Psychoanalysis and Psycho-analysis
Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic treatment
The Victorian Zeitgeist
Strict moral standards Repressed sexuality
Extreme modesty in dress Verbal/written communication about
emotion or sexual feeling not allowed (improper to even say “leg”)
Play the Victorian game
1837-1901
Dr Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Oldest of eight children
Married with 3 girls and 3 boys
Physician-Biologist – Scientific and Pathology oriented theory
Jewish, but anti-religion: All religion an illusion used to cope with feelings of infantile helplessness
Lived in Vienna, Austria 78 years till 1938
Based theory on personal experiences
lifelong cigar chain-smoker
Died in 1939 of cancer of jaw & mouth
Freud’s Methods
Only worked with adults, usually middle and upper-class women
Tried to be a neutral, objective listener, a blank slate
Freud’s view of human nature
Deterministic (behavior is determined by:)
Neurotic behaviors are symptoms of the unconscious’s attempt to control the intolerable urges of sex and aggression
Unconscious, irrational motivations
The six psychosexual stages
Biological and instinctual drives Libido - the life/sex instinct, goal of
life gain pleasure and avoid pain (pleasure principle)
Thanatos - the death instinct, the aggressive drive to hurt self or others
Levels of awareness
Freud's Mental Iceberg
Conscious Preconscious Unconscious
Freud’s Iceberg
Unconscious more important
Unconscious is root of neuroses
“Cure” means uncovering the unconscious
Foundations of Freudian theory
Plato’s tripartite division of self Rational Soul (wisdom) Spirited Soul (will) Appetitive Soul (emotion/desire)
Structure of the personality
The id (the pleasure principle)Strives to satisfy desires and reduce inner tension.
life instinct (Libido) death instinct (Thenatos)
The ego (the reality principle) Solves problems by planning
and weighing of pros and cons.
The superego (the conscience) Constrains individual action through internalized social norms & moral forces.
The cause of psychological problems
Fixation in a developmental stage (especially phallic) produces psychic conflict
Later theorists discussed attachment problems as cause of psychic conflict
Psychic conflict (among the 3 systems) produces anxiety
Anxiety leads to defense mechanisms (e.g. repression, identification), and, if unresolved, to neurotic symptoms
Defense mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are ways that people cope or defend against this anxiety
1. Projection
2. Denial
3. Repression
4. Regression
5. Reaction formation
6. Rationalization
7. Sublimation
Personality Assessment
Projective hypothesis (Lawrence Frank, 1939)
“When people try to understand vague or ambiguous unstructured stimuli, the interpretation they produce reflects their needs, feelings, experience, prior conditioning, thought processes
Assessment/treatment methods
History taking (face to face)
Freudian slips
Dream interpretation (dreams are wish fulfillment)
Free association
Formal testing (developed later) Rorschach TAT Projective drawings
Symbolic play (for children)
Freudian slips:
Around for a long, long timee.g., Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman: “Sir, I must goe dye a beggar” (1634)
Reverend William Spooner, dean New College, Oxford (1844-1930)
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes”
“Noble tons of soil”
“You have hissed all my lectures. I saw you fight a liar in the back quad; in fact, you have tasted the whole worm.”
God bless the queer old dean”
Fox News: “More likely to give …a curb job than a block party”
George Bush Sr: “We’ve had some setbacks”
"A Freudian slip is like saying one thing, but meaning your mother."
Freudian slips: Was Freud right?
There is empirical evidence that “unconscious” slips happen. But why?
Freudian explanation only explains a subset of slips (see here)
Alternative explanations:
Strong habit substitution (MacMahon, 1995)
Anticipation: e.g., “bake my bike” instead of “take my bike”
Perseveration e.g., “he pulled a pantrum” instead of “he pulled a tantrum”
Phonological conditioning e.g., “don’t shell so loudly” instead of “don’t yell/shout so loudly”
Freud: “Such disturbances of speech may be the result of complicated psychical influences, of elements outside the same word, sentence or sequence of spoken words.” ~ The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
In other words: It is the unconscious at work, such that slips are unintentional expressions of repressed desire.
Dream Interpretation
Manifest Content: what a person remembers and consciously considers
Latent Content: underlying (symbolic) hidden meaning (believed to be a manifestation of the unconscious)
Dream Interpretation
“Royal road to the unconscious”
What is important in dreams is the infantile wish fulfillment represented in them
Freud assumed every dream has a meaning that can be interpreted by decoding representations of the unconscious material
Dream symbol = represents some person, thing, or activity involved in the unconscious process
Dream Interpretations(common symbols)
Knife, umbrella, snake
Box, oven, ship
Falling
Staircase, ladder
Water
Baldness, tooth removal
Left (direction)
Children playing
Fire
Robber
Room, table with food
Penis
Uterus
Anxiety
Sexual intercourse
Birth, mother
Castration
Crime, sexual deviation
Masturbation
Bedwetting
Father
Women
Rorschach
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Developed by Henry Murray (1938)
30 grayscale pictures (each contain a dramatic event or critical situation ) + one blank
Not all pictures are (though all may be) seen by everyone 11 for adults (males and females) 7 for males (adults and boys, BM), 7 for females (adults and girls, GF), 1 each for adult males (12M), adult females (12F), children of either sex
(12BG), male child (13B), female child (13G) and blank (16) Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions
Story themes = Interaction between needs and environmental determinants
Standardization of administration and scoring is minimal
Many variations exist
TAT scoring (sample card)
Response 1:This is the story of a little girl who is very disappointed. She’s been struggling to learn to play the violin but she can’t do it. It’s just too difficult. She’s upset and she’s going to tell her mother and father she doesn’t want to take violin lessons anymore. She feels frustrated that she’s tried to play it and has failed. She’s feeling discouraged about the whole thing.
Response 2:This is the story of a little girl who intends to play the violin. It’s a very challenging instrument to master but she is determined to learn how to play it – one note at a time. In her mind, in her imagination she sees herself playing to appreciative audiences all over the world, culminating in loud applause.
Murray’s psychological needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Aggression
Autonomy
Dominance
Exhibition
Nurturance
Order
Power
House-Tree-PersonTest
More interpretation elements
The inherent problem with projection
"Objectivity in human relationships is impossible. Therapists affect the behavior and feelings of patients, and patients affect therapists. When a chart notes that a patient is 'hostile', it should also note, in the interests of balance, that the therapist is 'paranoid'. If a therapist calls a patient 'defensive', chances are that the patient would call the therapist 'aggressive'. Both should be noted in a chart, if either is, since both are equally probable."
Shelagh Lynne Supeene (As For The Sky, Falling)
Important therapeutic elements
Methods described above (assessment and therapy are same)
Analysis proceeds from more superficial (conscious) elements to deeper, unconscious ones
Understanding of repression No accident No responsibility
Analysis of resistance Usually unconscious An example of a defense mechanism
Analysis of transference (re-enactment of past relationships)
Interpretation of comments in therapy
Working through (overcoming childhood amnesia) Repetition Elaboration Amplification
Transference and Countertransference
Transference The client reacts to the therapist as he did to an
earlier significant other This allows the client to experience feelings that
would otherwise be inaccessible ANALYSIS OF TRANSFERENCE — allows the client
to achieve insight into the influence of the past
Countertransference The reaction of the therapist toward the client that
may interfere with objectivity
Contemporary approaches
Ego psychology Analysis of internal conflict Deals with both early and later development More emphasis on psychosocial development (e.g., Erikson) Defense analysis
B. Object relations “Object” refers to object that gratifies a need Separation anxiety and transitional objects Oedipus complex
C. Interpersonal therapy (H.S. Sullivan) Replaced the libido with analysis of the self. “Good me” vs. “Bad me”
Good refers to positive movements toward intimacy Bad refers to destructive movements of hostility and avoidance
Importance of pre-adolescent period of same-sex friendships
Identity Development (Erickson)
Contemporary approaches
A. Ego psychology Analysis of internal conflict Deals with both early and later development More emphasis on psychosocial development (e.g., Erikson) Defense analysis
B. Object relations “Object” refers to object that gratifies a need Separation anxiety and transitional objects Oedipus complex
C. Interpersonal therapy (H.S. Sullivan) Replaced the libido with analysis of the self. “Good me” vs. “Bad me”
Good refers to positive movements toward intimacy Bad refers to destructive movements of hostility and avoidance
Importance of pre-adolescent period of same-sex friendships