Sigmund Freud The First Armchair Psychiatrist. Why does he matter? Freud is the first major theorist...

Sigmund Freud

The First Armchair Psychiatrist

Why does he matter?

• Freud is the first major theorist of Psychology - he began the movement that viewed the unconscious mind as the source of all behavior

• Theories are most significantly applied to PERSONALITY.

What is the Unconscious mind?

• The part of our mind that is repressed

• We can not knowingly connect to it• It only comes out when we are not

conscious (e.g. dreams), or by accident - like a reaction (e.g. freudian slip)

• The unconscious mind is responsible for our behavior without us realizing it.

So?

• If you are to cure anyone you need to go through the unconscious mind

How do you get at the unconscious mind?• Free association -

patient responds to a prompt

• Dream analysis - dreams are unconscious urges so try to understand them

How do things fit together?

• Mind is theoretically composed of several parts: id, ego, superego

• Id• Ego• Superego

ID - pleasure principle

• contains instinctual/biological urges - our unconscious desires

• Problems can happen when ID desires begins to take over.

EGO - reality principle

• Rational process of our mind that counteracts the Id.

• Gratifies the Id’s impulses in realistic ways.

SUPEREGO - moral principle

• Moral part of our mind, our conscience, holds us to moral principles.

• Goes beyond reality into an ideal sense of behavior.

Development of Personality

The Psychosexual Stages

Psychosexual Stages

• The Id in children focuses its pleasure seeking energies on different areas of the body - each part of the body is a stage of development.

Oral Stage

• 0-18 months• Pleasure is

focused on the mouth.

Anal Stage

• 18-36 months• Pleasure is

focused on bowel and bladder elimination.

Phallic Stage

• 3-6 years• Pleasure zone is

genitals - this is when kids start to cope with incestuous feelings.

Oedipus/Electra Complex

• Boys develop unconscious sexual desire for mother, and hate their father.

• Kids cope with that feeling and eventually identify with father.

Final Stages

• Latency - 6-puberty; dormant sexual feelings

• Genital - puberty +; maturation of sexual interests

• Unresolved conflicts result in bad behavior such as FIXATION - a focus on pleasure seeking activities of a specific stage.

Conclusion

Problems with this theory?