Theories of Personality - Sigmund Freud

Freud's date of birth

March or May 6, 1856

Freud's place of birth

Freiberg, Moravia

Freud's date of death

September 23, 1939

Freud's place of death

London

Describe Freud's relationship with his mother

warm and indulgent

According to Freud this was the most perfect and most free from ambivalence of all human relationships

mother-son relationship

dreamed of making a monumental discovery and achieving fame

Sigmund Freud

event in Freud's childhood that had a great impact on him

birth and death of his younger brother

taught Freud the hypnotic technique for treating hysteria

Jean-Martin Charcot

technique for treating hysteria that Freud learned with Jean-Martin Charcot

hypnotic technique

a disorder typically characterized by paralysis or the improper functioning of certain parts of the body

hysteria

pre-Freudian medical belief that the uterus could move around the body, causing various ailments, including hysteria

wandering womb

taught Freud catharsis

Josef Breuer

the process of removing hysterical symptoms through "talking them out"

catharsis

when did Freud begin analyzing his dreams

after his father's death

Freud's theory that neuroses have their etiology in a child's seduction by a parent

Freud's seduction theory

replaced catharsis as Freud's principal therapeutic techinque

free association technique

Breuer's patient whose story fascinated Freud and served as the basis for the book Studies on Hysteria (1895)

Anna O / Bertha Pappenheim

treatment that Breuer adapted with Anna O, which entails engaging with her on a daily bases and giving her an opportunity to talk about her problems

talking cure

introduced in the book "Studies on Hysteria"; was a concept developed from Breuer's talking cure

psychical analysis

sounding board for Freud's newly developing ideas after his fallout with Breuer

Wilhelm Fliess

Freud's first personal crisis

teh death of his father

Freud's second personal crisis

the realization that he had yet achieve the fame he desired

four reasons why Freud abandoned the Seduction theory

1. it did not help Freud cure even a single patient

2. fathers could be accused of sexual perversion

3. Freud believed that the unconscious mind could not distinguish fact from fiction

4. unconscious memories of patients never revealed any early childhood sexual experiences

term used to describe Freud's 1890's; characterized by depression, neurosis, psychosomatic ailments, and an intense preoccupation with some form of creative activity

creative illness

Freud's greatest work

Interpretation of Dreams

person that Freud started treated after his first personal crisis

himself

written because the Interpretation of Dreams had failed to capture much interest

On Dreams

introduced the world to Freudian slips

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

established sex as the cornerstone of sexuality

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

proposed that jokes, like dreams and Freudian slips, have an unconscious meaning

Jokes and their Relation to the Unconsciosu

group of Viennese physicians that met at Freud's home to discuss psychological issues

Wednesday Psychological Society

the Wednesday Psychological Society's later, much more formal name

Vienna Psychoanalytic Society

founded in 1910 with Carl Jung as president

International Psychoanalytic Association

two levels of mental life

unconscious and conscious

two levels of the unconscious

preconscious and unconscious proper

contains all those drives, urges, or instincts beyond awareness but are nevertheless able to motivate actions

unconscious

the explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and a kind of forgetting called "repression"

unconscious

serves as a particularly rich source of unconscious material

dreams

how do unconscious processes enter into consciousness

by being disguised or distorted to elude censorship

the reason why unconscious images must first be disguised

the censors (primary and final)

watches the passageway between the preconsscious and conscious

final censor

often creates feelings of anxiety which, in turn, stimulates repression

punishment and suppression

forcing of unwanted, anxiety ridden experiences into the unconscious

repression

inherited unconscious images passed down to the individual through hundreds of generations of repetition

phylogenetic endowment

how do unconscious drives appear in consciousnesss

after undergoing certain transformations

forces in the the unconscious constantly strive to be ______________-

conscious

contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty

preconscious

two sources of the contents of the preconscious

1. conscious perception

2. the unconscious

what a person perceives is conscious for only a _________________

transitory period

when do perceptions pass into the preconscious

quickly; once the focus of attention shifts to another idea

ideas that alternate easily between being conscious and preconscious are largely free from ______________

anxiety

what happens when we recognize disguised unconscious images

we experience increased levels of anxiety, which would activate the final censor to repress the anxiety-loaded images

those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time

consciousness

two directions in which ideas can reach consciousnesss

1. from the perceptual conscious system

2. from within the mental structure

turned towards the outer world and acts as a medium for the perception of external stimuli

perceptual conscious system

direction that allows non-threatening ideas from the preconscious as well as menacing but well-disguised images from the unconscious to pass

mental structure

provinces of the mind

id, ego, superego

most primitive part of the mind

id

cuts through all levels of mental life; has conscious, preconscious, and unconscious componenets

ego

both preconscious and unconscious

superego

completely unconscious

id

at the core of personality

id

has no contact with reality

id

strives to constantly reduce tension by satisfying base desires

id

the id serves the _________________________

pleasure principle

deals with considerations of "what is possible"

ego

deals with considerations of "what is proper"

superego

deals with considerations of gratification

id

T or F: the id can simultaneously entertain incompatible ideas

True

T or F: the id has morality

False

how are opposing desires in the id possible

the id has no morality. It is amoral and can not distinguish between good and bad, thus it can not determine when to desires are in opposition of each other

primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, unchangeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized, and filled with energy received from basic drives and ischarged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle

id

as the region that houses the basic drives, the id operates through the ___________________________________

primary process

survival of the id is dependent on the development of a ____________________________ to bring it into contact with the outside world

secondary process

the secondary process

ego

the only region of the mind in contact with reality

ego

the ego grows out of the _________________ during infancy

id

principle that governs the ego

reality principle

the executive branch of personality

ego

the only province of the mind that can make decisions on all levels of mental life

ego

the three masters of the ego

id and superego (the two tyrants) and the outside world

effect on the ego by the divergent forces of the id, superego and the external world

the ego becomes anxious; it deploys repression and other defense mechanisms to protect itself

when does the ego differentiate from the id

when infants learn to distinguish themselves from the outisde world

how much energy does the ego have

none of its own, it borrows from the id

before the development of the super-ego, pleasure and pain are functions of which province?

ego

origin of the superego

at 5 or 6 y.o. children begin to identify with their parents and learn what they should or shouldn't do

the two guiding principles of the superego

moralistic and idealistic principles

the superego grows out of which province of the mind

ego

difference between ego and superego

superego has no contact with the outside world

two subsystems of the superego

conscience and teh ego-ideal

results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior

conscience

tells us what we shouldnt do

conscience

develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior

ego-ideals

tells us what we should do

ego ideal

how does a well-developed super ego control sexual and aggressive impulses

repression

T or F: the superego can produce repressions on its own

False

the result when the ego acts—or even intends to act—contrary to the moral standards of the superego

guilt

arises when the ego is unable to meet the superego's standards of perfection

feelings of inferiority

T or F: divisions between the provinces are not well-defined

True