Lecture 3 - Neo-Freudian Theory

Anxiety

The danger is unknown, you do not know what you are worried about

Fear

The danger is known, you know what you are worried about

Function of Anxiety

- Without anxiety, we would often walk blindly into serious danger

- Psychoanalytically, serious danger is the inappropriate expression of drives

- Without anxiety, we would express our sexual and aggressive urges and may get ourselves in danger either with our superego or the external world around us

First Theory of Anxiety

- Strangulated affect causes anxiety

- sexual and aggressive urges arise and then get repressed which causes energy to be under pressure

- we need to release this energy to return to constant state -> results in faster breathing, heart rate, perspiration

Second Theory of Anxiety

- Anxiety causes repression

- anxiety warns us of impending danger (our drives are starting to bubble up to the surface)

- Time to repress these thoughts back into unconscious

Orthodox to Neo-Freudian Theory

Moving away from sexual hypothesis

Realistic Anxiety

fear of something in the external world, some object or event in the world which we are afraid of

Moral anxiety

fear of being punished by the superego -> we experience moral anxiety when the super ego starts to become critical when we stray too far from the demands of the superego

Neurotic Anxiety

fear without a consciously recognized source, the source of which is the id

Function of Defense Mechanisms

partially satisfy our drives yet still act in culturally appropriate ways

Repression

We push down our psychic investment in some object (counter cathexis)

Cathexis vs Counter Cathexis

Cathexis: non conscious psychic link between object of gratification and libido...but with repression there is a counter cathexis

Counter cathexis: push down our psychic investment in the object of our libidinal gratification

Denial

- shut threatening material out of consciousness

- We simply don't acknowledge the existence of things that we don't want to see

- More common during Freud's time

Screen Memories

- False memories which replace the horrible traumatic memory

- This is because the recollection of the trauma would be too much for the psyche to handle

Projection

- We take our unwanted desires (unwanted sexual and aggressive drives) and we project them onto others

- You don't want to own your own libidinal desires, so rather than seeing them in yourself, you see them in the world around you

Reaction Formation

- Unacceptable urges are replaced by their opposites

- Ego identifies strongly with the opposite of a libidinal impulse

- Function is to overcompensate to reduce anxiety

Isolation

- We repress the affect that's associated with the threat

- Kind of like an impulsive thought but plagues the individual

- Idea of the threatening experience remains conscious but has no emotional charge

Example of Isolation

Obsessions -> often of a violent nature

Ex. A woman was plagued by the thought of taking a pair of scissors and plunging it into her child, but she had no emotions around that thought or emotional ability to act on that thought but could not get rid of the idea of doing harm to her child

Undoing

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

Why is undoing a transient defense?

Only effective in the moment (lasts a short amount of time)

Example of Undoing

Compulsions

Ex. Hand washing, locking the door several times

Displacement

- Threatening drives are too dangerous to enact on their intended target so they are expressed toward an easier target

- Works because drives are displaceable

Example of Displacement

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

Ex. Anxiety related to threatening source (maybe parents) gets displaced onto less threatening objects (like spiders)

Sublimation

- Redirect drive energy into something great

- Take what is base (raw, aggressive, sexual drives) and create something sublime

- Drive energy is no longer sexual or aggressive

Synthetic Function of the Ego

- ego is naturally oriented toward assimilation, accommodation and integration

- ego is oriented towards synthesis, full functioning, and organismic wellness

What is the task for psychoanalytic therapist?

Psychoanalyst must aid the ego in its synthetic function by aligning with the synthetic function of the ego

Transferance

- Client brings conflicts from the past into the present in an emotion laden way

- if utilized in a constructive way, it can lead to insight

Repetition Compulsion

- describes a fixation on old conflicts and represents an attempt to work through past traumas in new relationships

- In psychoanalysis, the function of the repetition compulsion is to master the unresolved feelings that surround the original trauma

Re-experiencing

client is encouraged to bring past traumas and bring transferences into the present moment in an emotion laden way with full expression to give better understanding of unresolved conflicts

Area of Safety

- clients need to feel safe and feel free to talk about whatever they want in therapy

- The task in creating an area of safety is for the therapist to receive transferences without defensiveness -> patient is more willing to open up which transforms old patterns into more awareness and integration

Neutrality and Equidistance

When the therapist is non-evaluative and non-judgmental, the client can feel to give full expression to psychological experience

Avoid "either/or" thinking

id is full of contradictions and the task for the therapist is to allow both sides of the client's contradiction to be expressed -> avid seeing the client's psychological life in black and white

Therapist Analyzes

The therapist must analyze why the client is expressing and uncover the source of the trauma that's bringing the client into therapy and can work with the client to move towards synthesis and functioning

A state of chaos and un-integration

Infant begins life in a non-integrated state →state of chaos (not a bad state, involves shifting set of drives and needs)

What does it mean to say the infant is an individual at birth?

- No self at birth, only a mother child dyad

- Infant has an inherent tendency towards growth, development, synthesis and full function

Primary maternal occupation

- Mother often intuitively knows what the child needs, and as a result, the mother can work to help the infant feel whole and integrated

- Mother begins to withdraw her cathexes from herself and places the cathexis on the infant

"Holding" environment

- Caretaker holds together infant's psyche

- Mother regulates child through careful relating (being attuned, sensitive, and regulated) -> child develops coherent needs and moves toward integration (baby's psyche is able to be organized and feel safe)

Empathic anticipation

a good mother anticipates and responds to the needs of the child

(Feed infants when they're hungry, change infants when they're soiled)

Subjective omnipotence and grandiosity

When the child's needs are satisfied, it can develop an experience of subjective omnipotence and grandiosity

Mirroring

- Task for the primary caretaker is to love the infant

- Having the mirroring needs satisfied occurs through responsiveness and empathy

- To the extent that the child is mirrored by the mother, the child develops a sense of self esteem

Examples of caretaker insensitivity

non-responsiveness, intrusion, impingement

Non-responsiveness

mother does not respond (ex. child is hungry, mother absent)

Intrusion

mother tries to satisfy when no need is present (ex. child not hungry, mother feeds anyway)

Impingement

mother addresses the wrong need (ex. child hungry/crying, but mother changes diaper)

True Self

- Promoted when environment is warm, caring, sensitive, responsive

- Child recognizes and satisfies own needs and they can take care of themselves and be sensitive to/aware of others

- Develops initiative, awareness, and sensitivity toward others

False Self

- Develops with insensitive mother/ caretaker insensitivity (non-responsiveness, intrusion, impingement)

- Child prioritizes mother's needs, not own

Root of psychopathology

Symptoms of False Self Disorders

- Lack of vitality/psychological energy

- Inauthenticity -> does not feel like oneself, lives "behind a mask"

- Inability/unwillingness to be alone

Good Enough Parenting

- Parents don't need to be perfect, only responsive enough

- Empathic failures teach infants to move from expecting immediate gratification (subjective omnipotence) to accepting reality

- When early needs are mostly met, children learn to self-soothe and develop a stable true self

Function of Winnicott's Therapy

- Pick up where development was stalled

- Create a responsive environment → allows the true self to reemerge and be reawakened

Characteristics of Winnicott's Therapy

- Spontaneous (authentic, not necessarily planned but unfold naturally), but always responsive to patient's needs

- Therapist connects empathically with the client's phenomenological experience

Why was play used in Winnicott's Therapy

- Play is the emotional language of children

- Medium for children to express and satisfy needs

- In therapy, play enables re-experiencing and healing of unmet developmental needs.

- Don't change the child but rather create an environment in which they are able to prosper

Case of Miss F.

- She constantly demanded things of Kohut

- She once said that he was wrecking her analysis with his interpretations

- He understood her behavior as transference, where she was trying to get her needs satisfied

Transferance in Self Psychology

- Client's attempt to satisfy unmet developmental needs in therapy

- Focus shifted from uncovering unconscious drives to addressing relational needs in the therapeutic relationship

Nature of the Self

- Spontaneous, natural center of being

- Growth-oriented, takes initiative, reaches out to others to get needs met

Core Needs of the Self

Mirroring Need, Idealizing Need, Twinship/Alter-Ego Need

Mirroring Need

- Infants need to feel admired, important, and wonderful (by caretaker, most importantly)

- Satisfaction of mirroring needs -> firm self-esteem

- Failure of mirroring needs -> narcissistic tendencies

Idealizing Need

- Child needs a caregiver who the child can see as having a special power or ability, the child needs to idealize their caretaker

- Satisfaction -> internalization of parent's ideals and values and promotes inspiration and guidance.

Twinship/Alter-Ego Need

- Basic need for belongingness and relatedness

- Two-way street -> not only being cared for but also caring for others which allows for deeper connections and interpersonal relationships

- Satisfaction -> deep sense of connection and interpersonal support

Importance of Need Satisfaction

- Healthy development depends on consistent satisfaction of mirroring, idealizing, and twinship needs

- When unmet, these needs are transferred into later relationships (including therapy)

Transmuting Internalization

Parents are not always going to be there and if parents are usually responsive and empathic, the child can internalize these functions and apply it to themselves, allowing them to self soothe and internally regulate themselves

Kohut's Therapeutic Technique

- Therapist listens deeply, recognizes the pain of unmet needs, and responds with empathy rather than interpretation

- Empathy satisfies the mirroring need -> the patient feels understood, valued, and like a "good person"

- Empathy helps patients manage strong needs without being overwhelmed (can have a curative impact itself)