PSYCH 333 - The Neo-Freudians

What is Neo-Freudian Psychology?

A general term for the psychoanalytically oriented work of many theorists and researchers who are influenced by Freud's theory.

What is another term for Neo-Freudian Psychology?

Psychosocial perspective.

Which psychologist might not want to be labeled as Neo-Freudian?

Adler.

3 Major differences between Neo-Freudians and Freud

Sex is less important.

- May be an influence, but Freud's obsession is taking us away from a better understanding of hummanity. They don't argue it's important, but it isn't necessarily the essence of hummanity.

Less process on unconscious mental process

- People are consciously aware of things, and this conscious influence has a big role too!

- Ego Psychology

Puts more emphasis on interpersonal relationships

- A lot of who we are is because of who we KNOW.

- Freud was interested on the mother, but Neo-Freudians might be even MORE.

Ego Psychology

The modern school of psychoanalytic thought that believes the most important aspect of mental functioning is the way the ego mediates and formulates compromises among the impulses of the id and superego

Focuses the analysis on the Ego. What is the Ego doing?

The Ego is the primary engine, contrary to Freud (the Id)

2 issues at the heart of the Ego

Ego Control

Ego Resiliency

Ego Control

How much control over this desire do you have?

The extent to which the person inhibits impulses

Ego Resiliency

The capacity to modify your usual level of ego control and to adapt to a given situation

There are certain situations where you gotta have control. But other times where you wanna be more impulsive. This allows you to distinguish.

2 motivations of the ego

Effectance Motivation and Competence motivation

Effectance Motivation

They don't do anything for a particular goal, just to have an impact around them

Even crying.

The motive to have an effect or an impact on your surroundings

What is competence motivation?

The motive to be effective in dealing with the environment.

What does competence motivation involve?

Learning to deal with environments in a productive way.

Give an example of competence motivation.

Crying when it is effective.

What is a goal of competence motivation?

To have an impact on your environment in a goal-oriented/effective way.

Erik Erickson

Central theme is ego identity. Example of taking hyperfocus of sexuality and turned it into interpersonal relationships

Refined Freud's theory of psychosexual development -> theory of psychosocial development

• Covers the entire lifespan (Freud only focused on childhood. Took off the erogenous zones and replaced it with Psychosocial Crisis)

• Focus on mastery (vs. failure)

• Psychosocial crisis/conflict:

Ego identity

Erik Erickson = The overall sense of self that emerges from your transactions with social reality

Psychosocial Crisis/Conflict

A turning point in a development period when some interpersonal issue is being dealt with and growth potential and vulnerability are both high

There are certain moments in our lives that will have a conflict. It's especially important in infancy.

Freud v. Erickson for development at 0-2 years (1)

Oral

Trust v. Mistrust

Freud v. Erickson for development at 3-4 years (2)

Anal

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Freud v. Erickson for development at 4-7 years (3)

Phallic

Initiative vs. Guilt

Freud v. Erickson for development at 8-12 Years

Latency

Industry vs. inferiority

Freud v. Erickson for development at 13+ years

Genital

Identity vs. Identity Confusion

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: Infancy

Trust vs. Mistrust

Overlaps with Freud's oral stage

Virtue: Hope (positive, but not arrogant, attitude toward life)

Virtue of Infancy (0-2) (Erickson)

Hope

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: Early Childhood

Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt

When the child starts to engage with the world

• Toilet training helps develops autonomy

• Autonomy emerges from effectively interacting with others

• Overlaps with Freud's anal stage

• Virtue: Will

Virtue of Early Childhood (3-4) (Erickson)

Will

____ best helps develop a sense of autonomy

Toilet Training

Children basically do this themselves eventually. A motivator for the kid to be toilet trained. But if you shame/yell at them, then they'll feel like they can't do it themselves in the world.

T/F You don't want 100% of either side of psychosocial development

T

T/F When the previous stage is well made (ex. trust), then the following is so much easier (ex. Autonomy)

T

Some argue you can't even more on. Erikson wasn't so strict, some stages perhaps, but not all.

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: Preschool

Initiative vs. Guilt

Where competence begins to shape.

• The child must try to make things happen

• Overlaps with Freud's phallic stage

• Virtue: Purpose

Virtue of Preschool age (4-7) (Erickson)

Purpose

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: School Age

Industry vs. Inferiority

• The child learns to be productive members of society

• Virtue: Competence

Virtue of School Age 6-11 (Erickson)

Competence

Asking a 6-11 year old what they want to be, they'll answer

with things they know are praised or necessary for society, even if it's supernatural (ex. superhero)

What is the main conflict in Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development during Adolescence?

Identity vs. Role confusion

Which stage of Freud's theory overlaps with Erickson's Adolescence stage?

Genital stage

What does Erikson believe is required for adolescents in terms of self-views?

Integrating earlier self-views with how others perceive them

What did Erikson consider to be the major life task during Adolescence?

To obtain a sense of personal continuity

What is the virtue associated with the Adolescence stage in Erickson's Model?

Fidelity

T/F You do not HAVE to have Identity before navigating the next ones according to Erikson.

False

Virtue of Adolescence (12-20) (Erickson)

Fidelity (to the self. Values, perspectives, etc.)

What is the stage of Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development for young adulthood?

Intimacy vs. Isolation

What types of relationships are included in the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage?

Romantic relationships, friendships, and communities

What is required to approach relationships in the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage?

A caring and open way, focusing on what's best for others

What is necessary for intimacy according to Erickson's Model?

A sense of identity

Why is it hard to be open with someone in the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage?

If we don't know who we are, it's hard to be open with others.

Virtue for young adulthood (mid-20s)

Love

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: Adulthood (to 60s)

Generativity (want to make a meaningful impact on others) vs. Stagnation (self-centredness, unwilingness to give oneself)

• A shift of focus from a close relationship with one to society as a whole. To hummanity as a WHOLE. How do I pass this on to the next generation?

Stagnation = "I suffered so they should have to suffer too"

Identity is important because you have to know who you are to guide other people.

Virtue = Care

Virtue of Adulthood (to 60s)

Care

People who are generative in the adulthood stage are

Happier, tend to last longer, etc.

Those stagnated has all the negative stuff. Any sense of happiness might be inflated or not last long.

Erickson's Model of Psychosocial Development: Old Age

Ego integrity (am I content?) vs. Despair (Filled with regret)

• Did your life have meaning? Do you accept your choice?

• Virtue: Wisdom

Virtue of Old Age

Wisdom

Those with higher generativity tend to feel ______ about their death

okay

Stagnated people likely do not feel okay.

What is Erickson's Epigenetic Principle?

There is a readiness for each crisis at birth and it is always present, just shows up at different times.

Can the core conflict at a given stage be present at other stages?

Yes, for example, intimacy may be relevant after children leave home.

How does the outcome of previous stages influence current crises?

Orientation to one crisis is influenced by the outcomes of previous stages.

What is the effect of resolving a core crisis at one stage?

Resolving a core crisis at one stage prepares solutions for future stages.

Are crises resolved once and for all in Erickson's theory?

No, crises are not resolved once and for all.

Differences between Freud and Erickson's models

Erickson went through the total lifespan

Erickson: you don't have the fixation in the same way, some just take a primary focus at different times.

Freud: We all have different levels of fixations. But where is most of it at?

Object Relations Theory

The psychoanalytic study of interpersonal relations, including the unconscious images and feelings associated with the important people ("objects") in a person's life

• We can only relate to others through the objects we have constructed, which are not always accurate

- Your understanding of your mother/father/childhood friend are objects.

Different from attachment theory, but have a lot in common. An expansion of Freud's understanding of transference.

Imagining a great experience where you're successfully winning an argument, but then having the actual conversation and they're surprisingly reasonable is an example of

Object relations theory

4 major themes of Object Relations Theory

Mainly focused on relationship with the mother and child.

• Every relationship has elements of satisfaction and frustration

• The mix of love and hate (for the objects in their life)

- An expansion of satisfaction and frustration

- Child is satisfied with providing nourishment, but also frustrating because she's not always able to love/care. So it's not either/or, but it's that the baby loves AND hates the mother.

•Distinction between the parts of the love object and the whole person

• The psyche is aware of and disturbed by such contradictory feelings to some extent

- How many times have you heard a child saying "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you," to a mother when they wouldn't buy them a toy?

Melanie Klein

was one of the earliest psychoanalysts to work with children (along with Anna Freud)

- Freud didn't think he could get much work with kids. ____ believed that by going the right direction you can.

• Use of play for diagnosis/asessment

- Sometimes kids would play aggressively with dolls, and other times super nice

• Paranoid and depressive positions. Y

• Idealization is a symptom of underlying hostility being defended against at all costs

Paranoid POsition

you fear and want as much space

Idealization

a symptom of underlying hostility being defended against at all costs

Splitting (Klein)

Early in life people divide their feelings about the objects into all good or all bad

ex. mother has sides to her, sometimes it's discipline (spanking), but other times is loving.

Depressive position

you want to protect and worship the good part.

Klein argued idealization is a way to defend how you feel for a particular object. Ex. You hate your mother, but what the kid does is expressing the love and adoration explicitly or consciously

Such a fear of authoritarian parent, but grew up with the "honour your mother/father", so instead you idealize

The "niffle"

According to D.W. Winnicott, a ______ is a transitional security object that helps children bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. Means for comfort.

It's MAGICAL: Gives kids strength, security, safete, but there's nothing about that object that does it.

The "false self" is normal and at times necessary but override the true self too much

T/F Adults have their own "niffles"

True

We have some sort of object we give an emotional meaning to that if we don't have it, there might be something wrong. Feeling empty.

Our phones could be a niffle

Imaginary friends and niffles? How about work? Grieving items like family heirlooms?

Some say yes it is an object, some say no it has to be a tangible object.

Prof doesn't think why not an imaginary friend, that it serves the same purposes.

Not the work itself, but plaques and framing degrees might be.

Family heirlooms could definitely be a niffle for adults.

The "false self" by Winnicott

the self you develop for various social interactions. In certain situations, there seems to be a way to do it (smiling, talking about the weather, etc.)

has been called "masking"

ex. not liking cops, but when getting pulled over, you might fake being nice presenting a _____ to get out of the situation

a form of maturity.

is normal and at times necessary but override the true self too much

Sometimes the false self is presented so much that...

we forget who we are. Or forget other sides.

Ex. parents being a "role model" in the early years, that they forget that they have other sides to them like other interests that they haven't been able to pay attention to, or even intimate rlationship

Purpose of psychotherapy for object relations theory

• Reduce discrepancies between false and true selves

• See important people in one's life as they truly are. That they're not simplistic but multifaceted.

•Integrate pieces of others into their whole selves

• Work through irrational defenses

T/F Object relations theory views rationality as a way to overcome problems

True

Like Freud, have it come to the surface to have it be dealt with rationally

Self Psychology

Heinz Kohut's theory that relationships create the structure of the self

Heinz Kohut believed that people start as babies with essential ______

narcissism

Essential Narcissism

Heinz Kohut

What babies are

A pattern of self-centered needs that must be satisfied through others

Babies can't help themselves, so they need to help and change them.

Selfobjects

Heinz Kohut

Someone who helps satisfy your needs

Heinz Kohut: The self develops through interaction with the ______

parents

Mirroring

Mirroring (Kohut)

Giving support to the child and responding in an empathetic, accepting way.

Parents need to reinforce this narcissism in the kid, to being some kind of grandiosity

Heinz Kohut: Grandiosity gets modified and channeled into realistic activities for the healthy

personality

• Must be sustained to some degree throughout development

• Must also be kept in check

- otherwise they become what we would define as "narcissists" so they must also understand there's other people in the world.

Margaret Mahler

Argued that Newborns begin life in a state of perfect psychological fusion with others (usually the mother) AKA Symbiosis

Thus, personality development is the breaking down of this fusion (AKA separation-individuation)

Symbiosis

Margaret Mahler

When the infant is fused with the mother

Separation-individuation

Margaret Mahlet

The process of acquiring a distinct identity; separating from fusion with the mother

During separation-individuation, the child faces the conflict between two pressures:

Conflict between growth and security.

1. The wish to be taken care of by the mother and be united with her. Want to be taken care of.

2. The fear of being overwhelmed by the merger and a desire to establish selfhood. Want to stand on their own two feet.

The mother's behavior is important for adjustment during this time

This is always a push and pull.

How the mother responds separation-indivuation to the kid determines how well the kid can go through it

too nurturing, no personality (separation anxiety)

No nurturing, (anxious avoidant)

At around 3, the child ______ the object relation of the mother, making her ever ______(symbolically)

internalizes, present

Carl Jung's differences with Freud

Notably the Jung's focus on mysticism and spirituality

Jung argued that mysticism and spirituality is a fundamental aspect of the human condition.

Carl Jung

Provided names like the collective unconscious, archetypes, personas, shadow, etc.

Collective Unconscious

(Jung)

The proposition that ALL people share certain unconscious ideas because of the history of the human species

Archetypes

(Jung)

The fundamental images of people that are contained in the collective unconscious

Got popular with

Star Wars: Old Man/Woman, the Trickster, The Devil, Hero, Villain.

Persona

(Jung)

the social mask someone wears in public dealings

Shadow

(Jung)

An archetype that represents the "darker side" of the human psyche.

It's frightening, so we don't want to admit/see it, but we see it in other people.

Shadows are asessed by _____

projection.

The Shadow is associated to Freud's ______

Id

Anima

(Jung)

The idea of the female as held in the mind of a male

Animus

The idea of the male as held in the mind of the female

Anima and Animus

We all have a "masculine" and "feminine" side and will use that to (mis)understand the opposite sex

A man's Anima is key because it is how we'd (mis)understand about women in the real world. So, if you have a very sexist view, that would be really harmful

Jung's view of introverts and extroverts

The main question was: Where does your energy get directed?

Introvert = directed inward

Extrovert = directed outward

What people think they get from Freud could actually be

Object relations theory