🔮 Freud: Psychoanalysis

Question 1

Psychoanalysis

Answer 1

Our early childhood experiences determine our personality and future behaviour including criminality

Question 2

Psychoanalysis - Personality

Answer 2

3 conflicting elements of unconscious mind - id, ego and superego

Question 3

Psychoanalysis - Link to crime

Answer 3

Anti-social behaviour caused by abnormal relationship with parents (neglect or excessively harsh or lax parenting). Conflicts between id, ego, and supergo are unresolved., which leads a to weak, over-harsh or deviant superego.

Question 4

Psychoanalysis - strengths

Answer 4

• Points to importance of socialisation and early family relationships in understanding criminal behaviour
• Some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance.
• Critics doubt the existence of the unconscious mind

Question 5

Psychoanalysis - limitation

Answer 5

Unscientific and subjective - relies on accepting claims of a psychoanalyst about the unconscious mind of someone else. No way to tell if they’re correct!