with a spiral staircase\u2026 leading to the top of a turret. On the other hand, if you\u2019ve just been through a traumatic event like an earthquake, a bit of denial is probably quite protective.<\/p>\n In this case, your character will just plain old forget. They may no longer remember a car accident, a trip to the dentist or being mauled by werewolves. The downside is that unless you bury that sucker real deep, it\u2019s probably going to skip straight back into your consciousness at some stage.<\/p>\n Projection involves taking those nasty thoughts, feelings or impulses and conveniently transferring them\u00a0<\/strong>onto someone who doesn\u2019t have those nasty thoughts, feelings or impulses. In other words, other people become the carriers of your own flaws (it\u2019s much easier to sleep at night when\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0people are the ones responsible for our misery, not us). This could include a character going all mean-girl about someone\u2019s physical appearance when in fact this anger and distaste veils their own deeper body-image issues, or a husband with a hostile nature might attribute this hostility to his wife and say she has an anger management problem.<\/p>\n Sublimation involves channeling unacceptable impulses, thoughts, and emotions into more acceptable ones. This one brings up images of Christian Grey pounding the pavement to channel all that sexual frustration (oh dear, I may have just let it slip that I\u2019m a 50 Shades fan). Refocusing our unacceptable or harmful impulses into something more productive can help channel energy that might otherwise cause some angst.<\/p>\n For the last but not least, I challenge any reader to put their hand up if they HAVEN\u2019T engaged in the odd bit of Rationalisation. When we do something we\u2019re not too proud of or we discover something we find a little hard to swallow, we basically explain it away. Some examples would include Trudy evading paying taxes then rationalizes it by talking about how the government wastes money and our tax system is unfair. Or James failing to get into a chosen university then saying he didn\u2019t want to go there anyway. Shy and introverted Ben saying he\u2019s not dating anyone at the moment because he\u2019s focusing on his career. Tania arguing smoking is the only way she can cope because her husband just ran off with her personal trainer. My guess is we\u2019ve all done it and so have some of our characters.<\/p>\n So Freud, despite his out-dated theory of penis envy, allows us to explore the part of your character that every reader will connect with, no matter their demographics. The inner battle, that struggle that is sometimes unconscious, the one that often impacts our choices, is something we can all relate to.<\/p>\n What do you think? Do you see any of Freud\u2019s components in your characters? In a book you\u2019ve read? What about defense mechanisms\u2014does a character of yours employ one to avoid negative feelings?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[37,7],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Defense Mechanisms<\/h2>\n
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Using Freud\u2019s Concepts in Your Writing<\/h2>\n
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