Lecture 17: Freud and the Freudian Unconscious

Vocabulary flashcards covering Sigmund Freud's concepts of the unconscious, defense mechanisms, hysteria treatments, and stages of development based on Lecture 17.

Unity of the mind

Freud's conceptualization that the mind is a single, indivisible entity, which formed the basis for his rejection of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).

Freudian unconscious

A domain of the mind containing deeply disturbing, repressed material—largely linked to early childhood—that is guarded to prevent it from rising to conscious awareness.

Cognitive unconscious

A mental domain consisting of inaccessible cognitive information, contrasted with the Freudian unconscious because its contents are not inherently disturbing or repressed.

Repression

The psychological mechanism by which deeply disturbing thoughts and memories, frequently connected to early childhood, are excluded from conscious inspection.

Defense mechanisms

Psychological processes that guard consciousness against intrusive repressed thoughts; pathology results from either their failure or excessive success.

C. A. Ross (1989)

Author of Multiple personality disorder : diagnosis, clinical features, and treatment, who argued that dissociation is not new and that Freud mistakenly dismissed reports of childhood abuse as delusions.

Drew Westen (1998)

Author of The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud, noted for the line comparing Freud to Elvis in that both have been dead for years but continue to be cited regularly.

Charcot

The French clinician who revived hypnosis as a psychiatric treatment, under whom Freud studied in Paris in 1885.

Joseph Breuer

A Viennese physician who treated the patient Anna O. and utilized catharsis as a therapeutic method for hysterical symptoms.

Anna O.

A patient treated by Joseph Breuer who coined the descriptive terms "talking cure" and "chimney sweeping" for cathartic treatment.

Catharsis

A therapeutic approach developed by Joseph Breuer involving emotional release to treat hysterical symptoms.

Talking cure

A term coined by Anna O. to describe the psychotherapeutic process of alleviating hysterical symptoms through verbal expression.

Pleasure principle

The fundamental driving force that governs infants, whom Freud characterized as amoral creatures seeking immediate gratification.

Projection

A normal defense mechanism identified by Freud wherein an individual attributes their own repressed or unwanted thoughts and impulses to others.

Free association

A psychoanalytic treatment technique used to uncover unconscious thoughts and address psychopathology.

Freudian slip

An unintended error in speech or behavior believed to expose an underlying unconscious thought or repressed impulse.

Transference

The psychoanalytic phenomenon where a patient redirects unconscious feelings, desires, and expectations from earlier relationships onto the analyst.

Counter-transference

The emotional reaction and redirection of unconscious feelings by the therapist toward the patient.

Oral Stage

The first stage of Freud's theory of psychosexual development, wherein pleasure and primary conflicts are centered around feeding and sucking.

Anal Stage

The second stage of Freud's theory of psychosexual development, characterized by issues of control and conflicts surrounding toilet training.

Phallic/Oedipal Stage

The third stage of Freud's theory of psychosexual development, centered on issues of identity and conflicts regarding relations with the same-sex and opposite-sex parents.