Lecture 2 - Freudian Theory

What is the main goal of psychodynamic theory?

drill down into deep recesses of human psyche and develop an understanding of how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by unconscious material

Who is considered the founder of psychodynamic theory?

Sigmund Freud -> introduced ideas like the unconscious mind, repression, and defense mechanisms to understand the human psyche which remain central to psychology and everyday language

Was Freud a reductionist or a constructivist?

In his early career -> he was a reductionist and believed in biological and material and efficient causes

Later in his career -> he was a constructivist and used psychological explanations and unconscious processes

Who was Jean-Martin Charcot?

- Grand figure in European medicine

- Rose to prominence in European medicine for his work with conversion hysteria

Conversion hysteria

- Describes the experience of somatic illness without an organic basis

- People with conversion hysteria suffer from physical symptoms but they do not have a physical cause

- Ex. Some people with conversion hysteria may suffer from blindness...they cannot see but upon medical examination, there is nothing physically, biologically, or organically wrong with their eyes

What were the beliefs of Charcot's contemporaries?

- Believed that conversion hysteria was due to a genetic weakness of the mind

- due to genetics, some people are predisposed to experience physical symptoms without a physical cause

- Others believed it was due to historical factors...experience of trauma can cause conversion hysteria as well as repressed sexuality

Charcot's beliefs about hysteria

- Believed that trauma plus hypnotic susceptibility was the core of conversion

- Not enough to just experience trauma, but the person who experiences the trauma must also be susceptible to be placed in hypnotic states of mind

- When trauma and susceptibility to be placed in hypnotic states of mind combine, it can result in conversion hysteria

What was Freud's reception of Charcot's ideas?

- Freud, as a reductionist, received Charcot's ideas with a lot of skepticism

- Because Freud was a reductionsist, the very idea that psychological experiences could have non biological causes did not fit with his views at that time

Charcot's Theory of Hysteria

- Certain people are predisposed to hysteria, and in these people, there exist multiple, co-existing states of mind

- As a result of these multiple, co-existing states of mind, non-conscious material can cause physical ailments

- Ideas, feelings, memories which we are wholly unaware of can cause the experience of hysterical symptoms

How did hypnosis allow for symptom relief?

- While his patients were hypnotized, Charcot would make post hypnotic suggestions to his patients

- Discovered that he could not only produce the symptoms of conversion hysteria, but he could also relieve symptoms of conversion hysteria while his patients were under hypnosis

Case of Anna O. (symptoms)

- She would fall into delusional, dissociative states of mind that were subsequently forgotten

- Conversion blindness

-> lost the ability to see even though nothing was wrong with her eyes, suffered from paralysis of certain limbs, and the inability at times to speak her native language (German)

-> Lost the ability to speak in her native tongue at times but retained the ability to speak in english

-> Lost the ability to drink

-> Would hallucinate events that occurred exactly 365 days prior

Case of Anna O. (Breuer's treatment)

- he would spend 3 hrs per day talking with Anna O

- Traveled to her home, and during the conversations, she would communicate her hallucinations to Dr. Breuer

- Returned back in the evening, put her under hypnosis and repeated her hallucinations to her while hypnotized

Talking cure or Chimney Sweeping

- Brought about symptom relief and was effective in ameliorating the symptoms of conversion hysteria

- If post traumatic memories could be recalled, then the symptoms would no longer be needed

Catharsis

Patient rids themself of all the psychological poisons that contribute to the experience of conversion hysteria and cleanse the psyche

Case of Anna O. (cathartic treatment)

- sexuality is largely repressed and a clinician comes and talks to her for 3 hrs where symptoms are relieved in those encounters

- She began to develop amorous feelings towards Dr. Breuer

- Developed a conversion pregnancy (her stomach expanded even though she didn't have a real child growing in her)

- Breuer terminated treatment of Anna O and she began to regress

Case of Lucy R. (symptoms and cause)

- suffered from olfactory hallucinations (cigar smoke and burnt pudding)

- she was working as a servant for a widower and began to develop feelings towards him

- he said "you are nothing to me" -> she was in love with him but got rejected

- when she got rejected, there was pudding burning and the man was smoking and the olfactory hallucinations occurred from that day on

Dominant Mass

Set of ideas or beliefs that are taken in from society and culture

which provide values, norms prescriptions, and proscriptions, for how to live appropriately in society

What was the dominant mass for Lucy R.?

- In Lucy's case, the dominant mass said that governesses could not be with/desire whom they work for

- Her wish to be with the widower was incompatible with the dominant mass

- Her wish and rejection of that wish had to be repressed into the recesses of the unconscious

What happens when wishes are rejected?

- Psychological trauma responsible for hysteria is the felt rejection of a wish

- We all have desires (sexual, aggressive, etc) and when those wishes are rejected, the traumatic reaction to rejection, if repressed, can manifest as conversion hysteria

How was Lucy R. effected a cure?

- To effect a cure, Lucy had to relive her emotional trauma and admit that her feelings would not be reciprocated

- Symptoms of conversion hysteria are an act of cowardice on the part of the patients ego

- Ego couldn't come to terms with the repressed traumatic experience and the thoughts and feelings that come with it

- According to Freud, conversion symptoms are an act of cowardice on the part of the patient

- As an act of cowardness, the ego converts the repressed content into the symptoms of conversion hysteria

Case of Elizabeth von R (symptoms and cause)

- Suffered from pains in her back, weakness in her legs, and stooped posture even though she was young and healthy

- She was charged with the task of caring for her sick father on his deathbed

- Went on vacation with her sister and her sister's brother in law and her sister died on the vacation

- Her first thought was not grief, but that she could be the brother in law's wife

- Extremely incompatible with the dominant mass and this wish must be repressed

-> Dominant mass: you do not desire to be with your brother in law once your sister dies obviously

What is the problem with hypnosis?

Some people are unable to be hypnotized, like Elizabeth Von R.

Case of Elizabeth von R. (Freud's treatment)

- Freud worked without hypnosis, encouraging Elizabeth to speak openly

- Allowed her to acknowledge repressed feelings of love and sexual attraction toward her brother-in-law and these thoughts were acceptable

- He believed hysteria could only be cured by recovering repressed traumatic thoughts and the associated affect (feelings), reliving them with full force, and assimilating them into conscious truth.

- The therapeutic task was to bring patient back to traumatic thoughts and give them expression, leading to symptom relief.

Psychological resistance

- Process by which people with hysteria repress ideas, thoughts, and feelings that oppose the dominant mass

- While adaptive, this repression carries psychological costs, as the repressed affect becomes "strangulated" and fuels hysterical symptoms

->Ex. Elizabeth von R. repressed the wish to be with her brother-in-law because it conflicted with her dominant mass

Strangulated Affect

- Emotions reflect a lot of psychological energy and when that energy gets repressed, there is a lot of content that is under pressure psychologically and needs to manifest

- Strangulated affect gets manifested as physical symptoms experienced as somatic tension

Catharsis (in hysteria)

- Process of catharsis enables the person with hysteria to accept and assimilate the unacceptable thoughts and feelings with their day to day life

- Important for catharsis to occur with as much emotional energy and force as went into the original repression of evil thoughts

- By reliving the thoughts and feelings with those memories, patients with hysteria can come to experience relief of their hysterical symptoms

Acceptance

Involves transforming hysterical misery into common unhappiness

Sexuality

- Freud said sex brought the most copious incompatible ideas

- Breuer agreed but he did not see sex and sexuality as the basis for all incompatible ideas

Hypnosis and its problems

- Brought the patient back to the repressed memory and then reported the memory back to the patient

- Problems:

->Hypnosis is not applicable to all

->Impermanence of symptom relief (transient cure) - no emotional investment in therapy

->To really purge from evil memories, we must relive thoughts and feelings of traumatic experience

->Transference - patients can transfer the feelings they have onto the therapist (ex. Anna O - when she developed amorous feelings for Josef Breuer)

Free Association

- The patient is encouraged to say whatever comes to mind

- Task for therapist is to analyze inconsistencies and analyze and missing links in the chain of association

- Patient will begin to associate around the source of the psychological trauma

Conscious

- Contains whatever material is present to your mind at this moment (ex. Taking notes, listening to lecture, thinking about past/future, etc)

- Material in the conscious is readily and easily symbolized

- No conflict experienced with material that is within the conscious

Preconscious

- Contains material that is not currently on your mind, but can be bought back to mind easily

- No conflict with this material and is readily and easily symbolized to be made sense of

- Requires a little more psychological energy to bring this material to the surface of the mind

- Contains our memories and stored knowledge as long as it is not traumatic or conflicting

Unconscious

- Repository of repressed libidinal urges (sexual + aggressive drives)

- Material is incompatible with the dominant mass, so it must be repressed

- Repression requires active resistance and large amounts of psychological energy

- Early childhood memories stay unconscious due to lack of symbolic representation (diabolic)

- The unconscious constantly pushes toward awareness, but is blocked by repression

- Can surface when the ego is weak (ex. tired, intoxicated, drugged)

- Contains fears, motives, selfish needs, irrational wishes, shameful desires, forgotten experiences

Conservation of energy hypothesis

- Psyche has a limited pool of energy and one must conserve the energy of the psyche

- If the energy is tied up in conflicts and repressed, then the energy is not available for use in other areas of life

Cathexis (Latin) or Besetzung (German)

- A cathexis is a nonconscious psychic link between the libido and the object of gratification

- Cathexis are displaceable... psychic energy can be easily transferred from one object to another

-> Ex. dissolution of a romantic relationship... we are easily able to turn our sexual energy from one partner to the next

Structure of drives (from the Id)

Source -> Aim -> object

Source of drive

somewhere in the physiology of the organism, somewhere in the body tissue of the organism

Aim of drives

modality of our drives (in oral stage, our aim is oral...in anal stage of psychosexual development, our aim is anal)

Object of drives

the object in the environment which can satisfy the drive (whether that be a breast, defecation, partner, boss, parent, etc)...primary source of sexual gratification

What does it mean when drives are telic?

- Drives have an aim and seek satisfaction

- Drives are purposive and international

- Seek gratification at all times

Manifest Content

- The dream as remembered by the dreamer

- Safe, non-threatening, doesn't disturb the ego or sleep

Latent content

- The hidden, true meaning of the dream

- Contains raw drives (sexual, aggressive) and repressed wishes

- If revealed directly, it would threaten the ego and disrupt sleep

Function of dreams

- Serve as wish fulfillment

- Release pent-up energy from ungratified drives and desires of daily life

- Ego disguises threatening latent content into safer manifest content

Dreamwork

- Process that transforms latent content → manifest content

- Disguises urges so the psyche isn't disturbed

Dream Interpretation

- Analyst's process of uncovering latent content behind manifest content

- Goal: reveal repressed thoughts and unfulfilled wishes

Daydreams

- Contain sexual/aggressive wishes

- Shared only with self (not too threatening, but still private)

- Provide release of unfulfilled urges

Freudian Slips

- Mistaken speech revealing unconscious wishes or thoughts

- Never accidental, always intentional expressions of the unconscious

What is Freud's psychosexual theory of development?

- All children go through an invariant sequence of stages

- In each stage, the libido (sexual/aggressive drive) is focused on a different body zone

- Each stage involves a critical conflict, and how it is resolved shapes later personality

- Adult psychopathology can often be traced back to unresolved conflicts from these stages

Oral Stage (0-1 yr)

- The libido is focused on the mouth

- The primary source of gratification is the mother's breast

- The critical conflict is weaning

- Successful weaning supports healthy development, while poor resolution leads to dependency and attachment issues later in life

Anal Stage (2-3 yrs)

- The libido is focused on the anus, with gratification coming from defecation

- At this stage, toddlers have complete control over when and where they go to the bathroom

- Critical conflict is toilet training

- Children want freedom, but parents impose rules

- Resolution fosters healthy control and autonomy

- Poor resolution can cause fixation, producing rigid/orderly personality (anal retentive) or messy/defiant (anal expulsive)

Phallic Stage (4-6 yrs)

- The libido is focused on the genitals

- The critical conflict is erotic feelings toward the opposite-sex parent, which must be resolved to avoid fixation

Oedipal Complex

- Boys develop sexual attraction to their mothers

- They view their fathers as rivals and experience castration anxiety

- The resolution is to identify with the father and imitate beliefs, values, dress

- Through identification, the boy can have the mom "derivatively" by being like the dad

Electra Complex

- Girls realize they "lack a penis" and experience penis envy, often blaming the mother

- They develop sexual attraction to the father and rivalry with the mother

- Resolution occurs through identification with the mother through dressing, behaving, and adopting her values which allows the girl to have the dad "derivatively" by being like the mom

Id

- sexual + aggressive urges.

- No access by ego, unconscious, hidden

- Function: represent and push drives for gratification

- Operates on: Pleasure Principle → seeks immediate satisfaction

Ego

- Self-concept: what we own and see as ours

- rational, realistic, organized

- Operates on: Reality Principle → delays gratification, finds realistic means.

- Ego strength: varies → weakens when tired, stressed, or intoxicated.

- "weak servant to three masters" ->

Superego

- Outgrowth of ego

- Develops when Oedipus/Electra complexes are resolved → child identifies with same-sex parent.

- Function: warn ego of danger, supress pleasure principle, moralizing voice

- Punishment: guilt and shame if we act on sexual/aggressive urges.