Freud - Psychoanalytic Theory

Levels of Mental Life

Unconscious, Preconscious, and Conscious

Unconscious

contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions

Unconscious

the explanation behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and certain types of forgetting called repression.

Dreams

rich source of unconscious material

Unconscious

For example, a man may know that he is attracted to a woman but may not fully understand all the reasons for the attraction, some of which may even seem irrational.

Repression

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

Phylogenetic Endowment

Freud believed that a portion of our unconscious originates from the experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through hundreds of generations of repetition.

Transformation

Unconscious drives may appear in consciousness, but only after undergoing certain _________.

Unconscious

For example, a son’s hostility toward his father may masquerade itself in the form of ostentatious affection.

Preconscious

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

Conscious Perception

one of the two sources of Preconscious, which is what a person perceives is conscious for only a transitory period; it quickly passes into preconscious when the focus of attention shifts to another idea

Unconscious

one of the two sources of Preconscious, which is the ideas that can slip past the vigilant censor and enter into the preconscious in a disguised form

Conscious

Mental elements in awareness at any given point in time. It is the only level of mental life directly available to us.

Perceptual Conscious

Which is turned toward the outer world and acts as a medium for the perception of external stimuli. In other words, what we perceive through our sense organs, if not too threatening, enters into consciousness.

within the mental structure

the second source of conscious elements, and includes nonthreatening ideas from the preconscious as well as menacing but well-disguised images from the unconscious.

Provinces of the Mind

Id, Ego, and Superego

Id

At the core of personality and completely unconscious

Id

It has no contact with reality, yet it strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires. Because its sole function is to seek pleasure, we say that the id serves the pleasure principle.

Id

Besides being unrealistic and pleasure seeking, it is illogical and can simultaneously entertain incompatible ideas. For example, a woman may show conscious love for her mother while unconsciously wishing to destroy her.

Id

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

Id

As the region that houses basic drives (primary motivates), it operates through the primary process.

Ego

the only region of the mind in contact with reality

Ego

It grows out of the id during infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the external world. It is governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for the pleasure principle of the id.

Ego

However, because it is partly conscious, partly preconscious, and partly unconscious, the ego can make decisions on each of these three levels.

Ego

It is governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for the pleasure principle of the id. As the sole region of the mind in contact with the external world, the ego becomes the decision-making or executive branch of personality.

Superego

represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed to the pleasure principle of the id and the realistic principle of the ego

Conscience

One of the two subsystem of Superego, results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we should not do.

Ego-ideal

One of the two subsystem of Superego, develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we should do.

Superego

watches closely over the ego, judging its actions and intentions

Guilt

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

is a function of the conscience

Inferiority

arise when the ego is unable to meet the superego’s standards of perfection

stem from the ego-ideal

Dynamics of Personality

Motivational principle, explain the driving force behind people’s actions.

Drives

Operates as a constant motivational force as an internal stimuli which cannot be avoided through flight.

Drives

Sex or Eros, Aggression or Thanatos

Libido

Psychic energy of Sex Drive

Drives

its aim is to seek pleasure by removing that excitation or reducing the tension; and its object is the person or thing that serves as the means through which the aim is satisfied

Sex

aims pleasure in not just genital satisfaction but in the entire body that is invested with libido

Erogenous Zones

parts of the body that is capable of producing sexual pleasures such as the genitals, mouth, and anus

Sex

Narcissism, love, sadism, and masochism

Primary Narcissism

Infants are primarily self-centered, with their libido invested almost exclusively on their own ego.

Secondary Narcissism

During puberty, however, adolescents often redirect their libido back to the ego and become preoccupied with personal appearance and other self-interests.

Love

the second manifestation of Eros, which develops when people invest their libido on an object or person other than themselves.

Sadism

The need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person.

Masochism

experience sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted either by themselves or by others

Aggression

Aim of destructive drive is to return the organism to inorganic state because the ultimate inorganic condition is death.

Aggression

teasing, gossip, sarcasm, humiliation, humor, and the enjoyment of other people’s suffering

Anxiety

it is a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger

Ego

the only region that can produce or feel anxiety

Neurotic Anxiety

Apprehension about an unknown danger, also known as the result of ego’s dependence of Id. People may experience this anxiety in the presence of a teacher, employer, or some other authority figure because they previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against one or both parents.

Moral Anxiety

Stems from conflict between the ego and the superego. Result of the failure to behave consistently with what they might regard as morally right.

Realistic Anxiety

Closely related to fear, defined as an unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger.

Anxiety

serves as an ego-preserving mechanism because it signals us that some danger is at hand

Defense Mechanism

to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive implosives and to defend itself against the anxiety that accompanies them

Repression

The most basic form of defense mechanism, because it is involved in each of the others. Whenever the Ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses; that is, it forces threatening feelings into the uconscious.

Repression

For example, a young girl may permanently bottle up her hostility for a younger sister because her hateful feelings create too much anxiety.

Reaction Formation

One of the ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form.

Reaction Formation

An example of this defense mechanism can be seen in a young woman who deeply resents and hates her mother. Because she knows that society demands affection toward parents, such conscious hatred for her mother would produce too much anxiety.

Displacement

people can redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed

Displacement

For example, a woman who is angry at her roommate may shift her anger onto her employees, her pet cat, or a stuffed animal

Fixation

the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier, more primitive stage of development

Fixation

smoking, excessive eating, sucking thumb or biting of nails

Regression

Once the libido has passed a developmental stage, it may, during times of stress and anxiety, revert back to that earlier stage.

Regression

Under extreme stress one adult may adopt the fetal position, another may return home to mother, and still another may react by remaining all day in bed, well covered from the cold and threatening world.

Projection

When an internal impulse provokes too much anxiety, the ego may reduce that anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object, usually another person.

which can be defined as seeing in others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that actually reside in one’s own unconscious

Projection

For example, a man may consistently interpret the actions of older women as attempted seductions. Consciously, the thought of sexual intercourse with older women may be intensely repugnant to him, but buried in his unconscious is a strong erotic attraction to these women.

Paranoia

Extreme type of Projection, a mental disorder characterized by powerful delusions of jealousy and persecution.

Introjection

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

Introjection

For example, an adolescent may adopt or internalize the mannerisms, values, or lifestyle of a movie star

Sublimation

is the repression of the genital aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim

Sublimation

the art of Michelangelo, who found an indirect outlet for his libido in painting and sculpting

Psychosexual Stages of Development

refers to the series of phases in childhood through which children develop their sexuality, as proposed by Freud, including oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages.

Infantile Period

One of Freud’s most important assumptions is that infants possess a sexual life and go through a period of pregenital sexual development during the first 4 or 5 years after birth.

Oral Phase

Freud’s first infantile stage of development because the mouth is the first organ to provide an infant with pleasure. During this phase, infants derive pleasure and satisfaction from oral activities such as sucking, biting, and chewing.

Anal Phase

The second stage of Freud's psychosexual development, occurring between ages 1 and 3, where pleasure is focused on controlling bowel and bladder elimination. This stage is critical for developing a sense of order and control.

Anal-retentive Personality

A personality type that emerges from an individual's experiences during the anal phase, characterized by traits such as orderliness, stubbornness, and control, as well as anxiety related to control and cleanliness.

Anal-repulsive Personality

A personality type resulting from the anal phase, characterized by messiness, disorderliness, and a lack of control, often related to rebellion against authority.

Phallic Phase

The third stage of Freud's psychosexual development, occurring between ages 3 and 6, where a child's pleasure centers on the genitals and the Oedipus/Electra complex emerges.

Oedipus Complex

Freud believed that preceding the phallic stage an infant boy forms an identification with his father; that is, he wants to be his father. Later he develops a sexual desire for his mother; that is, he wants to have his mother.

Castration Complex

Fear of losing Penis

penis envy

Freud believed that it is often expressed as a wish to be a boy or a desire to have a man.

Latency Period

developmental phase in Freud's psychosexual stages that occurs from around age 6 to puberty, during which sexual feelings are largely suppressed and children focus on social and intellectual skills.

Genital Period

the final stage of Freud's psychosexual development, occurring from puberty onwards, where sexual feelings re-emerge and individuals seek mature sexual relationships.

Free Association

patients are required to verbalize every thought that comes to their mind, no matter how irrelevant or repugnant it may appear. The purpose of this is to arrive at the unconscious by starting with a present conscious idea and following it through a train of associations to wherever it leads.

Transfern

the strong sexual or aggressive feelings, positive or negative, that patients develop toward their analyst during the course of treatment.

Resistance

which refers to a variety of unconscious responses used by patients to block their own progress in therapy, can be a positive sign because it indicates that therapy has advanced beyond superficial material.

Dream Analysis

is a technique in psychoanalysis where the content of dreams is explored to uncover unconscious desires, wishes, and conflicts, often revealing insights into the patient's psyche.

Manifest Content

the surface meaning or the conscious description given by the dreamer in his/her dreams

Latent Content

the hidden psychological meaning of a dream, representing deeper desires and conflicts that are not immediately apparent to the dreamer.

Condensation

refers to the fact that the manifest dream content is not as extensive as the latent level, indicating that the unconscious material has been abbreviated or condensed before appearing on the manifest level

Displacement

means that the dream image is replaced by some other idea only remotely related to it

Freudian Slip/Parapraxes

Freud believed that many everyday slips of the tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect hearing, misplacing objects, and temporarily forgetting names or intentions are not chance accidents but reveal a person’s unconscious intentions.