Psychodynamic Theories

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis

1. The origins of Freud’s ideas

• Early neurological practice

• Work with Dr. Joseph Breuer’spatient, “Anna O,” who sufferedfrom hysteria (i.e., physicalsymptoms without organic cause)

2. Beginnings of Psychoanalytictherapy and theory

• from patients like Anna, concluded that neurotic symptoms related toprevious, traumatic experiences

• to treat patients, developedmethod of free association =“telling everything”

• symptom removal requirescatharsis:both - recall traumatic eventAND - express associated emotion

• resistance to attempts to remember eventstaken as evidence of repression

• developed a theory of personalityto account for the behaviorobserved in patients

3. Fundamental assumption Psychoanalysis is a dynamic(motivational) conception “whichtraces mental life back to an interplaybetween forces that favour or inhibiteach other (Freud, 1910)”

• behavior is the product of“opposing mental forces”

- impulse expression vs. inhibition

• Freud has a spatial or mechanicalconception of the personalitystructure in which mental forcesinteract ...

4. Personality dynamics (motivation)

- instinctual impulses or drivesprovide the energy to run thepersonality system

- “life instincts” to preserve person &species - e.g., hunger, thirst, sex;

- libido = sexual energy- “death instinct” after WW I

Postulated that primary source ofsexual pleasure shifts withdevelopment, creating 5psychosexual stages: - oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Over- or under-gratification at a stagecauses fixation & affects adultpersonality

5. Structure of personality

a. Spatial theory (pre-1920s)

- conscious, preconscious andunconscious systems

- repression: “keeping somethingout of consciousness” by censor

Figure 6.1

b. Revised theory (1933)

- id: concerned with satisfaction ofneeds (instincts)- operates on pleasure principle- irrational (reality = fantasy)- entirely unconscious

- ego: concerned with survival- reality principle- rational, logical- both conscious & unconscious

- superego: concerned with morality- conscience + ego-ideal- both conscious & unconscious

(see Figure 6.2)

6. Behavioral outcomes of the“conflict between opposing mentalforces”

a. Anxiety

• felt when ego is threatened(see Freud’s quote, text, p 103-4)

• Threat from:

external world = realistic anxiety

id = neurotic anxiety

superego = moral anxiety

The proverb tells us that one cannotserve two masters. The poor egohas a still harder time of it; it has toserve three harsh masters, and hasto do its best to reconcile thedemands and claims of all three. These demands are always divergentand often seem quite incompatible;no wonder that the ego so frequentlygives up its task. The three tyrantsare the external world, the superego,and the id ...

The ego ... feels itself hemmed in onthree sides and threatened by threekinds of danger, towards which itreacts by developing anxiety when itis too hard pressed.

(Freud,1932, p.103).

b. Defense mechanisms (with A. Freud)

Repress threatening/painful idea AND do something else to release pent-up energy in a safer or moreacceptable manner

Displacement Repress impulse + direct it toward lessthreatening object

SublimationRepress impulse + direct it toward lessthreatening, socially desirable object

ProjectionRepress impulse + see it in others

Reaction formation Repress impulse + express its opposite

RationalizationRepress impulse + express moredesirable motive

c. Dreams “a royal road to the unconscious”

- represent fulfilment of wishes(often unconscious or sociallyunacceptable)

- latent content is transformed intomore acceptable manifest content

- less threatening, so “dream is theguardian of sleep”

Example: Dream reported by “Little Hans” -- aged 5 years

In the night, there was a big giraffe inthe room and a crumpled one; andthe big one called out because I tookthe crumpled one away from it. Thenit stopped calling out; and then I satdown on top of the crumpled one.

May reflect:

d. Neurotic symptoms

• Maladaptive or inappropriatebehavior or thoughts

• Reflect severe repression or defensive behaviors

Freud’s treatment: Psychoanalysis

Goals of psychoanalytic theory:• make unconscious ideas

conscious• allow mature, rational

consideration of them • strengthen ego for greater

conscious control of behavior in future

Later Psychodynamic Theorists:• Shared Freud’s belief that

unconscious motivation was key

• Greater emphasis on generalmotivation toward life andcreativity; less on the explicitlysexual nature of motivation

• More emphasis on interpersonalrelations; less on internal workingsof individual’s mind.

• More emphasis on conscious,rational thought processes (ego);less on unconscious processes.

• Less focus on childhood origins ofpersonality; more on lifespan

Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology

• distinguishes conscious, personalunconscious, & collectiveunconscious (contains inheritedarchetypes)

• 2 attitudes:extroversion vs. introversion

• ways of experiencing:sensing vs. intuition,feeling vs. thinking, judging vs. perceiving

• self strives for unity & actualizationthrough union of opposites

Why are Freud & Jung Important?

• 1st modern models of personality;behavioral & humanistic theoristsreacted against psychodynamictheories

• Psychoanalytic & Jungian

therapies continue as treatmentmethods

• Lasting cultural effects:- changed our culture’s viewpsychological disorders, childhood- influenced our language,literature & criticism- influenced our implicit personalitytheories

BUT, beware:

• Incomplete or inconsistenttheoretical ideas (e.g., Freud’s female psychology)

• Many propositions difficult to testempirically (e.g., archetypes)

• Many tenets lack research supportalthough cognitive unconsciouswell supported

• Verbal therapies not moreeffective than others