PSY350 Lecture 5

Psychological perspective

Rooted in "talking cures" of the 1800s

Talking cures

The idea that you could deal with psychological problems by talking about them with someone trained to listen and offer advice

Who used talking cures

Jean-Martin Charcot and Joseph Breur

How did Jean-Martin Charcot and Joseph Breur use talking cures

They used it by using hypnosis to treat hysterical paralysis (the paralysis of a limb with no clear biological origin)

What was the aim of using hypnosis

To bring unconscious emotions to the surface, so catharsis could take place

Catharsis

An emotional release

How did talking cures influence Freud

They influenced him into creating his psychodynamic model

Psychodynamic model

Structured around the dynamic interactions of the different components of the human mind

Based on the internal dynamics of the unconscious mind

Freud's psychodynamic perspective

Said illness is a function of these constructs getting out of balance, or of unconscious drives, or of negative childhood experiences

Constructs getting out of balance

Seeking out too much pleasure, we're too timid, too self-indulgent, etc.

If we get out of balance, then we have psychological problems

What concepts does Freud focus on?

Id

Ego

Superego

Defense mechanisms

Id

Part of us that pursues pleasure, regardless of the consequences

Fights the Superego for control of the Ego

Ego

Our conscience

The part that says "don't do that we'll get in trouble"

In our conscious mind, controlling what we choose to do

Superego

Doesn't develop until middle-childhood if at all

Operates in the unconscious for control of the ego

Fights the Id for control of the Ego

Defense mechanisms

Various strategies we use to protect the Ego

Ex: repression

Repression

The idea that we can take a memory we find threatening/traumatic and bury it down into the unconscious so we're not conscious of it

Inconsistent in what we know about how memory works regarding trauma

Freud's model of development

How personality develops through various stages of how we channel the libido in childhood

What else does his model of development say?

We're developing aspects of personality in a way that are adaptive or problematic at each stage

Stages in the model of development

Oral

Anal

Phallic

Latent

Genital

Oral example

We constantly want to seek pleasure through the mouth, so that's primarily through breastfeeding and the extent to which mom does or does not give us the breast

If she does not then we develop trust issues in the world

If she does then we develop entitlement

Non-Freudian perspectives

Jung

Alfred Adler

Karen Horney ad Harry Stack Sullivan

Eric Ericson

What did non-Freudians do to Freud's model and why?

They modified it

They liked the psychodynamic model but had problems with how Freud went about it (either didn't like his focus on libido/sex or some element of the model)

Jung

Contemporary of Freud, ultimately broke with Freud on philosophical grounds

Jung and what psychology

Analytic psychology

Jung's analytic psychology

Added more of a role for self-awareness and self-direction

Archetypes

Anima construct

Animus construct

The shadow

Archetypes

Primitive images or concepts that reside in the collective unconscious

Anima construct

Inner feminine energy

Animus construct

Inner masculine energy

The shadow

The being of our personality that debates doing bad things

Alfred Adler

Most famous for his models of birth order and psychology

First children are like this, second like that, etc.

Alfred Adler and what psychology

Individual psychology

Alfred Adler's individual psychology

Says we are driven by inferiority complex and need for superiority

Inferiority complex

We feel inferior compared to others around us

Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan focused on what?

Social contexts and how they drive/affect us at the level of personality

Who else was important with this?

Eric Ericson

Eric Ericson

Has a model that in childhood parallels the same elements of personality develop as Freud's model (trust, initiative, development of identity)

But what's different from his model when compared to Freud's?

But rather than libido pressures driving this, it's social interactions

What did Horney object to?

Sexism in Freud's model

Sexism in Freud's model

Freud's model has lots of misogyny (always blaming mom for everything)

Also has a general contempt for women built into his diagnoses

What other psychology is important with Horney and Sullivan?

Ego psychology

Ego psychology

Focuses more on the conscious strivings of the ego than on the hypothesized unconscious functions of the id

Object-relations theory

Focuses on how children come to develop symbolic representations of important others in their lives (parents)

Evaluating psychodynamic models (Freud's)

Attacked because of sexism

Very little reliance on empirical (data based, observe and measure) science

Very little reliance on empirical (data based, observe and measure) science

No evidence for the unconscious as described by Freud

No evidence for constructs (id, ego, superego) as described by Freud

Despite this, why are his models still important?

These models defined therapy as a popular domain of work, and continue to have significant influence of the field

These models defined therapy as a popular domain of work, and continue to have significant influence of the field

Very significant in both therapy and psychological disorders

He also explained stuff in a much more interesting and compelling way