Psychoanalysis

1. Psychoanalysis • The first theory to gain public recognition and acceptance, especially in Europe and the Americas.

2. Sigmund Freud • The person whose genius created psychoanalysis. • Born in Freiburg, Austria, in 1856. • As a psychiatrist, he initially used hypnosis as his primary form of treatment. • Was impressed during medical school by how patients who relive painful experiences can work through emotional events suppressed for years.

3. Sigmund Freud • Began using a process called free association to help his patients remember long-forgotten important events and thoughts. • Utilized free association to explore the unconscious minds of his patients. • Began to stress the importance of the unconscious in understanding personality. • Thus was born psychoanalysis.

4. View of Human Nature/Personality • The Freudian view of human nature is dynamic. • The transformation and exchange of energy within the personality drives behavior. • Freud focused his techniques on: • Levels of Consciousness (topographic) • The formation of personality (structural) • Id, Ego, Superego • Psychosexual Development (genetic) • Defense Mechanisms

5. Levels of Consciousness • For Freud, human nature can be explained in terms of: • A Conscious Mind • A Preconscious Mind • An Unconscious Mind

6. Conscious Mind • Attuned to events in the present and an awareness of the outside world.

7. Preconscious Mind • An area between the conscious mind and unconscious minds; it contains aspects of both. • Hidden memories or forgotten experiences can be remembered in this area if given the proper cues.

8. Unconscious Mind • Beneath the preconscious mind. • The most powerful and least understood part of the personality. • The instinctual, repressed, and powerful forces of the personality exist here.

9. Formation of Personality • Freud hypothesized that the personality is formed from the interaction of three developing strucutres. • The Id – confined to the unconscious • The Ego – operates primarily in the conscious but also in the preconscious and the unconscious. • The Superego – confined to the unconscious.

10. The Id • The id is the source of all energy. • Comprises the basic inherited givens of the personality and is present from birth. • It is amoral, impulsive, and irrational. • Pleasure principle – it pursues what it wants because it cannot tolerate tension.

11. The Id • The id contains: • Basic life energy and life-preserving instincts collectively known as eros. • The psychic energy that accompanies them known as libido. • Basic death instincts known as thanatos.

12. Primary Process • Operates through drives, instincts, and images (e.g. dreaming, hallucinating, and fantasizing) – a process known as primary process. • May bring temporary relief but ultimately unsatisfying.

13. The Ego • The second system to develop after the id and before the superego. • A strong ego is essential to healthy functioning. • Moderates the wishes and desires of the id and superego to keep the person from being too self-indulgent or too morally restrained. • Reality principle – it devises ways to achieve appropriate goals, obtain energy for activities from the id, and keep the person in harmony with the environment.

14. Secondary Process • The ego’s way of thinking is known as the secondary process. • Rationally thinking through situations.

15. The Superego • It is the moral branch of the mind and operates according to what is ideal. • Contrasts with the id. • Functions according to the moral principle – strives for perfection and arises from parental & societal moral teachings.

16. The Superego • Ego Ideal – rewards those who follow parental and societal dictates. • Conscience – part of the superego that punishes by inducing guilt when you act against what you have been taught. • By striving for perfection, the superego sometimes forces a person into restrained or no action when facing a dilemma.

17. Psychosexual Stages of Development • Freud hypothesized that personality developed through a sequence or invariant stages. Most development occurs prior to age 6. • Oral stage • Anal stage • Phallic stage • Latency stage • Genital stage • Stages based on the location of id energy • Appropriate gratification is key to healthy development • Overindulgence or deprivation leads to fixation (id energy gets stuck)

18. Oral Stage • The first stage. • Oral incorporative • Oral aggressive • Children up to 18 months. • Obtain basic gratification from sucking and biting.

19. Anal Stage • The second stage. • Children between the ages of 18 months ang 3 • Delight in either withholding or eliminating feces. • First really significant conflict between the child’s internal instincts and external demands.

20. Phallic Stage • The third stage. • Children between the ages of 3 and 5 attempt to resolve their sexual identities. • Members of both sexes must work through their sexual desires. • Oedipus Complex / Electra Complex • Freud thought that the basic ingredients of the adult personality had formed by the end of this stage.

21. Oedipus Complex / Electra Complex • Oedipus Complex – a boy must work through a desire to possess his mother sexually. • Castration anxiety • Electra Complex – a girl blames her mother for the fact that she has no penis. • Penis envy

22. Latency • Children between the ages of 6 and 12. • Energy is focused on peer activities and personal mastery of cognitive and learning and physical skills. • Little manifest interest in sexuality.

23. Genital Stage • The fourth and final stage. • If all has gone well, around puberty each gender takes more of an interest in the other and normal patterns of interaction appear. • If there were unresolved difficulties in the first three stages (pregenital stages), Freud believed two difficulties could arise: • Excessive frustration • Overindulgence

24. Defense Mechanisms • Protect a person from being overwhelmed by anxiety through adaptation to situations or through distortion or denial of events. • Are normal and operate on an unconscious level. • Fixation at different stages can result in different patterns of usage and emphasis

25. Common Defense Mechanisms • Repression • Projection • Reaction Formation • Displacement • Regression • Rationalization • Denial • Identification

26. Therapeutic Relationship • Working alliance • Rational non-neurotic part • Neutrality is key • Therapist is the expert • Nonjudgmental stance • Little self-disclosure • Transference • Most important aspect • Countertransference

27. Psychoanalytic Therapy CLIENTS EXPERIENCE • Meet several times a week for years • Agree to be active, talk • Commit to interventions • Terminate when problem is resolved • Gain insight into self and environment

28. Process and Techniques • Change Processes • Consciousness raising • Insight • Catharsis – corrective emotional experience • Techniques • Free association • Dream Analysis • Analysis of Transference • Analysis of Resistance • Interpretation • Working through

29. Goals • Help clients become more aware of the unconscious aspects of their personalities. • Make the unconscious conscious • Work through unresolved developmental stages. • Cope with the demands of society. • Engage more maturely in love and work • Increase expression of genital personality

30. Strengths and Contributions • Emphasizes importance of sexuality and unconscious. • Reflects complexity of human nature. • Has developed over years, not stagnated. • Stresses importance of developmental growth stages. Comprehensive personality theory. • Transference/Counter transference • Defense mechanisms • Learning from personal past

31. Limitations and Criticisms • Time consuming and expensive. • Difficulty with older clients. • Claimed almost exclusively by psychiatry. • Overly complicated terminology. • Deterministic. • Requires much therapist training • Therapist in control/charge of session • Not much focus on behavior/cognition

32. Psychoanalytic Therapy MODERN PSYCHOANALYTICALLY ORIENTED THERAPISTS • No couch • Fewer sessions • More self-disclosure by therapist • More work with ‘real’ issues than projected material and dreams