module 55: freud's psychoanalytic perspective

Freud

• Most people would say Freud when asked to name a famous deceased psychologist.

• He was a Victorian era man. Men’s and women’s roles were clearly defined with male dominance and only male sexuality was generally acknowledged.

Free Association

• The method of exploring the unconscious in psychoanalysis, where the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Unconscious (Freud)

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. Nothing is accidental.

Contemporary Understanding of the Unconscious

Information processing of which we are unaware.

Freud’s view of Personality

Freud said human personality comes from a conflict between impulse and restraint between our aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges and our internalized social controls over these urges.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy, that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle; demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The largely unconscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Superego

The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations.

Psychosexual stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genitalia) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Oedipus complex

According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feeling of jealousy and hatred for his rival father.

Identification

The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos.

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• Oral (0-18 months): Pleasure centers on the mouth: sucking, biting, and chewing.

• Anal (18-36 months): Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control.

• Phallic (3-6 years): Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings.

• Latency (6 to puberty): A phase of dormant sexual feelings

• Genital (puberty on): Maturation of sexual interests

Fixate

According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

How did Freud think people defend themselves against anxiety?

Freud said we get anxiety from controlling sexual and aggressive impulses. Sometimes the ego fears losing control of the war between the id and the superego.

Seven Defense Mechanisms

• Regression: Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated.

• Reaction formation: Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

• Projection: Disgusting one’s threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

• Rationalization: Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

• Displacement: Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

• Sublimation: Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

• Denial: Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Modern Research vs. Freud

• Refutes his reasoning for why we dream.

• Challenges the idea of repression.

• Debunks his claim that suppressed sexuality causes psychological disorders.