BY: MAGGIE, KARLYN, DAVA, NATALIA, MITZI , OLIVIA , AND HEIDI

Freud and Psychoanalysis

Freud

Father of psychoanalysis from Vienna Completed medical school, but after studying

hypnosis, turned his focus on psychology His first book “The Interpretation of Dreams”

has become one of the most respected and controversial books on personality theory

He was the first major theorist to write solely about non-biological approaches to understanding and treating particular illnesses. These illnesses were considered medical in his time and were redefined through his theories.

He was able to refine the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality, repression, and proposed a tripartite account of the mind’s structure

Psychoanalysis

What we think and do is based on our unconscious wishes

Also a technique for curing psychological disorders in which one's unconscious is revealed

Consciousness

Unconscious= A collection of our secret thoughts and wishes that are considered socially "wrong."

Preconscious- the ordinary memory where memories and knowledge are stored

More Freudian Terms

Free Association= The method of exploring unconscious in which a person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Libido = Sexual desire or instinct energy force that the Id carries

Personality Structure

Id Oldest system to satisfy basic drives Present since birth Provides energy to fuel the Ego and

Superego Operates by the Pleasure Principal

(Immediate satisfaction/pleasure, and no pain)

Superego Sense of morality----right and wrong

Punishes bad behavior and rewards good behavior

Parents build it into children Acting against it ---- Feelings of guilt

Ego Voice of reasoning and sensibility Reality Principle---Make Id’s needs

become a reality in more reasonable ways that bring long-term pleasure

Holds partly conscious feelings/judgments

“Executive” --- Mediates between the opposing Id and superego Example: Cake

Healthy personality is a balance b/w the Id, Ego, and Superego

Pleasure Principal

The driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and urges

Seeks to reduce tension, avoid pain, and obtain pleasure

Makes us want things that feel good (ex. food, sex)

Reality Principle

The principle guiding the operation of the egoseeks to find socially acceptable outlets for instinctual energies

Subordinating the pleasure principle to the reality principle is done through a psychological process Freud calls SUBLIMATION

Defense Mechanisms

• Methods used by the ego to prevent unconscious anxiety from reaching consciousnessoperate unconsciously

• Either deny or distort reality• These defenses are often

unhealthy patterns that cause emotional problems and self-defeating behavior

• Repression, projection, reaction formation, regression, denial, rationalization, and displacement

Sublimation

Channels the energy from unwanted impulses into something acceptable or productive

Most useful mechanism: Turns something bad into something useful

Freud thought man’s greatest achievements came from this

Example: A person with aggressive desires to

cut people up becomes a surgeon.

Repression

Primary defense mechanism, maintaining that thoughts, feelings, and memories can be pushed into a person’s subconscious, usually due to their unacceptable or anxiety-arousing nature Ex: If a person was in a traumatic car

crash as a child, he/she might repress the memory and no longer be able to recall the incident as an adult.

Freud thought that repressed ideas can enter consciousness again through retrieval mechanisms (hypnosis, etc).

Projection

When people often attribute their unacceptable impulses to others in order to mask these impulses in themselves. Ex: A person might call

someone else unreliable, in order to mask their own unreliable tendencies.

Reaction Formation

When the ego causes people to exhibit feelings opposite from their unconscious anxiety-arousing feelings in order to keep unacceptable impulses from surfacing

Ex.: If a person subconsciously loves another, they may express hatred toward that person (love being the “unacceptable” or unwanted feeling and hate being its opposite)

Regression

When individuals relapse into habits from previous partially unfulfilled psychosexual stages when they are faced with novel or anxiety-arousing situations Ex: An older child might return to sucking on his

thumb again when his mother leaves him on the first day of school.

Denial

Used when faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept-- blocks external events from awareness

If situation is too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it by stating it doesn't exist Ex.: Denying that your

physician's diagnosis of cancer is correct and seeking a second opinion

Displacement

Diverts sexual or aggressive impulses toward an object or person that is psychologically more acceptable than the one that aroused the feelings

If the impulse, the desire, is okay with you, but the person you direct that desire towards is too threatening, you can displace to someone or something that can serve as a symbolic substitute. Ex: Slamming a door instead of hitting a

person; yelling at your spouse after an argument with your boss

Rationalization

When we unconsciously generate self-justifying explanations to hide from ourselves the real reason for our actions and make an event or an impulse less threatening.

We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses.

But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies. Ex: Stating that you were fired because you

didn't kiss up the boss, when the real reason was your poor performance

Identification

Process by which children incorporate their parents values into their developing superegos

Ego and the superego are constructed on the basis of a series of identifications

References

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Freud's Personality Factors. (n.d.). Changing minds and persuasion -- How we change what others think, believe, feel and do. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/freud_personality.htm

Heffner Media Group. (2004, March 23). Psychoanalytic Theory. Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/freud.html

Klages, M. (2001, September 27). Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/freud.html

Myers, D. G.(2007). The Psychoanalytic Perspective. In C. Brune & N. Fleming (Eds.), Psychology (596-600). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Psychoanalysis-techniques and practice. (2009, October 25). Retrieved March 14, 2010, from http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/index.html

Sigmund freud's personality theory. (2000). Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://library.thinkquest.org/C004361/theoryfreud2.html

Sublimation. (2010). Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/sublimation.htm

Syque. (2002). Regression. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/regression.htm

Thornton, S. P. (2005, July 8). Sigmund Freud. Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/

Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (1993). Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 432-433). New York: HarperCollins.