Lesson 11: Psychoanalysis

Lesson 11: Psychoanalysis - chatgpt: • Freud’s structure of personality • Psychosexual stages • Defense mechanisms, Neo-Freudians • Influence on modern day therapy

What are the three components of Freud’s structure of personality?

• Id: Operates on the pleasure principle. Seeks immediate gratification of instinctual drives. Unconscious and irrational.

• Ego: Operates on the reality principle. Mediates between the id and the external world. Mostly conscious.

• Superego: Internalized societal and parental standards. Represents morality and ideals. Includes the conscience and ego ideal.

How does the ego manage conflicts between the id and the superego?

Through defense mechanisms, which protect the individual from anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

What are Freud’s five psychosexual stages and their focus?

• Oral (0–1.5 yrs): Focus on oral activities (sucking, biting); fixation may cause oral dependency or aggression.

• Anal (1.5–3 yrs): Focus on bowel/bladder control; fixation may lead to obsessiveness or messiness.

• Phallic (3–6 yrs): Focus on genitals; Oedipus/Electra complex develops.

• Latency (6–12 yrs): Sexual feelings are dormant; focus on same-sex friendships and skill development.

• Genital (12+ yrs): Sexual impulses reawaken; maturity and heterosexual relationships develop.

What is the Oedipus complex and how is it resolved?

In the phallic stage, boys experience unconscious sexual desires for their mother and jealousy toward their father. Resolution occurs via identification with the father, internalizing his values (superego formation).

What are key defense mechanisms identified by Freud?

• Repression: Pushing distressing memories into the unconscious.

• Denial: Refusing to accept reality.

• Projection: Attributing one’s unacceptable thoughts to others.

• Displacement: Redirecting feelings to a safer target.

• Regression: Reverting to behaviors of an earlier stage.

• Sublimation: Channeling impulses into socially acceptable behavior.

How did Anna Freud expand on defense mechanisms?

She elaborated on them in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, detailing how these mechanisms protect the ego in children and adults. She also applied psychoanalysis to children.

Who was Anna Freud and what was her contribution to psychoanalysis?

Freud’s daughter and a key figure in ego psychology. She extended psychoanalysis to children, emphasized the ego’s role in defense mechanisms, and focused on how the ego develops.

What were Carl Jung’s major contributions and key disagreements with Freud?

• Rejected Freud’s focus on sexuality.

• Developed Analytical Psychology.

• Proposed the collective unconscious: shared, inherited reservoir of archetypes.

• Emphasized individuation (integration of all aspects of the self).

• Introduced concepts like introversion vs. extraversion.

What was Alfred Adler’s perspective on personality?

• Founded Individual Psychology.

• Emphasized social interest and striving for superiority.

• Focused on the inferiority complex and how childhood experiences shape lifestyle.

• Believed in free will and a creative self that shapes behavior.

What did Karen Horney contribute to psychoanalytic theory?

• Criticized Freud’s male-centric views (e.g., penis envy).

• Proposed womb envy and viewed neuroses as stemming from basic anxiety caused by poor parenting.

• Emphasized the importance of interpersonal relationships and cultural influences.

What was the significance of the Anna O. case in psychoanalysis?

• Treated by Breuer (and later referenced by Freud).

• Introduced catharsis: bringing unconscious material to consciousness to release emotional tension.

• Laid foundation for talk therapy.

What does the “dynamic unconscious” refer to in Freud’s theory?

• The unconscious is not just passive but active, influencing conscious thought and behavior.

• Drives, urges, and repressed material can shape actions and mental health.

• Forms the basis for psychoanalytic therapy.

How did Freud’s ideas influence modern psychological therapy?

• Introduced talk therapy, free association, dream analysis.

• Inspired future therapeutic models like psychodynamic therapy.

• Focused on childhood experiences, unconscious processes, and defense mechanisms—core ideas that still influence therapeutic practices.

What were some philosophical and scientific influences on Freud’s theories?

• Plato: Conflict between rational and irrational parts of the soul.

• Religion: Struggle between morality and base urges.

• Psychophysics: Consciousness and thresholds (e.g., limen).

• Rationalism: Belief in unconscious mental processes.

• Concepts like apperceptive mass and thresholds laid groundwork for Freud’s conscious/unconscious model.