PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES TO COUNSELING:View of Human Nature

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Lesson 23

PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES TO COUNSELING

Counseling Approaches

Most counseling approaches, other than eclecticism fall within four broad theoretical categories as

mentioned below:

· Psychoanalytic

· Affective

· Cognitive

· Behavioral

We will examine the following aspects of each theory to facilitate comparisons:

o View of human nature

o Role of the counselor

o Goals

o Techniques

o Evaluation of uniqueness and limitations

o Case approach

The impact of psychoanalysis on the field of counseling is profound, and its theories have provided an

insight into human behavior more than any other approach. Other approaches are divided according to

their emphasis on feelings and behavior. Each approach recognizes both aspects, feeling and thinking, but

places a primary emphasis on one of the two.

Classical Psychoanalytic Approach

Many prominent theories if counseling (for example, Alfred Adler, Albert Ellis, Rollo May, and Fritz Perls)

were directly influenced by Freud's concepts, either through association with Freud himself or because they

were taught his ideas. Some theorists (including Carl Rogers, B.F. Skinner, Alfred Adler, Perls) developed

theories in direct opposition to Freud's principles. Still others (such as Carl Jung, Anna Freud, Erik Erikson,

Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, and Heinz Kohut) modified Freudian concepts in developing their

own ideas and concepts.

Sigmund Freud

Freud was born at Feiburg, Austria, in 1856 and obtained medical degree in 1881. Without question,

Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

psychoanalytic theory represents one of the most sweeping contributions to the field of personality. Almost

every form of therapy that relies on verbal transactions between therapist and patient owes some debt to

psychoanalysis.

Jean Charcot

He mastered in France under the famous neurologist Jean Charcot. He was fascinated by Joseph Breurer's

work. With a young hysterical patient called Anna. Breurer used hypnosis after which her symptoms were

relieved.

Joseph Breuer

Freud was not good hypnotist himself. However, he soon discovered that much of his success depended on

the relationship he developed during the treatment process rather than on the hypnosis itself. Freud added a

new twist to it by pressing his hand on patient' foreheads whenever they began to block out materials

verbally. Freud called this method free association. He used it to explore the unconscious minds of his

patients, and the material uncovered in the process became the stuff of interpretation and analysis. Thus,

psychoanalysis was born.

Despite controversial concepts, his ideas attracted a number of followers. Many of Freud's colleagues, and

later the general public, were outraged by his emphasis on the importance of sexually and aggression in the

etiology of personality. Nevertheless, his ideas attracted a number of followers, and in 1902 he formally

organized in his home what became known in 1908 as the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society. This group

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

acquired international prominence when Freud was invited in 1908 to lecture at Clark University. Freud

died in London in 1939.

View of Human Nature

Many of his main tenets were set down in his books: "The Interpretation of Dreams", "New introductory Lectures

on psycho-analysis", and "The Ego and the Id".

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Freudian view of human nature is dynamic as he believed in the transformation and exchange of energy

within the personality. For Freud, human nature could be explained in terms of a conscious mind, a

preconscious mind and an unconscious mind:

· Conscious--In Freudian terms, thoughts or motives that a person is currently aware of or is

remembering

· Preconscious--Freud's term for thoughts or motives that one can become aware of easily

· Unconscious--Freud's term for thoughts or motives that lie beyond a person's normal awareness

but that can be made available through psychoanalysis.

He uses the metaphor of an iceberg as an analogy to unconscious. According to him, the 10% of an iceberg

are visible (conscious), 90% are beneath the water (preconscious and unconscious), whereas the

unconscious is allotted overwhelming 75-80%.

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Evidence for the Unconscious

· Dreams: symbolic of needs, wishes, anxieties, conflicts.

· Slips of the tongue: Freudian slips, what you really wanted to say are shown in slips of tongue.

Posthypnotic suggestions: After hypnosis people obey the commands given by the hypnotist during

the hypnosis. It shows that posthypnotic suggestions stay somewhere, i.e., unconscious

Material from free association: Why would I think of what is revealed during free association?

Material from projective tests: Things revealed through projective tests come from unconscious.

The Structure of Personality

According to Freud, the personality consists of three parts:

Ego

Superego

The Id

The id and the superego are confined to the unconscious; the ego operates primarily in the conscious, but

also in the preconscious and unconscious. Id is the demanding child which never matures and remains the

spoiled brat. It does not think only wishes or acts. It is illogical, amoral, and driven to satisfy instinctual

drives. The id operates through drivers, instincts, and images (such as dreaming, hallucinating, and

fantasizing) a thought process known as primary process. If empowered and left on its own, the id would

probably destroy a person or cause trouble by acting on the primitive, aggressive, and sexual drives it

harbors. The id contains basic life energy, collectively known as eros and basic death instints, known as

thanatos. At first Freud associated eros with sexuality, but later he modified this idea, describing all life-

preserving instincts as eros and the psychic energy that accompanies them as libido. Any acts of aggression,

as well as foolishly dangerous behaviors such as taking unnecessary risks, were displays of thanatos.

The Ego

The Ego is the traffic cop or executive of the personality. It has contact with external world of reality. The

executive who controls and regulates the personality:

o Mediates between instincts and the environment

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o Controls consciousness and exercises censorship

o Ruled by the reality principle

The Superego

The superego is the judge of human personality.

o Ruled by moral principle

o Judicial branch of personality

The main concern of superego is whether something is bad or good, right or wrong. It represents the ideal.

It functions to inhibit the Id and to persuade the ego and strive for perfectionism. It acts as a parent and

society in relation to rewards and punishments:

o Rewards create feelings of pride/self-love.

o Punishments create feelings of guilt/inferiority.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud describes five developmental periods during which particular kinds of pleasures must be gratified if

personality development is to proceed normally. Each is marked by the involvement of a particular

erogenous zone of the body.

Oral stage:

· 0-18 months--infant receives satisfaction through sucking, eating, biting, etc. Erogenous zone is

the mouth.

· Overindulgent--gullible, dependent, and passive

· Underindulgent--aggressive, sadistic person

· Oral fixated adults orient their life around their mouth by overeating, alcoholism, smoking, talking

too much

Anal stage:

· 18 months-3 years--the child receives satisfaction by having and retaining bowel movements.

Erogenous zone is the anus.

· Fixation results in retentive or explosive personality

· Anal-retentive--highly controlled, compulsively neat

· Anal-explosive--messy, disorderly, rebellious, and destructive

Phallic Stage:

· 3-6 years--center of pleasure is the genitals, typically a time of exploration of pleasure through

masturbation and "playing doctor"

· Child resolves the Oedipus Complex--(the period of conflict during the phallic stage when

children are sexually attracted to the opposite-sex parent and hostile toward the same-sex parent

· Castration anxiety in males and penis envy in girls

Latency period:

After the phallic stage, between ages 6 and 12, is a quit period known as latency. At this time there is little

manifest interest in sexually. Instead, energy is focused on peer activities and personal mastery of cognitive

learning and physical skills.

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Genital stage:

Around puberty, the last of the psychosexual phases occurs, the genital stage. If all has gone well previously,

each gender takes more interest in the other and normal heterosexual patterns of interaction appear.

Frustration or overindulgence:

Freud believed that two difficulties could arise in the pregenital stages; excessive frustration or

overindulgence. In such cases, the person become fixated (or arrested) at the level of development and

overly dependent on the use of defense mechanisms.

Erik Erikson's (1963,1982) psychosocial theory extends Freuds developmental emphasis over the life span,

focusing on the achievement on specific life-enhancing tasks. The stages of development and their

accompanying ages are presented in the following table.

Freud (Psychosexual) vs. Erikson (Psychosocial stages of developm ent

Stage

Basic T rust

Oral

Vs.Mistrust

Infancy

Anal

Autonomy

Vs.Shame,D

Early

oubt

Childhood

Phallic

Initiative

Vs.Guilt

Pre-School

Latency

Industry

Age

Vs.Inferior

ity

Genital

Identity

School Age

Vs.Confu

sion

Adolescence

Adulthood

Intimacy

Vs.Isolati

Young

Adulthood

Generati vit

Vs.Stagnati

Middle Age

Integrity

Vs.Desp

Later Life

air

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