Transcript Chapter 1

Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
But, before we get to Siggy
himself, let us consider…
…personality, which is…
…an individual’s unique and
relatively consistent patterns of
thinking, feeling, and behaving
- attempt to describe and explain
how people are similar, how they
are different, and why every
individual is unique
Issues w/ personality theory include:
- time
- place
- translation
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Emphasis on the unconscious processes
and early childhood experience
criticisms today
- outdated
- unscientific
- cannot be proven
- sexist
- too much emphasis on sexuality
- too narrow
- thank him for:
- Freud, himself, was stubborn
• exploring unconscious
scientifically
• understanding importance of
childhood experience
• significance of sexuality &
need to discuss openly
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
- Born 1856 in Morovia (today is
Czech Republic)
- first of eight children
- family moved to Vienna at age 1
- mother (Amalie) was 20 years
younger than father (Jacob)
- favored by mom
- anti-semitism
Family Photo, c. 1878 – Freud is
standing third from left
- after medical school, studied
hypnosis in Paris with Jacques
Charcot
- return to Vienna in 1886 to open
medical practice; marries Martha
Bernays
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
The story of Anna O.
Josef Breuer – Freud’s early mentor
- develops concept of catharsis
- psychic release of energy
Anna O. – hysteric
- introduced to Freud by Breuer
- through hypnosis, Anna O. relieved of some
symptoms
- falls in love with Breuer
- contributes to Freud’s later theory
- coins term “talking cure”
- becomes social worker in Germany
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Finally – his theory!
- Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory
of personality
- emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main causes of
behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud’s iceberg analogy
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
• Conscious – all things
we are aware of
at any given moment
• Preconscious –
everything that can,
with a little effort, be
brought into
consciousness
• Unconscious –
inaccessible
warehouse of anxietyproducing thoughts
and drives
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Id - instinctual drives present at
birth - biological
• does not distinguish between
reality and fantasy
• operates according to the
pleasure principle
Ego - develops out of the id in
infancy
• understands reality and logic
• mediator between id and
superego
Superego - societal
• internalization of society’s
moral standards
• responsible for guilt
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Id & the Pleasure Principle
Pleasure principle - drive toward
immediate gratification, most
fundamental human motive
Sources of energy
Eros - life instinct, perpetuates
life
Thanatos - death instinct,
aggression, self-destructive
actions
Libido - sexual energy or
motivation
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego & the Reality Principle
Reality principle - ability to postpone
gratification in accordance with
demands of reality
Ego - rational, organized, logical,
mediator to demands of reality
Can repress desires
that cannot be met in
an acceptable manner
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Superego: the conscience (no, not
conscious!)
- internalization of societal and parental
values
- partially unconscious
- can be harshly punitive using feelings of
guilt
- 2 parts
- conscience  based on societal restraints,
i.e., punishments
- ego ideal  image of perfect self – being
good because you are a good person
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego Defense Mechanisms
ego placed under stress by battle between id (biological
instincts) and superego (societal rules)
- interested in neurotic anxiety (also identified realistic &
moral anxiety
- neurotic anxiety creates need for ego to protect itself
- unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce
anxiety
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Repression - keeping anxiety-producing
thoughts out of the conscious mind
- “motivated forgetting”
- after being caught cheating on math test
freshman year, you can only “remember”
a few events of freshman year
Denial – failure to recognize or
acknowledge the existence of anxietyproducing information
- “it never happened”
- after getting news of terminal illness
from doctor, claiming you never visited
the doctor
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Rationalization - reasoning away anxietyproducing thoughts
-the “little white lie”
- “…I would have done better if the teacher
didn’t suck…”
Displacement – reducing anxiety by
finding a substitute target for your
frustration/anger, usually someone
who less threatening
- yelling at your younger sibling
because your parents grounded you
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Projection – attributing undesirable
qualities about oneself to others
- since you have been unable to get
a job, you say students who work
part-time are greedy
- despite poor grades, you call
others “stupid”
You’re a chicken!!
Reaction Formation - replacing an
unacceptable wish or thought with its
opposite
- threatened by growing attraction to girls,
you pick on girls and call them nasty names
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Sublimation – a form of displacement when
undesirable sexual urges are replaced by
productive non-sexual activities
- Freud believed all great accomplishments in
history were forms of sublimation
- Freud developed his theory while avoiding
sexual relations with his wife
- Michelangelo created his art to avoid dealing
with his sexual orientation
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Freud’s five stages of personality
development, each associated
with a particular erogenous zone
- area of the human body that
has heightened sensitivity
- derive pleasure
- each stage may result in a
fixation if inherent conflict is not
resolved properly
- an attempt to achieve pleasure
as an adult in ways that are
equivalent to how it was
achieved in these stages 
caused by a stoppage in normal
development through the stage
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage 1 – Oral Stage (birth to 1)
- erogenous zone  mouth
- conflict  weaning
- oral fixations  smoking, chewing
gum, sucking thumb, etc.
- oral passive  quiet because they
cannot change things
- oral aggressive  loud because they
feel they can change things
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage 2 – Anal Stage (1-3 years)
- erogenous zone – anus
- conflict – potty-training
- fixation  anal retentive – potty-trained
too early
- as an adult  fastidious, neat,
typical obsessive-compulsive
anal expulsive – trained late
- as an adult  sloppy, careless,
disorganized
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage 3 – Phallic Stage (3-7 years)
- first, what’s a phallus? that’s right, it’s a penis
- next – don’t count on a picture here! Instead,
 I’ll give you a phallic symbol
the penis, whether you
- erogenous zone? got one or not!
Wait a minute! Girls don’t have a penis!
What is Freud talking about??
He must be a pervert!!
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Phallic Stage
But before we throw him completely
under the bus…
- focus turns to the genitals for both
genders
- Oedipus Complex (or Electra Complex
for girls)
- toddlers begin identification of normal
relationship as mother & father
- boys want to marry their mothers,
girls their fathers
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Phallic Stage
Oedipus Complex
- boy wants to marry mom, but cannot  DAD
- dad is powerful because he has bigger… 
symbol of power  dad is stronger
- mom has no penis –
what happened?
That’s right! Powerful dad cut it off!
Castration Anxiety – fear that dad will cut
off the boy’s penis
- need to kill dad to prevent castration and
get dad out of the way to marry mom!
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Phallic Stage
Electra Complex
- girl always knew she did not begin with
penis
- wants to marry dad  no fear of mom 
not powerful
- does not need to kill mom – just replace
her
- instead becomes jealous of penis
- Penis Envy
Which is a more powerful force? Castration Anxiety? Penis Envy?
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Phallic Stage
Fixations
- Boys – wins mom’s affection
- feminine, arrogant
- loses mom’s affection
- poor self-worth, may
withdraw from sexual activity
or try to be “ladies man”
- Girls – wins dad’s affection
- masculine, vain, self-centered
- loses dad’s affection
- poor self-worth, acquiesce to
demands, immature sexual
behaviors
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage 4 – Latency Stage (7-12 years)
- Sexuality is repressed
- Children participate in hobbies, school, and same-sex
friendships
- Girls have cooties
- no fixations
- no conflicts
- need time to recover
energy expended in
last stage
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage 5 – Genital Stage (12 – 18
years)
- sexual feelings re-emerge and are
oriented toward others
- need to consummate “normal”
sexual relationship
- healthy adults find pleasure in
love and work, fixated adults have
their energy tied up in earlier stages
Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
Techniques to get into the
unconscious or what happens during
psychoanalysis
- dreams – “Royal Road to the
unconscious”
- hypnosis
- parapraxes – “Freudian slips” and
doodlings
- free associations
- projective tests
- Talk therapy
- transference
- resistance
- catharsis