Freud

• Patient Therapy


  • For most of history, people with mental/psychological disorders (the "insane") treated as possessed, treated inhumanely
  • Phillipe Pinel – pioneer in humane treatment of patients, classification of disorders
• Freud


  • Major contributions: Techniques, Psychodynamic theory, Developmental stages, Components of Personality/Self

  
• Roots of Freudian theory


  1. After work with Charcot, Fliess and Breuer, Freud became convinced that mental illness was not just physiological and that psychological treatment could be effective

  2. Breuer's 'talking cure' was the seed for psychoanalysis

  3. Freud's clinical work suggested that many neurotic symptoms could be traced to early traumas, unconscious in adult life, that affected the development of personality

  4. He abandoned an early theory of 'childhood seduction', but he retained the idea that sexuality was a part of early parent-child relations
• Anna O.


  Patient with hysteria treated by the talking cure
• Psychodynamic Perspective


  • Freud believed psychology influences caused disorders
  • Wanted to see what these psychological influences were
  • Psychoanalysis Treatment Process: Patients revealed painful, embarrassing thoughts in the unconscious (through talking, free association), once these memories were retrieved and released the patients then would feel better

  
• Parts of the Mind


  • Conscious - what you are currently aware of
  • Preconscious - info not in conscious but is able to be retrieved when needed
  • Unconscious - Massive amount hidden from view
• Id


  Primitive, unconscious portion of the personality, houses the most basic drives and stores repressed memories, "Pleasure Principle"
• Superego


  Mind's storehouse of values, moral attitudes learned from parents and society, same as common notion of conscience
• Ego


  Conscious, rational part of personality, charged with keeping peace between superego and id
• Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory


  • Eros and Thanatos (Love and death), Eros drives us toward life and procreation, Thanatos drives us to risk-seeking
• Freud's own drawing from his 1933 lecture on "The Dissection of the Personality".
• Unconscious Influences


  • Latent content of dreams, symbolic meaning of dream images, what your unconscious mind is thinking
  • Freudian Slip: "Slip of the Tongue" not something you meant to say, but was brought out through your unconscious thought
• Psychoanalysis


  Freud's system of treatment for mental disorders, Freud believed we go about our daily business without knowing the real motives behind our behavior
• Techniques: Hypnotherapy


  • Mesmer, "mesmerism"
  • Charcot, Neurologist who used hypnosis on patients
  • Joseph Breuer, Could reduce severity of symptoms
• Techniques: the "talking cure"


  • With James Breuer, developed the "talking cure", First used on "Anna O.' Patient with "hysteria", Talking about disturbing memories from past alleviated the symptoms, Talking releases repressed memories in unconscious
• Free Association


  Developed by Carl Jung
• Intrapsychic or psychodynamic conflicts


  Clashes between the id and the superego, Psychic energy cannot be destroyed, only redistributed, This process can cause stress and anxiety, The ego tries to prevent anxiety, guilt and other unpleasant feelings
• Defense Mechanisms


  Strategies used by the ego to negotiate between the id and the superego
• Psychosexual Stages


  • Oral stage (birth – 18 mths)
  • Anal stage (18 mth – 3 years)
  • Phallic stage (3 – 6 years)
  • Latency Stage (6 years - Puberty)
  • Genital stage (adolescent & Up)
• Fixation


  Being stuck and struggling through a particular psychosexual stage, You move on in life, but may have 'issues' that arise from the struggles during that stage
• Oedipus Complex


  Young boy desires his mother, Jealous of father for his mother's attention and larger penis, Fear father will castrate him, This gives rise to development of superego
• Electra Complex


  Girl starts to sexually desire her father who has a penis, She begins to develop penis envy, The girl sees her mother as a sexual rival for her father, The superego develops, she replaces penis envy with desire for a baby
• Identification: End of the Phallic Stage

  Children cope with the threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent, Through this process of identification their superego gains strength incorporating parents' values
• Phallic imagery
• Evaluating the science of psychodynamic theory


  • Freud would say these images are the unconscious expression of psychodynamic influences, But is there scientific support for this?, What is the scientific merit of Freud's theories in general?

  
• Characteristics of Science vs. Pseudoscience


  • Science: Systematic Observation, Ruthless peer review, Considers all evidence, Invites Criticism, Repeatable results, Limited claims, Specific terms, operational definitions, Engages community, Changes with new evidence, Follows evidence where it leads
  • Pseudoscience: Anecdotal Evidence, No peer review, Considers only positive evidence, Dismisses criticism, Non-repeatable results, Grandiose claims, Vague terms and ideas, Science-y jargon, Isolated, Dogmatic and unyielding, Starts with a conclusion, works back to confirm
• Validity and the problem of Falsification


  Freud's approach of interpreting patient responses to confirm his theories, rather than allowing for falsification
• Legacy of Freud


  • Theoretical Influence: Developed grand ideas with massive overall and overarching reach, No longer influential in psychology, but in literature
  • Therapeutic Influence: He didn't invent the talking cure, but popularized it as a treatment for psychology disorders that is still used today
  • Personality stages and theory: 1st comprehensive personality theory ever!
  • Role of the Unconscious: Freud's theory pins itself to the unconscious and there are MANY ways that the unconscious mind plays a pivotal role in human behavior

  
• The Neo-Freudians: Adler, Horney, A. Freud, Jung
• Alfred Adler


  • Thought Freud emphasized unconscious too much, There are conscious drives too!, Began early work with people with physical disabilities, Observed that while some people with disabilities motivated to overcome, others felt defeated, We gain confidence when we realize we are able to meet external goals (those who do not learn this develop inferiority)
• Karen Horney


  • Felt that sex and aggression were not the primary constituents for determining personality, Believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development, Children were trying to overcome a sense of helplessness, Countered Freud's assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer from "penis-envy", Considered a founder of "Humanistic Psychoanalysis" & "Feminist Psychology"
• Horney's "tyranny of 'shoulds'"


  Toxic social environments create unhealthy belief systems in people, "Shoulds": internalized beliefs from toxic environment, "bargain with fate"- we think we can control environment if we follow shoulds, "Real Self" (authentic desires) vs. "Ideal self" (should)
• Anna Freud


  • The super ego becomes clear only when it confronts the ego with hostility, Super ego speaks with language of guilt and shame, We hear the super ego when we berate ourselves, Defense Mechanisms: Methods used by ego to unconsciously protect itself against anxiety caused by conflict between id's demands and superego's constraints
• Carl Jung


  • Collective unconscious which contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species' past, Proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious, His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields, Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negative

  
• Archetypes


  Universal symbolic images that appear across cultures in myths, art, stories, & dreams, Examples - Darth Vader vs. Superman (Archetype of Evil & Goodness)
• The 'collective' unconscious was an important factor in Jung's break with Freud.
• Examples of Archetypes


  • Wise old man
  • The Goddess
  • The Shadow
  • The Hero
  • The trickster
  • The Animus (masculine component of female personality)
  • The Anima (feminine part of male personality)
  • The Persona – our public image
• Which defense mechanisms do you see?
• Summary


  • S. Freud
  • Unconscious, preconcious, conscious
  • Psychosexual Stages
  • Id, ego, Superego
  • The "talking cure"
  • Neo-Freudians: Adler, A. Freud, Horney, Jung