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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 6

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF SIGMUND FREUD

A gigantic intellectual, a controversial figure, a person criticized more then any person in field in

psychology.

1. Theory of personality

2. Method of treatment- Psychoanalysis

3. Set of clinical observations (e.g., defenses)

4. Methods of investigation (free association, dream analysis)

Basic Concepts

1. Psychic determinism--all our behavior has a purpose/goal.

Example: Eat to get energy, help others to get appreciation

2. Freud emphasized the predominance of unconscious motives and processes

3. Recent translation into cognitive psychology

The core elements of his approach include.

1. Levels of consciousness or theory of consciousness

2. Analysis of mental structures

3. Psychosexual stages of development.

4. Defense mechanisms

5. Means of tapping the unconscious

Levels of Consciousness

How personality is organized?

According to this model, psychic life can be represented by three levels of consciousness-the conscious, the

preconscious, and the unconscious. Freud used this mental "map" of the mind to describe the degree to

which mental events such as thoughts and fantasies vary in accessibility to awareness.

The conscious level includes all the sensations and experiences of which we are aware at any given

moment. Freud insisted that only a small part of mental life (thoughts, perceptions, feelings, memories) is

contained in the realm of consciousness.

The preconscious domain, sometimes called "available memory," it contains all experiences that are not

conscious at the moment but which can readily be summoned into awareness either spontaneously or with a

minimum of effort. This might include memories of everything you did last week, your Social Security

number, all the towns you ever lived in, your favorite foods, and a host of other past experiences.

The deepest and major stratum of the human mind is the unconscious. Freud was not the first to focus

attention on the importance of unconscious processes in understanding human actions; several eighteenth-

and nineteenth-century philosophers had suggested the influence of unconscious experience on behavior.

Example:

All your nightmares, phobias, fears which influence you but why you have them is because of the

unconscious, you don't have an answer. Freud suggested ways / techniques of reaching the unconscious.

They include Free Association, dream analysis and hypnosis.

Example:

You stand near a river, the top water is the conscious part, fill out some muddy water in container, it is the

sub-conscious and when you dug the river bed and find something buried in it well that is the unconscious

part.

Personality Psychology PSY 405

Freud recognized the existence of two basic groups of them-life and death instincts. The former group

includes all the forces which serve to maintain. Vital life processes and assures propagation of the species.

Because of the significance attributed to them in the psychic organization of individuals, the sex instincts

were singled out by Freud as the most salient of the life instincts for the development of personality. The

energy force underlying the sexual instincts is called libido (from the Latin word for "wish" or "desire") or

libidinal energy.

Instinct is an inherited condition that gives our behavior direction.

Two kinds of instincts:

1. Life instinct or Eros: bodily needs, survival, pleasure (libido)

2. Death instinct or Thanatos: aggression, self-destructiveness

The Id is like a child when it wants something it wants it there and then without regard for consequences,

so Id operates on pleasure principle.

This refers to Greek concept of hedonism meaning pleasure. The energy within the Id is labeled as the

libido.

The Ego

The ego is that portion of the psychic apparatus that seeks to express and gratify the desires of the id in

accordance with the restrictions of both outer reality and the superego. The ego acquires its structure

and functions from the id, having evolved from id, and proceeds to borrow some of the id's energy for

its own use in response to the demands of the environment.

Ego thus assures the safety and self- preservation of the organism. In its battle for survival against both

the external world and the instinctual demands of the id, ego must continuously differentiate between

things in the mind and things in the outer world of reality.

Super ego is the moral arm of the personality.

The ego has the role to mediate conflict between the Id and super ego according to realities of the

world. If it mediates successfully, we see an intelligent, creative individual who is well adjusted while

if ego is unsuccessful either Id or super ego will be strong.

Id present at birth

Completely unconscious

Primary process thinking (dreams); understand via analysis

Pleasure principle--the Id wants it and the Id wants it now!!

Ego

Constrained by real world

Standards of Superego

Uses secondary process thinking to follow reality principle

Human Development Viewed Psychosexually

The psychoanalytic theory of development is based on two premises. The first, the genetic approach,

emphasizes that adult personality is shaped by various types of early childhood experiences. The

second is that a certain amount of sexual energy (libido) is present at birth and thereafter progresses

through a series of psychosexual stages that are rooted in the instinctual processes of the organism.

Psychosexual stages include oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.

Each stage has typical problem

At each stage, the "right amount" of libidinal satisfaction must occur

Danger of fixation or regression

Personality Psychology PSY 405

Basis of character types

Major event = Oedipal complex

The formation of personality-oral, anal, phallic, and genital. A period of latency, normally occurring

between the ages of 6 or 7 and the onset of puberty, was included by Freud in the overall scheme of

development, but, technically speaking, it is not a stage. The first three stages of development extend

from birth to 5 years of age are called pregenital stage.

The Oral Stage (birth-to -18 months):

The oral stage of psychosexual development extends throughout the first year of life. Infants are totally

reliant upon others for survival; dependence is their only way of obtaining instinctual gratification. The

mouth is obviously the body structure most frequently associated at this time with both reduction of

biological drives and pleasurable sensations.

The Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) :

During the second and third years of life, the focus of libidinal energy shifts from mouth to the anal

region. Young children derive considerable pleasure from both the retention and expulsion of feces.

The Phallic Stage (3 years to 5 years):

During the fourth and fifth years, the child's libidinal interest one again shift to a new erogenous zone

of the body, the genitals. During this stage development of oedipal complex and Electra complex takes

place.

The Latency Period (5 years to 12 years):

Between the ages of 5 or 7 and the onset of adolescence, the child passes through the latency period;

the libido is sublimated i.e. channeled into nonsexual activities such as intellectual interests, athletics,

and peer relationships.

The Genital Stage (12 years -puberty):

With the advent of puberty comes a resurgence of sexual and aggressive impulses coupled with an

increased awareness of and interest in the opposite sex. The initial phase of the genital stage (a period

extending from adolescence until death) is brought about by biochemical and physiological changes in the

organism. The reproductive organs mature, and the endocrine system secretes hormones that result in

secondary sex characteristics (e.g., beards in males, breast development in females).

The Nature of Anxiety

Freud's initial interest in the phenomenon of anxiety was motivated by his interest in explaining neurotic

symptoms and treating people suffering from them.

Types of Anxiety

(1) Realistic Anxiety

(2) Neurotic Anxiety

(3) Moral Anxiety

Anxiety = threat

Reality: danger in external world

Neurotic: fear of id out of control

Moral: fear of conscience

Ego defends against anxiety--often unconscious, more and less mature/primitive

Realistic Anxiety:

The emotional response to threat and/ or perception of real dangers in the external

environment (e.g., poisonous snakes, wild animals, earthquakes, final examinations) is called realistic, or

objective, anxiety. It is essentially synonymous with fear and may have a negative effect on the individual's

ability to cope effectively with the source of danger.

Personality Psychology PSY 405

Neurotic Anxiety:

It is caused by the fear that the ego will be unable to control the id instincts

particularly those of a sexual or aggressive nature. The small child quickly learns that active discharge of

his or her libidinal or destructive urges will be met by threats of retaliation from parents or other social

agents

Moral Anxiety:When the ego is threatened by punishment from the superego, the ensuing emotional

response is called moral anxiety. It occurs whenever the id strives toward active expression of immoral

thoughts or acts and the superego responds with feeling of shame, guilt, and self-condemnation.

The ego fights a battle to stay at the top of id and super ego. The conflicts between id and super ego

produce anxiety that is a threat to ego. The threat or anxiety experienced by ego is a signal that alerts the

ego to use unconscious protective processes that keep primitive emotions associated with conflicts in

check. These protective processes are defense mechanisms or coping styles.

↓

Coping Styles

Ego

↑

Super ego

They operate an on unconscious level and are therefore self-deceptive and they distort one's perception of

reality, so as to make anxiety less threatening to the individual and they protect the ego.

Kinds of Ego Defense Mechanisms

(1) Repression

(2) Regression

(3) Reaction formation

(4) Displacement

(5) Projection

Techniques of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic process which reveals unconscious mental process and conflicts through

catharsis and insight.

1. Free association: The patient is asked to lie on a couch and the therapist sits behind the client, then the

patient is asked to give a running account of his thought pattern uninterrupted without social censoring it.

This technique brings to the conscious level emotionally loaded material that at times can be painful,

threatening to be discussed at conscious level.

2. Dream analysis: It refers to the process in which the contents of the dream usually the id impulses

(wishes) related to the unconscious conflicts. The therapist interprets the contents of dreams and relates

them to various unconscious wishes.

Example:

Suppose you go to the bazaar and you want to buy a very expensive pair of shoes, costing a fortune. Your

mother refuses to buy and says that you are out of your mind. So at night, you dream that you are

owner of that shoe shop so your id desire has been fulfilled in a dream. The relationship between the patient

with the therapist / clinician / psychoanalyst / counselor is very important.

3. The patient may relate with therapist positively as with an important person in his life like parents,

teachers, and friends. We label it as positive transference phenomenon.

The patient may relate negatively with the therapist with anger resentment or dislike. We say negative

transference has occurred. The patient may at times like the therapist while at times resent him so an

Personality Psychology PSY 405

ambivalent transference takes place. The therapist (is human) he also at times projects his feelings, emotion

usually positive ones towards the patient this is counter transference. This should not happen.

4. Freudian slips means you wanted to say something but you said something wrong or embarrassing say

Freud went to USA to deliver lectures on psychoanalysis and a professor introduced him as Dr. Fraud,

though he apologized but that is a Freudian slip.

5. Humor is an essential part of psyche.

What sort of humor do you read and enjoy? For Freud humor is mostly related to death and sex two

unknown areas of your life about which you are not sure

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