Individual

views updated May 14 2018

INDIVIDUAL

The concept of the individual is not especially Freudian, although analysis assumes that the analysand has a degree of psychic autonomy, individuality, and even identity. The term "individual" (Einzeln ) is found in Freud, notably in Civilization and Its Discontents (1930a [1929]), where it stands in opposition to culture. More broadly, the concept is central to a variety of disciplines, such as ethnology, sociology, political theory, and philosophy.

Cultural historians have described the birth of individual love as an outgrowth of courtly love, the appearance of the individual feeling of finitude and death at the end of the Middle Ages, and the birth of the modern conception of childhood within the family in the eighteenth century (Philippe Ariès). With the Enlightenment and Romanticism, the child became "the father of the man." After 1900, childhood and adolescence became distinct age categories and stages of mental development. Scholars can trace the development of the concept of the individual across the political, social, cultural, and religious landscapes from the Renaissance to the Reformation to the Enlightenment.

While having universal scope, psychoanalysis is nonetheless marked with the imprint of Western culture, in which it was born. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, this culture "vomits up" the individual, in contrast with group societies ("holistic" societies, according to Louis Dumont), which "swallow" the individual.

Ethnopsychoanalysis (Georges Devereux) examines differences in mental development according to culture. The Oedipus complex described by Freud refers to the symbolic figure of the father in Jewish and Christian cultures, and it affords the possibility of triangulation, which leads to individuation and identity construction. Other oedipal modalities are present in matrilineal societies, where the parent is differentiated from the maternal uncle, who represents the paternal functionan arrangement consistent with limited individuality and extended dependence on the social group. The history of European culture is marked by a gradual transition from a holistic society (during the Middle Ages) to a society of individuals, and accompanying this transition was the evolution of identity formation characteristic of modernity.

If a conception of the individual is a precondition for the development of psychiatry, the existence of the self, the subject, is a precondition for the creation of psychoanalysis. When the individual perceives his ego as a double and perceives the uncanny nature of his division, this perspective can be presented as a cure for the suffering that the individual experiences in the face of modernity. In Totem and Taboo (1912-1913a), Freud hypothesized that a "mass psychosis," a collective soul, in his text, "culture" (Kultur ) in the sense of a collective mental formation situated above the individual, to a large extent conditions the individual's mental functioning. Freud elaborated the concepts of the ego ideal and superego, transitional formations located between culture and the individual. He also showed that the repression associated with anality in modern culture has an impact on the modalities of identity formation during adolescence.

During the 1950s Margaret Mahler defined "individuation" as a process of separation to escape the primary union of the mother-child symbiosis. Working with the uncertainties of individuation in infantile psychosis, Mahler described a "symbiotic" stage of child development, prior to the separation and individuation that ends absolute dependence. John Bowlby, using an ethological approach to the mental development of the infant, developed the concepts of attachment and separation. José Bleger, employing the concepts of symbiosis and ambiguity, showed that traces of primitive undifferentiation persist, even among the most evolved individuals, in the form of an "agglutinated nucleus."

Research by Alain de Mijolla (1981) and data from group psychoanalysis and family therapy have shown connections between subjectivity and the Other in culture, in the family, and across generations, that is, connections among the intrasubjective, intersubjective, and intergenerational dimensions of the psyché.

Henri Vermorel

See also: Adolescence; Castration complex; Constitution; I; Identity; Libidinal development; Object; Processes of development; Self-consciousness; Self (true/false); Symbiosis/symbiotic relation.

Bibliography

Ariès, Philippe. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life (Robert Baldick, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1960)

Bleger, José. (1981). Symbiose et ambiguïté:Étude psychanalytique (A. Morvan, Trans.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. (Original work published 1967)

Dumont, Louis. (1986). Essays on individualism: Modern ideology in anthropological perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1983)

Freud, Sigmund. (1912-1913a). Totem and taboo. SE, 13: 1-161.

. (1930a [1929]). Civilization and its discontents. SE, 21: 57-145.

Mijolla, Alain de. (1981). Les Visiteurs du moi: Fantasmes d'identification, confluents psychanalytiques. Paris: Belles Lettres.

Individual

views updated Jun 11 2018

Individual

Phenotype, genotype, plasticity, and evolution

Unusual individuals

An individual, in the sense of evolutionary biology, is a genetically unique organism. An individual has a complement of genetic material, encoded in its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), that is different from other members of its species. At the level of populations and species, this variation among individuals constitutes genetic biodiversity.

Phenotype, genotype, plasticity, and evolution

Morphology, physiology, and behavior are attributes of individual organisms that can be observed. These attributes are known as the phenotype. Two factors that influence the phenotype are: (1) the specific genetic information of the individual (its genotype), and (2) environmental influences on the expression of the individuals genetic potential. The term phenotypic plasticity refers to the variable growth, physiology, and behavior that an individual organism displays, depending on environmental conditions experienced during its lifetime.

Because organisms vary in character (phenotype), they also differ in their abilities to cope with environmental stresses and opportunities. Under certain conditions, an individual with a particular phenotype (and genotype) may be relatively successful, compared with other individuals. In evolutionary biology, the success of an individual is measured by how many offspring it has produced, and whether those progeny go on to reproduce. This is similar to fitness, or the genetic contribution of an individual to all the progeny of its population. A central element of evolutionary theory is that individuals seek to maximize their fitness, and thereby to optimize their genetic influence on future generations.

Biologists believe natural selection is the most important means by which evolution occurs. Natural selection can only proceed if: (a) there is genetically based variation among individuals within a population, and (b) some individuals are better adapted to coping with the prevailing environmental conditions. Better-fit organisms tend to be more successful having offspring, and they have a greater influence on the evolution of subsequent generations. Individuals themselves do not evolve, however, they are capable of phenotypic plasticity.

Unusual individuals

In virtually all species, individuals differ genetically. However, there are a few interesting exceptions to this generalization. Populations of some plants may have no genetic variability because the species propagates by non-sexual (or vegetative) means. In such plants, genetically uniform populations (or clones) may develop. These represent a single genetic individual. For example, extensive clones of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides ) can develop when new trees sprout from underground stems (or rhizomes). Such aspen clones can cover more than 100 acres (40 ha) and consist of tens of thousands of trees. In terms of total biomass, such aspen clones may represent the worlds largest individual organisms. Another case involves the duckweed, Lemna minor, a tiny aquatic plant that grows on water surfaces. Duckweed propagates by growing buds on the edge of a single leaf. These buds grow and break off to produce new plants genetically identical to the parent. These interesting cases of asexual propagation are exceptional because most populations and species contain a great deal of genetic variation amongst their individuals.

Bill Freedman

Individual

views updated Jun 27 2018

Individual

An individual, in the sense of evolutionary biology , is a genetically unique organism . An individual has a complement of genetic material, encoded in its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), that is different from other members of its species . At the level of populations and species, this variation among individuals constitutes genetic biodiversity .


Phenotype, genotype, plasticity, and evolution

Morphology, physiology , and behavior are attributes of individual organisms that can be observed. These attributes are known as the phenotype. Two factors that influence the phenotype are: (1) the specific genetic information of the individual (its genotype), and (2) environmental influences on the expression of the individual's genetic potential. The term phenotypic plasticity refers to the variable growth, physiology, and behavior that an individual organism displays, depending on environmental conditions experienced during its lifetime.

Because organisms vary in character (phenotype), they also differ in their abilities to cope with environmental stresses and opportunities. Under certain conditions, an individual with a particular phenotype (and genotype) may be relatively successful, compared with other individuals. In evolutionary biology, the "success" of an individual is measured by how many offspring it has produced, and whether those progeny go on to reproduce. This is similar to fitness, or the genetic contribution of an individual to all the progeny of its population. A central element of evolutionary theory is that individuals seek to maximize their fitness, and thereby to optimize their genetic influence on future generations.

Biologists believe natural selection is the most important means by which evolution occurs. Natural selection can only proceed if: (a) there is genetically based variation among individuals within a population, and (b) some individuals are better adapted to coping with the prevailing environmental conditions. Better-fit organisms tend to be more successful having offspring, and they have a greater influence on the evolution of subsequent generations. Individuals themselves do not evolve, however, they are capable of phenotypic plasticity.


Unusual individuals

In virtually all species, individuals differ genetically. However, there are a few interesting exceptions to this generalization. Populations of some plants may have no genetic variability because the species propagates by non-sexual (or vegetative) means. In such plants, genetically uniform populations (or clones) may develop. These represent a single genetic "individual." For example, extensive clones of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) can develop when new trees sprout from underground stems (or rhizomes). Such aspen clones can cover more than 100 acres (40 ha) and consist of tens of thousands of trees. In terms of total biomass , such aspen clones may represent the world's largest "individual" organisms. Another case involves the duckweed , Lemna minor, a tiny aquatic plant that grows on water surfaces. Duckweed propagates by growing buds on the edge of a single leaf . These buds grow and break off to produce "new" plants genetically identical to the parent. These interesting cases of asexual propagation are exceptional because most populations and species contain a great deal of genetic variation amongst their individuals.

Bill Freedman

individual

views updated May 21 2018

in·di·vid·u·al / ˌindəˈvijəwəl/ • adj. 1. single; separate: individual tiny flowers.2. of or for a particular person: the individual needs of the children. ∎  designed for use by one person: individual serving dishes. ∎  characteristic of a particular person or thing: individual traits of style. ∎  having a striking or unusual character; original: she creates her own, highly individual, landscapes.• n. a single human being as distinct from a group, class, or family: boat trips for parties and individuals. ∎  a single member of a class: they live in a group or as individuals, depending on the species. ∎  inf. a person of a specified kind: the most selfish, egotistical individual I have ever met. ∎  a distinctive or original person.

individual

views updated May 17 2018

individual †indivisible XV (rare before XVII); existing as a separate entity; pert. to a single person or thing XVII; sb. XVII. — medL. indïviduālis, f. L. indivíduus indivisible, inseparable, f. IN-2 + dīviduus divisible, f. dīvidere DIVIDE; see -AL1.
So individualism XIX, individuality XVII.