Psychoanalytic Perspective (pdf)

Psychoanalytic approach

The theoretical view of personality, based on the writings of Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes the unconscious processes of the mind

Psychodynamic psychology:

The theoretical view of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. compasses psychoanalysis• Examines relationship between conscious and unconscious• Often considers the conflict of psychological processes/impulses/urges

Psychic determinism

The assumption that everything that happens in a person’s mind has a specific cause

• No miracles, free will, or even random accidents

• All ostensible contradictions can be understood by digging deep into the unconscious

Ego

Rational personality aspect balancing id's impulses with reality principle.

Superego

Embodiment of societal values and parental standards in personality.

Ego Strength

Ability to balance id impulses, reality constraints, and superego expectations effectively.

Freud's Iceberg

Metaphor for the mind's topographical and structural models of personality.

Psychosexual Development

Freud's theory on libido investment in erogenous zones during stages like oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

Regression

Reverting to a previous psychosexual stage under stress.

Fixation

Getting stuck in a psychosexual stage due to unresolved conflicts.

Libido and Thanatos

Life and death drives respectively, influencing behaviors and desires.

Primary Process Thinking

Unconscious mind's way of operating, involving displacement, condensation, and symbolization.

Defense Mechanisms

Ego's strategies to protect from anxiety, including denial, repression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, intellectualization, displacement, and sublimation.

Psychoanalysis

A therapeutic approach developed by Freud that aims to bring unconscious conflicts into the open for rational resolution.

Transference

The process where a patient displaces feelings towards others onto the therapist during psychoanalytic therapy.

libido

Psychic (mental) energy, rooted in the drive towards creating, nurturing, and the enhancement of life (including but not limited to sex)• Catharsis

the topographical model of the min

Conscious: What you are currently aware of

• Preconscious: What we are not currently aware of but could easily be moved to the conscious

• Unconscious: Part of the mind not accessible to the conscious

The structural model of personality

Id: The inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects of personality• Ego: The rational part of the personality that deals pragmatically with reality• Superego: The embodiment of parental and societal valuesThe structural model of personality

The Id

• The original structure of personality

• “Primitive”• Psychic energy

• Functions entirely in the unconscious

• Pleasure principle: All needs should be satisfied IMMEDIATELY

• Primary process: Formation of an unconscious image of an object or even that would satisfy a need

The Ego

• Develops from the id in an attempt toexpress its impulses more effectively

• “The executive”

• The reality principle: The idea that actions must take into account the constraints of external reality

• Secondary process: Matching of the unconscious image of a tension-reducing object to a real object• Self-control and delay of gratification

The Superego

• Final structure to develop

• Introjection: The absorption of values of the parents into the superego• Two subsystems:

• Ego ideal: Rules for good behavior and standards of excellence

• Conscience: Rules about what behaviors the parents disapprove of and punish• Strive for perfection and morals

Psychosexual Development

Freud offered one of the earliest perspectives of personality development

• Focuses on how the libido is invested and directed over early development

• Libido focuses on various erogenous zones, forming each stage which has 3 aspects

• Physical

• Psychological

• Adult character type

The Oral Stage (Birth – 18 months)

Physical focus: Mouth, lips, and tongue

• Relevant mental structure: Id

• Psychological theme: Dependence and passivity

• Adult character types (the oral character): Dependent or overly independent

• Otway & Vignoles (2006): Child that grew up to be narcissist tended to have parents that were too cold or showered with too much admiration

The Anal Stage (18 months –3 years)

Physical focus: Anus and organs of elimination

• Relevant mental structure: Ego

• Psychological theme: Obedience and self-control

• Adult character types (the anal character): Obedient and obsessed with order or anti-authority and chaotic

• Baumrind (1971; 1991): Authoritative parenting associated with better outcomes than authoritarian and permissive styles

The Phallic Stage (3 – 5/7 years)

Physical focus: Sexual organs

• Relevant mental structure: Superego

• Psychological theme: Gender identity and sexuality

• Love, fear, and jealousy

• Development of morality

• Adult character types (the phallic character): Over-or under-sexualized

Latency (5/7 years – puberty)

Psychological theme: Learning and cognitive developmen

The Genital Stage (Puberty –Adulthood)

hysical focus: Sexuality in the context of a mature relationship

• Relevant mental structure: Id, ego, and superego are well balanced• Psychological theme: Creation and enhancement of life

• Adult character types: A mature adult (seldom achieved)

• Freud’s definition of mental health: “To love and to work

Secondary process thinking

What we ordinarily mean by the word “think

Parapraxes

A leakage from the unconscious mind manifesting as a mistake, accident, omission, or memory lapse

• “Freudian slips”• Slips are often seen as a failure to suppress what one privately wishes to say

• Forgetting as a way to not remember painful events or to get out of events one may not want to participate in

• Denials of the substance of the slip suggest more powerful impulses and urges

Transference:

The process in which feelings toward other people in the patient’s life are displaced onto the therapis

Shortcomings of the
Psychoanaltyic Perspective

Excessive complexity• Case study method• Vague definitions• Untestability• Sexism