Sigmund Freud-Psychoanalytical theory

SIGMUND FREUD
PsychoanalyticTheory

Biography of Freud
Early Life Mid and Later Life
 Born in 1856 in Frieberg,
Moravia
 First child of 8 (dad had two
grown sons from previous
marriage)
 His mother’s special favorite
 Got a medical degree from
University of Vienna
 Married Martha Vernays and
had 6 children (youngest was
Anna).
 Learned the technique of
hypnosis from Jean-Martin
Charcot and started believing
in the sexual origin of
hysterical symptoms.
 Became friends with Joseph
Breuer--learned about
catharsis, free association &
Anna O.
 Had midlife crisis in the 1890s
& published The Interpretation
of Dreams” in 1900.
 Founded the Vienna Psycho-
Analytical Society and became
associated with Erikson, Adler,
and Jung. Fell out with each
one.
 Fled the Nazis in 1938, moved
to London with daughter Anna.
Died in 1939.

Early Pictures of Freud
Freud and his Mother, Amalie
Nathansan Freud
Freud and Martha Bernays—their
wedding photo

Freud's Psychoanalytic
Theory
 Based his model of human nature on the idea of
psychic energy—the source of energy within
each person that provides motivation
 Two assumptions about psychic energy:
 The amount one has remains constant throughout life
 Personality change can be viewed as a redirection of
the psychic energy
Research on ego depletion confirms that one seems to
have a limited amount of psychic energy and that self-
control in one area limits the amount of energy (or
control) you have for other areas.

Instincts
 The basic source of psychic energy are strong, innate
forces called instincts.
 Freud first thought the instincts were self-preservation
and the sexual instinct (based on Darwin).
 He later reviewed these into basic ones of life—libido—
and death—thanatos. They can work either in opposition
or together.
 Libido was basically sexual but referred to anything
pleasurable or life-sustaining.
 Thanatos refers to an urge to destroy, harm, or aggress
toward self or others.

Levels of Consciousness
 Three levels:
 Conscious—what we’re
thinking about right now
 Preconscious—what we
could be thinking about if
asked
 Unconscious—”seething
cauldron” of repressed
thoughts, desires, and
impulses.

Structure of the Personality
 Id: present from birth; operates by the
pleasure principle with no concern for
reality; engages in primary process
thinking—thinking without logical
rules. (Unconscious)
 Ego: develops to reign in the id; abides
by the reality principle; engages in
secondary process thinking—
problem-solving strategies. (Mostly
Preconscious/conscious)
 Superego: morality branch; develops
by age 5; “conscience;” can either
reward or punish the ego. Based on
teachings by parents, teachers, and
religious instructors. Can be overly
harsh (demands for perfection) or
overly lax (low moral standards).
Mostly unconscious.
 Ego caught in the middle
Id: I want
this right
now!
Ego: Let
me figure
out a
way
Superego
How dare
you even
think
about
that!

Anxiety
 Being caught in the middle
between the superego and id
makes the ego suffer anxiety.
 Anxiety is a signal that
something is wrong and that
the ego’s control is being
threatened.
 A well-balanced mind is the
result of having a strong ego
and is free from anxiety.
 Defense mechanisms help ego
cope with anxiety.
 Types of anxiety:
 Objective—real anxiety
based on external events
 Neurotic—occurs when
there’s a conflict between
the id and ego
 Moral—occurs when
there’s a conflict between
the ego and superego.
(Results in chronic shame
and guilt.)

Empirical Studies of Repression
 1979 study showed that repressors’ self-reported
feelings of distress were lower than non-
reporters, but their physiological responses
showed more distress.
 Since then, repressors have been found to recall
fewer unpleasant memories from childhood, and
it seems that the experience of repression
happens during encoding, not recall.
 Somehow, repressors dampen their emotional
reactions to bad events and don’t allow them to
become encoded.

Theory of Psychosexual
Development

General Facts about the Stages
 Stage theory of development
 As sex instinct matures, its energy, the libido, moves into
a new body part, and the child is now at a different stage
of development.
 Each stage represents a conflict between early sources of
pleasure and constraints of reality
 Adult personality is the result of how well these conflicts
are resolved.
 One can become “fixated” at a particular stage of
development. (Fixation is closely related to regression.)
 Fixation occurs when the child’s needs are either not met
sufficiently or are over-gratified.

Table of the Psychosexual
Stages

The Oedipal Complex
 Found in the phallic stage
 Boy has incestuous desire for mother and wants to
hurt or kill father because Dad is competition
 Fears Dad will castrate him (castration anxiety) for
his thoughts
 Represses desire for Mom, identifies with Dad, and
becomes psychologically male

The Electra Complex
 Counterpart to boy’s Oedipal Complex
 Term was actually coined by Jung
 Represents a girl’s desire for her father
 Girl has penis envy and blames Mom for cutting
off her penis
 Transfers her affection to her father
 Freud didn’t know how girls resolved this (since
they had no castration anxiety) and concluded
that girls must have a weaker superego than
boys.

Revealing the Unconscious
 Free Association—”the talking cure”—replaced
Freud’s use of hypnosis
 Dream analysis—manifest & latent content
 Projective techniques

The Process of Psychoanalysis
 Patient engages in free association
 Therapist offers interpretation of what patient
has said
 Through many interpretations, patient gains
insight—an understanding of the unconscious
source of problems
 Process is difficult & blocked with challenges
 Patient resistance
 Patient transference
 Repetition compulsion

Why do we care about Freud?
 Psychoanalysis has had a major impact on
psychology, psychiatry, and Western thought
generally
 Some of his terms have become part of our
everyday vocabulary.
 His “discovery” of the unconscious mind was
valuable.
 Psychoanalysis is still a major technique of
psychotherapy.
 Freud’s ideas are generating new research today.

Critics say…
 Freud’s theory is primarily of historical value
 Freud didn’t believe in the value of
experimentation or hypothesis testing in
establishing the validity of psychoanalysis.
 Freud relied on case studies of a handful of
wealthy neuroticViennese women.
 Freud’s view of human nature is generally
considered negative.
 His emphasis on sexuality in childhood has not
been well-received.

Sigmund Freud-Psychoanalytical theory

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