Chapter 2: Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis

psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality and system of therapy for treating mental disorders.

instincts

In Freud’s system, mental representations of internal stimuli, such as hunger, that drive a person to take certain actions.

life instincts

The drive for ensuring survival of the individual and the species by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex.

libido

To Freud, the form of psychic energy, manifested by the life instincts, that drives a person toward pleasurable behaviors and thoughts.

cathexis

An investment of psychic energy in an object or person.

death instincts

The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.

aggressive drive

The compulsion to destroy, conquer, and kill.

id

To Freud, the aspect of personality allied with the instincts; the source of psychic energy, the id operates according to the pleasure principle.

pleasure principle

The principle by which the id functions to avoid pain and maximize pleasure.

primary-process thought

Childlike thinking by which the id attempts to satisfy the instinctual drives.

secondary-process thought

Mature thought processes needed to deal rationally with the external world.

ego

To Freud, the rational aspect of the personality, responsible for directing and controlling the instincts according to the reality principle.

reality principle

The principle by which the ego functions to provide appropriate constraints on the expression of the id instincts.

superego

To Freud, the moral aspect of personality; the internalization of parental and societal values and standards.

conscience

A component of the superego that contains behaviors for which the child has been punished.

ego-ideal

A component of the superego that contains the moral or ideal behaviors for which a person should strive.

anxiety

To Freud, a feeling of fear and dread without an obvious cause.

reality anxiety

a fear of tangible dangers.

neurotic anxiety

involves a conflict between id and ego.

moral anxiety

involves a conflict between id and superego.

defense mechanisms

Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life. Defense mechanisms involve denials or distortions of reality.

repression

A defense mechanism that involves unconscious denial of the existence of something that causes anxiety.

denial

A defense mechanism that involves denying the existence of an external threat or traumatic event.

reaction formation

A defense mechanism that involves expressing an id impulse that is the opposite of the one that is truly driving the person.

projection

A defense mechanism that involves attributing a disturbing impulse to someone else.

regression

A defense mechanism that involves retreating to an earlier, less frustrating period of life and displaying the usually childish behaviors characteristic of that more secure time.

rationalization

A defense mechanism that involves reinterpreting our behavior to make it more acceptable and less threatening to us.

displacement

A defense mechanism that involves shifting id impulses from a threatening object or from one that is unavailable to an object that is available; for example, replacing hostility toward one’s boss with hostility toward one’s child.

sublimation

A defense mechanism that involves altering or displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual energy into socially acceptable behaviors.

psychosexual stages of development

To Freud, the oral, anal, phallic, and genital stages through which all children pass. In these stages, gratification of the id instincts depends on the stimulation of corresponding areas of the body.

fixation

A condition in which a portion of libido remains invested in one of the psychosexual stages because of excessive frustration or gratification.

Oedipus complex

During the phallic stage (ages 4–5), the unconscious desire of a boy for his mother, accompanied by a desire to replace or destroy his father.

castration anxiety

A boy’s fear during the Oedipal period that his penis will be cut off.

Electra complex

During the phallic stage (ages 4–5), the unconscious desire of a girl for her father, accompanied by a desire to replace or destroy her mother.

penis envy

The envy the female feels toward the male because the male possesses a penis; this is accompanied by a sense of loss because the female does not have a penis.

latency period

To Freud, the period from approximately age 5 to puberty, during which the sex instinct is dormant, sublimated in school activities, sports, and hobbies, and in developing friendships with members of the same sex.

free association

A technique in which the patient says whatever comes to mind. In other words, it is a kind of daydreaming out loud.

catharsis

The expression of emotions that is expected to lead to the reduction of disturbing symptoms.

resistance

In free association, a blockage or refusal to disclose painful memories.

case study

A detailed history of an individual that contains data from a variety of sources.

subliminal perception

Perception below the threshold of conscious awareness.