Mr. van Over Psychology Spring 2012. Contents Biography Psychoanalytic Method & Tools Structure of the Personality Ego Defense Mechanisms Psychosexual

The Psychoanalytic Approach:

Sigmund Freud

Mr. van Over

Psychology

Spring 2012

Contents

• Biography• Psychoanalytic Method & Tools• Structure of the Personality• Ego Defense Mechanisms• Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud was born in 1856 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were Jews from Galicia, but lived in a small Moravian village at the time Freud was born.

Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939

The Freud family moved to Vienna, capital of the empire, when Sigmund was 4; he would live there until the Germans occupied Austria in 1938

-Jakob, a merchant, had 2 sons from a previous marriage

-Jakob is 40 when he marries 20-year-old Amalié (she is his son’s age)

-Sigmund is the first of 8 children born to Jakob and Amalié

The Jakob Freud Families

Ca. 1878

• Father was old enough to be his grandfather

• Father is not very successful in business

• Story—complied meekly when told “Get off the sidewalk, Jew”

• After Jakob’s 1896 death, Freud analyzed himself and admitted hostile feelings toward his father

Father and Son

Mother and Son

• OTOH Freud’s relationship with his mother was much warmer

A Brilliant Student

• Freud enters the University of Vienna in 1873 and later, its medical school

• He prefers research, but must go into private practice to earn enough money to marry

• In 1881 he qualifies for a doctor of medicine degree

The Courtship of Martha Bernays

• In the same year Freud earns his M.D. (1881), he falls in love

• Engagement to Martha Bernays lasts 4 years– He writes her over 900

letters– “Victorian” romance

Cocaine studies, 1884-1887

• Freud is able to prove that cocaine can be used as a local anaesthetic. "So coca is associated above all with my name" he wrote to Martha

• On the basis of Freud's research Carl Koller is to use cocaine in eye surgery, for which he gains scientific recognition.

• Freud's attempt to cure Fleischl's morphine addiction by cocaine only results in a substitute addiction.

Top, Carl KollerBottom, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow

Study in Paris (1885)

• Freud wins a travelling scholarship to study the effects of nervous diseases such as hysteria, under Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpetriere in Paris

A lesson of Jean-Martin Charcot in which a hysterical patient is presented. A lithograph of this painting by Brouillet hung in Freud's consulting room.

• Freud weds Martha in September 1886

• After 6th child is born, Freud gives up sex for a number of years

• In 1936 the couple celebrate their golden (50th) anniversary

Marriage

Freud’s Children

From left: Freud with sons Martin and Ernst, in uniform, January 1916; Freud’s sons Martin, Ernst, and Oliver c. 1900; daughters Anna, Mathilde, and Sophie; Freud with Anna c. 1913; the Freud children with grandmother Minna Bernays

• Freud opens his private practice in 1886, allowing him to marry

• In 1896 he moves his practice to 19 Bergasse, where he will stay until 1938– Fashionable district of

Vienna– A museum today

Private Practice

Hysteria

• Freud gives a lecture at the scientific society on the etiology of hysteria in which he claims that "at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience”

• The response: "It sounds like a scientific fairy tale."

Freud’s WorkFirst Phase, 1886-1895

• Freud studies hysteria from private practice (mostly white upper-class women)

Freud’s WorkSecond Phase, 1895-1900

• Upon the October 1896 death of his father, Freud analyzes himself

• During this period he– Names his new science

psychoanalysis– Abandons hypnotism in

favor of interpretation of dreams

– Emerges with a whole new theory

Freud’s WorkThird Phase, 1900-1914

• Freud studies id psychology and develops his first system of psychoanalytic theory

• asdf

Freud’s WorkFourth Phase, 1915-1939

• Ego psychology• Extension and reworking of earlier ideas• Thanatos, the death instinct

Freud Visits America

• In 1909 G Stanley Hall invites Freud to do a series of lectures at Clark University

• Freud is pleased to find his American audiences have read his works

A Dark Period

• Austria loses the Great War (and its empire)

• Freud’s daughter Sophie dies in 1920

• By 1923, Freud has the first of over 30 surgeries for his cancer of the throat

• Begins writing about Thanatos, the Death Instincts

Leaving Nazi Austria

• Freud decides to leave his homeland after– Nazi Germany takes

over Austria– Hitler burns his books– his home is entered

(and robbed) by the Nazis

– daughter Anna and son Martin are arrested for a day

Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (center), escorted by Marie Bonaparte (Princess Marie of Greece), and by American ambassador to France William Bullitt, shortly after his arrival in Paris after leaving Vienna en route to London, June 1938.

Contents


• Charcot used hypnosis to treat hysteria

• Breakthrough idea– Diseases can be caused by

ideas– Can produce a physical

symptom– Not just in body, but also

in mind– Leads Freud to develop the

“unconscious” mind

Studying in Paris with Charcot, 1885-1886

Professor Jean-Martin Charcot teaching at the Salpêtrière in Paris, France: showing his students a woman in an "hysterical fit“. (Painted in 1887 by

André Brouillet)

• Like Freud, Breuer was a Viennese psychiatrist

• The case of Anna O– The “talking cure”– Traumatic childhood experiences– Sexual abuse—real or fantasy– Repression

Josef Breuer and Anna O

Anna O is the pseudonym for Bertha Pappenheim

Uncovering the Unconscious

• Free Association—the patient, relaxed (usually reclined upon a couch), describes free-flowing thoughts without editing them


• Dream Interpretation—a window for viewing the contents of the unconscious

• “royal road to the unconscious”

Frontispiece from Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams


• Parapraxis—(pl. parapraxes) a leakage from the unconscious mind manifesting a mistake, accident, omission, or memory lapse; also called Freudian slip

Instincts:The Propelling Force of Personality

• By the 1870s the “conservation of energy” was regarded as a law of science

• German scholars suggested this applied to all living systems and called it psychodynamics

• Freud took the idea a step forward in looking for an energy system that could power living organisms, including humans

• Freud called it instincts

Instincts:The Propelling Force of Personality

• Instinct is the representation in the mind of stimuli that originate within the body

• a force that drives one to take action

• When the body is in a state of need, the person experiences a condition of tension

• The aim of an instinct is to satisfy the need and reduce the state of tension

Life Instincts

• Life instincts—the drive for survival of the individual and the species by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex. The most important is sex (Eros).

• Libido—the form of psychic energy manifested by the life instincts that drives the individual toward pleasurable behaviors and thoughts

Death Instincts

• The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.

• Aggressive drive—the compulsion to destroy, conquer, and kill.

• Developed after WWI• At the end of our lives, the death instinct is

victorious

Contents


Structure of the Mind• In the structural

theory, the mind is divided into three psychic structures– Consciousness– Preconscious– Unconscious

Levels of Consciousness• Consciousness

– deals with reality– is tied to your

perception of the external world

– operates on the Reality Principle

• Preconscious– contains material

that can easily be brought into consciousness (e.g., 3 x 7 = ?)

– memories

Levels of Consciousness (continued)

• Unconscious– Rooted in biology– not organized– not logical– makes no time

distinctions

– basic premise called the Pleasure Principle

– ultimate source of motivation

– always in conflict with society

Freud’s Iceberg Model of the Mind

The Structure of Personality• Id (“It”)

– instincts, energy, aim of tension-reduction– Pleasure Principle, primary process thinking

• Ego (“I”)– Reality Principle, secondary process thinking– deals with the external world; behaves

defensively

• Superego (“over-I”)– Conscience, Ego-ideal

The Id versus the Superego

Freud’s Iceberg Model

Anxiety: A Threat to the Ego

• Anxiety—to Freud, a feeling of fear and dread without an obvious cause.

• The birth trauma is the first experience with anxiety and fear.

• Trauma—to Freud, unable to cope with anxiety; helpless

Three Types of Anxiety

• Reality (or objective) anxiety—a fear of tangible dangers in the real world

• Neurotic anxiety• Moral anxiety

Objective Anxiety

• A fear of tangible dangers in the real world

Neurotic Anxiety: Conflict between Id and Ego

• Immediate gratification of needs

• Internally oriented• Unconcerned with safety

• Gratification of needs when appropriate

• Externally and internally oriented

• Concerned with safety

Id

Pleasure Principle

Ego

Reality Principle

Conflict

Moral Anxiety: Conflict between Id and Superego

• Occurs when an instinctual impulse is contrary to one’s moral code.

• Feelings of guilt, shame, or of being “conscience-stricken”• Internal

Id

Pleasure Principle

Superego

Ego-ideal and Conscience

Conflict

Strong Ego

• Frankly admits the nature of instinctual demands, environmental forces, and the superego’s commands

• Then, directly deals with problems in reasoned ways

• Still childish and immature, the ego uses more devious techniques of adjustment

• The ego seeks to fool itself and others about its inability to solve conflicts by using…

• Defense mechanisms

Weak Ego

Abnormal behavior stems from intrapsychic conflicts

• Hysteria• Phobias, obsessions, compulsions• Everyday life expressions (jokes, slips

of the tongue)• Defense mechanisms…

Contents


Defense Mechanisms

A strategy used by the ego to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by the conflicts of everyday life; involves denials or distortions of reality.

Defense Mechanisms The automatic, non-conscious process of

pushing distressing matters out of consciousness and into the unconscious

repression

Repressed material continues to foment distress, producing the neurotic symptoms Freud saw in his medical practice

Defense Mechanisms returning to a

previous stage of development

e.g., sitting in a corner and crying after hearing bad news; throwing a temper tantrum when you don’t get your way

regression

Defense Mechanisms taking the opposite

belief because the true belief causes anxiety

e.g., having a bias against a particular race or culture, and then embracing that race or culture to the extreme

reaction formation

Defense Mechanisms placing

unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone else

e.g., when losing an argument, you say “You’re stupid!”

projection

Defense Mechanisms Generating self-

justifying explanations to hide from ourselves the real reasons for our actions

a student doesn’t have a 2-week report turned in because “the printer is out of ink”

rationalization

Defense Mechanisms Diverts sexual or aggressive impulses

toward an object or person that is psychologically more acceptable than the one that aroused the feelings

displacement

Defense Mechanisms the substitution of a

socially acceptable mode of expressing sexual or aggressive energy

sublimation

Defense Mechanisms arguing against an

anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it doesn’t exist

e.g., denying that your physician’s diagnosis of cancer is correct

denial

Contents


Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Stages through which children pass and in which instinctual gratification depends on the stimulation of corresponding areas of the body

Erogenous Zone—a body region that is sensitive to stimulation. (It feels good when rubbed or massaged.)

Fixation—state in which a portion of the libido remains invested in one of the psychosexual stages because of excessive frustration or gratification. This leaves less energy for the next stages.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

• The theory states how children develop

• Freud did not work with children to develop the theory

• Freud worked with his adult patients using free association and dream interpretation to develop the theory

Psychosexual StagesStage Age Range Erogenous zone

Oral 0-2 Mouth

Anal 2-4 Anus and urethra

Phallic 3-5 Genitals

Latency 5-puberty All dormantOedipus Complex

Genital Puberty All primary and secondary sexual characteristics

The Oral Stage

Sub-stage Fixation(s)

Oral incorporative behavior(Taking in)

Eating, drinking, smoking, kissingGullible; will swallow anything they are told

Oral aggressive (occurs during the painful eruption of teeth)

Pessimism, hostility, aggressionArgumentative and sarcastic, making “biting” remarks and exhibiting sadistic tendencies toward others

Physical focus Personality structure Psychological theme

mouth id dependence, passivity

The Anal Stage

Sub-stage Fixation(s)

Anal aggressive(Defecates freely)

Hostile and sadistic behaviors: cruelty, destructiveness, temper tantrumsSloppy; slob

Anal retentive(“Holds it in”)

Stubborn and stingy: hoardsRigid, compulsively neat, obstinate, overly conscientious


anus, urethra ego obedience and self-control

The Phallic Stagean Infantile Genital Period

General behavior Child becomes curious about birth and about why a sibling is different in the genital area; talks about marrying the parent of the opposite sex

Basic conflict Centers around the unconscious incestuous desire of the child for the parent of the opposite sex; Identification with same-sex parent

Fixation Identification with the opposite-sex parent may be a cause of homosexuality (says Freud)

Related concepts Oedipus complex; castration anxiety; Electra complex; penis envy


sexual organs superego gender identity

Latency

Latency Defined Hidden; Present in the Unconscious, but not consciously expressedLatency is not a stage

Sex instinct is dormant Sublimated in school activities, hobbies, sports; developing friendships with members of the same sex

Infantile amnesia Through repression, the child “forgets” the sex urges and activities of the first five years of life


n/a n/a learning and cognitive development

Genital Stage

Puberty Maturation and sexual development mean physical changes in youth bodies and gratification involving sexual orgasm

Conflicts Conflict is minimized through the use of sublimation (sex through marriage; outlets such as career)

Heterosexual relationships If there are no major fixations in earlier periods, one may lead a non-neurotic, heterosexual life


sexuality in the context of a mature relationship

id, ego, and superego are well-balanced

creation and enhancement of life

Criticisms of Freudian theory

1. Overemphasis on infantile sexuality

2. Overstressed early personality formation

3. Failed to consider adult personality changes

4. Overemphasized the unconscious

Criticisms of Freudian theory

5. Artificial division of personality (id, ego, superego)

6. Negative, pessimistic nature of man

7. Anti-female

8. Case study method not scientific

Documents

Mr. van Over Psychology Spring 2012. Contents Biography Psychoanalytic Method & Tools Structure of the Personality Ego Defense Mechanisms Psychosexual