Chapter 11: Psychoanalysis After Freud: Neo-Freudians, Object Relations, and Current Research

why is interpreting Freud difficult?

he has changed his mind about important issues more than once

updating the theory to be reasonable to today

* alter story of the oedipal crisis in light of socialization research
* reinterpret libido as the life drive
* development includes changing demands in the social world

neo-freudian psychology

a general term for the psychoanalytically oriented work of many theorists and researches who were influenced by Freud’s theory

people who used the same methods as Freud

* Anna Freud
* Bruno Bettelheim
* Harry Stack Sullivan
* Henry Murray

three ways neo-Freudians differ from Freud

* reinterpretation of the libido
* less emphasis on unconscious mental processes and more emphasis on conscious thought
* less emphasis on instinctual drives and mental life as the source of psychological difficulties, and focuses instead on interpersonal relationships

ego psychology

focus on perception, memory, learning, and rational, conscious thinking

Alfred Adler

* thought Freud focused too much on sex
* more importance on social interest
* organ inferiority

social interest

the desire to relate positively and productively with other people

organ inferiority

the idea that individuals are motivated to attain equality with or superiority over other people and try to accomplish this to compensate for what they felt in childhood was their weakest aspect

masculine protest

the desire of an adult to act and become powerful, because of feeling inadequate or inferior as a child; a particular kind of compensation

compensation

the masculine protest, therefore, is a compensation in response to feelings of inferiority

style of life

a particular mode of behavior based on compensations for perceived childhood inferiorities

Carl Jung

* interested in mystical and spiritual matters
* collective unconscious and archetypes

collective unconscious

memories and ideas that all humans share, most of which reside in the unconscious in the form of basic images

archetypes

core ideas of how people think about the world, both consciously and unconsciously

persona

* the social mask one wears in public
* false to some degree
* possible danger

anima

the idea, or prototype, of the female as help in the mind of a male

animus

the idea or prototype of the male as held in the mind of a female

introverts vs extraverts

* ways of thinking: rational, feeling, sensing, and intuiting
* psychologically turned inward vs outward

Karen Horney

* disagreed with “penis envy” and women’s desire to be male
* basic anxiety

basic anxiety

fear of being alone and helpless in a hostile world

neurotic needs

needs that people feel but that are neither realistic nor truly desirable

Erik Erikson

* many conflicts are conscious and arise at various stages of life
* basic conflicts arise at various stages of life

basic vs mistrust

* 0-2 years
* corresponds to the oral stage
* learn whether needs will be met, ignored, or overindulged
* development of hope and confidence

hope

a positive but not arrogant attitude toward life

confidence

that basic needs will be met

autonomy vs shame and doubt

* 3-4 years
* corresponds to the anal stage
* figuring out who is in charge

initiative vs guilt

* 4-7 years
* corresponds to the phallic stage
* anticipating and fantasizing about life as an adult
* develop a sense of right and wrong

industry vs inferiority

* 8-12 years
* corresponds to the latency period
* develop skills and abilities to succeed in the world or work and contribute to society
* start to control imagination and unfocused energy

identity vs identity confusion

* adolescence
* genital stage
* figure out who i am and what is important
* choose consistent, meaningful, and useful values and goals

intimacy vs isolation

* young adulthood
* find an intimate life partner

generatively vs stagnation

* middle age
* turn concerns to the next generation or become passive

integrity vs despair

* old age
* brought on by the prospect of death
* based on feelings about one’s life

major contributions of Erikson’s theory

* psychological development is based on developmental tasks
* consistent with current theorizing that personality development is an ongoing life task

freudian stage and eriksonian issue

* oral = trust vs mistrust
* anal = autonomy vs shame and doubt
* phallic = initiative vs guilt
* latency = industry vs inferiority
* genital = identity vs identity confusion, generatively vs stagnation, integrity vs despair

Melanie Klein and D.W. Winnicott

the most important part of life is probably relationships and that the superego is built from childhood identifications with important people

objects

emotionally important people

object relations theory

the analysis of interpersonal relationships

four principal themes

* every relationship has elements of satisfaction and frustration
* the mix of love and hate
* distinction between parts of the love object and the whole person
* the psyche is aware of and disturbed by these contradictory feelings

Melanie Klein

* based on work with children
* play therapy
* splitting of love objects into good and bad parts

play therapy

* communicating with and diagnosing children through play
* allows the symbolic expression of emotions

paranoid position

children wish to destroy the bad part because they fear being destroyed by it

depressive position

children wish to worship and protect the good part because they fear losing it

neurotic defense

used to deal with the contradictory and irrational desires to both destroy and worship love objects

D.W. Winnicott extended ORT

* transitional objects
* the false self

transitional objects

used to bridge the gap between private fantasy and reality, source of comfort when the adult is not available, help the child face the world alone

the false self

the self people put on to please others; similar to Jung’s persona

what is the purpose of object relations therapy?

* minimize discrepancies between true and false selves
* help the rational resources of the mind work through irrational defenses
* help the client see important people in his life the way they actually are

current psychoanalytic research

* independent and simultaneous mental processes that can conflict
* unconscious mental processes
* compromises among mental processes negotiated outside of consciousness
* self-defensive thoughts and self deception
* the influence of the past on current functioning
* the influence of sexual or aggressive wishes

perceptual defense

when the ego tries to prevent stimuli that the superego find overly threatening from entering awareness

unconscious thought

much of what the mind does is unconscious

parallel distributed processing (PDP)

the mind does many different things at once and only a small fraction of this activity becomes conscious, conscious thoughts and behavior are a compromise of the unconscious processes

defense and catharsis

* defenses can be revealed in speech
* freely expressing the issues that trouble you

psychoanalysis in perspective

* difficult to evaluate the theory because there are many different versions
* try to focus on general themes

interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)

* modern day psychoanalytic approach
* treatment for depression
* different from classical psychoanalysis