Psychology Lecture Notes: The Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalytic Approach
Sigmund Freud ( (1856-1939) ) — The Father of Psychoanalysis. His theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.
Freud’s view on decision-making: quotes from Page 1:
"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world."
"Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar." (Freud’s reminder that not every symbol is a disguised instinct or wish.)
Four Key Ideas of the Psychoanalytic Approach:
Psychic Determinism
Internal Structure
Mental Energy
Psychic Conflict
Psychic Determinism:
Everything that happens in a person’s mind has a specific cause that can be identified if you look hard enough.
No accidents; no miracles; no free will.
The unconscious ( ext{unconscious} ) is a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.
Internal Structure:
The mind is divided into three parts:
Id — irrational or emotional part
Ego — the rational part
Superego — the moral part
Mental Energy:
The mind needs energy to operate.
Psychic energy, or libido, is the mental energy available.
The mind has a finite amount of psychic energy; psychoanalysis aims to free up more energy for daily living by removing energy drains.
Psychic Conflict and Compromise:
The mind can be in conflict with itself: Id vs. Ego vs. Superego.
Diagrammatic idea: Id ⟷ Ego ⟷ Superego; Ego mediates among them and reality.
No other personality theory centers this exact conflict framework.
Why study Freud’s ideas?
Controversy: too much emphasis on sex; not scientific enough to some critics.
Yet: described as “A Beautiful Theory,” dealing with real cases and complex situations; a richly interconnected explanation; the first amazingly complete framework; it changed how we think about ourselves.
Mental Energy (revisited):
Libido — Life or sexual drive; functions include creation, protection, enjoyment of life, creativity, productivity, growth.
Thanatos — Death drive; aggression and destructive activities; relates to entropy: questions about life without death.
Personality Development: Psychosexual Stages (summary)
The childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.
Psychosexual Stages (Overview):
Oral Stage
Anal Stage
Phallic Stage
Latency Stage
Genital Stage
History of Psychology (Context): December 1879 — Wilhelm Wundt; G. Stanley Hall.
Psychological Perspectives (Contextual map):
Psychoanalytic perspective
Behavioral perspective
Humanistic perspective
Cognitive perspective
Neuroscience/Biopsychology perspective
Evolutionary perspective
Behavior genetics perspective
Socio-cultural perspective
Bio-psycho-social perspective (interactionist)
What is Personality?
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Purpose: to understand individual differences and develop integrative understandings of humans.
Big Questions addressed by personality psychology:
How are mind and body related?
Is personality inherited or learned?
Do humans have free will?
Is there a self and is it knowable?
Is the personality of each person unique, or are there broad patterns?
History context: Freud’s ideas contributed to shifts in how we view self-understanding, motivation, and mental life.
History of Psychology
December, 1879: Wilhelm Wundt founded the first formal laboratory of psychology, marking the birth of experimental psychology.
G. Stanley Hall helped popularize psychology in the United States and contributed to its early development.
These milestones set the stage for various psychological perspectives, including Freud’s psychoanalytic approach.
Psychological Perspectives
Major perspectives in psychology:
Psychoanalytic perspective
Behavioral perspective
Humanistic perspective
Cognitive perspective
Neuroscience/Biopsychology perspective
Evolutionary perspective
Behavior genetics perspective
Socio-cultural perspective
Bio-psycho-social perspective (interactionist)
What is Personality?
Definition: An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Purpose of Personality Psychology: To understand individual differences and develop integrative understandings of humans.
Big questions:
How are mind and body related?
Is personality inherited or learned?
Do humans have free will?
Is there a self and is it knowable?
Is the personality of each person unique or are there broad patterns?
The Psychoanalytic Approach
Core figure: Sigmund Freud ( (1856-1939) ) — The Father of Psychoanalysis.
Core assertion: Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.
Notable quote on decision making and inner needs (for study context):
Freud argued that important life decisions should originate from deep inner needs, i.e., the unconscious.
Four Key Ideas (reiterated): Psychic Determinism, Internal Structure, Mental Energy, Psychic Conflict.
The mind’s energy economy:
Libido (life/sexual energy) powers growth, creation, and enjoyment; there is also a death drive (Thanatos) linked to aggression and destruction.
Structural model of the mind:
Id: a reservoir of unconscious energy; seeks immediate gratification via the pleasure principle.
Ego: the conscious, executive part; operates on the reality principle; mediates between id, superego, and reality.
Superego: internalized ideals; conscience and future aspirations.
Psychic energy theory:
The mind has a finite amount of psychic energy; psychoanalysis aims to release energy blocked by neurotic drains.
Psychic conflict:
The mind can be at war with itself due to competing demands of the id, ego, and superego.
Takeaway: freud’s framework emphasizes ongoing internal negotiation to achieve functional behavior.
Freudian terminology:
EGO, ID, SUPEREGO model (diagrammatic description of conscious/unconscious mind structure).
Psychic Determinism
Core claim: All mental events have specific causes identifiable by careful analysis.
Implication: There are no random mental events; behavior is purposeful and understandable through the lens of unconscious processes.
The unconscious as a reservoir of unacceptable wishes, memories, and urges.
Internal Structure
Id: irrational/emotional, wants immediate gratification.
Ego: rational, practical, mediator between id, superego, and reality.
Superego: moral standards, internalized rules, and ideals.
Relationship: The ego balances the impulsive demands of the id with the moral constraints of the superego, within the reality of the external world.
Mental Energy
The mind runs on psychic energy ( libido ) and has a limited supply.
Goals of psychoanalytic therapy include freeing up psychic energy by resolving neurotic drain sources.
Libido: Life or sexual drive; supports creation, protection, enjoyment, creativity, productivity, growth.
Thanatos: Death drive; aggression and destructive urges; part of the energy economy that questions life’s meaning in the context of death and entropy.
Psychic Conflict and Compromise
The mind may be in conflict with itself due to competing demands of the Id, Ego, and Superego.
The Ego attempts to coordinate and satisfy the Id’s desires in a way that is realistically beneficial and morally acceptable.
The phrase EGO vs ID vs SUPEREGO often appears in diagrams illustrating this dynamic.
Personality Development: Psychosexual Stages
Freud proposed five stages during childhood where the id’s energy focuses on different erogenous zones:
Oral Stage
Anal Stage
Phallic Stage
Latency Stage
Genital Stage
Oral Stage:
Focus: mouth, lips, tongue
Psychological theme: dependency
Ages: (0-18 ext{ months})
Adult type: individuals who are overly dependent or extremely passive and do nothing for themselves.
Anal Stage:
Focus: bowel and bladder
Psychological theme: self-control
Ages: (18-36 ext{ months})
Adult type: either anal-retentive (over-organized, controlling) or chaotic and disorganized due to lack of self-control.
Phallic Stage:
Focus: genitals
Psychological theme: what it means to be a boy or a girl; identification with the same-sex parent; moral development via superego
Ages: (3-6 ext{ years})
Key concept: Oedipus Complex (boy’s sexual desires toward mother and jealousy toward father) and identification with the father; acquisition of moral standards via identification with same-sex parent.
Identification: children incorporate parental values into their developing superegos.
Adult type: range from high promiscuity to complete asexuality
Note: Oedipus Complex has not held up robustly under empirical research; some Freudians still discuss it, but it is controversial.
Latency Stage:
Dormant sexual feelings
Ages: (6 ext{ to puberty})
Genital Stage:
Focus: genitals; maturation of sexual interests
Ages: (puberty ext{ on})
Adult type: no fixation on earlier stages; balanced love and work.
Personality Structure (Detailed)
Id:
Contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy
Strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives
Operates on the pleasure principle: demands immediate gratification
Ego:
Largely conscious, executive part of personality
Mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality
Operates on the reality principle: satisfies the id’s desires in ways that realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
Superego:
Internalized ideals
Provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations
Diagrammatic view: Ego (conscious mind) mediates between Id (unconscious) and Superego (unconscious/conscious aspects) within the mind
Defense Mechanisms
The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality:
Repression: banishing anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
Regression: retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated
Reaction Formation: unconscious switching of unacceptable impulses into their opposites
Projection: disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Rationalization: offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons
Displacement: shifting impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
Sublimation: displacement of sexual urges into productive, non-sexual activities
Denial: failure to recognize or acknowledge anxious information
Intellectualization: ignoring emotional aspects by focusing on abstract thoughts and ideas
Assessing the Unconscious
Free Association: a talk therapy technique where the patient talks about whatever comes to mind; the analyst then analyzes the transitions
Projective Tests: such as the Rorschach or TAT; ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of inner dynamics
Rorschach Inkblot Test
The most widely used projective test
Consists of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach
Seeks to identify inner feelings by analyzing interpretations of the blots
Slide plates (Plaat I–X) depict the sequence of images used in assessment
Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler: emphasized importance of childhood social tension
Karen Horney: sought to balance Freud’s masculine biases
Carl Jung: emphasized the collective unconscious — a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from humanity’s history
Freud (contextual/archival material)
Freudian materials and imagery appear in historical slides and classroom handouts (e.g., slide titles and formatting used to introduce Freud’s concepts)
MEOW #2: Freudian Film Analysis (assignment)
Watch a film of your choice and psychoanalyze it.
Write a 300-word paper discussing representations of id, ego, or superego in the characters; libido, thanatos, or any Freudian defense mechanisms you see.
Do not provide basic plot summary; focus on Freudian symbolism.
Length: 300 words; Due in Canvas before the next class.
Quotes and Notable Points from the Transcript
Freud’s quote about decisions and inner needs: the unconscious should govern important personal-life decisions.
The phrase about complexes and their role in directing conduct.
The reminder that not every symptom is symbolic: "Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar."
The historical note that Freud’s ideas spurred a major shift in how we understand ourselves and personality.
The Oedipus Complex and its empirical status: acknowledged as historically central but controversial in modern research.
The ongoing debate about sexuality emphasis and scientific scrutiny in Freudian theory.
The role of the ego as mediator and the concept of defense mechanisms as unconscious strategies to manage anxiety.
The structure of the mind and the three-part model (Id, Ego, Superego) as a foundational image in psychoanalytic theory.
Important Historical and Contextual References
December, 1879: Wilhelm Wundt’s establishment of the first psychology laboratory, marking the formal birth of psychology as a scientific discipline.
G. Stanley Hall: important early American psychologist who helped popularize psychology.
Freud’s influence on how we think about selfhood, motivation, and mental life.
Notes on the Transcript’s Structure
The content spans multiple pages, each introducing key Freudian ideas and related concepts, including psychosexual development, defense mechanisms, assessment of the unconscious, and Neo-Freudian figures.
Repeated themes across slides include the three-part mind (Id, Ego, Superego), the psychoanalytic view of mental energy, and the idea of intrinsic conflicts driving behavior.
The material also includes historical context, alternative perspectives, and classroom assignments to apply Freudian theory to media.