7 - Freud's Psychoanalysis and Psychosocial Theory of Development

psychodynamic theories

* patterns in human behaviour can be understood in terms of unconscious drives
* personality must be understood developmentally; that is, people are expressions of their histories/traumas

Non-Freudian Theories

reinterpretations of aspects of Freud’s theories

* Adler’s Individual psychology
* Anna Freud’s Ego Psychology
* Jung’s Analytical psychology
* Klein’s Object Relations Theory
* Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social theory

Post-Freudian theories

independent approach that bring in aspects of psychoanalysis or other psychodynamic approaches

* Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theories
* Fromm’s Humanistic Psychoanalysis
* Erikson’s Developmental Theory

psychoanalysis

theory of personality, approach to psychotherapy, and method of investigation developed by Freud

* goal to breakdown disguises and see what is really motivating us

why doesn’t psychology want to affiliate with Freud

* psychology has become positivistic, studying by application of natural sciences
* freud did not use the scientific method

hysteria

mental disorder marked by conversion of repressed psychical elements into somatic symptoms such as impotency, paralysis, or blindness, when no physiological bases for symptoms exist

* early understanding was wandering womb
* combined catharsis and hypnosis to treat hysteria

catharsis

process of removing or lessening psychological disorders by talking about one’s problems

seduction theory and why he abandoned it

hysteria thought to emerge as result of childhood sexual experiences, particularly abuse

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abandoned because:

* no successful treatment with it
* fathers would be accused of sexual perversion
* believed unconscious mind could not distinguish reality from fiction
* unconscious memories of advanced psychotic patients almost never revealed early childhood sexual experiences

Why does Ellenberger describe Freud’s life after his father’s death as **creative illness**

* depression, neurosis, psychomatic ailments, and an intense preoccupation with creative activity
* obsessed with his own death

Why didn’t Freud like Americans

he though they would trivialize psychoanalysis by trying to make it popular

the unconscious is a ______ not a location

process

unconscious

all mental elements of which a person is unaware

* drives, urges, desires, instincts that motivate us
* we experience them in disguised ways if they pass the primary and final censors
* drive based (sexual and aggressive)
* early childhood behaviours are punished leading to suppression and repression
* active force striving for expression

suppression

voluntary stoppage of behaviour; creates anxiety

repression

when we are punished we repress and force unwanted, anxiety-ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defence against the anxiety

phylogenetic imbalance (phylogenetic endowment)

instincts passed down from previous generations and continually repressed

* ex., castration complex

preconscious

mental elements that are currently not in awareness, but that can become conscious with varying degrees of difficulty

* part of the unconscious
* generally non-threatening, not repressed
* sources: conscious perception or unconscious

conscious perception

(source of contents of preconcious)

* ideas we perceive as conscious for transitory period, but then passes to preconscious when focus of attention shifts
* largely free from anxiety and are more similar to conscious images

unconscious (as a source of contents of preconscious)

* ideas pass censors into preconscious in disguised form
* if not well disguised, anxiety pushes them back down
* if do gain admission, disguised through dream, slip of the tongue, or defense mechanism

conscious

those mental elements in awareness at any given time

* become conscious in two ways:
* through our sensory organs if not threatening (perceptual conscious systems)
* disguised forms from unconscious or preconsciousness

provinces of the mind

second topography of the mind, supplemental to the original

* id, superego, ego

levels of mental life

first topography

* unconscious, preconscious, conscious

id

region of personality that is alien to the ego because it includes experiences never owned by the person

* **pursuit of pleasure**
* **express basic drive**s to reduce tension
* ex., infants
* **illogical,** simultaneously entertains incompatible ideas
* underlying desires from childhood
* **amoral**
* the only **source of energy**

primary process of id

expression of instincts

secondary process of id

shaping instincts in order to be expressed; survival of satisfaction is dependent on whether secondary process can bring instincts to contact with external world through ego

ego

the “I”, or experiences owned by the person

* only region in contact with **real world**
* serves **reality principle**
* develops at 1-2 years out of need to contact with real world
* when infant can distinguish self from background
* can make **decisions** at any level (conscious, preconscious, unconscious)
* balance conflicting demands

reality principle

ego’s need to arbitrate realistically between demands of the id, the superego, and external world

pleasure principle

motivation of the id to seek immediate reduction of tension through the gratification of instinctual drives

superego

moral or ethical process of personality

* we have to **give up part of selves** to the world
* responsible for **preventing expression** of sexual and aggressive urges
* **strives for perfection**
* ultimately unrealistic
* compulsive perfectionism at extreme


* subsystems: conscience and ego-ideal

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conscience

subsystem of superego that results from experience with punishment and that, therefore, tells a person what is wrong or improper conduct

ego-ideal

part of superego that results from experiences with reward and that, therefore, teaches a person what is right or proper conduct

result if id dominates

hedonistic, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain

result if superego dominates

guilt-ridden, inferior-feeling, depressed, unable to meet standards

result if ego dominates

psychologically healthy person

* very rare because we are always in and out of states of neurosis
* \

______ motivates our behaviours

energy

* Freud believed in an energy system

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drives

* libido: sexual
* aggressive
* constant motivational force from the id and unconscious, controlled by the ego
* have an impetus, source, aim, and object
* produce tension that we must reduce

cathexis

investment or attachment of some pyschical energy to an idea, a group of ideas, a party of the body, an object, person, etc.

* ex., pleasure from kissing a shoe where sexual object displaced from person to shoe

anticathexis

energy that the ego draws from the id to block and repress those desires struggling for expression and investment

impetus of drive

amount of force exerted

source of drive

erogenous zone implicated in the tension

aim of drive

to release the tension thus seeking pleasure

object of drive

person or thing that by which the aim is satisfied

libido

anything we derive pleasure from

* sexual drive wants **broad bodily pleasure**
* **free-floating tension** not invested in anything
* **self-directed**, self as sexual object
* narcissism, love, sadism, masochism

narcissism (primary and secondary)

(form of pleasure)

pathological narcissism is perpetual investment of libido, natural narcissism is expected

* primary: healthy, self-directed for infants trying to please themselves to stay calm, invested in own ego
* ultimately given up through psychosexual stages
* secondary: adolescence, re-invested energy into self

love

(form of pleasure)

when people invest libido energy into others

* first sexual object is mother where we obtain nutrition
* gradually repressed and transformed into aim-inhibited love

aim-inhibited love

love for siblings and parents as our sexual love is repressed

sadism

(form of pleasure)

pleasure through pain or humiliation of another person

* only pathological if aggression becomes priority over experience of pleasure

masochism

(form of pleasure)

pleasure from suffering ourselves

* pathological if desire to experience pain overcomes pleasure
* healthier than sadism as we don’t depend on others for it

aggression

the outward manifestation of the death instinct

* aim to return to an inorganic state, to die
* self-destruction
* deal with it through reaction formation

anxiety

a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by the physical sensation of uneasiness

* ego is constantly mediating between drives which leads to anxiety
* warning against impending danger
* neurotic, moral, and realistic anxiety
* exist in combination
* ego-preserving, help us survive against psychological threats

neurotic anxiety

anxiety from the id

* feeling of unease about unknown danger
* manifests covertly in feelings of hostility and anger towards authority figures

moral anxiety

anxiety from superego

* not meeting our moral standards
* conflict between realistic needs and dictates of superego

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realistic anxiety

unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger

* real world, objective daily experiences
* ex., sliding on icy highway
* \

defense mechanisms

techniques whereby the ego defends itself against pain of anxiety

* developed mostly by Anna Freud
* can become pathological if we hyper rely on them
* drains energy
* we eventually need to confront anxiety or we will create neurotic symptoms
* \

repression

(defense mechanism)

forcing of unwanted, anxiety-laden experiences into the unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety

* most common defense
* starts in childhood for sexual behaviours
* cannot fully repress anything
* repression perpetuated for lifetime

what happens when impulses are repressed to unconscious?

* may remain unchanged in unconscious
* may force way into consciousness in unaltered form causing anxiety
* expressed in displaced or disguised forms (could be somatic like chronic cough, impotence)

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reaction formation

defense mechanism in which a person represses one impulse and adopts the exact opposite form of behaviour, which ordinarily is exaggerated and ostentatious

* ex., homosexual politicians being anti-gay

displacement (defense mechanism)

defense mechanism in which unwanted urges are redirected onto other objects or people in order to disguise original impulse

* ex., boss yells at dad and dad yells at family
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regression

defense mechanism whereby a person returns to an earlier stage of development to protect ego against anxiety

* common in children
* ex., thumb sucking under stress or fetal position for adults
* temporary

projection

defense mechanism whereby the ego reduces anxiety by attributing an unwanted impulse to another person

* paranoia in extremes

paranoia

mental disorder characterized by unrealistic feelings of persecution, grandiosity, and suspicious attitude toward others

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introjection

defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their ego

* opposite of projection
* compensating for internal feeling of inferiority
* developmentally important, helps superego
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sublimation

defense mechanism that involves the repression of the genital aim of eros and its substitution by a cultural or social aim

* healthiest defence mechanism

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infantile stage

first 4-5 years of life characterized by autoerotic or pleasure-seeking behaviour and consisting of oral, anal, and phallic stages

* most crucial period for personality formation
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oral phase

earliest stage of infantile period characterized by attempts to gain pleasure through mouth (sucking, eating, biting)

* 12-18 months
* oral-receptive and oral-sadistic phases

oral-receptive phase

fixated on sexual object, want to take sexual object into self

* mothers nipple but invested in whole person
* first 6 months it is easy
* after parents are less anxious and responsible, as child weans they reach **ambivalence**
* marker of psychological maturity

oral-sadistic phase

develop teeth, respond more directly to the environment

* cooing, smiling, crying, teething
* most notable autoerotic: thumb sucking, pacifier
* aggressive drive emerges

anal phase

second stage of infantile period characterized by child’s attempts to gain pleasure from excretory function, destroying or losing objects, stubbornness, neatness, and miserliness

* 2 years
* learn to control bodies and emerging aggressive tendencies
* early and late periods
* no gender differentiation

early anal period

destructive, sadistic, terrible twos

* aggression stronger than libido
* directed towards parents
* \

late anal period

finding success with toilet training

* pleasure from defecating
* meeting expectations of caregiver
* associate pleasure with toilet

anal character

developed in late anal period if parents are dismissive or punitive

* person is satisfied by keeping and possessing objects, hyper stingy, difficult to calm
* holding back feces
* leads to anal triad

anal triad

orderliness, stinginess, obstinacy

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phallic phase

genitals become most important erogenous zone

* age 3-4
* gender difference emerges
* anatomy was destiny
* early masturbatory activity punished and repressed

male phallic phase

1. oedipus complex (sexual desires for mother/hostility towards father)
2. castration complex (castration anxiety shatters Oedipus complex)
3. identification with father
4. strong superego replaces nearly completely dissolved Oedipus complex

female phallic phase

1. castration complex in form of penis envy
2. Oedipus complex in attempt to obtain penis (sexual desires for father/hostility for mother)
3. gradual realization that Oedipal desires are self-defeating
4. identification with mother
5. weak superego replaces partially dissolved Oedipus complex

Freud thinks we have inherent _______

bisexuality

* leads to ambivalence, sometimes we have hostility for opposite gender parent and lust for same gender parent

complete Oedipus complex (male)

ambivalent condition in boy where hostility and lust coexist for both parents due to the bisexual nature of a child

* through unconscious
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castration anxiety

fear of losing the penis after becoming aware that girl’s don’t have one and thought they lost theirs due to castration

* quickly repressed

penis envy

envious desire to have what men have

* desire for status of the patriarchal society
* lasting desire to be in a relationship with man and reproduce
* may last for years

girls rebel in one of three ways during Oedipal complex

* give up sexuality and develop intense hostility towards mother
* cling defiantly to masculinity, hoping for a penis
* develop normally, take their father as sexual choice and undergo simple Oedipus complex

why is boy’s superego stronger than girls?

males had immediate trauma from castration complex which builds their ego, girls is more gradual and leads to more fixation at this period

infantile amnesia

repression and sublimation of sexual desires leads us to forget about sexual impulses we had as a child

fixations

anxiety may need the ego to permanently invest energy into a particular zone as a defensive tactic

* oral: pleasure of the mouth (sarcasm, over-eating)
* anal: anal character (opposing tendencies, hyper disorganization)
* phallic: concern for appearance
* women more likely fixated at phallic

latency period

* 6+
* after superego emerged
* period of dormant psychosexual development
* large friend group
* sexual drive inhibited by parents, sexual activity redirected into friendships, school, and hobbies

genital period

* starts at puberty
* reawakening of sexual desire
* start directing sexual energy towards other people
* girls value reproductive organs more
* object of desire is the sexual organs of the other
* fulfill sexual aim overtly

maturity

* nobody is psychologically mature
* consciousness more important to mature people who have minimal need to repress sexual and aggressive urges
* more in control of psychic energy and functioning ego

pressure technique

(early technique)

* put hand on forehead and envision something behind his hands, that is what is creating pressure in their life
* patient visualizes their source of tension and pressure
* problem: Freud elicited false recollections of sexual experiences

free association

(later technique)

therapist instructs patient to verbalize every thought that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant

* typically, something aggressive or sexually charged comes up

transference

displacing libido onto therapist

* Freud believed this was inevitable
* ex., admiration, romanticism, desire to kill
* healthy unless:
* overtly sexual
* aggressive
* if it can be worked through, transference is good
* negative transference: if hostility is recognized and explained to patient, they can overcome **resistance**

countertransference

cathexis of the therapist to the patient

* reason why therapists should be in therapy as well

limitations to psychoanalytic treatment

* dangerous procedure
* psychoanalysis doesn’t work for psychoses
* insurance companies worry that there is no end to psychoanalysis

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dream analysis

therapeutic procedure designed to uncover material by having a patient freely associate to dream images

* every dream has a **wish fulfillment**
* extreme cases of trauma have **repetitive compulsion** where they remember the event over and over
* emotions within dreams disguised with **opposite effect** or **neutral affect**

manifest content

surface meaning or conscious description of the dream

latent content

underlying, unconscious meaning of a dream revealed via dream interpretation

condensation

(basis of dream disguise)

unconscious material is abbreviated

* expressed in narrow, specific way like a single image or symbol

displacement (dream disguise)

(basis of dream disguise)

dream image disguised by other ideas not connected to latent idea

* also uses symbols
* \

secondary revision

(basis of dream disguise)

when we wake up after a dream, we censor aspects of our dream

* anything immediately stressful or anxiety provoking

free association (dream analysis)

ask patient about dream, any connection they feel while recounting the dream

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dream interpretation

looking through symbols to uncover unconscious content being condensed

* most reliable
* “royal road” to knowledge of uncosncious

embarrassment dream of nakedness

(anxiety dream)

* indifference of spectators fulfills infantile wish that they weren’t scolded as a child
* nakedness fulfill wish to exhibit oneself

death of a beloved person

(anxiety dream)

* death of younger person expresses wish for destruction of younger siblings
* death of older person fulfills Oedipal wish for death of parent