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
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