Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis Overview

Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis.
• Freud was an Austrian physician.
• His early interests included neurology and biology.
• He was influenced by Darwin.
• He was also interested in economic pressures.
• In 1885, he went to Paris to study with Charcot.
• Charcot's work with hysteria influenced Freud.
• He found hypnosis inadequate.
• Freud then shifted to free association and dreams.
• He observed patients were unaware of their inner conflicts.
• Freud possessed a negative attitude toward sex in his early years.
• He was shy and afraid of women.
• He wrote about the dangers of sex.
• He experienced some impotence during his marriage.
• He had concerns regarding pregnancy and health.
• Freud experienced a neurotic episode.
• He also studied his own dreams and found hostility toward his father and childhood sexual longings for his mother.
• Freud developed his theory of personality during this period.
• He focused on neurotic conflicts and childhood experiences.
• Freud's ideas attracted attention and he developed a group of disciples, including Carl Jung and Alfred Adler.
• Later, Jung and Adler broke with Freud.
• In 1909, Freud was invited to give lectures at Clark University.
• He received an honorary doctoral degree.
• Psychoanalysis was welcomed in the United States.
• The American Psychoanalytic Association and Psychoanalytic Society were created.
• Freud published about 200 publications based on his work.
• Freud fought oral cancer for 16 years.
• During Nazi Germany, his books were burned and his home invaded.
• His daughter, Anna, was arrested.
• Freud left for London and remained active.
• He died in September 1939 while under sedation.

Instincts: The Propelling Forces of the Personality

• Instincts are mental representations of internal stimuli that motivate a person to act.
• They are a form of energy connecting needs and wishes.
• A homeostatic approach motivates people to maintain physiological equilibrium.
• Instinctual energy can be invested in various activities, reflecting the diversity of human behavior.
• Freud recognized two types of instincts.

Two Types of Instincts:

• Life instincts are oriented toward survival.
  • Libido drives a person towards pleasurable behaviors and thoughts.
  • Cathexis is the investment of psychic energy in an object or person.
• Death instincts represent an unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.
  • Aggressive drive results in a compulsion to destroy, conquer, and kill.

Fundamental Assumptions

• Psychic energy (libido and thanatos) motivates us to do the things we do.
• The amount of psychic energy is constant.
• Personality change involves redirecting this energy.

Levels of Personality:

• The conscious mind is a limited aspect of personality.
  • Only a small portion of our thoughts are in our awareness at any given time.
• The preconscious mind stores memories and thoughts that can be brought into awareness.
• The unconscious mind contains thoughts and drives we are unaware of, yet influences our behavior.

Subliminal Perception

• Stimuli below conscious awareness can still activate conscious processes and behavior.
• Subliminal perception studies show cognitive activity is influenced by the unconscious.
• Effects on behavior include goals activated outside of consciousness.
• Effects on emotional processes may have therapeutic value.

The Structure of Personality

• The Id is an aspect of personality aligned with instincts.
  • It operates according to the pleasure principle, avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure.
  • It exhibits primary-process thought, a childlike mode of thinking to satisfy drives.
• The Ego functions as the rational master of personality.
  • It employs secondary-process thought to deal rationally with the external world.
  • It operates according to the reality principle.
  • Consists of ego control and ego resiliency.
• The Superego represents the moral aspect of personality.
  • Contains conscience (behaviors punished) and ego ideal (moral/ideal behaviors).

Anxiety: A Threat to the Ego

• Anxiety is an objectless fear with no identifiable source.
• It is fundamental to neurotic and psychotic behaviors.
• The prototype of anxiety is birth trauma.
• Failure to cope with anxiety results in a traumatic state, characterized by helplessness.
• Conflicts threaten the ego, encompassing reality anxiety (fear of tangible dangers), neurotic anxiety (id-ego conflicts), and moral anxiety (id-superego conflicts).
• Anxiety signals ego threats.
• Leads to tension to satisfy these needs.
• Ego defense mechanisms respond to anxiety.

Defense Mechanisms

• Ego employs defense strategies to cope with anxiety arising from daily life conflicts.
• These mechanisms involve denying or distorting reality.
• Defense mechanisms operate unconsciously.

Freudian Slips and Catharsis

• Freudian slips are unintentional errors in speech reflecting unconscious motives or anxieties.
• Catharsis is the physical expression of emotions through recalling a traumatic event, to reduce the stress.
• For example, acting out aggression on a substitute.

Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development

• Personality develops through stages, each defined by an erogenous zone.
  • Gratification of id instincts depends on stimulation of the body’s erogenous zones.
  • A conflict resolution during a stage is necessary to move to the next.
  • Fixation can occur due to excessive frustration or gratification, resulting in a portion of libido becoming invested in a particular stage.
• Each stage is defined by a particular bodily area.
• Psychosexual stages help understand development and personality.

Questions about Human Nature and Assessment in Freud's Theory

• Freud's view is deterministic, emphasizing tension reduction as the ultimate life goal.
• He recognized human nature's universality.
• He connected personality to early childhood interactions.
• Psychoanalysis aimed to create free will.

The Unconscious and Therapeutic Techniques

• Freud's psychoanalytic techniques include hypnosis, intense suggestion, free association, and dream analysis.
  • Dreams reflect the individual's psyche.
• Freudian interpretations of dreams may involve pieces of, and hints about the unconscious.
• Unconscious content is often revealed via the "royal road" of dreams.

Assessments in Freud's Theory

• Assessments in Freud’s theory include free association, catharsis (expression of emotional response), and analysis of dreams.
• Free association involves saying whatever comes to mind, revealing possible unconscious conflicts.
• Catharsis aims to allow expression of emotion to reduce symptoms related to early experiences.
• Analysis of dreams, considering both manifest and latent content reveals unconscious desires, conflicts, and repressed feelings.

Criticisms of Freud's Research and Extensions of Freudian Theory

• Freud used case study method, which lacks generalizability.
• Records were not always kept verbatim, resulting in potential inaccuracy and observer bias.
• He may have misconstrued patients' sexual abuse stories, affecting interpretations.
• His sample size was small and unrepresentative.
• Theories are misogynistic.
• Lacked confidence in scientific method.

Reflections on Freud's Theory and Freud's Lasting Influence

• Major contributions include emphasis on sexuality and early childhood experiences.
• He provided the concept of infantile sexuality, impact of early experiences on later life, unconscious mind, and psychoanalytic differences between genders.
• Limitations relate to behavior being a function of inner conflicts, a pessimistic/deterministic view of personality, difficulty in evaluating theories scientifically, preoccupation with intrapsychic conflicts, and lack of consideration of interpersonal relations and identity/adaptation.
• Psychoanalysis has impacted popular psychology and influenced later personality theorists.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Techniques

• Techniques include hypnosis, forms of intense suggestion, free association, and dream analysis.