Psychoanalytic Therapy

Sigmund Freud

The founder of psychoanalytic therapy

Libido

Source of motivation that encompases sexual energy; energy of all life instincts

Life Instincts

Serve the purpose of the survival of the individual

Death Instincts

The aggressive drive; people manifest their behaviour an unconscious wish to die or to hurt themselves or others

Id

All the untamed drives or impulses that might be linked to a biological competent. Primary source of psychic energy. Lacks organization, blind, demanding, and insistent

Ego

Attempts to organize and mediate between the id and the reality of dangers posed by the id's impulses. Governs, control, and regulates the personality

Superego

Internalized social component, largely rooted in what the person imagines to be the expectations of parental figures. Includes moral code

Pleasure Principle

Aimed at reducing tension, avoiding pain and gaining pleasure

Reality Principle

The ego does realistic and logical thinking and formulates plans of action for satisfying needs

Unconscious

Stores all experiences, memories, and repressed material

Anxiety

feeling of dread that results from repressed feelings, memories, desires, and experiences that emerge to the surface of awareness

Reality Anxiety

Fear of danger from the external world

Neurotic Anxiety

Fear that the instincts will get out of hand and cause the person to do something for which they will be punished

Moral Anxiety

Fear of one's conscience

Ego-Defense Mechanisms

Help individual cope with anxiety and prevent ego from being overwhelmed

Repression

Threatening or painful thoughts and feelings are excluded from awarness

Denial

Closing ones eyes to the existence of threatening aspect of reality

Reaction formation

actively expressing the opposite impulse when confronted with a threatening impulse

Projection

Attributing to other's one's own unacceptable desires and impulses

Displacement

Directing energy toward another object or person when the original object or person is inaccessible

Rationalization

Manufacturing good reasons to explain away a bruised ego

Sublimation

Diverting sexual or aggressive energy into other channels

Regression

Going back to an earlier phase of development when there were fewer demands

Introjection

Taking in and swallowing the values and standards of others

Identification

Identifying with successful causes, organizations, or people in the hope that you will be perceived as worthwhile

Compensation

Making perceived weaknesses or developing certain positive traits to make up for limitations

Psychosexual stages

The Freudian chronological phases of development, beginning of infancy

Oral Stage

First year of life. Inability to trust oneself with others. Resulting in the fear of loving and forming close relationships and low self-esteem

Anal Stage

1-3 Inability to recognize and express anger, leading to the denial of one's own power as a person and the lack of sense of autonomy

Phallic Stage

3-6 Inability to fully accept one's sexuality and sexual feelings

Latency Stage

6-12 Sexual interests in school, playmate, sports, etc. A time of socialization

Genital Stage

12-18 Begins with puberty and lasts

Psychosocial stages

Erikson's basic psychological and social tasks which individuals need to master at intervals from infancy through old age

Infancy

Trust vs. Mistrust

Early childhood

Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

Preschool age

Initiative vs guilt

School age

Industry vs inferiority

Adolescence

Identity vs role confusion

Young adulthood

Intimacy vs isolation

Middle age

Generativity vs stagnation

Later life

Integrity vs despair

Crisis

a turning point in life when we have the potential to move forward or to regress

Classical psychoanalysis

Grounded in Id psychology and it holds that instincts and intrapsychic conflicts are the basic factors shaping personality development

Contemporary psychoanalysis

Based on ego psychology which emphasizes the striving of the ego for mastery and competence throughout human life span

Two goals of Freudian psychoanalytic therapy

To make the unconscious conscious and to strengthen the ego

Blank-screen approach

Analysts typically assume an anonymous non-judgmental stance. Avoiding self-disclosure and maintain a sense of foster

Transference

Clients make projections onto the analyst. The transfer of feelings originally experienced in an early relationship to other important people in a person's present environment

Free association

Saying whatever comes to mind without self-censorship

Psychodynamic therapy

A way of shortening and simplifying the lengthy process of classical psychoanalysis

Working-through

repetitive and elaborate explorations of unconscious material and defenses, originating from early childhood

Countertransference

Occurs when there is inappropriate affect, when therapists respond in irrational ways or when they lose their objectivity in a relationship because their own conflicts are triggered

Six basic techniques of psychcoanalytic therapy

1. Maintaining the analytic framework,

Interpretations

Analyst's pointing out, explaining and even teaching the client the meanings of behaviour that is manifested in dreams, free association, resistances, defenses and the therapeutic relationship itself

Dream analysis

An important procedure for uncovering unconscious material and giving the client insight into some areas of unresolved problems

Latent content

Hidden, symbolic and unconscious motive, wishes and fears

Manifest content

The dream as it appears to the dreamer

Dream work

The process by which the latent content of a dream is transformed into the less threatening manifest content

Resistance

Anything that works against the progress of therapy and prevents the client from producing previously unconscious material

Jung's analytical psychology

An elaborate explanation of human nature that combines ideas from history, mythology, anthropology, and religion

Individuation

The harmonious integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of personality

Shadow

We both have constructive and destructive forces and to become integrated, it is essential to accept our dark side with primitive impulses such as selfishness and greed

Collective unconcious

The deepest and least accessible level of the psyche which contains the accumulation of inherited experiences of human and prehuman species

Archetypes

The images of universal experiences contained in the collective unconscious

Persona

A mask or public face that we wear to protect ourselves

Animus and Anima

Both biological and psychological aspects of masculinity and femininity that coexist in both sexes

Ego Psychology

part of classical psychoanalysis with emphasis placed on the vocabulary of id, ego, and superego

Object-relations theory

How our relationships with other people are affected by the way we have internalized our experiences of others and set up representations of others within ourselves

Self-Psychology

How we use interpersonal relationships to develop our own sense of self

Relational model

based on the assumption that therapy is an interactive process between client and therapist

Margaret Mahler's influence and focus

Contemporary object-relations theory. Focused on the interactions between child and mother in the first three years of life

Normal Infantile Autism

The first three weeks of life. Infant is presumed to be responding more to states of physiological tension than to psychological processes

Symbiosis

3rd and 8th months. Infant has pronounced dependency on the mother

Separation-individuation

4th and 5th month. Child experiences separation from signaficant other yet still turns to them for a sense of conformation and comfort

Narcissistic personality

Grandiose and exaggerated sense of self-importance and an explosive attitude toward others; mask a frail self-concept

Borderline personality disorder

Instability, irritability, self-destructive, implusive anger, extreame mood shifts

Brief psychodynamic therapy (BPT)

Applies the principles of psychodynamic theory and therapy to treating selective disorders within a pre established time limit of 10 to 25 sessions