Ch.14 Psychoanalysis

Was it Only a Dream

  • Freud and psychoanalysis were popular to the general public, more so than other figures in psychology

  • Freud brought along the third shock to the human ego: humans are not rational, we are influenced by unconscious forces that we are both unaware and not in control of.

  • Freud was developing alongside other schools of thought — post-death, Freud’s thought replaced Wundtian, Titchener, and functional psychology

A New School of Thought

  • Psychoanalysis: A distinct movement led by Sigmund Freud that focuses on understanding psychopathology through the unconscious mind.

    • Differentiates from other schools of thought (like behaviorism and functionalism) by emphasizing unconscious processes and psychopathology.

    • rose from medicine and psychiatry — focus on treating mentally ill people.

    • Subject Matter: psychopathology (which was neglected by other schools)

    • Method: clinical observation (not in controlled lab setting)

Antecedent Influences on Psychoanalysis

  • Philosophical roots: Influenced by early thinkers like Leibnitz and Herbart, who speculated about unconscious mental processes.

  • Treatment history: Previous mental health treatments ranged from humane (e.g., prayer) to brutal (e.g., torture).

  • Evolutionary insights: Darwin's theories influenced Freud, particularly regarding the role of instincts in human behavior.

Early Theories of Unconscious Mind

  • Leibnitz - monadology, theory of psychic entities called monads (like perceptions)

    • petite perceptions - lesser degree of consciousness, with realization of the them being apperception

      • Ex. sound waves on shore, made of individual water drops (petite perceptions) - their summation is what we recognize - that is apperception

  • Herbart - threshold of consciousness, where anything below is unconscious. Only congruent ideas to conscious arise, inhibited ideas stay in unconscious — constant conflict of ideas

  • Fechner - mind is like an iceberg, with majority below the surface. Freud drives his notions about pleasure principle, psychic energy, and aggression from Fechner’s Elements of Psychophysics

Unconsciousness Goes Public

  • European intellectual and social climate was interested in unconscious in 1880s when Freud began his practice

  • Philosophy of the Unconscious - popular book

Ideas Before Freud

Early Approaches to Mental Disorders

  • Greeks - mental illness as disordered thoughts - heal through words

  • Christianity - mental illness as possession by spirits - punish to treat

  • 1880s - mental illness as irrational behavior — people put in institutions similar to jails, with no treatment

  • “displayed like animals in zoos”

  • lunatic asylums - “cemeteries for the still breathing”

More Humane Treatment

  • Vives - from Spain, arguing for humane treatment of the mentally ill, but due to geographical barriers not recognized

  • Pinel - to treat patients using the methodology of natural science

  • Dix - reformer of insane asylums in the U.S., by the 19th CE many insane asylums created

    • treated wounded Union soldiers in Civil War

Development of Psychiatric Treatment

  • Benjamin Rush - first formal psychiatric hospital, attempted to use his techniques of blood draining, rotating chair, shock, sedating to treat mental disorders

  • Somatic Approach - physical causes of abnormal behavior - dominate view which was revolted by psychoanalysis

  • Psychic Approach - emotional/psychological causes of abnormal behavior

  • The Emmanuel Movement - began with Worcester and was aimed to use psychotherapy (talking) to treat patients. Relied on moral authority and power of suggestion. Allowed for w[arm welcome of Freuds psychoanalysis in the US in 1909.

Hypnosis

  • Franz Mesmer - father of hypnosis who believed that animal magnetism cue cure nervous disorders; brings patients magnetic levels to equilibrium with magnetic levels of environment.

  • to used magnetic bars to reverse mental illness, he initiated popular group therapy sessions in Paris, but was discredited.

  • mesmerism gained popularity in the U.S

Hypnosis Became Respectable

  • James Braid - gave scientific respectability to hypnosis, called it neurohypnology

  • Charcot - used hypnosis to treat hysteria in women at Paris hospital. Described physical disturbances as paralysis (somatic cause)

  • Janet - a student of Charcot, rejected hysteria as being a physical problem. His work anticipated Freud’s ideas due to shift in recognizing hypnosis and psychological causes of mental illness.

  • Overall, work of Charcot + Janet = shift from somatic to psychic view, widespread use of word psychotherapy before Freud introduced it.

Influence of Darwin

  • Freud’s ideas driven by Darwin; credits his theory of evolution as key to training psychanalysts

  • Darwin also focused on nonrational aspects of thought + behavior

  • influenced Freud’s ideas on childhood development + sex drive

  • Darwin touched upon biological forces of love + hunger

Sex before Freud

  • Zeitgeist 19th CE Vienna - was permissive society, there was an interest for sex, many topics published on it before Freud’s sex-based theory

  • Adolf Patze - argued for sex drive arising in children (3yrs. old)

  • use of word libido - similar meaning to later Freudian defintion

  • Freud was not the first to discuss role of sex in human behavior

Catharsis + Dreaming before Freud

  • to reduce a complex by recalling it to conscious awareness, allowing it to be expressed (concept introduced before Freud’s work) - concept originated with Aristole, gained popularity in Germany

  • study of dreams was already established in 17th CE before Freud

  • Freud acknowledged this “psychoanalysis did not drop from the skies…” - he made their ideas coherent.

Sigmund Freud's Background and Approach

  • Early Life: Born in 1856 in Moravia, later moved to Vienna.

    • Father was strict and authoritarian, while mother was protective and loving

    • Fear of father, sexual attraction to mother - later called Oedipus complex

    • Began studies with interest in medicine, arising from Darwin’s influence — than sought interest in philosophy — first research problem involved sex (reproductive system of eels)

  • Cocaine Use: Early advocate of cocaine, considered it a miracle drug; but his desire to become famous from it was taken by Koller who made it popular in treating eye disorders.

    • However, after being criticized for his paper, making it popular, Freud tried to erase existence of use from his biographies later.

  • Marriage + Children: he was poor, so went into private practice to earn enough to marry. Freud married Martha Bernays in 1886 (possessive of), with whom he had six children, difficulty balancing his passion for his work with family responsibilities.

The Case of Anna O.

  • Anna was Josef Breuer’s patient; Breuer was close to Freud, like a father-figure

  • 21yr old Anna’s case was pivotal to psychanalysis development

  • Anna suffered from severe hysteria symptoms, that first arose when she was treating her dying father she loved passionately

  • Breuer used hypnosis to help treat her and told Freud that here thoughts involved events she found repulsive

  • Anna began to transfer her love for her father to Breuer - of which Breuer’s wife became jealous of so Breuer told Anna he cannot treat her anymore.

  • Was institutionalized shortly after Breuer
    ended their sessions; became addicted to morphine to deal with
    some physical pain

  • Later, recovered and became a social worker; feminist, published stories on women’s rights; died shortly after being interrogated by Nazi

  • Her story introduced Freud to cathartic methods (talking-cure)

Sexual Basis of Neurosis

  • Studied with Charcot in Paris, observing his use of hypnosis to treat hysteria. He alerted Freud to the sexual basis of hysterical behavior

  • In Vienna, Chrobak told Freud story of women who was married without sexual history with husband for 18yrs. Suggested that the issue was sex.

  • Freud adopted Breuer’s method of catharsis and hypnosis, but rejected it as being temporary solution (still used catharsis)

  • Instead, developed technique of free association (was actually free intrusion/invasion)

  • Free Association:

    • psychotherapeutic technique, patients say whatever comes to mind (uncensored)

    • Findings: patient repressed memories from childhood — often concerning sexual issues.

    • Concluded that neurotic illnesses arose mostly from sexual concerns.

Studies on Hysteria

  • Studies of Hysteria - marked formal beginning of psychoanalysis

    • included story of Anna O.

  • Breuer did not believe Freud’s claim that neurotic illnesses arose solely from sexual factors - sparked controversy in their friendship

  • Freud was driven by notion of fame, so he did not care if it override scientific evidences.

  • Breuer and Freud’s relationship ended, but Freud in letter’s to Breuer’s son credited the role his father played in the creation of his work

Childhood Seduction Controversy

  • Freud found most of his female patients reported traumatic sexual experiences in childhood - concluding that those with normal sex life could not have neurotic issues

  • In a paper to Viennese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology - said that adult neurosis was due to sexual abuse often by older relatives (father)

  • Krafft-Ebing (president) called it a “scientific fairy tale” - angered Freud and paper was far from success

  • Later, Freud changed his position — some patients were reporting fantasies (not happened)

  • Masson tried to say Freud lied about seduction fantasizes to appeal to public, but his claims were denounced by others, calling his theory hoax

  • Later psychoanalysts like Sandor Ferenczi, reported that patients recalled real acts of sexual abuse, not just fantasies - Freud tried to oppose this - could be because his original seduction theory meant that all fathers (his own too) are guilty of perverse acts against children.

Freud’s Sex Life

  • Freud was not fond of sex, expressing his sexual difficulties with the opposite sex, suggesting that we must arise above this “common animal need”.

  • Sexual urges contaminate the mind and body — repelled from sexual life with his wife after sixth child — blamed his wife from making their sexual life only for reproductive means

  • Speculations of his affair with his wife Martha’s sister, Minna

Freud’s Neurosis

  • self-diagnosed with anxiety neurosis due to sexual tension

  • thus, his theory of neurosis often seen as theory of his own neurotic symptoms

  • he needed psychoanalysis, hence proceeding with study of dreams

  • Analysis of His Dreams:

    • Dreams contained emotional material, that could rely the cause of disturbances

    • Positivist, believed every dream had a meaning, often coming from unconscious mind

    • Instead of using free association, as he was the patient and therapist, Freud resorted to dream analysis (interpret dreams to uncover unconscious conflicts)

    • Exploration of his own unconscious become basis for his theories

    • Freud’s self analysis led to publication of The Interpretations of Dreams

      • outlined Oedipus complex

      • not universally praised

      • influenced Carl Jung’s conversion to psychoanalysis

      • 40 of his own dreams described, few were sexual in nature, despite his advocacy for dreams being sexual

Freud’s Popularity

  • 1901, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life: descriptions of Freudian slip (unconscious motives affect expression of thoughts + actions) - concept became popular in 1950s.

  • 1905 - Three Essays on Theory of Sexuality

  • Freud did not tolerate disagreements to role of sexuality in his theory (people claiming he was a tyrant of psychoanalysis)

  • Freud’s private practice was very popular and successful

  • Freud Comes to America:

    • invited by G. Hall to speak at Clark University

    • published lectures in American Journal of Psychology

    • Freud’s unconscious ideas perceived well by public

    • Freud was not impressed by American life (“I regret it”)

  • Freud’s End Years:

    • suffered from mouth cancer; habit of smoking 20 cigars a day

    • Nazi Germany - his books were burned in Berlin rally 1933 and Nazi campaign eradicated psychoanalysis in Germany

    • Freud remained in Vienna, but later fled seeing his daughter Anna detained. Nazi let him go to England but four of his sisters died in Nazi concentration camps

    • Moved to England, his home is now the Freud Museum

    • Death was controversial - did his physician Scurr or Stross give him the overdose of morphine to end his suffering

Method of Treatment

  • Psychoanalysis - method of treatment

  • Primary concern was not to cure but to explain dynamics of human nature; considered himself a scientist collecting data from patient studies, more passionate about research than helping.

  • Free-association was useful but until patients encountered resistances.

  • Resistances - painful memories during free-association sessions which patients were blocked from or refused to disclose or bring to conscious awareness

  • From patient’s resistances, Freud formed the principle of repression: excluding unacceptable memories, ideas, and desires from conscious awareness, leaving them to operate in the unconscious mind.

  • Hence why Freud’s strongly advocated for psychoanalysis

  • Emphasis on an intimate relationship between patient and therapist - to foster an effective treatment of neurosis

  • Dream Analysis:

    • Manifest Content - the actual story, recalling events of dream

    • Latent Content - hidden or symbolic meaning of dreams (expressing forbidden desires)

    • Not all dreams were due to emotional conflicts (e.g. due to simple stimuli like temperature of room)

  • Deviance From Traditional Psychology:

    • no use of experimental research methods (e.g. data from labs)

    • But, insisted his work was scientific, backed by case histories + self-analysis

    • Believed any who was not a psychoanalyst could not criticize his methods or theories

    • “Psychoanalysis was his system, and his alone”

Systems of Personality

  • Freud developed one the earliest theories of personality

Instincts

  • The motivating forces of personality

  • Not an ‘instinct’ in how we perceive it today - Not inherited

  • Mental representations of internal stimuli like hunger that motivate personality and behaviour

  • Life Instincts (Eros)

    • drive to ensure survival of the individual by satisfying these basic needs of — hunger, thirst, and sex

    • Libido, is the psychic energy that drives the Life Instincts — drive toward pleasure

    • leads to tendency to ‘build things up’

  • Death Instincts (Thanatos)

    • the unconscious drive toward decay, destruction and aggression

    • aggression like sex was a powerful motivator for behavior (received better than death instinct)

    • Directed inward = suicide, directed outward = aggression

    • leads to tendency to ‘break things down’

Levels of Personality

  • mental life consists of: conscious + unconscious

    • conscious (small, insignificant)

    • unconscious (contains instincts)

  • usage of the iceberg analogy (Fechner)

  • revised simple distinction into - id, ego, superego

  • The Id:

    • primitive + least accessible part of personality

    • consists of the aggression + sex instincts

    • operates on the pleasure principle: reducing tension through pleasure and avoiding pain

    • Libido creates uncomfortable state of tension (e.g. hunger, seeking food to reduce tension)

    • demands of id conflicts with reality

  • The Ego:

    • mediator between the id and the superego

    • it is “thinking” (rational)

    • follows reality principle, holds off id’s pleasure-seeking demands until something appropriate can be found to satisfy/reduce the tension

    • “rider on a horse” — id must be guided/checked or it will overthrow rational ego

  • The Superego:

    • develops in childhood via rewards & punishments from parents

      • Punishing behavior = superego

      • Rewarding behavior = ego

    • represents morality - attempts to inhibit id stratification completely

    • the ego must also cope with superego’s demands for perfection.

  • Anxiety:

    • stems from dangers of conflict between id, reality, and superego

    • “the warning sign”

    • Objective - fear of actual dangers (e.g. snakes, exams)

    • Neurotic - fear of punishment arising from id-dominated behavior

    • Moral - experience of guilt/shame from doing something opposing to our conscience’s moral values

    • Develop protective defenses = defense mechanisms

    • Defense Mechanisms:

      • to deal with tension induced by anxiety

      • represent unconscious denials or distortions of reality, BUT adopted to help protect ego against anxiety

      • *8 methods: denial, displacement (shifting), projection (attributing), rationalization (reinterpreting), reaction (expressing), regression (retreating to past good), repression (denying), and sublimation (altering)

Psychosexual Stages of Development

  • Adult personality developed completely by age 5

  • psychosexual stages: development stages of childhood centering on erogenous zones

  1. Oral Stage (0-2 years): Focus on oral comfort through mouth; fixation may lead to dependence or aggression.

  2. Anal Stage (2-3 years): Pleasure from anus; conflict around toilet training; can lead to anal-retentive (neat) or anal-expulsive (dirty) personality types.

  3. Phallic Stage (3-5 years): Pleasure from genitals; sexual identification; including the Oedipus complex (boys’ attraction to mothers; fear of fathers).

  4. Latent Stage (5-12 puberty): Sexual energy is subdued, period of calm focus on social interactions.

  5. Genital Stage (puberty onward): Genitals, new sexual impulses. Mature sexual intimacy — marriage, parenthood

Mechanistic + Determinism Influence

  • Freud was influenced by mechanistic ideas; mental events do not occur by free will, they are predetermined

  • Freud initially wanted to create a ‘scientific psychology’ like physics

    • However, he then realized this would not fit his views on personality/psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis vs. Academic Psychology

  • academic psychologists criticized psychoanalysis

  • Refusal to publish articles

  • 1920s, Freud’s ideas (defense mechanisms) were in American textbooks — BUT, behaviorism remained dominant school of thought

  • 1930s-40s: captured public attention

    • sex, dreams and neuroses became popular - infuriated psychologists, saying the public was confusing psychoanalysis with psychology

    • psychologists attempted to apply experimental methods to psychoanalysis to show primacy

  • 1950s-1960s:

    • Watson (emotions as habits, neurotic behavior due to conditioning)

    • Skinner (Freud’s defense mechanism in language of operant conditioning)

  • In mainstream psychology, Freudian thought became popular

Scientific Validation

  • 2,500 studies to examine scientific credibility of Freud’s theories

  • Levels of Personality + Instincts - resistant to testing

  • Published studies supported:

    • characteristics of oral + anal personality types

    • castration anxiety

    • aspects of Oedipus complex in boys

  • Not supported:

    • symbolism of dreams

    • Oedipus complex - male identification with father

    • women have inferior concept of bodies + superego

    • personality formed and fixed by age 5

Criticisms of Psychoanalysis

  1. lack of empirical evidence: unsystematic and uncontrolled

  2. reliance on subjective interpretations

  3. inferred rather than heard

    • Freud may have used suggestion to elicit or implant memories when no actual seduction had occurred

  4. small and unrepresentative sample of people

  5. discrepancies in Freud’s notes and published case histories

  6. lack of accuracy of patient reports

Views on Women:

  • His theories on women and sexuality were contested, leading to alternative frameworks (e.g., Horney’s views on men’s womb envy).

  • later disagreements on Freud’s emphasis of biological forces as determinants of personality

Contributions to Psychoanalysis

  • Acceptance of Psychoanalysis: based on intuitive appearance of plausibility, not ideal to science.

  • Behavioral or cognitive therapies have superseded Freudian therapy

  • E.g. online, virtual analysis - less expensive

  • success of drug therapies = reduced need for psychotherapies

  • Popularity in America:

    • 1909 - visit to Clark University

    • 2005 - BBC documentary; Freud influence on the media world

    • 20th CE: misinterpretation of Freud’s message on sex; weakening of sexual codes

    • E.G Boring: revised view on psychology (importance of Freud)