History of Psychology - Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud

The founder of psychoanalysis, a theory of human psychology, a method of therapy, and a cultural movement. He proposed that human behavior is largely driven by unconscious forces.

Origins of Psychoanalysis

• Jean-Martin Charcot: Influenced Freud with his work on "hysteria," demonstrating that physical symptoms could have psychological, trauma-related origins.
• Trauma to Phantasy: Freud initially believed hysteria stemmed from repressed memories of actual childhood sexual abuse, but later shifted to the idea that symptoms arose from repressed phantasies and desires (e.g., the Oedipus complex).

Structural & Topographical Models

• Topographical Model: The mind is divided into the conscious (what we are aware of), preconscious (easily recalled), and unconscious (deeply hidden thoughts and desires).
• Structural Model: The personality consists of three parts: the Id (unconscious urges, pleasure principle), the Ego (mediates reality, reality principle), and the Superego (morality, ego ideal).

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious strategies used by the ego to manage conflict and reduce anxiety. Examples include:
• Repression: Pushing unpleasant thoughts into the unconscious.
• Projection: Attributing one's own unacceptable feelings to others.
• Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable behaviors.

Psychoanalytic Methods

Techniques used to access the unconscious.
• Free Association: The patient says whatever comes to mind, allowing unconscious thoughts to emerge.
• Dream Analysis: Dreams are seen as the "royal road to the unconscious," with a manifest (literal) and a latent (symbolic) content that reveals hidden conflicts.

Schisms & Dissidents

• Carl Jung: A close colleague who broke with Freud over the latter's emphasis on sexuality. Jung proposed the concepts of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and personality types (e.g., introvert/extrovert).
• Others: Thinkers like Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology) and Anna Freud also developed their own schools based on, but distinct from, Freudian ideas.

Critiques of Psychoanalysis

• Unfalsifiability: Karl Popper argued that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience because its theories are so flexible they can explain any outcome and can never be proven wrong.
• Lack of Empiricism: Freud himself showed little interest in experimentally verifying his claims, relying instead on clinical case observations.

Conflict with Other Theories

• Behaviorism: Watson's research on conditioning was a direct challenge to the unobservable, internal focus of psychoanalysis.
• Attachment Theory: Developed by Mary Ainsworth, this theory challenged the Freudian focus on internal drives by emphasizing the primacy of the caregiver relationship and observable mother-infant interactions, assessed via the Strange Situation Procedure.