The Psychoanalytic Perspective: Chapters 8 & 9 The Neoanalytic Perspective: Chapter 10

1. The Psychoanalytic Perspective: Chapters 8 & 9The Neoanalytic Perspective: Chapter 10 Theories of Personality March 14, 2003 Class #8

2. Guess what Dr. Freud it wasn’t penis envy after all. Rather it was…???? • Horney (1967) • Womb envy • Perterson (1980) • Vagina envy

3. GETTING IT OFF YOUR CHEST • One of Freud's great contributions was his emphasis on the unconscious • Today, it is generally accepted in clinical psychology and psychiatry that certain emotions and motives are so repulsive or upsetting that we may suppress or repress these scary, disgusting, embarrassing feelings into our unconscious

4. Freudian Theory • Many therapists believe that unconsciously repressed emotions cause a variety of major problems: neurotic and psychotic behaviors, interpersonal conflicts, psychosomatic disorders, etc. • Some people become overwhelmed by their emotions; others hold in their feelings and don't even know they are there

5. Catharsis... Venting... Discharging... Expressing Emotions... • Holding in our feelings causes mental and physical stress. And, stress can be very destructive. Often suppressing and hiding "awful" thoughts actually results in uncontrollable obsessions about the very thing we are trying to hide • So, maybe its better to let all our vile feelings spew out to the guy down the block who is happily watering his lawn on a summer day?

6. Catharsis: Good or Crazy? • Well, maybe that’s going too far but… • Venting or discharging emotions involves vigorously expressing the emotion--fear, sadness, anger, dependency--so completely you feel "drained." Then, according to Freud, the strength of the emotion is markedly reduced or eliminated. And you feel better. Are healthier. • So is it healthy or abnormal to punch a hole in the wall after you bomb that big psych test???

7. It worked when we were kids… • We all knew how to throw a temper tantrum at age 3…it worked back then. Usually made us feel better I think • One of the goals of psychotherapy, then, is to make unconscious conflict conscious and provide relief through catharsis

8. Other forms of Catharsis? • Sharing our secrets often provides relief

9. Freud’s Defense Mechanisms • Freud believed we protect ourselves from anxiety by using these: • Repression • Denial • Projection • Rationalization • Intellectualization • Reaction Formation • Regression • Displacement • Sublimation

10. Recovered Memories vs. False Memory Syndrome • Is it possible to repress traumatic incidents and then recover these memories many years later? • Hochman (1994) • Feels that thousands of patients (mostly women) in the United States are undergoing treatment for a non-existent memory disorder • Feels that recovered memories are nothing more than false memories

11. Hochman's Theory • A woman is seeking relief for a variety of emotional complaints • She hears about recovered memories on an afternoon talk show • Now motivated for memory recovery so she goes and sees her therapist • Her therapist informs her that she may have been molested as a child and does not know it – this could explain her symptoms • The therapist then may refer the client to a "survivor recovery group"

12. Complications • Patients start out with the hopes that life will get better but it usually becomes far more complicated • She becomes estranged from the "perpetrator" (often her father or step-father or uncle) • If she has children they become off-limits to the perpetrator • Relationships with other family members is contingent on whether or not they challenge these allegations • Patients may file belated crime reports and may try to sue the perpetrator • Preoccupied with all these things, the patient may come to ignore more pressing problems (marriage, family, school, career, etc.) • Often the time demands and expense of the therapy itself become a major life disruption

13. Hochman (1994) • Is Hochman's theory correct??? • Or should recovered memories be believed???

14. No such thing as an accident? • Parapraxes • According to Freud: • Memory lapses, slips of speech or pen, dreams, humor, etc. all provide insight into a person’s true desires • Unconscious seeping into conscious

15. The royal road to the unconscious… • Dreams • Manifest Content • Sensory images of a dream • Latent Content • These are the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and wishes that are apparent in the manifest content • Symbolism • Unacceptable latent content is expressed symbolically in manifest content

16. Psychoanalysis: Be careful of transference… • A set of displacements from the patient onto the therapist is possible • Very possible that the client will fall “in love” with the therapist • This is a defense mechanism on the part of the client • Can cause many problems including the client being caught up in what they are feeling towards the therapist • Therapist needs to find out where the displacement has originated from

17. Interesting Note… • Wilhelm Fliess was a good friend of Freud’s… • Fliess believed that he had discovered a 'nasal reflex neurosis‘ associated with a wide variety of somatic symptoms, including pains in various parts of the body and disturbances in the functioning of the sexual organs • He related some of these symptoms to a 'genital spot' within the nose, and claimed to remove them temporarily by the application of cocaine

18. And you thought Freud’s theories were a bit strange… • Longer-lasting remission of symptoms was supposedly achieved by cauterization of this “genital spot” • In a few cases, such as that of Emma Eckstein, Fliess performed a surgical procedure involving the removal of a bone within the nose • The operation had almost fatal consequences for Eckstein

19. Chapter 10: Ego Psychology • Shifting the Emphasis From Id to Ego • If Freud had lived longer, indications are that he may have modified his theory a bit • He may have put more emphasis on the ego as did some of his followers

20. Freud’s Unconscious • Freud said that the goal of therapy was to make the unconscious conscious. He certainly made that the goal of his work as a theorist • But he makes the unconscious sound very unpleasant • A bottomless pit of perverse and incestuous cravings • A burial ground for frightening experiences which nevertheless come back to haunt us • It doesn't sound like anything I'd like to make conscious!

21. Jung’s Unconscious • A younger colleague of his, Carl Jung, was to make the exploration of the unconscious his life's work • He was equipped with a background in Freudian theory and with an apparently inexhaustible knowledge of mythology, religion, and philosophy

22. Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) • Jung was born in the small Swiss village of Kessewil • He was surrounded by a fairly well educated extended family, including quite a few clergymen • His father started Carl on Latin when he was six years old, beginning a long interest in language and literature -- especially ancient literature • Besides most modern western European languages, Jung could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language of the original Hindu holy books.

23. Jung’s Background • Carl was a rather solitary adolescent, who didn't care much for school, and especially couldn't take competition • He went to boarding school in Basel, Switzerland, where he found himself the object of a lot of jealous harassment • He began to use sickness as an excuse, developing an embarrassing tendency to faint under pressure

24. Jung’s Background • Although his first career choice was archeology, he went on to study medicine at the University of Basel • While working under the famous neurologist Krafft-Ebing, he settled on psychiatry as his career • After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital in Zurich under Eugene Bleuler, an expert on schizophrenia • In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach • He also taught classes at the University of Zurich while having a private practice as well

25. Instant friends… • Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in Vienna in 1907 • The story goes that after they met, Freud canceled all his appointments for the day, and they talked for 13 hours straight, such was the impact of the meeting of these two great minds! • Freud eventually came to see Jung as the crown prince of psychoanalysis and his heir apparent • In 1911, the two teamed up to do a series of lectures in the United States

26. But not lifetime ones… • Around that time their relationship began to cool… • They were entertaining themselves by analyzing each others' dreams, when Freud seemed to show an excess of resistance to Jung's efforts at analysis • Freud finally said that they'd have to stop because he was afraid he would lose his authority! Jung felt rather insulted

27. The two soon broke apart… • One fundamental reason was that Jung did not subscribe to Freud's thought that all aspects of one's personality stemmed from his or her own sexuality • Jung saw no real proof for this theory • Carl, being headstrong and a true individual, could not be controlled or overly influenced by Freud • Finally, in 1912, all ties between the two were severed

28. Jung’s Background • In the latter stages of his life, Jung traveled widely, visiting tribal people in Africa, America, and India • Jung's adulthood saw much accomplishment and rewar • He studied, wrote, thought, and theorized • He took time off of his work and thought introspectively • He lectured worldwide with his influence reaching farther than his travels • He retired in 1946, and began to retreat from public attention after his wife died in 1955 • He died on June 6, 1961, in Zurich

29. Jung: Analytic Psychology • Levels of the Psyche • Jung saw the human psyche as being divided into a conscious and an unconscious level, with the latter subdivided into a personal and a collective unconscious • The Conscious • Images sensed by the ego are said to be conscious. The ego thus represents the conscious side of personality, and in the psychologically mature individual, the ego is secondary to the self. • The Unconscious The unconscious refers to those psychic images not sensed by the ego. Some unconscious processes flow from our personal experiences, but others stem from our ancestors' experiences with universal themes.

30. Jung: Analytic Psychology • The Personal Unconscious • Repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences make up the personal unconscious, a concept analogous to Freud's notion of an unconscious. Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes, or emotionally toned groups of related ideas. • The Collective Unconscious • Ideas that are beyond our personal experiences and that originate from the repeated experiences of our ancestors become part of our collective unconscious. • Collective unconscious images are not inherited ideas, but rather they refer to our innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever our personal experiences stimulate an inherited predisposition toward action.

31. Jung: Analytic Psychology • Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, and the rising of the dead • These represented the unconscious itself -- not the "little" personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of, but a new collective unconscious of humanity itself • This was an unconscious that could contain all the dead, not just our personal ghosts. • Jung began to see the mentally ill as people who are haunted by these ghosts • He felt that if we would understand these ghosts, we would become comfortable with the dead, and heal our mental illnesses

32. Criticism • Critics have suggested that Jung was ill himself when he developed this theory

33. Jung: Analytic Psychology • Archetypes • Contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. • Jung believed that archetypes originate through repeated experiences of our ancestors and that they are expressed in certain dreams, fantasies, delusions, and hallucinations • Several archetypes acquire their own personality, and Jung identified these by name • The persona • The side of our personality that we show to others. • The shadow or dark side of our personality • To reach full psychological maturity, Jung believed, we must first realize or accept our shadow

34. Jung: Analytic Psychology • A second hurdle in achieving maturity is for men to accept their anima, or feminine side, and for women to embrace their animus, or masculine disposition • Other archetypes include the great mother (the archetype of nourishment and destruction); the old wise man (the archetype of wisdom and meaning); and the hero, (the image we have of a conqueror who vanquishes evil, but has a single fatal flaw • The most comprehensive archetype is the self; that is, the image we have of fulfillment, completion, or perfection

35. Jung: Analytic Psychology • Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow • It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren't self-conscious • It is the "dark side" of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there • The shadow is amoral -- neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesn't choose to do either

36. Jung: Analytic Psychology • It just does what it does • It is "innocent" • But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we can't quite admit to

37. Jung: Analytic Psychology • The persona represents your public image. • The persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. • Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious

38. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) • Adler became a charter member of Freud's organization and its first president • However, personal and professional differences between the two led to Adler's departure from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1911 • Adler soon after founded his own group, the Society for Individual Psychology

39. Adler’s Biography • Adler was born in Vienna, Austria • During the early decades of this century he originated the ideas which, to a large extent, have been incorporated in the mainstream of present-day theory and practice of psychology and psychopathology • The second of six children, Adler spent his childhood in the suburbs of Vienna • He remembered that when he was about 5 years old, gravely ill with pneumonia, the physician told his father that he doubted the child would recover • It was at that time that Alfred decided he wanted to become a doctor so that he might be able to fight deadly diseases. He never changed his mind, and in 1895 he acquired his M.D. degree at the University of Vienna.

40. The invite from Freud… • In 1902, when Adler was one of the few who reacted favorably to Freud’s book on dream interpretations • Freud sent him a hand-written postcard suggesting he join the circle which met weekly in Freud's home to discuss newer aspects of psychopathology • At that time Adler had already started collecting material on patients with physical handicaps, studying both their organic and psychological reactions to them • Only when Freud had assured him that in his circle a variety of views, including Adler's, would be discussed did Adler accept the invitation

41. No longer invited… • Five years later, in 1907, Adler published his book on organ inferiority and its compensation • From then on, the difference between Freud's and Adler's views became steadily more marked • Adler had never accepted Freud's original theories that mental difficulties were caused exclusively by a sexual trauma, and he opposed the generalizations when dreams were interpreted, in each instance, as sexual wish fulfillment • After prolonged discussions, during which each of the two men tried to win the other over to his point of view--attempts doomed to failure from the start-- Adler left Freud's circle in 1911 with a group of eight colleagues and formed his own school • After that, Freud and Adler never met again

42. Adler’s Biography • In 1918, Adler started founding several child guidance clinics in Vienna • In 1926 Adler was invited to lecture at Columbia University, and from 1932 on he held the first chair of Visiting Professor of Medical Psychology at Long Island College of Medicine • During these and the following years he spent only the summer months, from May to October, in Vienna, and the academic year lecturing in the States. His family joined him there in 1935. • Adler's lectures were overcrowded from the beginning, and he communicated as easily with his audiences in English as he did when using his native German tongue • On May 28, 1937 while in Scotland to deliver a series of lectures at the University, he suddenly collapsed while walking in the street and died from heart failure within a few minutes

43. Individual Psychology • Striving for Success or Superiority • According to Adler, the sole dynamic force behind all our actions is the striving for success or superiority

44. Individual Psychology • Another Adlerian personality concept: striving for superiority • Although striving for superiority does refer to the desire to be better, it also contains the idea that people want to be better than others, rather than better in their own right • Adler later tended to use striving for superiority more in reference to unhealthy or neurotic striving

45. Individual Psychology • Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single motivating force • His earliest phrase was the aggression drive--- the reaction we have when other drives (e.g., the need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved) are frustrated • The aggression drive: might be better called the assertiveness drive

46. Individual Psychology: Compensation • We all have problems, short-comings, inferiorities of one sort or another • Adler felt that our personalities could be accounted for by the ways in which we do -- or do not -- compensate or overcome those problems • Later, however, Adler rejected compensation as a label for the basic motive, because compensation makes it sound as if it is people’s problems that cause them to be what they are • Another word Adler used to refer to basic motivation was compensation, or striving to overcome.

47. Individual Psychology: Compensation • People respond to psychological inferiorities with compensation • Some compensate by becoming good at what they feel inferior about • More compensate by becoming good at something else, but otherwise retaining their sense of inferiority. • And, some just never develop any self esteem at all

48. Individual Psychology: Inferiority • If people are overwhelmed by the forces of inferiority -- whether it is their body hurting, the people around them holding them in contempt, or just the general difficulties of growing up -- they develop an inferiority complex • An inferiority complex is not just a little problem--it is a neurosis, a psychological problem

49. Individual Psychology: Superiority • People can respond to inferiority by developing a superiority complex • A superiority complex involves covering up one’s inferiority by pretending to be superior • Bullies, braggarts, and petty dictators everywhere are the prime example • Even more subtle: people who hide their feelings of worthlessness in the delusions of power afforded by alcohol and drugs

50. Individual Psychology: Neurosis • Adler: all neurosis is a matter of insufficient social interest… • Three types can be distinguished: • The first is the ruling type • The second is the learning type • The third type is the avoiding type