Freud Psychoanalytic Theory Notes

Levels of Awareness and Personality Structure

  • The structure of personality is like an iceberg, with different levels of awareness.
  • Consciousness: The part of the iceberg that is visible, representing our contact with the outside world and our awareness of thoughts.
  • Preconscious: Material just beneath the surface of awareness, easily brought to attention.
  • Unconscious: Difficult-to-retrieve material well below the surface of awareness; its size and contents are largely unknown.

Ego, Id, and Superego

  • The ego, id, and superego are related to these levels of awareness, according to the structure of personality.
    • Ego: Resides in the conscious and preconscious stages.
    • Superego: Spans the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels.
    • Id: Primarily in the unconscious, driven by the pleasure principle and strongly influencing behavior based on what the ego allows.

Primary vs. Secondary Process Thinking

  • Primary process thinking is based on the id.
  • Secondary process thinking is based on the ego, which mediates between the id's desires and the superego's moral demands.

Intrapsychic Conflict and Anxiety

  • Intrapsychic conflict occurs between the id, ego, and superego.
    *The ego mediates this conflict, especially when the id's desires clash with the superego's prohibitions.
  • This conflict leads to anxiety, which the ego manages through defense mechanisms.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

  • Defense mechanisms protect the ego from anxiety arising from intrapsychic conflicts.
  • Conflicts often center around sex and aggression.

Common Defense Mechanisms:

  • Rationalization: Creating false but plausible explanations to justify behavior.

    • Example: "I didn't study because I was too busy."

  • Repression: Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious.

    • Example: Rick fails to recognize Julie at a party two years after their breakup.

  • Projection: Attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and motives to others.

    • Example: Someone who dislikes their boss believes the boss dislikes them.

  • Displacement: Diverting emotional feelings from their original source to a substitute target.

    • Example: Slamming a door after failing an exam or yelling at family after a bad day at work.

  • Reaction Formation: Behaving in a way that is the exact opposite of one's true feelings.

    *Example: A congressman introducing legislation to protect children from internet predators while engaging in sexually explicit communications with underage men.

  • Regression: Reversion to immature patterns of behavior.

    • Example: A potty-trained child having accidents after a new sibling is born, or an adult moving back home and acting like a teenager again.

  • Undoing: Making amends for an unacceptable act or thought.

    • Example: Contributing large sums of money to a church after being unscrupulous in business.

  • Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable motives into acceptable, even admired, social behaviors.

    • Example: Artists sublimating sexual impulses or surgeons sublimating aggressive motives.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages

  • Freud's psychoanalytic theory includes psychosexual stages of development that shape personality.
  • Personality is largely established by age five.
  • These stages involve characteristic sexual foci that leave lasting marks on adult personality.

Stages:

  • Oral Stage (Birth to 1 year):

    • Pleasure comes from the mouth (e.g., sucking).
    • Fixation can lead to excessive eating, drinking, kissing, or smoking due to unmet needs for oral stimulation.

  • Anal Stage (2 to 3 years):

    • Pleasure comes from the anal region, particularly bowel movements.
    • Fixation can lead to anal-expulsive (messy, generous) or anal-retentive (stingy, orderly) character traits.

  • Phallic Stage (4 to 5 years):

    • Pleasure comes from the genital region.
    • Fixation can lead to promiscuity or asexuality.
    • Oedipal Complex: Boys develop a sexual interest in their mother and feel competitive with their father, eventually identifying with him.
    • Penis Envy: Girls are jealous that they don't have a penis.
    • Castration Anxiety: Boys fear being castrated by their father.

  • Latency Stage (6 to 12 years):

    • Erotic pleasure is suppressed; children identify with same-sex peers.

  • Genital Stage (Puberty onwards):

    • Sexual urges reappear, focused on others.
    • Achieved through healthy adult sexual relationships.

Parapraxes (Freudian Slips)

  • Parapraxes are minor errors in everyday living, such as slips of the tongue, forgetting things, losing items, or small accidents.
  • These are thought to be unconsciously motivated rather than accidental.
  • Called