Wilson Key primarily based his explanatory theory of subliminal responsiveness - or rather lack of responsiveness - to subliminal stimuli on Freudian notions of the unconscious and defence mechanisms. In particular he focussed on the defence mechanism of repression. However, as Key notes, theories are not the Holy Grail, they are only explanatory mechanisms, neither true nor false, only useful or useless. In Key's case they were a useful means of accounting for why people did not recognise what he called subliminal advertising, elements of advertising that are more appropriately called semi-subliminal advertising ( Click here for access to a classification table providing more precise details of different types of manipulative ads, including semi-subliminal ads). Theories
of the unconscious generally suggest that unconscious processes dominate
Freud's notion of a 'dynamic unconscious' is frightening to many individuals. It seems to indicate that what we do not know about ourselves is 'kept from consciousness' by some force that is beyond our control - and that we do not really know ourselves. This again oversteps the mark. Whilst we may not be able to recall or remember events or experiencies, and such experiences may still have motivating force (energy), they do not have a 'life of their own'. They are just as much part of us as those events and experiences that we can recall. The only difference, and it can be a crucial difference, is that they may influence us without our being aware of it. But we are aware of the ultimate decisions that we make, even if only in retrospect and with biases that we may not be consciously aware of. Freud postulated that man had primitive fantasies. Jung called them archetypes. Both of these distinguished figures claimed that these processes derive from the functioning of the older portions (in evolutionary terms) of the brain. As such, despite the activities of higher processes such as thinking, they are claimed to exert a powerful force on modern man and are deemed to be the basis for universal symbols. Symbols, of course, have meaning but, according to Freud and Jung, the deeper meanings associated with symbols are beyond conscious appraisal. Nevertheless, Key makes the point that advertising often relies upon symbols to convey messages that would be too cumbersome or otherwise problematical by any other means. Again one need not rely on theories that are untestable or extremely difficult to test in support of such propositions. More carefully researched theories indicate that we do learn complex sets of ideas, that cultures make assiduous use of symbols, and that symbols do often draw out responses from their audience. However, one need not rely upon notions such as the 'collective unconscious' ( a sharing of common evolutionary experience) to explain such outcomes. Social learning and individual experiences within specific and universal cultures explain these quite adequately. Freud quite cheerful attibuted meaning to specific actions and objects in his attempts to explain the behaviour of his patients (and develop acceptable theories). For example, Key notes that 'blindness is symbolic of castration'. Well it might be, but if so one would have to learn that fact. And, of course, society used to teach that masturbation led to blindness - or worse. In today's enlightened, perhaps even liberal, world masturbation is simply a practice widely indulged in during certain stages of sexual development (and according to the hero of a book by best-selling novelist, John Grisham, at any stage of life). Other objects can acquire their symbolic meaning by association with important events, emotional experiences, or classical and operant conditioning. The normal psychological processes of classification and categorisation and the development of sets of associated ideas again can quite adequately account for symbolic meanings. There is no need to make attributions to unconscious forces, although once acquired such meanings may have motivational force that cannot always be rationally accounted for. The
process of repression was deemed to be an automatic response by unconscious
forces to prevent information intruding into conscious awareness.
This contrasts with Key reported that the failure of viewers to recognise words such as 'sex', 'fuck', etc in adverts indicated that the viewers were repressing this information. On page 5 of Subliminal Seduction he claims that sex embedded on the cover of Time magazine was clearly visible to all readers. And that it was only repression that prevented them recognising the word. This now seems very unlikely except in a small proportion of cases. As research into perceptual processes indicate, it is only too easy to overlook that which is not expected. Additionally, we are not 'tuned in' to looking for information that is incongruous, camouflaged. We effectively only see that with which we are familiar. And semi-subliminal material is not something the average person is familiar with. They might be concerned about being exposed to it. But only obsessional individuals or academics might pay sufficient attention to semi-subliminal material to be able to identify it. The
process of priming ie notifying individuals what to expect, also plays
a role in helping people perceive that which they did not/could not
previously perceive. There is no need to postulate the operation of
repressive forces in such circumstances for the vast majority of individuals.
In the To sum up, Keys use of the concept of repression is flawed. It helped him explain why others could not readily perceive what he himself perceived. However, more straightforward mechanisms, supported by empirical research or capable of being examined in such research, indicate that focussing upon the limits of perception, learning and experience can do the same explanatory job. Freudian theory has seemingly had its day in this respect. They still provide a means of focussing upon early traumatic experiences, but other theories can also account for the same phenomenon. Only in a few areas can Freudian theories still fulfil a function that other theories cannot. However, this should not lead to throwing out the 'baby with the bathwater'. As the December, 2000 issue of The Psychologist - the magazine of the British Psychology Society - indicates, there is still considerable life left in Freud's theories. Despite the misleading theoretical base and the problematical terminology used by Key, he nevertheless identified a type of advertising that has a long history, perhaps considerably longer than he acknowledged. Key's focus on Freud, dated as it now is outwith the clinical context, helped bring the subject of 'subliminal' advertising to the awareness of the general population. He should be thanked for that. Semi-subliminal advertising is unethical, it seemingly influences sufficient individuals to justify continued commercial use by major US tobacco companies and other companies, and it is seemingly being used more widely (see for example the Coke and Budweiser packaging noted in Ads of the Month and elsewhere). A number of the books listed in the relevant portion of the bibliography provide much more detailed accounts of Freudian theory (a summary of some key elements is provided below), the unconscious, defence mechanisms and repression in particular. Other textbooks in the Psychology section cover standard psychological and social psychological theories that might be of interest to viewers. |
Alastair McIntosh, formerly at the Centre for Human Ecology of the University of Edinburgh, is an analyst who has taken an in-depth look at a large number of Silk Cut ads. He drew conclusions that are remarkably similar to those of the present author. McIntosh used the Freudian notion of Thanatos, the death instinct, as the basis for his explanatory framework. His work thus led to his questioning the use of imagery closely related to death and sexual violation as means of motivating cigarette smokers. The
pioneers of advertising made extensive use of Freudian notions associated
with motivational factors such as sexuality, love, fear and guilt.
|McIntosh contended that Gallahers and M & C Saatchi, intuitively
or intentionally, capitalise upon the same
Negative
emotions and related memories can thus provide the foundation on which
the In one sense, all of us have the capacity to 'punish ourselves' as each of us has had some negative experiences in life. For example, each of us has been 'ticked off' or told that we were 'naughty', or masturbated (see previous section) and suffered guilt, we possibly were also taught that it is appropriate to be physically punished for such transgressions. We also generally learn that what is 'bad' deserves to be punished. We have thus internalised, as part of ourselves, a set of knowledge that 'conflicts' with other aspects of our self understanding, those aspects of our 'self' we see as desirable. And a wider set of rules of behaviour have also been learned. On
the basis of the negative and punitive aspects of such learning it
is not too big a step to envisage the impact of the
covert messages implied by the visual elements in many Silk Cut ads.
One finds sets of bagpipes running through a field of bear traps,
tombs, instruments of various kinds penetrating silk cloth, sharp
instruments on the verge of penetration. There are also The combination of aggressive and sensual elements in the same ad has major implications for an appreciation of Silk Cut and other ads carrying such covert messages. Social psychological experiments and analyses of responses to different types of movies demonstrate that combining sensuality and aggressive elements in the same situation leads to an increase in arousal level. Additionally, movies that are both erotic and aggressive result in notably higher levels of expressed aggression than either films that are only erotic or aggressive. The combination of sensual and aggressive elements in Silk Cut ad, whatever other merits they might possess from the point of view of tobacco companies, seem to have been calculated to induce aggression. This aggression can be either against the self or against others. Some aspects of smoking, for some smokers, is itself a form of self punitive aggression. And the polluting of the atmosphere when others are present is also likely to be, in some instances, a form of passive aggression. If aggressive
Irrational Behaviour? As noted, McIntosh's basic thesis is based to a large extent upon a dated and in many respects redundant theory of human behaviour. The notion of Thanatos can seemingly be discounted. However, theories are only used to help organise and explain existing sets of information. Even if this aspect of Freud's theory is no longer the most appropriate for explaining the impact of advertising material it still offers food for thought. Certain aspects of human behaviour cannot readily be explained in ways that are intuitively obvious. For example, tobacco companies now acknowledge that smoking carries high risks to health. To smoke is clearly not in ones rational interests. Yet many individuals indulge in this habit. Their behaviour cannot simply be explained in terms of rational risk appraisal but may possibly be explained on the basis of other aspects of Freudian theory. Wilson
Keys analysis of subliminal advertising led him to focus on the defence
mechanism of repression as the mechanism that led people to overlook
'subliminal' Repression Wilson Key relied strongly upon Freud's notion of repression to explain why individuals rarely acknowledged what he called the subliminal aspects of adverts. In some cases he was probably correct but it now seems that the brain does not process embedded and camouflaged aspects of ads or other images in sufficient depth to lead to conscious awareness.
Even although one can reasonably state that an individual was repressing knowledge of an embarrassing incident, it would be difficult to prove that repression was taking place. Repression is, by definition, deemed to be an automatic process - but alternative explanations are possible. Lack of acknowledgement of the source of embarrassment could simply be due to the fact that the individuals concerned were just too embarrassed to mention what they had perceived. The author
has, on more than one occasion, been challenged by members of his
audience who seemed unduly defensive. Their confrontation was ostensibly
on rational grounds, yet it could be inferred that they simply were
not acknowledging what was clearly worrying them. Jack Haberstroh,
author of Ice Cube Sex, seems to belong to this group of individuals.
The members of the audience vociferously deny the existence of subliminal
(actually semi-subliminal) phenomenon and yet their behaviour and
manner of presenting arguments would seem to indicate the opposite.
See his book Ice Cube Sex and the discussion
on the Classic Key In addition to the concept of repression, Freud postulated a variety of unconscious processes. He also acknowledged that some information may be processed superficially and some in greater depth. This has its parallels in current theories of cognition that emphasise depth of information processing. Superficial processing may make a slight impression on memory but the information involved would not come to conscious awareness. This is seemingly the type of processing that semi-subliminal embedded material might be subjected to. More deeply processed information would have the potential for conscious awareness and be remembered more effectively. Yet, with the exception of theories related to suicide and extrapolation from developmental theories, no current psychological theory offers the slightest insight into why certain individuals 'self-destruct' the essence of Thanatos. Personal and Social Responsibility McIntosh considered that at some level, people just wish to give up on life when psychological or spiritual needs cannot be met. Nicotine, as with other drugs, is deemed to offer an alternative and a relatively pleasurable fix. From this perspective Silk Cut ads can be interpreted as saying 'If you want to give up, if you want to die, if you wish to enter a state of oblivion, then Silk Cut can help you do so'. Such an interpretation of the Silk cut message of 'slow motion suicide' omits consideration of the punitive and aggressive components of the message. The 'suicidal'
message can be extended if one focuses on the learned components underlying
self punitive behaviour, instead of some hypothetical death instinct.
Silk Cut ads capitalise on various
negative learning experiences and promote a variety of messages. 'If
you want to give up. If you want to be aggressive against yourself
or others. If you want to die. If you feel sexually insecure. If you
are worried about your For the average or superficial viewer, Silk Cut ads will be just that, ads for Silk Cut cigarettes. Where the ad has covert elements, with meaning for the viewer, then the ads will be much more. Amongst other outcomes, they will be reminders of Heaven or Hell, cues to smoking behaviour, and the consequences and reminders of health risks best left unacknowledged. The health warnings on cigarette packets are willing accomplices in achieving these goals. Whether such ads are the products of conscious reflection upon human frailties, analyses of psychographic survey data (see the textbooks on Consumer Psychology), the outcome of the psychological characteristics of those responsible for the campaign, or some wider social processes due to society, is worthy of additional research. Whether such ads are a reflection of psychopathology in society, rather than the conscious or unconscious inventions of the individuals who produced the ads, is immaterial with regard to those on the 'receiving end'. However, if the ads are the outcome of cultural factors that produce particular trains of thought, and combinations of images, then the implications of such insights would be considerable. Society, and not just the tobacco companies and their ad agencies, would bear a considerable weight of responsibility. Individual culpability is onlyappropriate if the ads were carefully and callously devised on the basis of in depth psychological appraisal of smokers and potential smokers by Gallahers advertising agency. If some deep rooted social malaise has led to a cynical and destructive 'mind set' then all of us are, in some sense, responsible for maintaining the vicious cycle of aggressive, self destructive, messages and behaviour and there would be a corresponding need to 'break out of this pattern of behaviourt'. |
The extensive set of books illustrated in the margins - only some of the many on the subject - indicate how important Freud's theories are to psychologists, philosophers, and others. More details can be found in the relevant section of the bibliography.
Freud
produced a theory that arose from his struggle to understand the conflict
within the
The
question can be answered from a Freudian perspective in a variety
of ways. 'Because some basic wish for pleasure violates conscious
rules of behaviour.' Or 'Some wishes remain very infantile, 'frozen'
in time, and reflecting early stages of development in their intensity
and perversity.' Or 'Some wishes can reflect divided motivation. They
can be partially Whatever type of answer one would accept, it is clear Freud's classic theory continues to exert a powerful influence. Unfortunately much of what Freud wrote cannot be tested in the laboratory and relies upon evidence obtained in clinical situations. Many psychologists prefer other theoretical formulations to explain behaviour e.g. cognitive theories concerning the organisation of thinking*, behaviourist theories focussing on how behaviour (including thinking) is reinforced by rewards and discouraged by punishment*. These, and other, theories provide alternatives to Freudian explanations but their existence does not mean that Freud's work can be dispensed with. Freud
suspected that much of the material revealed to him under Freud's
theory states that the displacement of emotional responses is actively
motivated by
In other words, one symptom can represent many
different emotional roots. Any of these The
various theoretical interpretations do not lead to 'junking' Freud's
theories nor his evidence, although many individuals put forward a
case for doing so. They can equally be interpreted to indicate that
the roots of Freud's theory is still valid. Formulations as to how
we approach problematical behaviour may differ but underlying many
of these problems is what Freud Freud
reasoned that symptoms were a technique of defence by which
According
to Freud, although conflicts are removed from consciousness, the conflict
continues in the nether regions of the unconscious. In the process,
symptoms are Sexual motives as the basis of conflicts
People are often fascinated by Freud's theory
because it gave revealing insights into apparently paradoxical or
contradictory forms of behaviour e.g. for hysterical and More seriously, Freud noted quite early in his researches that there was a common denominator among many of his patients. Many expressed guilt-laden erotic impulses arising from early childhood experiences. Many others expressed sexual themes in their free associations.
Freud suspected that understanding of these
issues would arise from examining the individual's primary defence
mechanism i.e. the defence mechanism of repression. He The high improbability of universal sexual abuse. The
inability of recognition of the abuse to bring about improvements
in his patient's In psychotic patients, where the unconscious tends to uncritically flood imagination with memories, no infantile seduction was apparent i.e. there was no flooding of the imagination with sexual incidents. In other words, 'Why should psychotic patients not be subject to the same degree of abuse as other patients. The unconscious cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Jeffrey
Masson has seriously challenged Freud's published reasons for dropping
the seduction theory, claiming that it was personal and political
reasons, rather than clinical or theoretical reasons, that led to
abandonment of the initial theory. However, w Much
of Freud's theory was based on his own self analysis and the insights
this gave him into the universal functioning of the unconscious. Freud
had such a burning desire to understand himself and control his own
destiny that 'he faced up' to the task of analysing himself. The central
tenets of psychoanalytic theory arose from his discovery of his own
Although
these facts indicate that Freud had not been exposed to a straightforward
family upbringing, recalling them provided Freud with several important
insights that helped him develop his theories. Freud noted that key
emotions were associated with his memories concerning a fear of losing
both his natural mother and his second 'mother' (his nanny) to a rival,
to vague notions of men 'putting' babies inside women, and a need
to find his own personal understanding of what had been happening.
Freud's
theory is clearly not value free nor free from his own social experiences
and cultural background but they might nevertheless be universally
According
to Freud the Psyche or mind has three different 'levels': the conscious,
the Freud also stated that the unconscious mind is dynamic and contains memories, perceptions, impulses, wishes, desires and conflicts. The conflicts MUST be repressed in order to make life in the real world relatively free from conflicts, stress and pain.
The
Id contains everything inherited. It is the instinctual force of The
Superego represents the internalisation of the demands of society
and important individuals in the life of the individual. The ego ideal,
for example, is the concept of behaviour of which parents and important
others will approve of. The conscience is the conception Both
the Ego and Superego are both outgrowths of the Id, developing as
the child grows and Psychic Energy, Conflict and Anxiety. Freud
believed that the dynamics of personality are rooted in conflict between
the Id, the Ego and the Superego as they interact with reality. These
conflicts involve psychic energy and have to be resolved by the Ego.
Libido is Freud's term for this psychic energy. It is instinct driven
but it can be harnessed, Increases
in libido from internal sources (memories) or external sources (environmental
or situational factors) produce tension and discomfort for the Id.
It is the job of the Ego to reduce this anxiety by some means or another.
As internal anxiety cannot be responded to realistically it Repression, Sublimation, Reaction Formation, Rationalization, Displacement, Projection, Denial, Suppression, Introjection, Compromise, Regression, Identification, Restriction of the ego (withdrawal) and Isolation Reversal (Reaction formation).
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Last Revised: 3rd January, 2003 |