Psychoanalysis – Key Vocabulary

Flashcards cover foundational vocabulary, key figures and major concepts presented in the lecture on Psychoanalysis and its later developments.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory and therapeutic method that explains personality, motivation and mental disorder by focusing on unconscious processes and early childhood experiences.

Unconscious

The portion of the mind containing thoughts, memories and desires actively kept out of awareness because they provoke anxiety.

Conscious

Mental contents of which we are aware at any given moment.

Preconscious

Mental material that is not currently in awareness but can be readily brought to consciousness.

Cathartic Method

Breuer’s technique of relieving hysterical symptoms by helping patients recall and openly express repressed emotions tied to traumatic memories.

Transference

Patient’s tendency to project feelings once felt toward important figures onto the therapist.

Counter-transference

Therapist’s emotional reactions toward the patient, often reflecting unresolved personal issues.

Free Association

Therapeutic procedure in which clients say whatever comes to mind without censorship to reveal unconscious material.

Resistance

Patient’s unconscious defense that blocks free expression or recall of anxiety-provoking thoughts during therapy.

Dream Analysis

Technique for uncovering unconscious material by interpreting the symbolic content of dreams.

Manifest Content

The literal, surface storyline or images of a dream.

Latent Content

The hidden, unconscious meaning and wish-fulfillment disguised in a dream.

Dream Work

Mental processes (e.g., condensation, displacement) that transform latent wishes into the acceptable manifest dream.

Condensation

Dream work process in which several ideas or images are combined into a single symbol.

Displacement (dream)

Dream work process that shifts emotional significance from an important idea/person to a safe substitute.

Id

Totally unconscious portion of personality housing instincts and ruled by the pleasure principle.

Pleasure Principle

Id’s demand for immediate gratification of instinctual urges regardless of reality.

Primary Processes

Irrational mental activities (reflexes, wish-fulfilling images) that satisfy id demands.

Ego

Part of personality that mediates between id impulses, reality and superego demands; operates on the reality principle.

Reality Principle

Ego’s tendency to delay gratification until a realistic object or method is available.

Secondary Processes

Ego’s rational, problem-solving, reality-oriented mental functions.

Superego

Internalized moral standards consisting of the conscience (punishment-based) and ego-ideal (reward-based).

Libido

Psychic energy originally viewed as sexual; later broadened by Freud to all life-preserving instincts.

Life Instincts (Eros)

Drives that promote survival, reproduction and pleasure; energized by libido.

Death Instinct (Thanatos)

Innate drive that seeks tension reduction through aggression, self-destruction or a return to inorganic state.

Objective Anxiety

Realistic fear of tangible external danger.

Neurotic Anxiety

Fear that id impulses will overwhelm ego control and cause punishment.

Moral Anxiety

Guilt or shame arising from violating internalized superego standards.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

Automatic, unconscious strategies that distort reality to protect the ego from anxiety.

Repression

Basic defense that banishes threatening material from consciousness.

Displacement (defense)

Shifting an impulse toward a safer, substitute target.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially valued activities (art, science, sport).

Projection

Attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to another person.

Identification

Bolstering self-esteem by aligning with or imitating an admired person or group.

Rationalization

Creating plausible but false excuses to justify unacceptable behavior.

Reaction Formation

Behaving in a way opposite to one’s true, anxiety-provoking feelings.

Fixation

Stalled psychosexual development due to over- or under-gratification at a stage, producing adult traits.

Oral Stage

First year; pleasure centers on mouth (sucking, biting).

Anal Stage

Second year; pleasure focuses on anus/bowel control; can yield anal-expulsive or anal-retentive traits.

Phallic Stage

Ages 3–5; pleasure zone is genitals; site of Oedipus/Electra conflicts.

Oedipus Complex

Child’s unconscious sexual desire for opposite-sex parent and rivalry with same-sex parent (with castration anxiety in boys).

Latency Stage

Ages 6–puberty; sexual impulses largely repressed, energy redirected to school, peers, hobbies.

Genital Stage

Puberty onward; mature heterosexual interests reemerge; if earlier conflicts resolved, leads to healthy adult sexuality.

Over-determination

Freud’s idea that behaviors or symptoms often have multiple unconscious causes.

Parapraxis (Freudian Slip)

Minor error (slip of tongue, forgetting, losing) seen as revealing unconscious motives.

Humor (Freud’s view)

Socially sanctioned outlet that disguises and releases unacceptable sexual or aggressive ideas.

Catharsis

Emotional release that accompanies the conscious expression of previously repressed material.

Seduction Theory

Early (abandoned) Freudian hypothesis that hysteria stemmed from childhood sexual molestation.

Iceberg Analogy

Fechner/Freud metaphor illustrating that consciousness is just a small visible part of the vast unconscious mind.

Conservation of Psychic Energy

Freud’s application of Helmholtz’s physical principle to mind: finite energy is redistributed but never lost.

Post-hypnotic Suggestion

Instruction given under hypnosis that influences behavior after awakening, without conscious memory of its origin.

Post-hypnotic Amnesia

Inability to consciously recall events that occurred during hypnosis unless specifically prompted.

Anna O.

Pseudonym for Bertha Pappenheim; Breuer’s hysterical patient whose case launched the talking cure.

Josef Breuer

Viennese physician who treated Anna O.; co-authored Studies on Hysteria with Freud.

Jean-Martin Charcot

French neurologist whose work on hypnosis and male hysteria strongly influenced Freud.

Nancy School

Hypnosis center led by Liebeault & Bernheim that taught Freud about suggestion and post-hypnotic effects.

Cocaine Episode

Period (1884–87) when Freud promoted and personally used cocaine before its addictive risks were known.

Nicotine Addiction (Freud)

Freud’s lifelong habit of smoking ~20 cigars daily, contributing to oral cancer and numerous surgeries.

Ego Psychology

Psychoanalytic focus (Anna Freud, Hartmann, Erikson) on autonomous ego functions and adaptation.

Developmental Lines

Anna Freud’s concept of gradual transitions children make from dependency to adult self-reliance.

Altruistic Surrender

Defense (A. Freud) of meeting needs vicariously by living through another’s successes/failures.

Identification with the Aggressor

Defense (A. Freud) of adopting traits of a feared person to reduce anxiety (basis of Stockholm syndrome).

Collective Unconscious

Jung’s deepest layer of psyche containing inherited, universal human experiences.

Archetype

Innate, universal prototype (e.g., Mother, Hero) residing in the collective unconscious that shapes perception and emotion.

Persona

Archetypal mask or public façade a person presents to society.

Anima

Feminine aspect within the male psyche, according to Jung.

Animus

Masculine aspect within the female psyche, according to Jung.

Shadow

Jungian archetype embodying repressed, dark, aggressive or immoral impulses.

Self (Jung)

Archetype symbolizing unity, wholeness and the drive toward self-actualization.

Introversion

Jungian attitude oriented toward inner thoughts and feelings; reserved, introspective.

Extroversion

Jungian attitude oriented toward external world; sociable, action-focused.

Synchronicity

Meaningful coincidence of independent events that seem causally connected, in Jung’s theory.

Individuation

Jung’s term for the lifelong psychological process of integrating all parts of the personality.

Self-Actualization (Jung)

Realization of one’s fullest, most integrated self through individuation.

Feelings of Inferiority

Adler’s concept of universal childhood sense of inadequacy that motivates striving.

Compensation

Adlerian effort to overcome real or imagined weaknesses by developing other abilities.

Overcompensation

Turning a perceived weakness into an exaggerated strength (e.g., frail child becomes athlete).

Inferiority Complex

Paralyzing condition when feelings of inferiority overwhelm rather than motivate the individual.

Guiding Fiction (Finalism)

Adler’s imagined future goal or ideal that directs an individual’s lifestyle.

Lifestyle (Adler)

Unique pattern of beliefs and behaviors used to pursue one’s guiding fictions.

Social Interest

Adler’s criterion of mental health—concern for welfare of others and society.

Creative Self

Adler’s concept of personal freedom to shape one’s lifestyle despite heredity and environment.

Basic Evil

Horney’s term for parental indifference, hostility or neglect that undermines a child’s security.

Basic Hostility

Child’s anger toward caregivers for basic evil; often repressed.

Basic Anxiety

Pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness in a hostile world resulting from repressed hostility.

Compliant Type (Moving Toward)

Horney’s neurotic style seeking approval, affection and dependence to cope with anxiety.

Hostile Type (Moving Against)

Horney’s neurotic style that seeks power, exploitation and dominance over others.

Detached Type (Moving Away)

Horney’s neurotic style characterized by emotional withdrawal and self-sufficiency.

Feminine Psychology

Horney’s reformulation of psychoanalysis emphasizing sociocultural, not biological, roots of female personality.