Neo-Freudian Theory

Anxiety

In Freudian theory, this is defined as a set of familiar, unpleasant, physiological events that may or may not include a cognitive explanation

Anxiety

According to Freud, this is experienced when you do not know what you are worried about

Fear

According to Freud, this is experienced when you do know what you are worried about

Danger

Psychoanalytically, serious this is the inappropriate expression of drives

Strangulated Affect

Sexual and aggressive urges arise and then those drives get repressed; in repressing our drives, we create a quantity of energy that's under pressure which our body seeks to release; release results in physiological events associated with anxiety

Repression

Freud said that anxiety must be the cause of this rather than its consequence

Warning Bell

Freud said anxiety acts as this, telling us our drives are starting to bubble up to the surface

Realistic Anxiety

Fear of something in the external world; experienced when there's some object or event in the world of which we are afraid

Moral Anxiety

Fear of being punished by the superego; experienced when the superego starts to become critical and moralizing

Neurotic Anxiety

Fear without a consciously recognized source; caused by strong drives from the id

Defense Mechanisms

Describe the ego's activities in the regulation of the psyche and arise from the unconscious

Defense Mechanisms

Their function is to allow us to partially satisfy our drives while still acting in culturally appropriate ways

Ego

The task of this is to delay gratification of drives but sometimes the push of drives becomes too much

Repression

Push down one's psychic investment in some object; exclude libidinal desires from consciousness

Denial

Shut threatening material out of consciousness; don't acknowledge existence of things we don't want to see

Screen Memories

False memories that replace the horrible, traumatic memory since recollection of the trauma would be too much for the psyche to handle

Projection

Take our unwanted desires and project them onto others; see own libidinal desires in world around you; express drive energy without guilt; ward off "unacceptable" aspects of yourself

Reaction Formation

Unacceptable urges are replaced by opposites; ego identifies with the opposite of libidinal impulses; overcompensation to reduce anxiety

Isolation

Repression of affect associated with threat, but the idea of the threatening experience remains conscious; have unwanted thoughts but no emotional ability to act on those thoughts; can't identify with feelings of repressed material

Obsessions

Example of isolation defense mechanism

Undoing

Alleviate the ego from obsessive thoughts; remove forbidden thoughts from consciousness

Compulsions

Example of undoing defense mechanism

Displacement

Threatening drives are too dangerous to enact on their intended target so we express the urge toward an easier target

Phobia

Person comes to associate trauma with a particular object and the negative emotions from trauma are displaced onto the phobic object

Kick the Dog Phenomenon

metaphor used to describe how a relatively high-ranking person in an organization or family displaces their frustrations by abusing a lower-ranking person, who may in turn take it out on their own subordinate; describes displacement

Sublimation

We redirect drive energy into something greater; drive energy is no longer sexual or aggressive; drives get rechanneled into positive and adaptive outlets

Ego

This continually strives to heal itself through assimilation and integration using self-awareness

Alignment

Task for the psychoanalytic therapist is to aid the ego in its synthetic function through this

Synthesis

Although the ego has a natural orientation toward this, no one ever achieves it since the id is always bigger than the ego

Transference

Client transfers old ways of being onto new relationships; brings conflicts from past into present in an emotion-laden way; can lead to insight if it's utilized in a constructive way

Repetition Compulsion

Describes a fixation on old conflicts; represents an attempt to work through past traumas in new relationships; function is to master the unresolved feelings that surround the original trauma

Re-Experiencing

Work with past in present moment; therapist makes experience salient for client and encourages client to express it; client is encouraged to give full expression to experiences

Area of Safety

Clients need to feel safe to feel free to talk about whatever they want in therapy; therapists must receive transference without defensiveness

Neutrality

Psychoanalyst is present but are non-evaluative and non-judgemental; client can feel free to give full expression to his or her psychological experience

Either/Or Thinking

Many contradictory truths can exist in the client; the therapist must allow both sides of the client's contradiction to be expressed; things can be right and wrong at the same time

Analysis

Therapist does not buy into normal chitchat of client's everyday life but takes stock of what the client is expressing to uncover the source of trauma

Winnicott's Object Relation Theory

Focused on the early mother-child relationship; saw maladaptive patterns emerging very early during infancy; guiding theoretical question was how does the self develop to get its needs satisfied by others

Non-Integrated State

According to Winnicott, an infant begins life in a state of chaos; involves a shifting set of drives and needs

Individual

At birth, an individual is not this; infant has an inherent tendency towards growth and development; inherent tendency toward assimilation, accommodation, and integration

Primary Maternal Preoccupation

Allows mother to be attuned to the needs and psychological integration of infant; during 3rd trimester, mother naturally begins to withdraw her cathexis from herself to her child; mother intuitively knows that the child needs

Holding Environment

It is the primary caretaker's responsibility to hold together the infant's psyche ad create a place where the child can feel calm, secure, and integrated

Empathic Anticipation

A good mother anticipates and responds to the needs of the child; infant comes to develop a sense of safety and power; when the child's needs are satisfied, they can develop an experience of subjective omnipotence and grandiosity

Mirroring

Task for primary caretaker to love infant; occurs through responsiveness and empathy, allowing the child to develop a sense of self-esteem

Non-Responsiveness

Caretaker insensitivity where mother didn't respond to the need of the child

Intrusion

Caretaker insensitivity where mother attempts to satisfy the child when the child simply does not have any needs that are pressing for satisfaction

Impingement

Caretaker insensitivity that involves the mother satisfying the wrong need of the child

Caretaker Insensitivity

Child loses touch with its own needs and forgets and falls out of contact with them; child begins to serve the narcissistic needs of mother and can develop a false sense of self

True Self

When a child's environment is sensitive and responsive, the child comes to recognize and know its own psychological needs and takes initiative, develops awareness, and develops sensitivity towards the needs of others

False Self

Occurs when the infant has an insensitive mother and is not allowed to satisfy its own needs; child begins to be more in tune with the narcissistic needs of the mother and attempts to satisfy those needs which ultimately lies at the root of psychopathology

Vitality

Person with a false self disorder has a distinct lack of psychological energy

Alone

People with a false self disorder have a distinct inability and unwillingness to be this; can't deal with psychological threat

Good-Enough Parenting

At times the mother is absent and child's grandiose desires go unfulfilled; in the moment, the child suffers a brief traumatic period but then develops objective reality; realization that they may have to forgo need satisfaction at some points in their life; learn how to self-soothe

Winnicott's Therapy

Function is to pick up where development was stalled and reawaken the true self; would create a responsive environment that was spontaneous and empathetic

Play

Winnicott used this since it is the emotional language of children; it's how children experience their needs and express their needs; medium in which children's needs can be satisfied

Kohut

Believed that drives exist but also believed very strongly that the development of the self occurs, and is a natural, healthy, necessary part of movement toward full functioning

Miss F

Constantly made complaints about and demands of Kohut; Kohut understood her behavior as transference and trying to get her needs satisfied

Transference

Represents the client's attempt to get unmet needs satisfied by the therapist

Self

Kohut's starting point for discovering human needs and how to satisfy those needs; spontaneous natural center of being it takes initiative, is growth-oriented, and reaches out into the world toward others to get its needs satisfied

Mirroring Need

Infant has a need for the mother to prize and to take interest in the child; to the extent this is satisfied, the child develops a firm sense of self esteem or a narcissistic view of oneself

Idealizing Need

Child needs a caregiver who the child can see as having special power; child is able to internalize the ideals and values of parent which promotes inspiration in the child

Twinship Need

Each of us has a basic need to belong; we need to feel that others care about us; also important that we care about those around us; deep sense of belongingness and interpersonal connection

Needs

These must be satisfied by parents for healthy development to occur; Kohut recognized importance of these in transferences

Transmuting Internalization

Children can internalize what their parents do to satisfy needs, and then they can do those same actions when their parents are not available

Kohut's Therapy

Sought to help patients implement ways to satisfy own needs; empathic concern; therapist just listens with no interpretation; patient comes to feel like a good person

Empathy

This plays a central role in Kohut's self-psychology

Empathy

This is not an attempt to satisfy the other's needs, but rather to understand how it feels to have had needs frustrated in the past