What does psychoanalytic psychology inspire design psychology?

J a Schellenberg, a professor of social psychology in western michigan university, even regarded Siegmundt Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, as the first master of social psychology in the 20th century. However, if we examine the contents of contemporary social psychology in detail, we will find that psychoanalytic theory seems to lack a wider connection with contemporary social psychology knowledge. Psychoanalytic theory can't find its place in the substantive explanation of many social psychological phenomena or social behaviors. In contemporary social psychology, we see more explanations of social psychology and social behavior from behaviorism, social learning theory and social cognitive theory. So, what is the basis of psychoanalysis as an important theoretical school of social psychology? Chaplin and Krakow thought: "Freud's contribution to social psychology is limited" [1](P578). So, does the whole psychoanalytic school also lack its contribution to social psychology? In other words, does psychoanalytic theory, like other schools of psychology, mainly belong to psychology rather than social psychology?

Obviously, it is extremely risky to simply deny the social psychological value of psychoanalysis theory. Indeed, psychoanalysis has nothing to do with social psychology at first, and it is even just a treatment for mental illness. However, the founder and later representatives of this school did not make this theory only stay at the level of personality psychology research, but started with paying attention to social and cultural phenomena closely related to human psychological activities, which gradually led psychoanalysis to the road of social psychology, and a large number of social and psychological problems were involved in the psychoanalytic movement for decades. It can be said that psychoanalysis is the most important schools of psychology in social psychology among various schools of psychological theory. There are two main reasons why psychoanalysis theory lacks its due influence on social psychology in contemporary social psychology system, except for a few aspects such as individual socialization theory and attitude theory. First, the most important reason is that with the establishment of the experimental method of social psychology, the research focus of social psychology has shifted, which makes the experimental method of psychoanalytic social psychology established and the research focus of social psychology shifted, which makes the psychoanalytic social psychology shift gradually. Compared with contemporary scientific social psychology, which fully respects the principle of positivism, psychoanalytic social psychology is extremely backward. However, we will soon see that contemporary social psychology's rejection of humanistic orientation, including psychoanalysis, narrows the road of social psychology. Second, psychoanalytic theory has long lacked a summary of social psychology. Psychoanalysis, as a theoretical school, is rich and complex in content, including the exploration of general psychological motives and the study of abnormal psychological processes. Many social and psychological topics are intertwined with these contents. Before they were "translated" from psychoanalytic discourse into modern social psychological language, people often ignored their social psychological value. Therefore, a century after psychoanalysis was founded, it is obvious that we re-explore the topic of social psychology in psychoanalysis theory. This can not only systematically summarize the historical contribution of psychoanalysis to social psychology, but also, more importantly, by investigating the unique stand, viewpoint and method of humanistic psychology represented by psychoanalysis theory, we can gain enlightenment to the methodological significance of contemporary social psychology.

Second, the four major social psychology themes in psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis, as far as its content is concerned, is a very large and complex theoretical school. The theoretical viewpoints of different representatives in different historical periods are very different. It is difficult for us to estimate how many specific social and psychological problems are involved in all psychoanalytic theories. However, we summarize the contents of various psychoanalytic theories that have the essential significance of social psychology, and find that psychoanalytic theories at least include the following four social psychological themes.

One of the topics: the psychological root of social and cultural phenomena

Studying the psychological roots of social and cultural phenomena is a basic task of early social psychology. For example, E.A. Ross pointed out: "Social psychology studies the psychological place and psychological current produced by human union." Thomas believes that social psychology is a general science to study the subjective aspects of social and cultural phenomena [2](P 1-2). Like these social psychology propositions, psychoanalytic theory also set foot in the field of social psychology from exploring the psychological roots of social and cultural phenomena.

19 13, Freud published his most confident book Totem and Taboo since the publication of Interpretation of Dreams, which marked the beginning of psychoanalysis in social psychology course. In this book, Freud extended Oedipus complex to the explanation of social and cultural phenomena. He pointed out: "The origins of religion, morality, society and art are all tied together with Oedipus complex, which coincides with the fact that the same complex in psychoanalysis constitutes the core of mental illness." [3] (p192-193) Freud believes that the worship of totem by primitive humans is the emotional expression of Oedipus complex that appears in our children today. Because he believes that primitive people lived in such a state in human childhood: a violent and jealous father took all the women for himself and expelled his adult son. One day, the deported sons banded together to kill and devour their father. Then the sons regretted it, and the sense of guilt made them set two commandments: (1) Sacrificing a totem animal symbolizing their father; (2) renouncing those women who contributed to the conflict between them and their father. This is the origin of primitive totem worship and exogamy. In a word, morality, religion, art and all civilized systems all originated from some psychological motivation-here is Oedipus complex, from which Freud got the explanation of the origin of the most basic cultural phenomenon in human society.

Freud's thought was expressed by his great disciple carl jung (who later parted ways with him) in another form-collective unconscious theory. The so-called collective unconsciousness refers to something deeper, more obscure and older that exists in the depths of individual unconsciousness. "He is not derived from personal gain, but from the potential of genetic general psychological function, that is, from the genetic structure of the brain. This is the mythical association-that is, those motives and images that may germinate again in any time and on any land without historical tradition or transplantation "[4](P588). Jung believes that the collective unconscious content once acquired by primitive people has accumulated in human nature through generations. Just as Freud's Oedipus complex has a transcendental decisive role in human activities, Jung also believes that collective unconsciousness is a pre-existing decisive factor for individuals to act according to the way their ancestors faced similar situations at that time. In addition, the collective unconscious has become the decisive factor of all social and cultural phenomena. Because neither scientific invention nor artistic creation can be separated from individual efforts, but ultimately it depends on the "prototype" or "original image" in the collective unconscious. For example, Jung thought that "the concept of energy and conservation of energy must be some primitive image lurking in the collective unconscious" [5](P68). This primitive image existed in the most primitive times, and it is manifested in many different forms, such as the belief in the devil and magic, and the concept of immortality of the soul.

These mystical theories of Freud and Jung obviously cannot be proved by scientific research institutes. However, as a psychological explanation of cultural and social phenomena, it is not without any value, because all social and cultural phenomena, including various civilized systems, are the products of human activities, so they must contain the trajectory of human psychological activities. Moreover, this psychological explanation of social and cultural phenomena has had a wide impact. From the cultural theory of Malinowski, a functionalist anthropologist, we can see that exploring the psychological roots of cultural phenomena has become an important principle of cultural research [6](P56).

Topic 2: Social and Cultural Determinations of Psychological Phenomena

Taking social and cultural factors as the decisive force of people's psychological life is the basic view of social and cultural school in psychoanalytic theory. If Freud and Jung's social psychology mainly shows the exploration of the psychological roots of social and cultural phenomena, then the social and cultural school of psychoanalysis reverses this process and thinks that people's psychological activities mainly depend on specific social and cultural conditions. Therefore, finding the social and cultural reasons of psychological activities has become the conscious task of social and cultural schools. And their series of theoretical viewpoints in this respect also constitute another most basic social psychology topic in psychoanalysis.

Adler, the pioneer of social and cultural school, denied Freud's theory of physiological instinct or sexual instinct, emphasizing that human behavior is determined by social forces. He believes that only by studying a person's social relations and his attitude towards others can we understand his personality. It is Adler's proposition that makes psychoanalytic theory begin to pay attention to social group factors instead of instinct and individual factors. Along the road initiated by Adler, Honeye, the master of social and cultural school, further put the importance of social background, cultural factors and interpersonal relationships on people's psychological and personality development in the first place, making the decisive role of social and cultural factors in psychological life become the main theme of psychoanalytic theory. In the book Neurotic Personality in Our Times, Horney pointed out that to understand the personality of neurotic patients, we must consider his social background and cultural model. She believes that in modern western society, there is a general feeling of indifference, opposition, alienation and doubt between people, which often makes people experience a sense of helplessness and frustration, and people living in such a hostile world will inevitably form a basic anxiety from an early age, thus burying the hidden danger of neurosis in the future. Therefore, if the present capitalist society cannot change the selfish situation, the selfishness of neurosis will develop without restraint. To sum up, the principle elaborated by Horney is that psychological activities are the reflection of specific cultural and social conditions, and the potential inner conflicts of individuals are actually the reflection of certain contradictions in their culture.

In the same vein as Adler and Horney, psychoanalysts Sullivan and Fromm also discussed the decisive role of social and cultural factors in psychological life from different angles, further enriching and developing the social and cultural theory of psychoanalysis. Sullivan believes that interpersonal relationship formed in interpersonal communication is the main parameter of people's psychological process (including abnormal process). From this point of view, Sullivan put forward an extremely unique but profoundly reflected his social and cultural view, that is, psychiatry is a social science, that is, social psychology [7](P 166). The premise of this strange idea is that mental illness is neither congenital nor determined by the structure of the body, but because the interpersonal relationship of patients is destroyed, causing anxiety of patients, which in turn leads to the division of their whole experience world. In short, mental disorders stem from inappropriate interpersonal or social relationships. "Psychiatry involves interpersonal relationships" [7](P 167). Whether this view can be recognized by biomedicine is not discussed for the time being, but Sullivan's emphasis on the important role of social and cultural factors-interpersonal relationship in psychological life is undoubtedly a very valuable social psychological thought.

Compared with Sullivan and other social and cultural scholars, Fromm pays more attention to the influence of social and cultural factors on people's psychological activities at the macro level. Fromm thinks that man is the product of culture. "Humanity, his enthusiasm and his anxiety are all products of culture" [7](P 173). The process of people creating history is the process of history creating people, and the task of social psychology is to understand and explain the process of people creating. Fromm profoundly revealed the mechanism of social and cultural factors acting on the spiritual world in his theory of social character and social subconscious. For example, Fromm believes that the social subconscious is formed through the three "cultural filters" of language, logic and taboo: the * * * of a culture and the rules of grammar and syntax in the language determine which experiences can enter our consciousness and which cannot through the spirit it contains; The logical law in a cultural category determines what its members think is natural or reasonable, and determines people's way of thinking and even ideological content; Taboos in social culture can shape social character and social subconscious, and those thoughts, feelings or attitudes that are considered unreasonable or dangerous will be excluded from consciousness. Through the function of cultural filtering, irrationality in any particular society will inevitably lead to many emotional and conscious experiences of its members being suppressed, which is the cultural mechanism of the formation of social subconscious.

In a word, we have seen a kind of social psychological thought with modern scientific spirit from the socio-cultural school of psychoanalysis, that is, all human psychological activities, thoughts and feelings are determined by specific social and cultural conditions.

The third topic: group psychological problems.

Psychoanalysis theory, especially Freud's classic psychoanalysis theory, is often regarded as the theory of personality psychology, which has something to do with psychoanalysts' treatment of individual patients. However, psychoanalysis is not just individual psychology. It is an indisputable fact that psychoanalysts, including Freud, are more or less involved in group psychological problems. Group psychological problem is also the most basic social psychological topic contained in psychoanalytic theory.

Within the scope of psychoanalysis, Freud was the first person to pay attention to group psychological problems. In order to realize the transformation of psychoanalytic theory from individual psychology to social psychology, Freud completed his book Group Psychology and Self-analysis in 192 1. In this book, Freud almost completely accepted the view of G. Lepen, the founder of group psychology, that the fascination of groups depends on the following three factors: (65,438+0) getting an invincible feeling from the absolute number of people; (2) Mutual infection of behavior and feelings; (3) Suggested sensitivity. In addition, Freud "tried to bring some enlightenment to the study of group psychology with the concept of more days" [8](P96). From the unique standpoint of psychoanalysis, he emphasized that the power of connecting groups is the instinct of love and can connect everything in the world. He thinks that hinting can influence people, because hinting people have a tendency to love others in harmony with others. In other words, only Libido, which embodies this love relationship, "is what constitutes the psychological essence of the group" [8](P98). This is Freud's group psychology. It can be seen that Freud tried to bring the emergence of group psychology into the framework of his psychoanalytic core theory-Libido theory. His practice has been criticized from all sides. He even thinks that he has not made any new achievements in group psychology except repeating and affirming Le Peng's viewpoint [9](P72). In this regard, we don't want to comment more here, but one thing is worthy of recognition, that is, Freud regarded the study of group psychology as a work of psychoanalysis and paid great attention to the group psychological problems, which is undoubtedly a "move" with great social psychological significance in the psychoanalytic system.

Freud studied the psychological problems in the process of dynamic group, which is called "crowd" by social psychology or sociology and belongs to an unconventional group form-collective behavior. Freud's research represents psychoanalytic theory's concern for collective behavior in group psychology. In addition, psychoanalysis also discusses the group psychology from the macro social structure level. In other words, the theorists of this school have also conducted group psychology research with psychoanalytic characteristics with ethnic groups, tribes and other social groups as objects. Fromm's theory of social character is the most representative in this respect. Fromm believes that each specific person's personality consists of two parts. One is individual personality, which reflects the psychological differences between members of the same social group. Second, social character, which is an important character component of most people in a social class or culture, "social character embodies the core of the character structure of most people in a given culture" [7](P 174). Modern social psychology holds that "group psychology is, to some extent, the unique homogeneous psychology of all representatives of this group, that is, the typical psychology caused by the existence conditions of * * *" for them "[10](P 185). It should be said that Fromm's social personality theory correctly reveals the essence of group psychology, which is a great contribution of group analysis theory to social psychology compared with the denial of group psychology by behaviorist scientific social psychology. Among psychoanalysts in the cultural anthropology camp, ideas similar to Fromm have been expressed more accurately and concretely. For example, Ralph Linton's "Basic Personality Type", Cardinal's "Basic Personality Structure" and du bois's "Majority Personality" are typical studies of group psychological problems similar to "social personality". When people lament that it is impossible to scientifically analyze the psychology of large groups such as classes and nationalities due to the lack of effective methods [10](P 179), psychoanalysts have already made fruitful explorations on this, and even used a statistical method with scientific significance-"majority personality" is a large group such as nationalities and classes obtained through statistical processing of personality data.