Sigmund Freud's Psychic Determinism

One of the key concepts Sigmund Freud characterizes his psychoanalytic theory is the idea of psychic determinism. Psychic determinism is the idea everything in life happens for a reason and that there is no room for chance. Dreams or saying a phrase incorrectly is not just a coincidence, but has happened because of some unconscious desire or wish (Carducci, 2009). According to Freud, even little meaningless behaviors can by subject to psychic determinism (Carducci, 2009). This is applicable toward Dexter because his psychopathic tendencies can be justified by psychic determinism. When he was three year old, he saw his mother being murdered and then sat in her blood for the next few days. This can be seen as a trigger to the sociopathic predispositions …show more content…
The three distinct parts of the mind are illustrated as the Id, the Superego, and the Ego. Completely part of the unconscious mind, the Id has no relations with the external environment. It is driven by impulses and the tendency to pursue instant gratification (Carducci 2009). The part of the mind where the Id is located has to concept of what is socially acceptable in the real world. Next, comes the Superego, it deals with the moral aspect of one’s behavior. Its job is to make sure that an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings coincide with society’s moral standards (Carducci, 2009). Lastly, the Ego is representative of the realistic facet of the mind. It spans across all of the regions of the mind, the unconscious, the preconcious, and the conscious. Additionally, it strives to balance the desires of Id and the rational needs of the real world. It does this by enforcing the reality principle where the Ego must implement the rules of external world, one of which is delayed gratification instead of the Id’s want of instant gratification (Carducci, 2009). According to this concept of Freud’s theory it can be seen that Dexter has a continuous battle of balancing these aspects of his personality. As a normal, non-psychopathic individual, he or she does not have to put any effort into harmonizing these parts of the mind. However, Dexter with his …show more content…
The oral stage occurs in the first 18 to 24 months of a child’s life and in those months nursing on the mother’s breast is essential in the successful development of his or her personality (Carducci, 2009). As his biological mother was drug addict, her ability to nurse her children for a necessary amount of time is unlikely. Therefore, he must not have had much of a struggle weaning off of it. One of the main outcomes of an oral fixation in personality is immaturity; however, that is the opposite of Dexter’s personality. Next, between the ages of two and three the anal region becomes the erogenous zone and the efficiency of toilet training is what determines a person’s personality in adulthood (Carducci, 2009). Those who are overly clean and orderly, like Dexter, must have had a greater emphasis on toilet training as child. After the anal stage comes the phallic stage which occurs between the ages of four and five and the erogenous region for this stage is the genital region of the body. At this stage in life the boy deal with castration anxiety where he fears that his father will cut off his penis as a result of competition for his mother’s attention. This in turn creates the Oedipus Complex after the mythical character that accidentally killed his father and married his own mother. The positive outcome that