Personality Chapter 2: Freud & Psychoanalysis

psychoanalysis

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

Instincts (psychoanalytic theory)

cognitive reflection of a biological deficiency shaping behavior. It has a source, aim, object, and impetus. There is a life instinct and a death instinct

death instincts

the unconscious drive towards decay, destruction, and aggression

life instincts

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

libido

the form of psychic energy, manifested by the life instincts, that drives a person towards pleasurable behaviors and thoughts, hunger, thirst, sex

aggressive drive

the compulsion to destroy, kill, and conquer

id

the aspect of personality allied with the instincts

the source of psychic energy

it processes according to the pleasure principle

pleasure principle

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

ego

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 operates to provide appropriate constraints on the expression of the id instincts

superego

the moral aspect of personality

the internalization of parental and societal values and standards

conscience

An inner feeling of the rightness or wrongness of an action

ego-ideal

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

anxiety

a feeling of fear and dread without an obvious cause

reality anxiety

a fear of tangible dangers

neurotic anxiety

involves a conflict between the id and ego

moral anxiety

involves a conflict between the id and superego

defense mechanisms

strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life. They involve denials of distortions of reality

repression

a defense mechanism that involves denying 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 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

sublimation

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

fixation

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

dream analysis

a technique involving the interpretation of dreams to uncover unconscious conflicts

manifest content

the actual events in a dream

latent content

the symbolic meaning of dream events

free association (psychoanalysis)

a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

ego ideal

part of the superego that contains the standards for moral behavior

Preconscious

Information that is not conscious but is easily retrievable into conscious awareness

Eros

romantic love

Thanatos

death instinct

Sigmund Freud

Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation

founded psychoanalysis.

Joseph Breuer

neurologist who taught Freud 'talking cure', or 'catharsis'

Anna O (Bertha Pappenheim)

Often cited as the first psychoanalytic patient, she suffered from hysteria and was give hypnosis treatment which influenced Freud's psychoanalysis

catharsis hypothesis

the idea that we feel better if we "blow off steam" by venting our emotions