Freudian

• Denial is a defense mechanism in psychoanalysis where an individual refuses to acknowledge or accept a painful or uncomfortable reality.
• Psychodynamic theories focus on the importance of early childhood experiences
• Relationships with parents shape personality development
• Unconscious mind and motives are more powerful than conscious awareness
• Sigmund Freud is the father of Psychoanalysis
• Freud created psychoanalysis to treat psychological symptoms
• Psychoanalysis aims to explore and understand the hidden or unconscious aspect of the mind
• Freud believed that everything we do comes from either sexual drive or aggressive drive
• Freud's three levels of mental life:

  • Conscious mind: includes everything we are aware of
  • Preconscious mind: represents ordinary memory that can be retrieved when needed
  • Unconscious mind: reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories outside of conscious awareness
• Provinces of the mind:

  • The Id: present from birth, driven by the pleasure principle
  • The Ego: deals with reality, based on the reality principle
  • The Superego: holds internalized moral standards, acts to perfect and civilize behavior
• Freud's conceptualization of anxiety:

  • Anxiety arises from conflicts between the ego and ID, ego and superego, ego and reality
  • Defense mechanisms are used to protect against anxiety
• Defense mechanisms:

  • Repression: unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts
  • Reaction Formation: reversing the nature of anxiety
  • Displacement: transfer of negative emotion
  • Fixation: remaining at a more comfortable psychological stage
  • Regression: reverting to behaviors associated with a happier time
  • Projection: seeing in others unacceptable feelings from one's own unconscious
  • Introjection: incorporating positive qualities of others into one's ego
  • Sublimation: channeling anxiety into socially acceptable activities
  • Rationalization: creating false reasons for anxiety
• • Denial: outright denial of anxiety
• Application of Freud's theory in psychotherapy:

  • Free Association
  • Dream Analysis
  • Transference
• Psychosexual development:

  • Early experiences play a role in personality development
  • Erogenous zones are sensitive areas of the body where pleasure occurs
• Psychosexual stages:

  • Oral phase: birth to 1 year
  • Anal phase: 1-3 years
  • Phallic phase: 3-4 years
  • Latency period: 4-5 years until puberty
  • Genital period: puberty to adulthood
• Concept of humanity in Freud's theory:

  • Determinism over free choice
  • Pessimism over optimism
  • Causality over teleology
  • Unconscious over conscious