Chapter 15a Freud Unit 12 594-608

How you think, feel or act- Personality

Powerpoint lecture on Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Study packet for unit Learning Objective: Understanding

the main concepts of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

Freud’s psychodynamic theory developed in the early 1900s grew out of his work with patients.

Freud used the term dynamic to refer to mental energy force.

Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory of Personality

It emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences, unconscious or repressed thoughts that we can’t voluntarily access, and the conflicts between conscious and unconscious forces that influence our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Psychodynamic Theory

Conscious thoughts: are wishes, desires, or thoughts that we are aware of or can recall at any given moment.

Unconscious forces: represent wishes desires, or thoughts that because of their disturbing/threatening content, we automatically repress and cannot voluntarily access.

Freud believed that a large part of our behavior was guided or motivated by unconscious forces.

Psychodynamic Theory

Unconscious motivation: is a Freudian concept that refers to the influence of repressed thoughts, desires, or impulses on our conscious thoughts and behaviors.

Techniques to Discover the Unconscious

Freud developed three methods to uncover unconscious processes: free association, dream interpretation, and slips of the tongue (Freudian slips).

Free association: Freud encouraged clients to talk about any thoughts or images that enter their head; the assumption is that this kind of free-flowing uncensored talking will provide clues to unconscious material.

Techniques to Discover the Unconscious

Dream Interpretation: a Freudian technique of analyzing dreams, is based on the assumption that dreams contain underlying, hidden meanings and symbols that provide clues to unconscious thoughts and desires.

Freud distinguished between the dreams obvious story or plot, called manifest content, and the dream’s hidden or disguised meanings or symbols, called latent content.

Techniques to Discover the Unconscious

Freudian Slips: are mistakes or slips of the tongue that we make in everyday speech; such mistakes which are often embarrassing, are thought to reflect unconscious thoughts or wishes.

Techniques to Discover the Unconscious

Freud assumed that the 3 techniques are all mental processes that are the least controlled by our conscious, rational, and logical minds.

As a result, he believed that these 3 techniques allowed uncensored clues to slip out and reveal our deeper unconscious wishes and desires.

Psychodynamic Theory

According to Freud’s theory, there is a continuing battle going on in our minds between conscious thoughts and unconscious forces.

How our minds fight these battles is perhaps one of Freud’s best-known theories, and you’ll easily recognize many of the terms including id, ego, and superego.

Psychodynamic Theory To understand how the

id, ego, and superego interact, imagine an iceberg floating in the sea.

The part of the iceberg that is above water represents conscious forces of which we are aware, while parts below the water indicate unconscious forces of which we are not aware.

Psychodynamic Theory

The first division is the id, which contains 2 biological drives-sex and aggression-that are the source of all mental energy.

The id follows the pleasure principle, which is to satisfy the drives and avoid pain, without concern for moral restrictions or society’s regulations.

Psychodynamic Theory

The second division is the ego , whose goal is to find socially acceptable ways of satisfying the id’s desires within the range of the superego’s prohibitions.

The ego follows the reality principle, which is to satisfy a wish or desire only if there is a socially acceptable outlet available.

The ego develops from the id during infancy.

Psychodynamic Theory

The third division is the superego, whose goal is to apply the moral values and standards of one’s parents or caregivers and society in satisfying one’s wishes.

The superego develops from the ego during early childhood.

Psychodynamic Theory

Disagreements? Freud believed that often times there is

little to no disagreement between the goals of the id and superego.

However, when disagreement occurs Freud theorized that the ego works to find compromise between the goals of the id an superego. This compromise is found by the ego using what Freud described as mental processes or defense mechanisms.

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are Freudian processes that operate at unconscious levels and that use self-deception or untrue explanations to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by anxiety.

Anxiety: an uncomfortable feeling that results from inner conflicts between the primitive desires of the id and moral goals of the superego.

Defense Mechanisms

Rationalization: involves covering up the true reasons for actions, thoughts, or feelings by making up excuses and incorrect explanations.

Denial: is refusing to recognize some anxiety provoking event or piece of information that is clear to others.

Repression: involves blocking and pushing unacceptable or threatening feelings, wishes, or experiences in the unconscious.

Defense Mechanisms

Projection: falsely and unconsciously attributes your own unacceptable feelings, traits, or thoughts to individuals or objects.

Reaction Formation: involves substituting behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are the direct opposite of unacceptable ones.

Displacement: involves transferring feelings about, or response to, an object that causes anxiety to another person or object that is less threatening.

Defense Mechanisms

Note that all these defense mechanisms function indirectly and unconsciously.

They reduce anxiety by disguising our threatening impulses.

Just as the body unconsciously defends itself against disease, so also, believed Freud does the ego unconsciously defend itself against anxiety.

5 Psychosexual Stages

Analysis of his patients’ histories convinced Freud that personality forms during life’s first few years.

Again and again his patients symptoms seemed rooted in unresolved conflicts from early childhood.

He concluded that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages, during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct pleasure-sensative areas of the body called erogenous zones.

5 Psychosexual Stages

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Stage Focus

Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth--(0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing

Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder (18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for

control

Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with (3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings

Latency Dormant sexual feelings(6 to puberty)

Genital Maturation of sexual interests(puberty on)

Freud’s Followers and Critics Carl Jung: Jung

originally a close friend and follower of Freud disagreed with Freud's emphasis on the sex drive. Jung believed the collective unconscious-and not sex-to be the basic force in the development of personality.

The collective unconscious, according to Jung, consists of ancient memory traces and symbols that are passed on by birth and are shared by all peoples in all cultures.

Freud’s Followers and Critics

Alfred Adler: like Jung was originally a friend and follower of Freud’s but he disagreed with his theory that humans are governed by biological and sexual urges.

Adler believed that the main factors influencing a child’s development were sibling influences and child-rearing practices.

Adler proposed that humans are motivated by social urges and that each person is a social being with a unique personality.

In contrast to Freud’s emphasis on unconscious forces that influence our behaviors, Adler suggested that we are aware of our motives and goals and have the capacity to guide and plan our futures.

Freud’s Followers and Critics

Karen Horney: never a follower of Freud strongly objected to his view that women were dependent, vain, and submissive because of biological forces and childhood sexual experiences.

She especially took issue with Freud’s idea that penis envy affected girls’ development.

Horney insisted that he major influence on personality development can be found in child-parent social interaction.

*Dreams and Meanings Activity-Understanding the

Unconscious Freud was classically educated. He was

probably aware of much of the following Dream Lore, and many biographers cite examples from Freud's own theories of "borrowing" from these early civilizations. His use of the Greek civilization is very apparent, as in his Oedipal and Edipus complexes. It is therefore appropriate the we look at the early civilizations, and what they believed dreams signified, to get a firm grasp of where we are today, and where your dream theory may be going.

Dream Analysis

Dreams. They have been a part of the human psyche since before recorded time. They have been said to have different purposes at different times throughout the ages. Some divined messages from omnipotent beings in dreams, others later saw them as a window to the unconscious. Some dismiss them as nothing more than a biochemical reaction occurring as the brain rests, recovers, and resets itself from day to day. What do you think they mean? Should psychologists study dreams to see if they tell us something about human behavior?

Symbols a house = the human form

if the house is flat (no balconies or things coming off the house)- it is a man if the house has balconies, awnings, etc., then it is usually a women

emperors and empresses = parents Kings/Queens = parents little animals/vermin = siblings water = birth journeys/travel = dying

Symbols the #3, umbrellas, sticks, poles,

trees, (things that penetrate) knives, daggers, lances, sabers, guns, pistols, revolvers, (things form which water flow) taps, watercans, springs (objects that get longer) balloons, slide rulers, (things that defy gravity) airplanes, and (animals) snakes, etc. = the male sex organs

Intercourse (the act) was often found to be represented as dancing, riding, climbing, or experiencing some violent act

Symbols pits, hallows, caves (things that hold

things) jars, bottles, boxes, chests, coffers, pockets, cupboards, stoves, rooms, (things that hold other things) mouths, doors, gates, (things that represent breasts) apples, peaches fruits, and (others) woods, shrubs, bushes, etc. = female sex organs

Culture and Dreams

Babylonians -saw dreams as messages from the supernatural beings (good dreams came from the gods, bad dreams came from demons) Assyrians -saw dreams as omens. Bad dreams demanded action, i.e. exorcisms. Other dreams were seen as "advice"

Egyptians -believed that the gods revealed themselves in dreams, demanding pious acts, or warning of impending doom

Culture and Dreams Greeks -dreams were good or bad.

Sometimes, a treatment, or sleep ritual would be worked up to help incubate good dreams. This "treatment" would include abstaining from sex, meat, and drink. Dreams often told a prophecy. Aristotle postulated that dreams may be premonitions of an illness coming from within the body, where some "unconscious" mind recognized early symptoms, but the absolute sensation threshold had not been crossed to alert the "waking self". (Sounds like he was way ahead of his time, huh?) The Romans had similar beliefs.

Culture and Dreams Hebrews -dreams were a vision or

prophecy from a god (keep in mind that we see monotheism emerging here)

Hindus -dreams are prophetic, and the timing of the dream will indicate how soon the prophecy will come to pass

Japanese -dreams are sought as visions to help answer questions that are plaguing the waking self. Usually the answers come from ancestral spirits.

Culture and Dreams

Muslims -dreams and astrology are closely related in this culture. True dreams come from god, false ones from the devil.

Australian Aborigines -the spirits from underground rise and wander in the land of the living, and when they pass through a mortal being, a "greater vision" is momentarily acquired.. this would be what we call a dream

Culture and Dreams

North American Indians -hidden wished of the soul are addressed and fulfilled in dreams. Visions can also be sought after in the hopes of answering a question or resolving a conflict.

Dreams and Meanings

Dream interpretation requires that you ask the dreamer what he/she thinks the dream means. The first words out of their mouths are usually the most telling (significant, or important). There is no "quick reference" book available that can identify what objects in dreams symbolize. The objects undergo changes that only the individual can gain an understanding of, and the psychoanalyst can learn of through the "talking" cure.

Interpretation

There are obstacles that the patient's own unconscious throws up to keep the meanings of dreams hidden (remember, this is the function of dreams according to Freud). These obstacles can be in the form of forgetting the content of a dream, being uncooperative in analysis, censorship in what they do say about the dream, and other forms of resistance.

Interpretation It is also important to realize that there are

two levels to every dream. The MANIFEST and the LATENT content. The origin of the manifest content is easier to determine, and is generated by things like "day residue" (the left over remnants of the day that the mind uses as a stage to hide the deeper issues of a dream). The latent content is the one that is important for understanding the unconscious conflicts that the dreamer is experiencing. The latent or hidden part is where the greatest understanding can be uncovered.

Rules to Understand Dreams

do not trouble yourself over the manifest's meaning, although the dreamer may want to, again to keep you (the interpreter) away from the more significant issue

free associate, allow the dreamer to say what ever comes to mind when they think about different parts of the dream

the hidden thoughts will appear on their own, we can not rush them along

Types of Dreams

Dreams fall into one of the following categories, and serve these particular functions: 1) the satisfaction dream, 2) the impatience dream- where the dreamer dreams about being at a party or function, that is in the near future, that they "can not wait to get to" so the dream takes you there, and 3) the comfort dream

Dreams and Meanings Terminology

Dream censorship- the process by which the issues of a dream are omitted to hide the true meaning

Symbolism- the manifestation of an object, idea, or feeling, in some "concrete" form that is in the dream. Figuring out what the manifestation symbolizes is a major component of Freudian dream interpretation.

Dream Work- the way techniques that the unconscious uses to distort the reality and issues in a dream. Those "tricks" include: condensation, displacement, and symbolization

Dreams and Meanings Terminology

Condensation- taking large issues, or more than one issue, and representing it is a dream with only one image, i.e. fearing your new girlfriend, missing your mother and personality fixations revolving around an oral fixation may be represented in a dream with just a baby with a pacifier

Dreams and Meanings Terminology

Displacement- replacement of issues (conflicts) by something remote or nothing i.e. a big issue is only a small element of a dream, while a small issue seems to get all the attention (this would be displacement of accent, there is also displacement of omission where items from the dreams are just left out, displacement by modifications, and displacement by regrouping materials- again to confuse issues.