Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories

Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories (Modules 55-56)

• Learning Goal 1.1: Characterize and evaluate the personality theories and assessments proposed by psychoanalysts.

Sigmund Freud

• Austrian neurologist, 1856-1939

• Introduced to hypnotic methods early on and developed his practice around hypnosis and free association.

• Upon his father’s death, he wrestled with depressive episodes and dreams that recalled his childhood.

• Self-analysis during this time played a crucial role in the development of his theories.

The Mind According to Freud

• Three parts:

  • Conscious: thoughts and feelings that we’re aware of.

  • Preconscious: information that we aren’t aware of but which we can retrieve into consciousness.

  • Unconscious: unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories locked deep in the mind.

• To Freud, the key to diagnosis and treatment of problems was unlocking the unconscious.

Personality According to Freud

• Three parts:

  • Id (the child): unconscious psychic energy whose sole goal is pleasure; wants instant gratification for any basic physical drives; pleasure principle.

  • Superego (the parent): internalized societal ideals, also called your conscience; strives for discipline and perfection.

  • Ego (the adult): the conscious part of the personality that mediates between the id and the superego; represents reason and reality; reality principle.

Freud’s Defense Mechanisms

• Conflict between the id and superego causes anxiety; the ego reduces this anxiety with defense mechanisms.

Defense Mechanisms

• Repression: banishing unpleasant thoughts.

  • Example: Breakup → “What? Oh yeah, I haven't thought about it.”

• Denial: refusing to acknowledge an unpleasant external event.

  • Example: Breakup → Still act like they are together, wait by locker, calls every night, plans future dates.

• Regression: retreating to a more comfortable life stage.

  • Example: Breakup → Start to sleep with teddy bear.

• Rationalization: offering excuses that feel more comfortable.

  • Example: Breakup → I can find someone better. They weren’t that great anyway.

• Reaction formation: thinking the opposite of the unpleasant feeling.

  • Example: Breakup → I hate them.

• Projection: attributing your own feelings/issues to other people.

  • Example: Breakup → “They still love me.”

• Displacement: rerouting feelings to less threatening people; also known as the chain of screaming.

  • Example: Breakup → Taking it out on little brother or hamster.

• Sublimation: transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

  • Example: Breakup → Publishing sad poems about breakup.

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• Freud's analyses led him to believe that personality problems were rooted in early childhood; more specifically, that an early conflict had not been resolved, causing a person to “fixate” in one of the five psychosexual stages of development.

• These psychosexual stages are defined by the id’s primary pleasure-seeking focus.

Psychosexual Stages

• Stage 1: Oral (ages 0-1)

  • Experiences: Gains pleasure from sucking, biting, or chewing; may be anxious from weaning.

  • Signs of Fixation: Gullibility, dependency, passivity.

• Stage 2: Anal (ages 1-3)

  • Experiences: Gains pleasure from bathroom activities; may be anxious about toilet training.

  • Signs of Fixation: Cleanliness, messiness, destructive tendencies.

• Stage 3: Phallic (ages 3-6)

  • Experiences: Develops sexual curiosity and awareness of gender; theorized Oedipal / Electra complex.

  • Signs of Fixation: Flirtatiousness or promiscuity, vanity or pride.

• Stage 4: Latency (ages 6-puberty)

  • Experiences: Sexual feelings are dormant as the id is repressed; focuses on further developing the ego.

  • Signs of Fixation: Unfulfilled sexuality.

• Stage 5: Genital (puberty onward)

  • Experiences: Gains pleasure from intimate (sexual) relationships.

  • Signs of Fixation: Unsatisfactory relationships.

Freud's Ideas

• The idea of the unconscious mind and the impact of childhood traumas is still extremely relevant to psychotherapy.

• However, some of Freud’s other ideas are no longer esteemed.

• Validity of many of his theories are questioned, if not completely denied by wider psych community

  • Penis envy

  • Oedipus complex

  • Psychosexual stages

Neo-Freudian (Psychodynamic) Theories

• Alfred Adler

  • Agreed with Freud: Focus on unresolved childhood issues and their effect on the unconscious.

  • Changed or added: Driven by social, not sexual tensions.

  • Key terms: Inferiority complex, fictional finalism.

• Karen Horney

  • Agreed with Freud: N/A

  • Changed or added: Driven by social anxiety; criticized Freud’s male bias.

  • Key terms: Basic anxiety, neurotic needs.

• Carl Jung

  • Agreed with Freud: Power of the unconscious.

  • Changed or added: Collective unconscious, filled with archetypes from universal experiences.

Psychodynamic Personality Assessments

• Projective tests: Seek to stir up the test-taker’s unconscious thoughts/feelings/motives.

  • Examples:

    • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Show the test-taker an ambiguous picture and ask him/her to make up a story about the picture.

    • Rorschach Inkblot Test: Show the test-taker an inkblot and ask him/her what he/she sees.

Psychodynamic Approach: Strengths and Limitations

• Strengths:

  • Considers the importance of unconscious thoughts and childhood experiences in shaping personality.

• Limitations:

  • Cannot be supported (or disproved) with empirical evidence.

  • Assessments are highly subjective and open to interpretation.

  • Not predictive (however, never claimed to be!).