Ch 2: Freud: Psychoanalysis

Question 1

Psychoanalysis

Answer 1

a set of theories and therapeutic techniques related to the study of the unconscious mind
-Freud and Breuer wrote Studies on Hysteria in 1895 in this Freud introduced psychical-analysis, which he began calling psychoanalysis

Question 2

What was one of Freud’s attempt to become famous?

Answer 2

tests on cocaine, colleague took credit

-male hysteria (already known)

Question 3

What makes Freud’s theory so interesting?

Answer 3

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis has endured because it (1) postulated the primacy of sex and aggression—two universally popular themes, (2) attracted a group of followers who were dedicated to spreading psychoanalytic doctrine, and (3) advanced the notion of unconscious motives, which permit varying explanations for the same observations.( brilliant command of language enabling him to present his theories in stimulating manner)

Question 4

What methods did Freud’s theory follow?

Answer 4

-theory followed observation
-relied on deductive reasoning instead of rigorous research methods
-observations subject and on small sample (most upper-middle or upper class)
-did not quantify data or have controlled conditions
-used case study methods, typically formulating hypotheses after the facts of the case were known
(not in line with current science)

Question 5

Biography of Sigmund Freud

Answer 5

Born in the Czech Republic in 1856, Sigmund Freud spent most of his life in Vienna. Freud oldest of children and favourite of young indulgent Mother (was not close with 7 other siblings but was close with Mom). When Freud 1.5 brother born and Freud filled with hostility and unconscious wish for death, brother died, left with feelings of guilt (when older understood that wish did not actually cause death, purged Freud of guilt, contributed to later psychic development).

Early in his professional career, Freud believed that hysteria was a result of being seduced during childhood by a sexually mature person, often a parent or other relative. In 1897, however, Freud abandoned his seduction theory and replaced it with his notion of the Oedipus complex, a concept that remained the center of his psychoanalytic theory. Near the end of his life and to escape Nazi rule (WWI hard for Freud, poor, practice dwindled, 33 operations cancer of the mouth, important revisions to theory), Freud moved to London where he died in 1939.
(p 20-25 for more detailed info, next few slides include some)

Question 6

Hysteria

Answer 6

• a disorder typically characterized by paralysis or the improper functioning of certain parts of the body
• 1885 Freud got grant to study with neurologist Jean-Matin Charcot where he learnt hypnotic technique for treating hysteria
• through hypnosis Freud became convinced of a psychogenic and sexual origin of hysterical symptoms
• Freud’s notion was that childhood sexual experiences were source of adult hysteria (seduction theory, later abandoned in 1897)

Question 7

Catharsis

Answer 7

• process of removing hysterical symptoms through “talking them out”
• taught to Freud by Josef Breuer
• while using catharsis Freud discovered free association technique (which soon replaced hypnosis as his principle therapeutic technique.

Question 8

Why did Freud abandon seduction theory?

Answer 8

• seduction theory had not enabled him to treat even a single patient
• a great number of fathers, including his own would have to be accused of sexual perversion
• believed unconscious mind could not distinguish reality from fiction (this later was evolved into Oedipus complex)
• unconscious memories of advanced psychotic patient’s almost never revealed early childhood sexual experiences

Question 9

neurosis

Answer 9

-a somewhat dated term signifying mild personality disorders as opposed to more severe psychotic reaction eg anxiety, hysteria, phobias, obsessive compulsive, depression , hypochondria reactions

Question 10

Freud midlife

Answer 10

• professional isolation, personal crises
• after death of father, analyze own dreams and self daily
• middle aged and no yet achieved fame
• psychoneurosis
• “creative illness”: condition characterized by depression, neurosis, psychosomatic ailment and intense preoccupation with creative activity
• Freud suffering from self doubts, depression and obsession with own death
• difficulties with lots of former friends (I should have a intimate friend and hated enemy egs p 20-25)
• completed greatest work Interpretation of Dreams 1899 during this period (eventually gained fame and recognition with time)

Question 11

obsession

Answer 11

a persistent or recurrent idea, usually involving urge to some action

Question 12

Levels of Mental Life

Answer 12

• conscious

- unconscious (2 levels: unconscious proper and preconscious)

Question 13

Unconscious

long, give lots of info

Answer 13

• The unconscious includes drives, urges and instincts that are beyond awareness but that motivate most human behaviours (words, feelings, actions).
• Freud believed that unconscious drives can become conscious only in disguised or distorted form (transformation), such as dream images, slips of the tongue, or neurotic symptoms. (enough to elude censorship (primary and final censor), by time memories enter conscious mind they are seen as pleasant and non-threatening experiences)
• > in most case images have strong sexual or aggressive motifs because childhood sexual and aggressive behaviours are frequently suppressed or punished, which can often create feelings of anxiety, anxiety in turn stimulates repression
• Unconscious processes originate from two sources: (1) repression, or the blocking out of anxiety-filled experiences and (2) phylogenetic endowment, or inherited experiences that lie beyond an individual’s personal experience.
• unconscious of one person can communicate with the unconscious of another without either person being aware for process eg teasing, sexual/aggressive urges
• forces in unconscious constantly strive to become conscious, may succeed but not in original form (unconscious ideas can motivate), disguise must successfully deceive person, often takes opposite form from original feeling but overblown and ostentatious (reaction formation)

Question 14

suppression vs repression

Answer 14

• suppression: the blocking or inhibiting of an activity either by a conscious act of the will or by an outside agent such as parents/authority figures.
• it differs from repression: unconscious blocking of anxiety-producing experiences
• > force of anxiety ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defence against the pain of anxiety

Question 15

Phylogenetic endowment

Answer 15

• inherited unconscious images

- Freud relied on notion of inherited dispositions as a last resort

Question 16

Presonscious

Answer 16

• The preconscious contains images that are not in awareness but that can become conscious either quite easily or with some level of difficulty
• the contents of the preconscious come from two sources:
  1) conscious perception: what a person perceives is conscious for only a transitory period; it quickly passes into the preconscious when focus of attention shifts to another idea, these alternate easily between the two levels and largely free from anxiety and are much more similar to conscious images than unconscious
  2) second source is the unconscious, Freud believed that ideas can slip past the vigilant censor and enter the preconscious into a disguised form (some images never become conscious because increase anxiety and activate final censor to repress anxiety-loaded images, some do gain admission to conscious because true nature in disguised)

Question 17

Conscious

Answer 17

Consciousness plays a relatively minor role in Freudian theory. Conscious ideas stem from either the perception of external stimuli (our perceptual conscious system) or from the unconscious and preconscious after they have evaded censorship.

Question 18

Provinces of the Mind

-What are they and what level of mental life are they?

Answer 18

Freud conceptualized three regions of the mind—the id (unconscious), the ego (conscious, preconscious and unconscious), and the superego (preconscious and unconscious).

Question 19

Id

• definition
• facts
• example

Answer 19

• most primitive part of the mind
• “the it” or the not-yet-owner component of personality
• id serves the pleasure principle
• The id, which is completely unconscious, serves the pleasure principle and contains our basic instincts. It operates through the primary process.
• id is primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, unchangeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized and filled with energy received from basic drives and discharged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle
• because id blindly seeks to satisfy the pleasure principle, its survival is dependent on the development of a secondary process to bring it in contact with the external world (functions through the ego)

eg infant is personification of id (just has id), so has gratification of needs without regard for what is possible (ego) or what is proper (super ego) eg sucking nipple or thumb

Question 20

pleasure principle

Answer 20

sole function is to seek pleasure

Question 21

1. primary process

2. secondary process

Answer 21

1. a reference to the id, region that houses basic drives (primary motivators of behaviour, called instincts)
2. a reference to the ego, which is chronologically the second region of the mind (after the id or primary process). Secondary process thinking is in contact with reality

Question 22

The Ego

• definition
• infants and children

Answer 22

• “I”
• only region in contact with reality
• The ego, or secondary process, is governed by the reality principle and is responsible for reconciling the unrealistic demands of the id and the superego.
• > surrounded by divergent and hostile forces ego becomes anxious and uses repression and other defence mechanisms to defend against anxiety
• decision making and executive branch of personality (can make decisions at each of 3 mental levels)
• grows out of id during infancy and becomes person’s sole source of communication with external world, ego becomes differentiated from id when infants learn to distinguish themselves from outer world, ego continues to develop strategies for handling id’s demands for pleasure (ego can control id but sometimes loses control)
• > as children begin to experience parental rewards and punishments learn how to gain pleasure and avoid pain (at young age pleasure and pain functions of ego because have not yet developed a conscience and ego-ideal aka superego)

Question 23

The reality principle

Answer 23

a reference to the ego, which must realistically arbitrate the conflicting demands of the id, the superego and he external world

Question 24

The Superego

• definition
• characteristics

Answer 24

• “above-I”
• represents moral and ideal aspects of personality
• grows out of ego and no energy of own, no contact with outside world and therefore is unrealistic in its demands for perfections
• The superego, which serves the moralistic and idealistic principle
• has two subsystems—the conscience and the ego-ideal.
  1) The conscience results from experience and punishment for improper behaviour (tells what we should not do)
  2) the ego-ideal stems from rewards for socially acceptable behaviour (tells use what we should do)
• well-developed superego acts to control sexual and aggressive impulses through the process of repression (orders ego to do so, can’t do repression by self)
• superego watches closely over ego, judging actions and intentions (guilt=result of when ego acts contrary to moral standards of superego (function of conscience))
• superego completely ignorant and unconcerned with practicability of its requirements

Question 25

1. Moralistic principle

2. Idealistic Principle

Answer 25

1. Reference to the conscience, a subsystem of the superego that tells people what they should not do
2. a reference to the ego-ideal, a subsystem of the superego that tells people what they should do

Question 26

the relationship among id, ego and superego in 3 hypothetical persons

Answer 26

• development of 3 regions different between individuals
• healthy individual is ego dominated, smooth functioning ego integrated with id and superego, minimal conflict
• person with a big id (dominated by id) may be a pleasure seeking
• person dominated by superego may be guilt-ridden or inferior feeling person

Question 27

Dynamics of Personality

-Freud’s principle

Answer 27

• Dynamics of personality refers to those forces that motivate people.
• levels of mental life and provinces of the mind refer to the structure or composition of personality but personalities also do something
• Freud postulated dynamic/motivation principle to explain driving forces behind people’s actions
• > people motivated to seek pleasure and reduce tension and anxiety
• > motivation derived from psychical and physical energy that springs from basis drives

Question 28

Drives

Answer 28

• operates as a constant motivational force, internal stimulus
• two types of drives: sex (or eros or life instinct) and aggression (distraction or Thanatos or death/distruction instinct)
• originate in id, but come under control of ego
• each drive has its own form of psychic energy eg sex drive=libido
• every basic drive is characterized by an impetus (amount of force it exerts), source (region of body in state of excitation or tension), aim (seek pleasure by removing/reducing that excitation or tension) and an object (person or thing that serves as the means through which the aim is satisfied)
• both sex and aggression must bow to the reality principle , prevent a direct, covert and unopposed fulfillment of either sex or aggressions, this frequently creates anxiety which relegates many sexual and aggressive desires to the realm of the the unconscious

Question 29

Sex

Answer 29

-The aim of the sexual instinct is pleasure, which can be gained through the erogenous zones (capable of producing sexual pleasure), especially the mouth, anus, and genitals.
->the ultimate aim (reduction of sexual tension) cannot by changed but path that aim can reached varies (active/passive, temporarily/permanently inhibited)
Freud believed all pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual drive
-flexibility of sexual object or person can bring further disguise of Eros
-sex can take form of: narcissism, love, sadism and masochism (later two also related to aggressive drive)
-The object of the sexual instinct is any person or thing that brings sexual pleasure.

Question 30

1. Primary narcissism

2. Secondary narcissism

Answer 30

1. infants primarily self centred with their libido invested almost exclusively on their own ego (universal)
   - as ego develops children give up much of primary narcissism and develop interest in other people
   - Freud: narcissistic libido transformed into object libido
2. during puberty often redirect libido back to the ego and become preoccupied with personal and self interests
   - the secondary narcissism of adolescence and adulthood is not universal.
   - a moderate degree of self love common

Question 31

Love

Answer 31

• develops when people invest libido on an object or person
• children’s 1st sexual interest is person who cares for them (generally mother)
• overt sexual love for members of one’s family is ordinarily repressed
• second kind of love aim-inhibited (original aim of reducing sexual tension is inhibited or repressed)
• > love and narcissism intertwined

Question 32

Sadism

Answer 32

• need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person
• > becomes perverted when sexual aim of erotic pleasure becomes secondary to destructive aim
• > moderate sadism a common need and exists to some extent in all sexual relationships

Question 33

Masochism

Answer 33

• is common need but becomes perversion when Eros becomes subservient the destructive drive
• experience sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted either by themselves or others
• do not depend on another person for satisfaction of masochistic needs unlike sadism

Question 34

Aggression

reaction formations

Answer 34

• aim is to return the organism to an inorganic state and self destruction
• drive can be flexible and take many forms: teasing, gossip, sarcasm, humiliation, humour and enjoyment of other people’s suffering
• aggressive tendency, present in everyone, explanation for wars, atrocities and religious persecution
• drive also explains need for the barriers that people have erected to check aggression
• reaction formations: involve repression of strong hostile impulses and the overt and obvious expression of the opposite tendency

Question 35

Anxiety

Answer 35

• felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger
• only ego can produce anxiety but id; superego and the external world are involved in one of three kinds of anxiety: neurotic, moral and realistic.
• often types exist in combination, anxiety serves as ego-preserving machanism
• anxiety self regulating because precipitates repression (reduces pain of anxiety).

Question 36

Neurotic anxiety

Answer 36

• Neurotic anxiety stems from the ego’s relation with the id (feeling itself in ego but originates from id impulses)
• apprehension about an unknown danger
• eg presence of authority figure experience neurotic anxiety because previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction towards parents (feelings often accompanied by fear of punishment, fear then generalized into unconscious neurotic anxiety)

Question 37

Moral Anxiety

Answer 37

• stems from the conflict between ego and super ego
• moral anxiety is similar to guilt
• after a child establishes superego (5 or 6) they may experience anxiety as an outgrowth of the conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of super ego
• eg anxiety result from sexual temptation if child believes that yielding to temptation would be morally wrong
• > may also result from failure to behave consistently with what is regarded as morally right eg failing to care for aging parents

Question 38

Realistic Anxiety

Answer 38

• closely related to fear, unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving possible danger eg traffic (fast) in new city
• different from fear does not involve specific fearful object
• produced by the ego’s relation with the real world.

Question 39

Defence Mechanisms

• define
• name types

Answer 39

• 1926 first elaborated idea of defence mechanisms (daughter Anna further refined and organized)
• Defense mechanisms operate to protect the ego against the pain of anxiety.
• defence mechanisms universal and normal, when extreme lead to compulsive, repetitive and neurotic behaviour
• > use psychic energy to establish and maintain
• > more defensive are, less psychic energy left to satisfy id impulses (egos purpose in establishing defence mechanisms is to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive implosives and defend self against anxiety
• Freud: repression, reaction formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection and sublimation

Question 40

Repression

Answer 40

• Repression involves forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded experiences into the unconscious. It is the most basic of all defense mechanisms because it is an active process in each of the others.
• when ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses it protects itself by repressing those impulses (forces threatening feeling into the unconscious)
• impulses can remain unconscious or can force way into conscious in an unaltered form (in which case would create more anxiety than the person could handle) or expressed in displaced or disguised forms (disguise must be clever enough to deceive ego)
• > repressed drives may be disguised as physical symptoms
• repressed drives may also find outlet in dreams, slips of tongue or one of there defensive mechanisms.

Question 41

Reaction Formation

Answer 41

• A reaction formation is marked by the repression of one impulse and the ostentatious expression of its exact opposite.
• aka repressed impulse becomes conscious through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form
• reactive behaviour identified by exaggerated character and obsessive/compulsive form
• > eg daughter hating Mom avoid anxiety concentrates on opposite impulse “love” (not genuine)
• limited to single object

Question 42

Displacement

Answer 42

• Displacement takes place when people redirect their unwanted urges onto other objects or people in order to disguise or conceal the original impulse.
• eg mad roommate displaces it on cat, employees or object, friendly to roommate but does not exaggerate or overdo friendliness (unlike reaction formation)
• can be involved in dreams eg dog hit, parent (unconscious)

Question 43

Fixation

Answer 43

• Fixations develop when psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development, making psychological change difficult. Some adults may remain fixated on the anal stage of psychosexual development.
• when the prospect of taking the next step (psychical growth) becomes too anxiety provoking the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining at the present (more comfortable) psychological stage
• technically fixation s the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier more primitive stage of development
• universal
• eg people pleasure eating, smoking, talking
• > may have oral fixation

Question 44

Regression

Answer 44

• Regressions occur whenever a person reverts to earlier, more infantile modes of behavior. Some adults may return to the oral stage as a means of reducing anxiety.
• aka once the libido has passed a developmental stage, it may during times of stress and anxiety revert back to the earlier stage
• > eg sibling born regress to wanting bottle or nipple
• quite common and visible in children, also common/frequent in older children and adults
• > eg common way for adults to react to anxiety-producing situations is to revert to earlier/safer patterns of behaviour and invest their libido onto more primitive and fimilar objects
• similar to fixated behaviour as rigid and infantile, regressions usually temporary, fixations demand more or less permanent expenditure of psychic energy

Question 45

Projection

-paranoia definition

Answer 45

• -when internal impulse provokes too much anxiety, the ego may reduce that anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object
• Projection is seeing in others those unacceptable feelings or behaviours that actually reside in one’s own unconscious.
• > eg young man interpreting older women seductions but really unconscious attraction
• When carried to extreme, projection can become paranoia, which is characterized by delusions of persecution.

paranoia: extreme type of projection, mental disorder characterized by powerful delusions of jealousy and persecution
- >Freud: paranoia characterized by repressed homosexual feelings towards persecutor
- >persecutor is former friend of same sex, although people may transfer their delusions onto person of opposite sex
- >central mechanism in all paranoia is projection with accompanying delusions of jealousy and persecution

Question 46

Introjection

Answer 46

• Introjections take place when people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego to reduce feelings of inferiority.
• people introject characteristics they see as valuable and will permit them to feel better about themselves
• Freud saw resolution of Oedipus Complex as prototype of introjection
• > young child introjects values of parents, beginning of superego, as advances through latency period of development (6-12) superego becomes more personalized

Question 47

Sublimation

Answer 47

• both individual and social group
• repression of genital aim of eros by substituting a cultural or social aim
• Sublimations involve the elevation of the sexual instinct’s aim to a higher level, which permits people to make contributions to society and culture
• expressed most obviously in creative cultural accomplishments (music, art, literature) but more subtly part of all human relations and social pursuits
• in most people sublimation combine with direct expression of Eros and results in a balance between social accomplishments and personal pleasures
• .

Question 48

Stages of Development

Answer 48

Freud saw psychosexual development as proceeding from birth to maturity through four overlapping stages: infantile stage, latency, genital stage and maturity.

Question 49

Infantile Stage

Answer 49

• The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5 years of life (most crucial for personality formation)
• Freud’s assumption is that infants possess a sexual life and go through a period of pregenital sexual development
• childhood sexuality differs from adult sexuality in that it is not capable of reproduction and is exclusively autoerotic
• divided into three subphases according to which of the 3 primary erogenous zones is undergoing the most salient development: oral, anal, and phallic.

Question 50

Oral Phase

Answer 50

• During the oral phase, an infant is primarily motivated to receive pleasure through the mouth.
• get life sustaining nourishment but also pleasure
• sexual aim of early oral activity is to incorporate into one’s body the object-choice that is the nipple
• during oral-receptive phase infants feel no ambivalence towards the pleasure object and needs usually satisfied
• as older more anxiety and frustration as result scheduled feeding, weaning etc.
• > anxieties accompanied by feelings of ambivalence towards their love object (mother) and by the increased ability of their budding ego to defend itself against enviro and anxiety
• infants defence against enviro is aided by emergence of teeth
• > second oral phase=oral sadistic period: respond through biting, cooing, smiling, crying etc
• > 1st autoerotic experience is thumb sucking (a defence against anxiety that satisfies their sexual but not their nutritional needs)
• mouth continues to be engenous zone as adults capable of gratifying needs in variety of ways: sucking candy, biting pencil, overeating, smoking etc.

Question 51

Anal Phase

• anal character
• anal triad

Answer 51

• During the 2nd year of life, a child goes through an anal phase.
• Period characterized by satisfaction gained through aggressive behaviours and excretory function (sadistic-anal phase)
• early anal period: satisfaction destroying or losing objects (sadistic drive stronger than erotic, behave aggressively towards parents (toilet training))
• late anal period: erotic pleasure of defecating, friendly interest in feces, present feces as prize
• if behaviour (prize of feces) is accepted and praised by parents, children likely to grow into generous and magnanimous adults
• If parents are too punitive during the anal phase, the child may adopt an anal triad, consisting of orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy.
• > child adopt another way of obtaining pleasure (withholding feces until pressure becomes painful and erotically stimulates, mode of narcissistic and masochistic pleasure lays foundation for anal character: people who continue to receive erotic satisfaction by keeping and poccessing objects by arranging them in an excessively neat fashion)
• Freud believed that for girls anal eroticism is carried over into penis envy during phallic stage and eventually expressed by giving birth to a baby

*during first few stages no distinction between female and male psychosexual growth (active or passive, boys or girls can be either or combo)

Question 52

Phallic Phase

Answer 52

• 3 or 4 years of age, genital area becomes lead erogenous zone
• 1st time dichotomy between males and female development Freud believed to be due to anatomical differences between sexes “anatomy is destiny”
• During the phallic phase, boys and girls begin to have differing psychosexual development.
• masturbation, originates during oral stage, enters second more crucial phase
• > nearly universal in phallic phase but parent’s generally supress activities, children repress their conscious desire to masturbate by the time their phallic period comes to an end
• > suppression of maturation shapes foundation of psychosexual development however their experience with the Oedius complex plays even more crucial role in personality development
• At this time, boys and girls experience the Oedipus complex in which they have sexual feelings for one parent and hostile feelings for the other.

Question 53

Male Oedius Complex

-castration complex

Answer 53

• Freud believed preceding phallic stage infant boy form an identification with his father, later develops sexual desire for his mother (underdeveloped ego lets both exist side by side for a time), then boy realizes their inconsistency gives up identification with his father and retains stronger feelings for mother, now sees father as rival for Mother’s love
• complete oedipus complex: ambivalent condition =, complicated by bisexual nature of child (male may have feminine nature so affection towards father and hostility towards Mother but masculine opposite), affection and hostility coexist because one or both feelings may be unconscious
• Freud believed these feelings of ambivalence in a boy play a role in evolution of castration complex
• the male castration complex, which takes the form of castration anxiety (fear of losing penis), breaks up the male Oedipus complex and results in a well-formed male superego
• > boy becomes aware of absence of penis on girl (believe girl had penis removed for masturbation or because seduced Mother)
• > castration anxiety causes boy to repress impulses towards sexual activity
• > castration anxiety bursts forth when boys ego is mature enough to comprehend connection between sexual desires and removal of penis
• > castration anxiety present in all boys any mention of injury or shrinkage is sufficient to activate child’s phylogenetic endowment: capable of filling the gaps of our individual experiences of our ancestors
• once boys oedius complex is dissolved or repressed boy surrenders his incestuous desires, changes them into feelings of tender love and begins to develop a primitive superego
• may identify with either father or mother (normally father) no longer wants to be father but uses as model for determining right or wrong behaviour, introjects fathers authority into his own ego, sowing seeds of a mature super ego

Question 54

Female Oedipus Complex

-penis envy

Answer 54

• pre-oedipal girls assume that other children have genitals similar to their own
• realize boys have different genital, something extra, feel envious, cheated and desire to have penis: penis envy
• > powerful force in formation of girls personality
• > penis envy may last for years in one form or another
• > often expressed as wish to be a boy or man, universally it is carried over as wish to have a baby, may find expression in act of giving birth to a baby (especially a boy)
• preceding the castration complex girl establishes identification with mother, fantasizes being seduced by mother, incestuous feelings later turned into hostility when girl holds mom responsible for bringing her into the world without a penis, libido then turned towards father (can satisfy wish for penis by giving her a baby (an object that as become a substitute for the phallus))
• simple female Oedipus complex: desire for sexual intercourse with father and hostility towards Mother
• not all girls transfer sexual interest towards father and hostility towards mother, when Oedipal girls acknowledge their castration and recognized inferiority to boys they will rebel in one of 3 ways:
  1) may giver up sexuality and develop intense hostility towards Mother
  2) may cling defiantly to their masculinity hoping for penis and fantasizing being a man
  3) they may develop normally, may take father as sexual choice and undergo simple oedipus complex
• *For girls, however, the castration complex takes the form of penis envy, precedes the female Oedipus complex, leads to a gradual and incomplete shattering of the female Oedipus complex and results it a weaker and more flexible female superego. *
• > -the simple oedipus complex is resolved when a girl gives up masturbation activity, surrenders sexual desire for father and identifies once again with Mother
• > superego built from relies of shattered Oedipus complex

Question 55

Latency Period

-possible explainations

Answer 55

• Freud believed that psychosexual development goes through a latency stage—from about age 5 years until puberty—in which the sexual instinct is partially suppressed.
• period of dormant psychosexual development-brought about partly by parents attempts to perish or discourage sexual activity; if parental suppression is successful child will repress their sexual drive and direct psychic energy towards school, hobbies, friends etc.
• Freud suggested this hypothesis as one possible explanation for latency period: the prohibition of sexual activity is part of our phylogenetic endowment and needs no personal experiences of punishment to repress sexual drive (pointed out unsupported by anthropologists)
• latency reinforced through constant suppression by parents, teachers and internal feelings of shame, guilt and morality
• sexual drive aim inhibited, sublimated libido shows itself in social and cultural accomplishments
• children form groups and cliques during this time

Question 56

Genital Period

-differences from phallic period

Answer 56

• The genital period begins with puberty when adolescents experience a reawakening of the genital aim of Eros. The term “genital period” should not be confused with “phallic period.”
• > adolescents give up autoeroticism and direct sexual energy towards another person instead of towards themselves; reproduction new possibility; although penis envy may continue to linger in girls, vagina finally obtains same status for them that penis had for them during infancy, boys now see the female organ as sought after object rather than source of trauma; and the entire sexual drive takes a more complete organization and the component drives that had operated somewhat independently during early infantile period synthesized during adolescence (mouth, anus etc take an auxiliary position to the genitals, now the supremacy erogenous zone)
• in other ways Eros remains unchanged: continues to be repressed, sublimated or expressed in masturbation and other sexual acts.
• the subordinated erogenous zones also continue as vehicles of erotic pleasure

Question 57

Maturity

Answer 57

• Freud hinted at a stage of psychological maturity in which the ego would be in control of the id and superego and in which consciousness would play a more important role in behavior.
• > same time allowing for reasonable desires and demands
• maturity seldom happens because people have too many opportunities to develop pathological disorders and neurotic predispositions
• psychologically mature people would come through the experiences of childhood and adolescence in control of their psychic energy and ego functioning at centre of consciousness

Question 58

Applications of Psychoanalytic’s Theory

Answer 58

• Freud spent much of him time conducting therapy to gain insight into human personality necessary to expound psychoanalytic theory
• Freud erected his theory on the dreams, free associations, slips of the tongue, and neurotic symptoms of his patients during therapy. But he also gathered information from history, literature, and works of art.

Question 59

Freud’s Early Therapeutic Technique

Answer 59

• -use active approach: extracting repressed childhood memories eg hand on head, see something or something come into head
• highly suggestive procedure, yielded precise results needed (confession of child seduction)
• used dream interpretation and hypnosis; told patients to expect scenes of childhood sexual experiences would come forth
• pressure technique: recognized scenes of seduction had never taken place (make up or forced upon them) concluded that neurotic symptoms not related to actual events but phantasies (Oedipus complex)
• realized highly suggestive, coercive tactics may have elicited memories of seduction (gradually adopted more passive psychotherapeutic technique)
• aka During the 1890s, Freud used an aggressive therapeutic technique in which he strongly suggested to patients that they had been sexually seduced as children. He later dropped this technique and abandoned his belief that most patients had been seduced during childhood.

Question 60

Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique

• free association
• transference
• negative transference
• resistance

Answer 60

• > (transforming unconscious into conscious and purpose of psychoanalysis is to strengthen ego, more independent of superego so it can appropriate fresh portions of id)
• Beginning in the late 1890s, Freud adopted a much more passive type of psychotherapy, one that relied heavily on free association, dream interpretation, and transference.
• The goal of Freud’s later psychotherapy was to uncover repressed memories, and the therapist uses dream analysis and free association to do so.
• With free association patients are required to say whatever comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant or distasteful. (the purpose is to arrive at the unconscious by starting with a conscious idea and follow it through a train of associations wherever it leads)
• in order for analytic treatment to be successful, libido must be freed to work at service of the ego (2 phases: 1) all libido forced from symptoms into the transference and concentrated there, 2) the struggle is waged around this new object and libido is liberated from it)
• Successful therapy rests on the patient’s transference of childhood sexual or aggressive feelings onto the therapist and away from symptom formation. (patients feel towards analyst same way felt towards one or both parents)
• > positive transference: permits patients to more or less relive childhood experiences within the nonthreatening climate of analytic treatment (powerful ally to therapeutic process)
• > negative transference: in the form of hostility must be recognized by the therapist and explained to patients they can overcome any resistance
• Patients’ resistance to change is seen as progress because it indicates that therapy has advanced beyond superficial conversation.
• > resistance: unconscious responses used by patients to block their own progress

Question 61

Limitations to Psychoanalytic Treatment

Answer 61

1) Not all old memories can or should be brought into consciousness
2) treatment is not as effective with psychoses or with constitutional illnesses as it is with phobias, hysteria and obsessions
3) patient once cured may later develop another psychic problem
- ideally when analytic treatment is successful, patients no longer suffer from debilitating symptoms, use psychic energy to perform ego functions and have an expanded ego that includes previously repressed experiences

Question 62

Dream Analysis

• interpreting dreams (content)
• what are dreams? exception to rule?
• how are dreams formed?
• how did Freud interpret dreams

Answer 62

• In interpreting dreams, Freud differentiated the manifest content (conscious description) from the latent content (the unconscious meaning).
• Nearly all dreams are wish-fulfillments, although the wish is usually unconscious and can be known only through dream interpretation.
• > exception to rule that dreams are wish fulfillments are found in patients suffering from traumatic experience (frequently found in people with post-traumatic stress disorder), people follow repetition compulsion (repeatedly dream of frightening or traumatic experiences)
• Freud believed that dreams are formed in the unconscious but try to work their way into the conscious, to do so this must slip past both the primary and final censor; even during sleep unconscious psychic material must adopt a disguise form: condensation (unconscious material has been abbreviated or condensed before appearing on manifest level) or displacement (dream image is replaced by some other idea only remotely related to it) (both take place through use of symbols eg phallus symbolized by elongated objects)
• dreams can also deceive the dream by inhibiting or reversing the dreamers affect (eg women unconscious hates mother dream manifest level leads believe hate is love and joy is sorrow)
• To interpret dreams Freud used both dream symbols and the dreamer’s associations to the dream content.
• > symbols: used dream symbols to discover unconscious elements underlying manifest content
• > associations: ask patients to relate their dream and all their associations to it no matter how unrelated or illogical these associations seemed, Freud believed association revealed unconscious wish behind dream

Question 63

Anxiety Dreams

-3 typical dreams (origin and wish fulfillment)

Answer 63

• anxiety in dreams=preconscious
• wish=unconscious
• 3 typical anxiety dreams: dream of nakedness, dreams death of loved one, dreams failing an exam
  1. dream of nakedness: shame or embarrassed, strangers indifferent
• origin of dream is early childhood experience of being naked in presence of adults, disapproval by adults
• wish fulfillment: indifferent spectator fulfills infantile wish that adults refrain from scolding, second fact of nakedness fulfills wish to exhibit oneself
  2. dreams of death of beloved person
• origin: in childhood
• death of younger person unconscious may be expressing wish for destruction of younger sibling who was a hated rival during infantile period
• older person death, fulfilling Oedipal wish for a death of a parent
• > if dreamer feels anxiety and sorrow during dream because affect has been reversed
  3. Failing exam in school
• dreamer dreams of failing exam that has already been . successfully passed, never one that was failed
• usually occur when dreamer is anticipating a difficult task
• ego can reason already passed test was worried about, wish to be free from worry over a difficult task is fulfilled

Question 64

Freudian Slips

Answer 64

• Freud believed that parapraxes (faulty function)—now called Freudian slips—are not chance accidents but reveal a person’s true but unconscious intentions.
• slips of tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect hearing, misplacing objects etc.
• unconscious slips similar from dreams as they are both product of both unconscious and preconscious, with the unconscious intention being dominant, interferring with and replacing the preconscious one
• the fact people deny meaning behind parapraxes seen by Freud as evidence that slip had relevance to the unconscious that must remain hidden from the conscious

Question 65

Related Research

Answer 65

Although Freudian theory has generated much related research, it rates low on falsifiability because most research findings can be explained by other theories. In recent years, however, many researchers have investigated hypotheses inspired by psychoanalytic theory. This research includes such topics as (1) unconscious mental processing, (2) pleasure and the id: inhibition and the ego, (3) the defense mechanisms, and (4) dreams.
(pg 55-56)

Question 66

Related research: Unconscious mental processing

Answer 66

• In recent years, neuroscience has been investigating the brain during a variety of cognitive and emotional task, and much of this work relates to Freud’s notion of unconscious motivation.
• For example, one pair of reviewers (Bargh & Chartrand, 1990) concluded that 95% of human behaviors are unconsciously determined, and that Freud’s metaphor of the iceberg was probably accurate.
• In addition Mark Solms (2000, 2004; Solms & Turnbull, 2002) argued that many Freudian concepts are consistent with modern neuroscience research. These include unconscious motivation, repression, and the pleasure principle.
• 2 different forms for consciousness: core consciousness (not being aware or awake, brain stem and ascending activating system) and extended consciousness (state of being aware; prefrontal cortex)
• cognitive psychology major them is nonconscious mental processing (implicit, nonconscious or automatic thought and memory), mental processes neither in awareness nor intentional control, comes close to Freuds unconscious defintion (of course Freuds more dynamic, repressive and inhibiting

Question 67

Related research: Pleasure and the Id/inhibiting the Ego

Answer 67

• Some research (Solms, 2001; Solms & Turnbull, 2002) has established that the pleasure-seeking drives have their neurological origins in two brain structures, namely the brain stem and the limbic system
• 2 important neurotransmitters in ids perpetual pleasure seeking: dopamine (seeking or wanting tendencies) and opioid system (pleasure we experience when id is satisfied).
• > Panksepp says seeking is master motivator, confirming Freud’s notion of the id’s primeval force, driving us to keep seeking after small dose of pleasure
• Freud changed theory in 1923, ego structure mostly unconscious, function to inhibit drives, connection between frontal-limbic system and impulse regulation (if damaged see increase in id-based pleasure seeking impulses) eg Phineas Gage
• > if ego could no longer inhibit basic drives become very id-driven
• solms: frontal lobe injured patient’s them is inability to stay “reality bound” (ego) and their propensity to interpret events much more through “wishes” (id) provides support of Freud’s ideas concerning pleasure principle of id and reality principle of ego

Question 68

Related research: Repression, Inhibition and Defence Mechanisms

Answer 68

• Solms (2004) reported cases from the neuropsychological literature demonstrating repression of information when damage occurs to the right-hemisphere and if this damaged region becomes artificially stimulated the repression goes away; that is, awareness returns.
• > patient’s frequently rationalize unwelcome facts by fabricating stories aka employ Freudian wish fulfilling defence mechanisms
• Howard Shevrin: found people with repressive personality styles actually require longer periods of stimulation for a brief stimulus to be consciously perceived (1st step in demonstrating how repression might operate to keep things out of conscious awareness)

Question 69

Related Research: Research on Dreams

Answer 69

• Research by Wegner and colleagues (Wegner, Wenzlaff, & Kozak, 2004) tested Freud’s hypothesis that wishes repressed during the day will find their way into dreams during the night. Results showed that people dreamed more about their repressed targets than their non-repressed ones; that is, they were more likely to dream about people they spend some time thinking about (targets rather than non-targets), a finding quite consistent with Freud’s hypothesis.
• Boas: basal ganglia and amygdala may be key brain structures responsible for dreams including the conversion of latent content into manifest content

Question 70

Critique of Freud
Was Freud a scientist?
Did Freud understand women, gender and sexuality?

Answer 70

Freud regarded himself as a scientist, but many critics consider his methods to be outdated, unscientific, and permeated with gender bias. On the six criteria of a useful theory, psychoanalysis we rate its ability to generate research as high, its openness to falsification as very low, and its ability to organize data as average. We also rate psychoanalysis as average on its ability to guide action and to be parsimonious. Because it lacks operational definitions, we rate it low on internal consistency. Not a simple or parsimonious theory

• critique that Freud did not understand women, gender and sexuality
• > product of times, parental raising of him, never thought to ask women their experiences, believed women inhabit “dark continent” of humanity, gender normative/heterosexual (judith Butler critique p. 62-63)

Question 71

Freud: Concept of humanity

Answer 71

Freud’s concept of humanity was deterministic and pessimistic. He emphasized causality over teleology, unconscious determinants over conscious processes, and biology over culture, but he took a middle position on the dimension of uniqueness versus similarity of people.