Psychoanalysis and its Use in the Business and Political Fields - Essay Example

How Psychoanalysis has influenced the advertising culture Introduction Psychoanalysis has its definition on the basis of therapy. It is as a result that people became unaware of the issues that affect their behavior and also emotions. The factors that are unconscious may result to the person becoming unhappy. On some occasions, the case may be recognized and other cases the personality traits may be troubling. The case can result to difficulties in the work environment or relationships, disturbance in self esteem and also the mood of the person. Sigmund Freud discovered the psychoanalytic theory that is effective in the present day, in the field of marketing. It was in the 1920s and 30s (Edmundson 2007, p.23). Ernest Dicher builds upon the theory so that it can have its use as a technique in marketing. The fact of improving upon the theory of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud on primary unconscious brought about other factors that got hidden. Ernest Dicher brought about new ideas that were interesting in the field of marketing. It placed the executive of corporate in a better position towards efficiency and success of their organizations. The result was that they could sell more of their products due to successful advertising and also better communication with the potential customers. Psychoanalysis technique has played a major role in the advertisements and marketing as the document discusses (Freud & Eder 2005, p.46). Discussion Both politics and business make the use of the psychological techniques to create, read and also meet the demands of the people. They are able to make their products and also speeches pleasing to the people and also consumers. The issue attracts interest due to the intentions of the use of psychoanalysis techniques. Politicians are supposed to engage with the conscious mind of the citizens and also fulfill the needs of the people. The use of the psychoanalysis techniques renders them questionable upon the implementation of their responsibility to the society (Freud 2003, p.67). The objective towards the use of Psychoanalysis is providing a person an insight to the motivations and also desires that be unconscious to them. The theory of psychoanalytic indicates that the origin of personality in an adult is a deep conflict between a person’s desire to fulfill their needs and their obligation to become a responsible person in the community. In accordance to the theory of Freud, the struggle takes place in the mind of a person and it has three elements associated with it, the ego, super ego and also the id. In the analysis made by Freud, the id is oriented towards gratification. The functions of the id are in accordance to the principle of pleasure. Behavior is also guided by a desire to acquire the advantages of pleasure (Edmundson 2007, p.24). The id, however, has the counterbalance that includes superego. It is the conscious thought of a person. Ego, on the other hand, is the element that negotiates between the superego aspects and the id. The ego does the stabilization of the conflicting forces by establishing behavior that will be acceptable to the society and also pleasing to the id. Freud discovered that the conflict between the superego and the id occurs in an unconscious level. As a result, an individual can get oblivious towards the motives in their behavior. The work done by Freud towards the unconscious mind is of importance to the advertising of products and also services (Freud & Phillips 2006, p. 54). The application of symbolism in the advertisement industry is similar to the use of symbols in dreams that represent the unconscious desire of an individual. The mind is allowed to work in a different manner by the symbols. However, the symbol holds the meaning at the figurative level. According to the research done by Freud, symbols that are related to deeper meanings occur in the unconscious judgments. He stated that the ego is dependant to symbolism to determine between the strains of the id and the prohibitions that are placed by the superego. Therefore, there is a dependency of the use of symbols in advertising. Symbols are used to communicate information that would be problematic (Freud & Eder 2005, p.47). As a result of association, the unconscious can make the link between the desires of the person and the symbol. Due to the simultaneous occurrence of two things they can result to having a relationship. Despite the fact that the association may become forgotten, the connection prevails on the unconscious mind. The insights that Freud made emphasizes on the significance of the unconscious motives that influence purchases. He also emphasized on the use of symbolism and association in the advertising industry. The aim of the application was to make sure that there is a constant demand for products by the consumers (Freud et al. 2004, p. 67). An advertisement becomes successful if it can give the meaning by associating the symbol to the desires of people and the commodity being advertised. On the initial case, the advertisement can look as if it represents two objects with the same meaning nevertheless it is in the advertisement that the meaning occurs. An already existing language can get applied by the advertisement or sign system. By availing the association that can be present in the signifier and also the signified, the advert can establish a relationship to the product and the consumer. The relationship existing between both the advertiser and the consumer enables the advertisement to make an association between the consumer and the product (Freud 2003, p.68). The advertisements get charged with the responsibility of translating the meaning by making the use of the sign system that is not familiar to many. They do not formulate a meaning as anticipated by many. Thus, significance is among the systems that can get used in the creation of new systems of significance. The marketing research uses advertisements to give detailed meaning to the thoughts of the people concerning a product. Motivational research of the 1950s used the ideas of Freud so as to understand the meaning behind the advertisement of services and products. Psychoanalytic interpretations got applied towards the approach of the research and major significance directed to the unconscious motives (Freud & Phillips 2006, p. 55). The research was dependent upon interviews and also the investigation that got conducted on the behavior of consumers. The aim was to establish the motives behind the purchase of an individual. The resultant information from the research became used in developing marketing communications that appealed to the subconscious desires of an individual. It made the provision of an influential clasp would take part in further generation of consumer’s behavior. The Freud’s ideas made the advertisers realize that for them to persuade consumers; they were supposed to tap into people’s unconscious minds. The proposition was that the consumers may fail to verbalize necessarily what their exact motivation was when they were choosing that particular product (Freud et al. 2004, p. 68). Alfred Adler, a psychoanalyst proposed that many people’s actions get provoked by their desire to conquer the inadequacy feelings relative to other individuals. He gave an example that in a consumer society, an individual can channel his or her desires that are unacceptable into acceptable outlets with the use of products that signify these underlying inferiority desires. People as consumers, therefore, buy to gratify their desire but not their need. According to Jacques Lacan, people continue buying because their desires can never get satisfied. The consumer objects have their best explanation from their capability of exciting desires and consequently, the commodities become a mode of defining people (Freud & Freud 2005, p. 23). Almost all psychoanalytic applications in the marketing field have a close link to commodities’ sexuality. The best widespread urge is for an individual to feel sexually attractive, the aspect, therefore, concludes that relating a product with sex is the best way of selling that product. Robert Goldman gave an example using a L’Oreal ad for lipstick. The advertisement displayed female lips against a predominated white setting. The eyes got displayed as shielded for mystery while her facial skin was flawlessly smooth while the full red lips were slightly parted. An admiring man was in front of the mounted icon while his back turned to the viewer. The ad supported a famous women’s ideological version defined by the stare of male (Edmundson 2007, p.25). The advertisement hence suggested that the men power and the power of women over men be through the appearances. In such an instance, the woman commands the male’s interest as glamour’s epitome. It occurs as a result of a woman making herself an entity of desire. Such advertisements do encourage the women to beautify themselves with possessions as well as identifying themselves as objectified surfaces. The body parts get abstracted from an individual such that each part carries its particular sexual persona. John Berger also made reference on how the women’s behavior in the works of art usually gets an arrangement such that women emerge as the display objects for the admiration and exploitation of the spectator owner (Freud & Eder 2005, p.48). Feminism went ahead and made use of the psychoanalysis so as to understand why certain representations and images of women do circulate in the western culture. It also explained how such types of representations have a relationship with the society’s patriarchal structure as well the people’s sense of society’s gendered identity. Goldman gave examples of television advertisements presenting women competing with men, playing as well as winning men’s games while they re-a affirmed their female character traits of looking beautiful. These types of advertisements represented fabulous new women who are secure, sublimely self-confident, effortlessly beautiful as well as poised. The ladies are independent as well as successful. She is also feminine and romantic while at the same time liberated. The lady also possessed the aspect of modernity while at the same time traditional (Freud & Phillips 2006, p. 56). The advertisements that utilized such role reversal techniques took a responsibility of informing the society about the newly acquired equity in the social, economic system. Women had a regular representation as being in charge of their lives and relationships with the use of their commoditized expression feminine. Power, desire and envy are in the advertisement’s message as well as the appearances’ prevalence. Association and symbolism play a role of giving the impression that femininity has its definition on the basis of commodity expenditure. The psychoanalysis has helped in understanding the manner in which the consumer society operates. It was also evident that in the societies where modern circumstances of production triumph, all people have their presentation as spectacles’ enormous accrual (Freud 2003, p.69). The spectacle did not represent a collection of images, but rather it represented social relation among the individuals mediated by the images. Spectacle is something extremely unattainable, undeniable and also optimistic. It also demands a passive acceptance. The spectacle also had a role of imposing and preserving the ideological characteristics of idealism and materialism. The spectacle has a definition as a permanent conflict that endeavors to make individuals classify pleasure with survival. As a result, a commodity seems like something that is so obvious and trivial at first glance. Contrary to this aspect, the commodity is full of meta-physical subtleties and very complex (Freud et al. 2004, p. 69). The relation to this commodity is not only visible, but it is also the only thing seen by the consumers. The consumer hence becomes a deluded consumer the commodity is the real illusion of the factuality and the spectacle is the commodity’s general manifestation. The modern society’s most cultures are mostly blue collar while the societies are of conspicuous consumption. However, the subcultures like skinheads and punks reject specific types of consumption. The subculture usually discloses its secretive individuality and communicates the prohibited meanings through style (Freud & Freud 2005, p. 24). Man Ray had a successful career in the art industry. He involved himself in painting, poetry, sculpture and films. In his work he got influenced by Futurism, Surrealism, Cubism and dada. He also involved himself in fine and commercial art. He later became a photographer in the fashion industry. Man Ray disregarded the traditional painting and took photography as his career. He got encouragement from Dada and Surrealism movements. Surrealism was a movement founded in Paris. It comprised of artist and writers who had the idea of channeling the unconscious as a way to realize the power involved in imagination (Baldwin 2000, p.34). Conclusion Psychoanalysis is an item that has its use in the business and political fields. The business people use the theory to make people buy their products while politicians make use of the theory to lure people in believing their ideas. Advertisements have recorded success in luring people towards the consumption of products and constant demand has been established by the companies. Therefore, the success of advertising is solely due to the use of Psychoanalysis theory. References List Baldwin, N. (2000). Man Ray: American artist. Cambridge, Mass, Da Capo. Pp.34 Edmundson, M. (2007). The death of Sigmund Freud: facism, psychoanalysis and the rise of fundamentalism. New York, Bloomsbury pp.23-25 Freud, S. (2003). The psychopathology of everyday life. New York, Penguin Books pp. 67-69 Freud, S., & Eder, M. D. (2005). Dream psychology: psychoanalysis for beginners. New York, Mondial.pp.46-48 Freud, S., & Freud, A. (2005). The essentials of psycho-analysis. London, Vintage.pp.23-24 Freud, S., & Phillips, A. (2006). The Penguin Freud reader. London, Penguin pp. 54-56 Freud, S., Fodor, N., & Gaynor, F. (2004). Freud: dictionary of psychoanalysis. New York, Barnes & Noble. pp. 67-69 Knowles, K. (2009). A cinematic artist: the films of Man Ray. Oxford, Peter Lang. Lecotais, E. D., Ray, M., & Heiting, M. (2008). Man Ray: 1890-1976. Köln, Taschen. Töller, M. (2008). Man Ray - Ein Künstlerleben zwischen Surrealismus und Dadaismus. München, GRIN Verlag GmbH. Read More