Psychoanalytic Theory

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Psychoanalytic Theory
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Sigmund Freud

• Human relation studies sometimes shy away from
  Freud in favor of humanistic or behavioral
  psychology. Yet Freud was among the most
  important thinkers of the 20th C. and introduced
  a way of conceptualizing human experience that
  has profoundly altered our understanding. Even
  when some of his theories are outdated (e.g.
  Victorian era ideas on penis envy, or patriarchal
  assumptions about male and female roles) it is
  enlightening to study his fundamental concepts.
  A very 21st C perspective that Freud maintained
  is that psychology is rooted in biology. See if
  studying Freud will enrich your perspective

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Why is Freud important to an understanding of
human relations?

• First systematic attempt to explain the origins
  of mental disorders
• Originated the notion of defense mechanisms
• Focused on the significance of anxiety
• Gave an extensive clinical description of the
  unconscious mind.
• Pointed to the importance of early childhood
  experience
• Insisted that human sexual behavior is an
  appropriate subject for scientific scrutiny
• Introduced a way of thinking to the 20th Century

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Key Freudian ideas (1)

• Every mental event is judged according to its
  accessibility to consciousness
• Repression is the process by which certain mental
  events are barred from consciousness
• The mind is divided into a conscious and an
  unconscious dimension
• The mind is comprised of an id, ego and super-ego

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Freudian ideas (2)

• The psychological construct of mind is rooted
  in biology
• Instincts and drives are primarily sexual
  aggressive
• A drive is a state of excitation in response to
  stimuli
• The minds goal is to bring about the cessation
  of tension and be gratified

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Freudian ideas (3)

• The origins of psychological conflicts, character
  traits, neurotic symptoms, etc. can be traced to
  crucial events and wishes of childhood
• Human experience can be studied as a series of
  developments, through various life stages
• Psychological change comes about through catharsis

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Freudian ideas (4)

• Neurosis is the universal human condition.
• In Childhood there are general apprehensions,
  phobias, nightmares ritualistic practices
• In Adulthood there are (i) inabilities to cope
  with developmental issues (ii) defeats,
  disappointments, illness and a tendency to turn
  from reality to fantasy and (iii) symptoms that
  emerge following traumatic childhood experiences
  
• Q Think about your early psychological
  struggles as a child are your uncertainties as a
  child reflected in your adult patterns?

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Freudian ideas (5)

• The unconscious mind is a term to designate a
  reservoir of past experiences that are not
  readily recognized but still influencing an
  individuals psychological function, including
• Forbidden desires,
• Painful memories
• Drives
• Unacceptable experiences that, if conscious,
  might evoke
• GUILT
• SHAME
• RAGE

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Freudian ideas (6)

• Unconscious expressions emerge when ego controls
  are lowered (e.g. through fantasies, dreams,
  hypnosis, slips of the tongue)
• The goal of therapy is to integrate troubling
  unconscious material with ego functions
• Exercise Go back to Freudian ideas (5)
  think about memories, previous strong emotions
  like rage or shame, and hidden aspects of your
  psychological make-up. Can you see why Freud was
  so interested in exploring these dimensions of
  human experience?

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Freudian ideas (7)

• Human nature is understood in terms of pleasure
  and pain rather than a moral model of a person
  with a soul.
• Pleasure refers primarily to gratification and
  reduction of psychic tension
• Q How do you conceptualize the essential
  dimension of being human? Does the concept of
  a soul have meaning for you, or are you more
  likely to think of a psyche motivated by
  pleasure and pain? What are the merits and
  demerits of holding to a primary model of the
  self as a soul?

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Freudian ideas (8)

• Mental events are not random, accidental or
  unrelated.
• The mental and emotional life unfolds in a
  deterministic manner a chain of
  causally-related phenomena
• Inner experience and outward behavior are linked,
  but not always congruent
• urges vs. controls
• intra-psychic, unresolved conflicts
• Thought If you think about the content of this
  slide, in some depth, you will understand an
  important element of Freuds approach to human
  experience. In todays terminology, if you
  imagine a computer being programmed with certain
  data that is fixed and sets the boundaries of
  possible responses you will have a rough
  comparison with Freuds ideas on determinism
  only with humans, the inner and outer
  programming may be at odds with each other.

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id, ego, super ego

• Human behavior is thought to result from the
  interaction of three major subsystems within the
  personality.
• The id is the basic life force from which ego and
  super ego structures develop later (or
  differentiate themselves from this basic
  psychic, impulsive energy)
• Remember these are metaphors, not physical
  realities think about the difference between the
  brain and the mind the brain is physical,
  the mind is metaphorical.

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Id

• Is not bound by logic or reality
• Operates via the pleasure principle
• Aim is to avoid pain, reduce psychic tension,
• Consists largely of urges, wishes, needs, wants
• Is the original source of the personality

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Ego

• Emerges from the id to satisfy the demands of the
  external world
• Part of mind that balances subjective needs with
  available resources in world
• Goal is to ensure health survival of self
• Uses reason, planning, delay of immediate
  gratification
• Operates according to the reality principle

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Super ego

• Emerges from self learning moral values and
  social taboos
• Conscience concerned with right wrong
• Develops as a result of punishments rewards in
  childhood
• 3 functions (1)suppress impulses, (2) modify
  egos realistic goals with moral restraint, (3)
  impel the individual to strive for perfection

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Summary statement on personality structure

• The id is the biologic force that influences
  human behavior the ego represents the
  psychological origins of behavior and the
  superego reflects the impact of social and moral
  forces on the self.

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Basic drives sex aggression

• Creative (eros) and destructive (thanatos) energy
  must be allowed some release.
• Drives need release.
• Sex and Aggression are modulated by
• TABOOS
• CIVILIZATION
• CONSCIENCE GUILT
• DEFENSE MECHANISMS
• Thought Focus on this slide for a few moments.
  If Freud is right, these may be the conditions
  that make us human and sustain our survival.

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The Ego andMechanisms of Defense

• 3 Kinds of Anxiety
• REALITY External warning a stimulus to take
  appropriate action by ego
• NEUROTIC Based upon id impulses coupled with a
  fear of being punished, of losing control, of
  impending doom
• MORAL Super ego is capable of producing shame,
  guilt, feelings of inferiority when incorporated
  values are ignored

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Classic defenses (1)

• REPRESSION exclude from awareness
• DENIAL not acknowledge reality of information
• REACTION FORMATION replace impulse or thought
  with its opposite
• UNDOING wish away, reconstruct previous
  unacceptable act usually through atonement
• FANTASY escape through imagination
• PROJECTION assign unacceptable impulses to other

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Classic defenses (2)

• RATIONALIZATION counter impulsive action or
  failure with reasonable sounding excuse
• IDENTIFICATION introject the qualities of
  another
• DISPLACEMENT redirect pent up feelings to less
  threatening object
• ISOLATION withdraw into passive state
• COMPENSATION overindulge to make up for
  deprivation or perceived weakness
• REGRESSION retreat to earlier behaviors

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Adaptive defenses

• The classic defenses previously delineated often
  seem psychologically unhealthy. For example, an
  employee displaces anger on his or her spouse
  after being yelled at by a supervisor. But at
  some level, defense mechanisms are helpful.
• Additionally, some defenses are simply good ways
  to cope with difficulties or life circumstances.
  Following are a few of these

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Adaptive defenses (1)

• ANTICIPATION Experience emotions in advance
  plan alternative responses
• AFFILIATION turn to others for help/support
• ALTRUISM reduce conflict or receive
  gratification by meeting others needs
• HUMOR focus on the ironic or amusing as a way of
  coping with stress

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Adaptive defenses (2)

• SELF-ASSERTION deal with conflict directly, not
  through manipulation
• SELF-OBSERVATION reflect on feelings, thoughts,
  motives, etc. to reduce internal stress
• SUBLIMATION channel potentially negative
  impulses into socially acceptable ones
• SUPPRESSION avoid dwelling on problems, maybe
  compartmentalize

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Defense mechanisms(final thought)

• What defenses do you typically use? Do you
  automatically engage in the same patterns of
  defense at work as in your home?
• At what point do your defenses become
  counterproductive? Think of examples.

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Other Freudian notions

• There are many other important ideas from
  Freudian psychology. Be sure you know about
• Resistance
• The role of the Analyst
• Dream interpretation
• Transference and Counter-transference
• Free Association
• And other key ideas

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Psychoanalytic theory and stages of development
(1)

• Many influential theorists branched off from
  Freuds original thinking. One of the dominant
  ways of conceptualizing human experience that
  followed from Freuds analysis of the different
  periods of life (oral, anal, phallic, latency,
  genital) is the notion that we develop in stages
  from birth to death. Different theorists have
  emphasized different levels of development (e.g.)
  psychological, social, sexual, ethical or
  cognitive. One of the classic stage development
  theorists is Erik Erikson. Following are some
  slides on different tasks that we encounter at
  different stages of life, according to Eriksons
  theory.

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Psychoanalytic theory and stages of development
(2)

• In theory, if an individual has difficulty in a
  certain task as an adultsay, having difficulty
  achieving a sense of purpose in lifethe problems
  may be traceable to early experiencein this
  example, the ages of 3 to 6 (Freuds phallic
  stage and Eriksons pre-school initiative
  versus guilt stage).
• Review this partial list of tasks carefully. Try
  to relate any strengths or weaknesses you have on
  the list by matching your developmental task with
  particular life experiences and significant
  relationships you had during these years. Ive
  stopped the list at age 35. Freud, as you may
  have noticed, ends his stages at adolescence.

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first year of life

• Ability to nurture others
• Ability to trust others
• Tendency toward greediness
• Fear of forming close relationships
• An attitude of hopefulness
• Ability to separate from others (let go) and then
  to re-attach without feeling anger
• Sense of abandonment

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Ages 1-3

• A feeling of self-reliance and independence
• The experience of making mistakes and testing
  limits
• Perception of will power
• Ability to express negative feelings, especially
  anger and aggression
• Self-doubts

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Ages 3-6

• Efforts to receive love and approval
• Ability to take the initiative on tasks
• Sense of having selected personally meaningful
  life goals
• A sense of purpose in life, without guilt
• A passive orientation to making choices

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Ages 6-12

• Development of interests in grade school and
  impact on later life
• Pattern of socialization and friendships
• Basic sense of competence
• Feeling of being industrious
• Sense of having achieved basic skills required
  for success

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Ages 12-18

• Experience of disengaging from family of origin
• Sense of confusion about life goals
• Various identity shifts that have occurred in
  life
• Steps taken to prepare for career(s)
• Investment of energy in socially acceptable
  activities

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Ages 18-35

• Sense of loving your work
• Freedom from undue influence of parents
• Ability to form intimate relationships
• Ways of coping with isolation or alienation
• A sense of self as being mature and adult

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Stages of development (continued)

• You can see with this brief review of
  developmental tasks how this way of thinking
  about stages in life can be helpful for directing
  the focus of counseling.
• Psychoanalytic theory suggests that (1) when an
  individual is stuck with a developmental task it
  impairs further development e.g. damage to trust
  at age 1 negatively impacts intimacy at age 25
  and (2) there is a tendency to repeat the cycles
  of emotions and behaviors that accompany each
  developmental stage, all through life, as we face
  further life challenges e.g. how we resolve
  achieving a sense of autonomy at age 2 are acted
  out over and over again in life, even into old
  age when our independence may begin to slip due
  to circumstances of health.
• Aristotles metaphor of moving from the acorn
  (potentiality) to the oak tree (actuality) is
  embedded in most of the theories of development.
  Existentialists might simply say, our freedom and
  destiny are intertwined.

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End of section on Freudian Theory

• The next section on Alfred Adler will focus on
  another psychodynamic school of thought. Adler
  and Freud were colleagues at one time but built
  different theoretical constructs for
  understanding human experience. After studying
  Adler, you will have a case study about Jack to
  write about, for an informal written assignment.
  You will be asked to think about Jacks case from
  a Freudian and an Adlerian perspective.