A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies

• Abnormal Psychology

• Key study

• Sigmund Freud (1909)

Sigmund Freud (1909)

Analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy

The psychoanalytic theory Sigmund Freud

The tripartite structure of human personality

Tripartite means - in three parts

The tripartite structure of personality

• The earliest part of the human personality

• THE ID (the biological part) (instincts & drives)

• Present at birth

• Driven by the pleasure principle

The tripartite structure of personality

• The second part of the human personality to develop

• THE EGO (the executive part)• 1 - 3 years

• Driven by the reality principle

The tripartite structure of personality

• The third part of the human personality to develop

• THE SUPEREGO (the moral part)• 3 - 5 years

• Driven by the anxiety principle

The tripartite structure of personality

• The psychic apparatus

ID>>>neurotic>EGO<moral<<<SuperEGO

conflict conflict

CONFLICT RESOLVED BY DREAMS

NEUROTIC SYMPTOMS

DEFENCE MECHANISMS

The tripartite personalityID >>> EGO <<< SUPEREGO

• DEVELOP DURING THE

FIVE psychosexual stages of development

The FIVE psychosexual stages

• The Oral (Birth - 1 year)

• The Anal (1 - 3 years)

• The Phallic (3 - 5/6 years)

• The Latent (6 - puberty)

• The Genital (adulthood)

Stage 1 - the ORAL stage

• Mouth (sucking) is the source of pleasure

• The ID is in control

In the ORAL stage …….

• Fixation caused by• Over indulgence

• symptoms include selfishness, dependency, compulsive talking

• Frustration• Symptoms include nail biting, sarcasm,

thumb sucking, greed

Stage 2 - the ANAL Stage

• Elimination of faeces is the source

of pleasure

The EGO develops

(the reality principle)

In the ANAL stage ….

• Fixation (a) Anal expulsive:

symptoms: giving to charity, potters, gardeners, (sublimating the wish to smear)

• Fixation (b) Anal retentive symptoms: miserly, thrifty, orderly, obstinate

Stage 3 : The PHALLIC stage

• The Superego develops

• Driven by the anxiety principle

• The Oedipus conflict (boys)

• The Electra conflict (girls)

In the PHALLIC stage….

• Fixation caused by failure to resolve the Oedipus / Electra conflict

• Symptoms include: homosexuality, curiosity, exhibitionism– a surgeon may be sublimating hostile feelings towards same sex parent– Writer of pornography may be sublimating sexual preoccupations

• All pseudo-patients wished to be discharged immediately

• BUT - they waited until they were diagnosed as ‘fit to be discharged’

Read the Oedipus / Electra conflict (Cardwell pp 551)

• The analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy

• THE CASE STUDY of LITTLE HANS

• (Sigmund Freud 1909)

Little Hans

• This is the ONLY case study of a child undertaken by Freud

• Freud’s ideas about infant sexuality were based on his work with adult women

• (and his own self analysis)

Little Hans

• The CASE STUDY

• (psychoanalytic therapy)

was carried out by correspondence and interviews with Hans’ father

• First reports when Hans was three

Little Hans

• Hans was interested in his ‘widdler’

• His mother told him

• “not to play with your widdler .. or else she would call the doctor to come and cut it off”

• Hans’ mother threatened to leave him

Little Hans

• Hans’ baby sister was born - he was told the stork had brought the baby

• Early jealousy of sister

• Continued interest in his widdler, according to father his dreams and fantasies were of widdlers and of ‘widdling’

Little Hans

• When Hans was five - father wrote to Freud

• “Hans is afraid of horses, afraid a horse will bite him in the street, this fear seems to be connected to his being frightened by a large penis”

Little Hans

• Freud & father try to make sense of what Hans was experiencing and to resolve his phobia of horses

• Freud noted that Hans’ fear of horses developed after the child had anxiety dreams of losing his mother AND after he has been warned not to play with his widdler

Little Hans

• Hans dreams about a giraffe were explained as ‘fear of big penis’

• (long neck = big penis)

• Freud theorised that Hans’ fear of horses was really fear of father

• Horse = symbolic for father

Little Hans READ THE STUDY

• Freud’s conclusion

• Little Hans phobia of horses was really fear of father

• (castration fear) during resolution of the Oedipus Conflict– Fear resolved when Oedipus conflict resolved

Little Hans: Criticisms

• Hans is analysed by the father who is emotionally involved

• Father is biased as he already admires the work of Freud and may have believed that the boy was in the Oedipal (phallic stage)

• Father ‘put words into Hans’ mouth’

‘Daddy I thought something: I was in the bath, and then the plumber came and unscrewed it. Then he took a big borer and stuck it into my stomach’. – Hans

Interpretation

Han’s remembers father having intercourse with mother whilst in her womb. Han’s understands that he was created by father having sex with mother.

Hans ‘The plumber came, and first he took away my behind with a pair of pincers, and then gave me another, and then the same with my widdler. He said: ‘Let me see your behind! And I had to turn round and he took it away; and then he said: ‘Let me see your widdler!’

Interpretation – Hans has identified with father

Finally Hans says he would like his dad to be granddad so that he can marry mum and have children.

But, much of this was the boy agreeing to his father’s leading questions.

Little Hans: Criticisms

• The case study seems to be both

scientific evidence and treatment

• These should be separated because

• If we ‘treat’ what we are investigating how can it remain unchanged to be investigated?

Little Hans: Criticisms

• BUT• Freud did deal with real people &

their problems

• Not neat & tidy but has

• “ecological validity”

Little Hans: Criticisms

• AND unlike adult ‘case studies’

• No searching through ‘past memory’ Hans father simply asked Hans!

Little Hans: Other explanations

• Perhaps Hans dreams about widdlers & widdling were caused by his fear that his mother might cut off his penis?

• But - Freud’s theory was that mothers were the primary love object of little boys, (not that Mother could be feared)

Little Hans: other explanations

• Erich Fromm (& Social Learning Theory)– It was because Hans’ father took such an

interest in him, that Hans identified with his father and wished to be like him

• Bowlby – Hans may have been afraid of being separated

from his mother (separation anxiety)– thus feared horses (as main mode of transport)

Little Hans: other explanations

• Learning Theory

• Hans had seen a horse fall down in the street

• (equivalent to road accident today)

• He ‘learned to be’ afraid of horses!

Little Hans - Ethical issues

• Treatment not very child friendly (and included leading questions)

• Freud’s theory of the Oedipus/Electra conflict is proposed by some psychologists as the reason why people are reluctant to believe children who report sexual abuse

Little Hans - Ethical Issues

• Hans was interviewed when he was 19

• He had no recollection of any of the discussions - “No long term effects” Hans said when he read the case study “it came as something from the unknown”

Sigmund FreudThe Case study of Little Hans

• List three ways in which people show unconscious wishes in their behaviour

• How can you criticise Freud’s method of collecting data?

• What differences are there between the attitudes of Han’s parents and the attitudes of parents today?

Sigmund Freud - LITTLE HANS

• The analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy

• A Case study

• The Oedipus Conflict & its resolution by psychoanalysis (therapy)

Sigmund Freud

• Have YOU resolved your

• Oedipus or Electra conflict??

• How can you tell?