Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory PDF

Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory - 2 corner stones: sex and aggression - Understanding of personality based on his own experiences with patients, his analysis of his own dreams, his vast readings in the various sciences & humanities - Relied on deductive reasoning than rigorous research metho...

Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory - 2 corner stones: sex and aggression - Understanding of personality based on his own experiences with patients, his analysis of his own dreams, his vast readings in the various sciences & humanities - Relied on deductive reasoning than rigorous research methods, made observations subjectively & on a relatively small sample patients - Did not quantify his data nor make observations under controlled conditions - Jean-Martin Charcot (French neurologist) from whom Freud learned hypnotic technique for treating hysteria - Hysteria: disorder characterized by paralysis or improper functioning of certain parts of the body - Josef Breuer (Viennese physician) taught Freud about catharsis Catharsis: process of removing hysterical symptoms through “talking them out” - 1st personal crisis: late 1890s suffered professional isolation & personal crisis - Began to analyze his own dreams after his father’s death, initiated practice of analyzing himself daily - 2nd personal crisis: realized he’s now middle-aged & yet to achieve the fame he so passionately desired - Abandonment of seduction theory, because: 1. Not enabled him to successfully treat even a single patient 2. Great number of fathers would be accused of sexual perversion 3. Unconscious mind could probably not distinguish reality from fiction 4. Unconscious memories of advanced psychotic patients almost never revealed early childhood sexual experiences - Most significant revisions in history 1. Elevation of aggression to a level equal to that of the sexual drive 2. Inclusion of repression as one of the defenses of the ego 3. Attempt to clarify the female Oedipus complex (never completely accomplished) Unconscious: all drives, urges, instincts that are beyond awareness but still motivate most of our words, feelings & actions - Unconscious: Conscious of overt behavior but unaware of the mental processes that lie behind them - Unconscious: could only be proved indirectly - Unconscious: Explanation for meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue & certain kinds of forgetting (repression) - Dreams: rich source of unconscious material - Unconscious enter consciousness only after being disguised or distorted enough to elude censorship 1. Must first be sufficiently disguised to slip past the primary censor 2. Must elude a final censor that watches the passageway between the preconscious & conscious - When memories enter conscious mind, no longer recognize them for what they are, but see them as relatively pleasant, non threatening experiences - Punishment & suppression: create feelings of anxiety - Anxiety turns to repression: forcing unwanted, anxiety-ridden experiences into unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety - Phylogenetic endowment: inherited unconscious image, portion of unconscious originates from the experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through hundreds of generations of repetition - Jung: emphasized on collective unconscious - Frued: relied on notion of inherited dispositions only as a last resort, when explanations built on individual experiences weren’t adequate - Unconscious drives may appear in consciousness only after undergoing certain transformations - Unconscious constantly drive to become conscious, many succeed but no longer appear in their original form - Unconscious ideas can & do motivate people Preconscious - Not conscious, but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty - Contents come from 2 sources 1. Conscious perception: person perceives is conscious for only a transitory period  - Largely free from anxiety & in reality are much more similar to the conscious images than to the unconscious urges 2. Unconscious: ideas can slip past the vigilant censor & enter preconscious in a disguised form - Some can never become conscious because if we recognized them as derivatives of the unconscious, we’d experience increased levels of anxiety → activate final censor to repress anxiety-loaded images → force them back to the unconscious - Other images do gain admission to consciousness, but only because their true nature is cleverly disguised through the dream process, slip of the tongue, or an elaborate defensive measure - Conscious: mental elements in awareness at any given point i time - Conscious: Only level of mental life directly available to us - Conscious: Can come from 2 different directions 1. Perceptual conscious system: turned toward the outer world, acts a medium for perception of external stimuli - What we perceive through our sense organs, if not too threatening could enter consciousness 2. WIthin the mental structure, includes nonthreatening ideas from the preconscious - Escape preconscious by cloaking themselves as harmless elements & evade primary censor → reach consciousness but very distorted & camouflaged, taking form of defensive behaviors or dream elements - Unconscious as a large entrance hall 1. People at the entrance hall = unconscious images 2. Small reception room = preconscious 3. Inhabitants of small reception room = preconscious ideas 4. Eye of the consciousness: important guests, and people in the reception room might come into view 5. Doorkeeper = primary censor that prevents unconscious images from becoming preconscious, renders preconscious images unconscious by throwing them back 6. Screen that guards the important doors = final censor Provinces of the Mind - Model of the mind was topographic - Only portrayal of psychic strife was the conflict between conscious & unconscious forces - Id, Ego, Superego interact altogether - Ego cuts across the various topographic levels & has conscious, preconscious & unconscious components - Superego both pre conscious & unconscious - Id completely unconscious Id: core of personality, completely unconscious - Id: “The it” or not-yet-owned component of personality - Id: No contact with reality, strives to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires - Id’s sole function: seek pleasure - pleasure principle - Baby continues to suck because id is not in contact with reality - Childhood wish impulses remain unchanged in the id for decades - Id: Illogical & can simultaneously entertain incompatible ideas - Id: No morality; not immoral just amoral - Id energy spent on 1 purpose: seek pleasure without regard for what is proper or just - Id: Primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, unchangeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized, and filled with energy received from basic drives & discharged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle - Primary process: blindly seeks to satisfy the pleasure principle, survival is dependent on the development of the secondary process ot bring it into contact with the external world - Secondary process functions through the ego Ego: only region in contact with reality, person’s sole source of communication with the external world - Ego: governed by reality principle, tries to substitute for the pleasure principle of the id - Ego: Becomes the decision-making or executive branch of personality - Ego: Partly conscious, preconscious and unconscious, make decisions in these 3 levels - During cognitive & intellectual functions, ego must take into consideration the incompatible but equally unrealistic demands of the id & superego - Ego must serve a 3rd master: the external world  - Ego constantly tries to reconcile the blind, irrational claims of the id + realistic demands of the external world of the superego - Therefore it becomes anxious → uses defense mechanisms - Ego differentiates from Id when infants learn to distinguish themselves from the outer world - Id remains unchanged, ego continues to develop strategies for handling id’s unrealistic and unrelenting demands for pleasure - Ego can control the powerful, pleasure-seeking id but sometimes loses control - Person on horseback: rider inhibits the greater strength of the horse, but ultimately at the mercy of the animal - Ego has no strength of its own but borrows energy from the id, sometimes ego comes close to gaining complete control, during the prime of life of a psychologically mature person Superego: above-I, represents moral & ideal aspects of personality - Superego: Guided by the moral & idealistic principles - Superego: Grows out of the ego, no energy of its own - Difference from ego: no contact with outside world, unrealistic in its demands for perfection - 2 subsystems 1. Conscience: result from experiences with punishments for improper behavior, tells us what we should not do 2. Ego-ideal: develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior, tells us what we should do - Well-developed superego: control sexual & aggressive impulses through the process of repression → cannot produce repression by itself, but can order the ego to do so - Guilt: result when ego acts contrary to the moral standards of the superego, function of the conscience - Feelings of inferiority: arise when ego unable to meet the superego’s standards of perfection, stems from ego-ideal - Superego: not concerned with happiness of the ego, strives blindly & unrealistically toward perfection, doesn’t take into consideration the difficulties faced by the ego - Completely ignorant and unconcerned with practicability of its requirements - Healthy individual: id + superego integrated into a smooth functioning ego, operate in harmony, minimum conflict 1. Pleasure seeking person dominated by id: person constantly striving for pleasure regardless of what is proper or possible 2. Guilt-ridden or inferior-feeling person dominated by superego: experience many conflicts because ego cannot arbitrate the strong but opposing demands of the superego & id 3. Psychologically healthy person dominated by the ego: control both pleasure principle & moralistic principle Dynamics of Personality - People are motivated to seek pleasure & reduce tension & anxiety - Motivation is derived from psychical & physical energy that springs from their basic drives Drives - Trieb (German): drive or stimulus within a person - Constant motivational force - Differ from external stimuli: cannot be avoided through flight - 2 major headings: Sex/Eros, Aggression/distraction/Thanatos - All originate in the id, but come under control by the ego - Libido: sex drive - Characterized by an impetus, source, aim, object - Impetus: amount of force it exerts - Source: region of the body in a state of excitation/tension - Aim: seek pleasure by removing that excitation/reducing the tension - Object: person/thing that serves as the means through which the aim is satisfied ○ Sex: aim pleasure - Entire body is invested with libido - Erogenous zones: genitals, mouth, anus - all produce sexual pleasure - Ultimate aim of sexual drive (reduction of sexual tension) cannot be changed but path by which the aim is reached can be varied  - Either active or passive, temporary or permanently inhibited - Eros is difficult to be recognized as a sexual behavior - 2 ways Eros is manifested 1. Flexibility of sexual object/person, brings further disguise of Eros - Libido can be withdrawn from one person & placed in a state of free-floating tension, or can be reinvested in another person - Primary narcissism: Infant’s libido invested almost exclusively on their own ego - Narcissistic libido transformed into object libido - Secondary narcissism: adolescents redirect libido back to the ego, become preoccupied with personal appearance & other self-interests 2. Love: develops when people invest their libido on an object/person other than themselves - Overt sexual love for members of the family ordinarily repressed → brings the 2nd type of love into existence - 2nd kind of love: aim-inhibited, as original aim of reducing sexual tension is inhibited/repressed - Narcissism: love of self, love: accompanied by narcissistic tendencies - Sadism: need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain/humiliation on another person, more dependent on other people - Masochism: pleasure from suffering pain & humiliation inflicted either by themselves/others, don’t need to depend on another person ○ Aggression: aim is to return the organism to an inorganic state - Final aim of the aggressive drive is self-destruction - Ultimate inorganic condition is death - Explains need for barriers that people have erected to check aggression - Reaction formations: involve the repression of strong hostile impulses & overt obvious expression of the opposite tendency - Life & death must bow to the reality principle, which represents the claims of the outer world - Demands of the real world create anxiety, which relegates many sexual & aggressive desires to be the realm of the unconscious Anxiety: felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger, unpleasantness often vague but anxiety is always felt - Only ego can produce or feel anxiety 1. Ego’s dependence on id → neurotic anxiety - Apprehension about an unknown danger - Feeling exists in the ego, originates from id impulses - Childhood: hostility accompanied by fear of punishment, fear becomes generalized into unconscious neurotic anxiety 2. Ego’s dependence on superego → moral anxiety - Conflict between ego & superego - Example: result from sexual temptations, can result from the failure to behave consistently 3. Ego’s dependence on outer world → realistic anxiety - Closely related to fear - Unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger - Does not involve a specific fearful object - Often exist in combination, indicating an unknown danger is connected with the external one - Serves as an ego-preserving mechanism: signals us that some danger is at hand - Anxiety dream signals the censor of an impending danger, allows us to better disguise the dream images, be constantly vigilant ego to be alert for the signs of threat & danger - Signal of impending danger stimulates us to mobilize for either fight or flight defense - Also self-regulating: precipitates repression → reduces pain of anxiety - Defensive behaviors: useful function by protecting ego against pain of anxiety Defense Mechanisms - When carried to an extreme, can lead to compulsive, repetitive & neurotic behavior - The more defensive we are, the less psychic energy we have left to satisfy id impulses - All defense mechanisms protect ego against anxiety - Each can be carried to the point of psychopathology Repression: forces threatening feelings into the unconscious - When children’s hostile/sexual behaviors are suppressed, they learn to be anxious whenever they experience these impulses, often resulting to partial repression - Impulses after they become unconscious 1. Unchanged in the unconscious 2. Force their way into consciousness in an unaltered form → create more anxiety, so the person feels overwhelmed with anxiety 3. Expressed in displaced or disguised forms - Must be clever disguise, sometimes as physical symptoms - Repressed drives may find an outlet in dreams, slips of the tongue, or one of the other defense mechanisms Reaction Formation: adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form - Exaggerated character & by its obsessive & compulsive form - Concentrate on the opposite impulse, helps conceal the anxiety-arousing truth Displacement: redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people/objects that the original impulse is disguised or concealed - Does not exaggerate or overdo - Replacement of one neurotic symptom for another - Involved in dream formation Fixation: permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier, more primitive stage of development - Remains at the present - Demand more or less permanent expenditure of psychic energy Regression: revert to earlier, safer, more secure patterns of behavior, invest their libido onto more primitive & familiar objects - During times of stress & anxiety, revert back to that earlier stage - Rigid and infantile, but usually temporary Projection: seeing in others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that actually reside in one’s own unconscious - Attribute the unwanted impulse on an external object, usually another person - Paranoia: extreme projection, powerful delusions of jealousy/persecution, severe variety - Always characterized by repressed homosexual feelings toward the persecutor - Homosexual impulses become too powerful, defend themselves by reversing the feelings → project them onto their original object - Paranoia: projection with accompanying delusions of jealousy & persecution Introjection: incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego - Adolescent adopt mannerisms, values or lifestyle of a movie star → gives an inflated sense of self-worth & keeps feelings of inferiority to a minimum - Oedipus complex as a prototype of introjection - Young person introjects the authority & values of one or both parents Sublimation: repression of the genital aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim - Helps both individual & social group - Expressed most obviously in creative cultural accomplishments - Combine with direct expression of Eros, result in balance between social accomplishments & personal pleasures