Freud and Psychoanalysis

1. Freud and Psychoanalysis By: Maggie, Karlyn, Dava, Natalia, Mitzi, Olivia, and Heidi

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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).

13. 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.

14. 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)

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. References Chiriac, J. (2009, December 10). Psychoanalysis - Free Associations Method. Sigmund Freud - Life and Work. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/free_associations.html 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.