Psychoanalytic Theory by Sigmund Freud

Biography of Sigmund Freud

• Born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic)

• Came from a Jewish family with modest means, had 10 other siblings

• Went to the University of Vienna Medical School

• Received a grant to study under Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris, learned hypnotic techniques to treat hysteria

• Met Josef Breuer, who taught Freud about the concept of catharsis—the feeling of emotional and psychological burden alleviated or eased

• Published "Studies on Hysteria" with Breuer, introduced the term "physical analysis" which evolved into psychoanalysis

• Analyzed his own dreams and published "Interpretation of Dreams" in 1900, which brought him fame

• Created the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society with members like Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Stekel, and Carl Jung

Levels of Mental Life

• Freud's greatest contribution is his exploration of the unconscious and the idea that people are motivated by unconscious drives

• Divided into unconscious, preconscious, and conscious

Unconscious

• Contains drives, urges, or instincts that motivate our words, feelings, and actions

• Often disguised or distorted to elude censorship

• Can come from repression of childhood events or phylogenetic endowment

• Primary Censor - prevents unacceptable thought from coming out

• Final Censor - distorts the feeling or idea until deemed acceptable

• Phylogenetic Endowment - traits that come from our ancestor’s behavior

Preconscious

• Contains elements that are not conscious but can become conscious with ease or difficulty

• Comes from conscious perception and the unconscious

• Conscious Perception - Information we don’t actively think about but easily recallable when we want to

• Unconscious - a thought that is buried but tries to its distorted recollection

Conscious

• Plays a minor role in psychoanalytic theory

• Mental elements in awareness at any given point in time

• Ideas can reach consciousness through perceptual conscious system and mental structure

• Perceptual Conscious System - getting ideas from our immediate environment

• Mental Structure - the/our unconscious giving us ideas

Provinces of the Mind

• Freud introduced a three-part structural model of the mind: id, ego, and superego

• It supports the levels of the mind

The Id

• The pleasure principle

• Core of personality, completely unconscious

• Blindly seeks pleasure without regard for what is proper or just

• Operates through the primary process and relies on the ego for contact with the external world

• its survival is dependent on the development of the Ego

The Ego

• The reality principle

• The only region of the mind in contact with reality

• Grows out of the id during infancy

• Decision-making or executive branch of personality (reality principle)

• Must satisfy the id, conform to the superego, and do so in a realistic manner

• Uses defense mechanisms to manage anxious feelings

The Superego

• The moralistic and idealistic principle

• Represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality

• Has two subsystems:

  • conscience - develops due to punishment

  • ego-ideal - the result of good things

• Controls sexual and aggressive impulses through repression

Dynamics of Personality

• Freud postulated a dynamic principle to explain the driving forces behind people's actions

• People are motivated to seek pleasure and reduce tension and anxiety

• Dynamics include drives and anxiety

Drives

• Constant motivational force

• Described as powerful, innate forces that shape psychological processes

• Grouped under two major headings: sex (Eros) and aggression (Thanatos)

• Each drive has an impetus, source, aim, and object

Sex

• Aim of the sexual drive is pleasure, not limited to genital satisfaction

• Includes sexual drive (libido) and broader desire for pleasure and positive experiences (Eros)

• Path to pleasure can be varied, behavior may not be recognized as sexual

• Sex can take many forms including:

  • narcissism - excessive love for one’s self

    • Primary Narcissism- the love given to objects/people

    • Secondary Narcissism - love given to others then comes back to ourselves

  • love - investing libido on an object or person

  • sadism - the need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person

  • masochism - the feeling of sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation by themselves or by others

Aggression

• Aim of the destructive drive is self-destruction

• Life and death impulses constantly struggle against each other

• Both must bow to the reality principle

• It is easily fulfilled without being physically aggressive by teasing, gossip, etc.

Anxiety

• Felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation

• Warns against impending danger

• Classified into three types: neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety, and realistic anxiety

• Anxiety can be a combination of different types, such as realistic anxiety and neurotic anxiety.

• Anxiety serves as a mechanism to signal danger.

Neurotic Anxiety

• Apprehension about an unknown danger

• Can be experienced in the presence of authority figures due to unconscious feelings of destruction against parents

Moral Anxiety

• Stemming from the conflict between the ego and the superego

• Arises from the conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of the superego

Realistic Anxiety

• Closely related to fear

• Involves a nonspecific feeling of possible danger

Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms

• are unconscious strategies used to cope with emotional distress.

• When taken to the extreme, they can lead to neurotic behavior.

• The more defensive a person is, the less psychic energy they have to satisfy their id impulses.

• Defense mechanisms help the ego avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive impulses.

• Freud identified several defense mechanisms, including repression, reaction formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection, and sublimation.

Repression

• The most basic defense mechanism and involves pushing distressing thoughts or feelings out of conscious awareness.

Reaction Formation

• A defense mechanism where a repressed impulse is expressed in the opposite form.

• involves expressing the opposite of one’s true feelings when confronted with distressing emotions or desires

• Reactive behavior is characterized by exaggeration and obsession.

Displacement

• Involves redirecting an emotional response from its original source to a less threatening target.

• Allows people to disguise or conceal their original impulses.

Fixation

• Refers to a persistent focus on a particular stage of psychosexual development.

• Occurs when the prospect of moving to the next stage becomes too anxiety-provoking.

Regression

• Involves reverting to a less mature or earlier stage of development in response to stress or anxiety.

• Adults may revert to earlier patterns of behavior and invest their libido in more primitive objects.

Projection

• Involves attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or motives to someone else.

• Helps reduce anxiety by externalizing unwanted impulses.

Introjection

• The process of internalizing external attitudes, beliefs, values, or characteristics of others.

• Allows people to incorporate positive qualities of others into their own ego.

Sublimation

• Involves channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.

• Seen as a mechanism that benefits both the individual and society.

Stages of Development

• Freud's theory of psychosexual development outlines four stages during early childhood.

• Each stage is associated with a specific erogenous zone and developmental task.

Infantile Stage

• Infants possess a sexual life and go through a period of pregenital sexual development during the first 4 or 5 years after birth.

• Children show an interest in their genitals and experience sexual excitement.

3 Phases in the Infantile Stage

Oral Phase

• Focuses on oral pleasures such as sucking and biting.

• The oral phase is divided into oral receptive and oral sadistic phases.

• Oral-receptive phase - infants have their needs satisfied with minimal frustration.

• Oral-sadistic period - emerges as children grow older and involves aggressive behavior.

Anal Phase

• Characterized by children becoming aware of their ability to control bowel movements.

• Successful toilet training is crucial during this stage.

• Early Anal Phase - children find satisfaction in destroying or losing objects.

• Late Anal Phase - children may take an interest in their feces and present them as a prize

• Anal eroticism - characterized by orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy and can lead to the development of the anal character

• Anal Character - people who continue to receive erotic satisfaction by keeping and arranging objects in an excessively neat and orderly fashion

Phallic Phase

• Occurs around 3 or 4 years of age and involves the genital area becoming the leading erogenous zone.

• Masturbation is common during this stage, but it is often repressed due to parental suppression.

• The male Oedipus complex - involves a boy identifying with his father and developing sexual desire for his mother.

  • Castration anxiety - Fear of punishment from fathers, often by castration, for feelings towards mothers

    • Belief that father possesses power to take away the source of desire (penis)

• Female Oedipus Complex

  • Pre-Oedipal girls assume all children have similar genitals

  • Discover boys have different genital equipment and feel envious

  • Penis Envy - Desire to have a penis

    • experience of penis envy shapes girls' personality

  • Castration complex - girls establish identification with mother

    • Fantasize being seduced by mother

  • Incestuous feelings turn into hostility towards mother for not having a penis

  • Libido turns towards father, who can satisfy wish for a penis by giving her a baby

  • Simple female Oedipus complex - Desire for sexual intercourse with father and hostility towards mother

  • Incompletely resolved by girl's realization of potential loss of mother's love and lack of sexual intercourse with father

Summary

• Differences between female and male phallic stages

  • Castration complex for girls takes form of penis envy, not castration anxiety

  • Penis envy comes before female Oedipus complex, opposite for boys where Castration Anxiety follows the male Oedipus complex

  • Girls do not experience traumatic event comparable to boys' castration anxiety

  • Female Oedipus complex more slowly and less completely dissolved than male Oedipus complex

  

Latency Stage

• From 4th or 5th year until puberty

• Period of dormant psychosexual development

• Suppression of sexual activity by parents leads to repression of sexual drive where the Psychic energy is directed towards school, friendships, hobbies, and nonsexual activities

• Continued latency reinforced by suppression from parents and teachers, feelings of shame, guilt, and morality

• Sexual drive still exists but its aim has been inhibited

• Sublimated libido expressed in social and cultural accomplishments

Genital Stage

• Begins at puberty

• Individuals seek healthy, mature relationships and express sexual desires in socially acceptable ways

• Adolescents give up autoeroticism and direct sexual energy towards another person

• Reproduction becomes possible

• Vagina obtains same status for girls as penis had during infancy

• Sexual drive takes on more complete organization, genitals become primary erogenous zone

Maturity

• Genital period begins at puberty and continues throughout individual's lifetime and a stage attained by everyone who reaches physical maturity

• Psychological maturity seldom happens due to opportunities for pathological disorders or neurotic predispositions—refers to an individual's inclination or tendency to experience neurotic anxiety

Critiques of Freud

• He did not understand women and sexuality hence, was heavily biased against them

• He was not a scientist so he could not provide scientifically accurate facts