The Psychology of the Person Chapter 3 Psychoanalysis Naomi Wagner, Ph.D Lecture Outlines Based on Burger, 8th edition

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The Psychology of the PersonChapter
3Psychoanalysis Naomi Wagner, Ph.DLecture
Outlines Based on Burger, 8th edition
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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Freud was a neurologist practicing in Vienna (the
  Austrian-Hungarian Empire)
• He had some patients that presented symptoms that
  appear to be physical, but upon further
  investigation no physical basis was found
• Under hypnosis the patient were able to retrieve
  their (lost) physical functioning
• First patient was Anna O (not her real name)

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
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Anna O

• Anna O. was the pseudonym of a patient of Josef
  Breuer, who published her case study in his book
  Studies on Hysteria, written in collaboration
  with Sigmund Freud. Her real name was Bertha
  Pappenheim (18591936)disturbances of vision,
  hearing, and speech, as well as hallucination and
  loss of consciousness

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Anna O

• Anna O. was treated by Breuer for severe cough,
  paralysis of the extremities on the right side of
  her body, and disturbances of vision, hearing,
  and speech, as well as hallucination and loss of
  consciousness. She was diagnosed with hysteria.
  Freud implies that her illness was a result of
  the resentment felt over her father's real and
  physical illness that later led to his death

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Freud Discovers the Unconscious

• Anna O and other patients with similar
  pseudo-physical symptoms were found to have been
  molested in childhood
• Freud interpreted their physical symptoms as a
  result of a mental process that he labeled
  repression
• This was the foundation to the concept of the
  unconscious

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Components of Freuds theory

• The Topographical Model The geography of the
  mind, the terrain
• Consists of the 3 levels of consciousness
• The Structural Model The 3 layers of
  personality that are interacting with one another
  
• The 5 psychosexual stages of personality
  development

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The Topographical ModelLevels of Consciousness

• The Conscious level Being aware of what is going
  on around you
• The pre-conscious Information that is not
  currently in your awareness, but can be prompted
  and retrieved
• The Unconscious Information that is unavailable,
  but still affects our behavior

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The Topographical Model The levels of
comsciousness
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The Structural Model and Psychodynamics

• The Id The part of our psyche that is
  unconscious, reflects a wish for immediate
  self-gratification
• Operates along the pleasure principle
• The Ego develops later as a result of
  interaction with the social environment
• Operates along the Reality Principle
• The ego mediates between the wishes of the Id and
  the constraints of society
• It wishes to satisfy the Id in a
  socially-acceptable way

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The Structural Model (con-d)

• The Superego Develops even later, and reflects
  the internalization of social values and mores
• The Superego reflects our sense of morality
• Psychodynamics There is a constant interactions
  among the 3 structures of personality- each
  pulls to a different direction

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The Constant Interaction (psychodynamics)
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Closed Hydraulic Model

• We have a finite (that is- NOT unlimited)
  amount pf psychic energy
• Our behavior is motivated by 2 unconscious
  drives, or instincts
• Libido the Life drive
• Thanatos The Death Drive
• In the normal personality, the death drives is
  translated into aggression that is directed
  outward

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Defense Mechanisms

• This is an important part of the Freudian theory
• Those are mental operations employed by the go in
  order to protect us from the emergence of
  unpleasant, unacceptable urges or drives
• Repression is the cornerstone of the defenses
• Note issue of repressed memories

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The Defenses

• Repression A complete removal from awareness
• Sublimation the only positive defense
  channeling mental energy into socially-desirable
  direction
• Displacement Directing undesirable feelings
  toward a target (person) that is weaker that the
  original target (you are angry at your boss and
  you hit your wife)

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Defenses (cont-d)

• Denial You may remember the event, but deny its
  meaning (someone spits on you and you claim it is
  raining)
• Intellectualization You invest a lot of mental
  energy in the intellectual analysis of what had
  happened, until there is no energy for the
  emotion
• Rationalization The fox could not reached the
  grapes and claimed they were sour

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Defenses (cont-d)

• Projection You cannot accept your negative
  traits, so you assign them to someone else
• Reaction Formation You cannot express negative
  feelings toward someone, so you show him/her an
  exaggerated opposite attitude
• Identification with the Aggressor The Stockholm
  Syndrome

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The Current Status of Repressed Memories

• During the 1980s there were several cases of
  people (mostly women), who sought therapy for
  emotional difficulties and while in therapy
  recalled childhood memories of being physically
  or sexually abused by family members.

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Cont-d

• In almost all cases, the accused family members
  fiercely denied that such abuse had occurred. In
  virtually every case, the patient had not been
  aware of any abuse, and it has been suggested
  that the therapist, either explicitly or
  implicitly made this suggestion to the client

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Famous Cases of Repressed Memory

• In California, in 1990, George Franklin was
  tried and convicted for the murder of a little
  girl that had seemingly happened 20 years
  earlier. Franklin was convicted on the basis of
  his daughters repressed memory She claimed that
  while she was playing with her own daughter, the
  image of her father killing her best friend
  suddenly surfaced. Franklin was sentenced to life
  in prison.

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The Holly Ramona Case

• A similar case took place in California in the
  early 1990s. Holly Ramona, age 22, who was in
  therapy because of depression and bulimia,
  started to have memories of her father raping
  her. The father denied all accusations. He was
  acquitted by the jury, following the testimony of
  memory experts, including Elizabeth Loftus.

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Current Status of Repressed Memories

• The concept of repression was the cornerstone of
  the psychoanalytic approach
• According to Freud, unacceptable drives,
  agonizing memories, and traumas, have been
  removed from consciousness by the ego, and moved
  into the unconscious.
• Another important aspect of the approach has been
  the emphasis on early childhood as the most
  formative period of life

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How was the Whole Fiasco of Repressed Memories
possible?

• First, because the strong Freudian influence
  regarding the important of early childhood in
  affecting later life
• Second, because of the popularity of the
  Freudians concept of repression
• Third, because people who are in therapy are
  distressed, very suggestible, and want to find
  reasons for their conditions.

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The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Our personality develops during the first 5 or 6
  years of life along five stages
• During each of the stages, sexual energy is tied
  to another area in the body Erogenous Zone
• If needs are not appropriately met, fixation
  occurs, and adult personality reflects it
• Oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages

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The Oedipus and Electra Complexes

• During the phallic stage (age 3-5)
• Boy Develops an erotic attraction to mother and
  wants to eliminates father
• Becomes afraid of fathers potential punishment,
  develops castration anxiety
• Resolves the conflict by starting to form
  identification with father
• Assumes fathers characteristics, including the
  male gender role

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(Cont-d)

• Girl Develops Penis Envy as she lacks this organ
  and is jealous
• Identifies with mother to get married, have a
  baby
• Anatomy is Destiny said Freud
• No shred of empirical evidence for the Oedipus
  and Electra Complexes.

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How to get into the unconscious according to
Freud

• Freud regarded the dream as the royal road to the
  unconscious
• The egos defenses are down when we sleep, said
  Freud, and this enables the unconscious material
  to surface
• Each dear has a manifest content the story of
  the dream and a latent content- the underling
  symbolic meaning
• Most of the Freudian dream symbols have sexual
  connotations

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Getting to the Unconscious (cont-d)

• Projective tests They present ambiguous stimuli,
  facilitating the projection of material from
  the unconscious
• Free Association A technique introduced by
  Freud, where a person is instructed to day
  whatever comes to mind
• Accidents These are no accidents, but reflection
  of unconscious material
• Hypnosis An altered state that facilitates the
  emergence of unconscious material
• Freudian slips You Johnny Jimmy (your previous
  boyfriend)
• Symbolic behavior see textbook for example

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Application Psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis is a term used to describe Freuds
  theory of personality as well as his method of
  psychotherapy
• The goal of psychoanalysis is to bring
  unconscious material to the surface
• Techniques are free association, dream analysis,
  analysis of resistance, and analysis of
  transference

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Strengths and Limitations

• Freud was a pioneer in uncharted territory
• He attempted to explore the human mind
• He developed the first talk therapy
• However, his concepts do not lend themselves to
  empirical investigation
• His ideas were based on case studies that may
  have reflected a specific historical/cultural
  period
• His theory portrayed a pessimistic view of human
  nature.