Psychoanalytic Theory

Question 1

The Big Takeaways of the Mary Fields Story

Answer 1

what is most important in life may be disguised, the possible meanings of anything are discovered most helpfully in relationship, self-awareness is facilitated best when we take life less literally and more seriously, notion that we are in many ways ridden in life and only occasionally are we the riders

Question 2

Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 2

what we can observe directly is merely a hint or symbol of the underlying processes producing it (not always true or accurate), everything we do is products of unconscious processes

Question 3

What is the central organizing concept of psychoanalysis?

Answer 3

the unconscious

Question 4

What are Kunkel’s Five Characterizing Features of Unconscious?

Answer 4

1) what is unconscious is automatic (not governed by time, will, or demands) 2) unconscious things are unavailable or inaccessible 3) unconscious is early or archaic or primitive 4) unconscious is demanding (only knows desire and prohibition, no middle ground) 5) unconscious is relational (early experiences of others participate in the foundations of mind that constitute unconscious)

Question 5

What is consciousness?

Answer 5

mind takes for granted the reality processed by our brains (knowledge, thoughts, beliefs) often defined as the reality of the conscious, naively believe that our consciousness make up the entirety of our brain

Question 6

What is the active state of consciousness?

Answer 6

the operational mind of which we are aware of in our everyday existence

Question 7

According to Freud, the conscious is a…

Answer 7

puppet effectively controlled by the unconscious

Question 8

What is the order/structure of conscious?

Answer 8

conscious, preconscious, and unconscious

Question 9

What is in the conscious level?

Answer 9

thoughts, perceptions

Question 10

What is in the preconscious level?

Answer 10

memories, stored knowledge

Question 11

What is in the unconscious level?

Answer 11

fears, violent motives, immoral urges, selfish needs, unacceptable desires, irrational wishes, shameful experiences

Question 12

Mechanisms of the unconscious

Answer 12

ideas, energy, drives

Question 13

Energies

Answer 13

the mechanism of mind in which the ideas or objects are charges so as to produce thoughts or impulses or behaviors or instincts or wishes

Question 14

Life/Loving Energy

Answer 14

pleasure seeking, sensuality, includes everything that is incorporating, affiliative, nurturant, empathic, compassionate, and generative

Question 15

Death/Aggressive Energy

Answer 15

includes physical and verbal aggression but is also a productive energy, in what we sometimes term as achievement

Question 16

Every charging of energy with an idea is fused

Answer 16

we never just love something without also having aggressive energy associated with it

Question 17

Desire

Answer 17

combination of idea and energies; desire exists in tension with gratification; desire crashes against reality, morality, and other desire; the crashing of desire is called conflict; anxiety (objective, moral, and neurotic) is a symptom of conflict

Question 18

What are Kunkel’s Five S’s of Desire

Answer 18

way desire may be managed or frustrated in relation to reality, morality, or other desire; satisfy, stuff/stifle, settling, sneak, supervision

Question 19

Satisfy

Answer 19

involves gratification; deep primitive gratification of pure pleasure is rare; mostly and unconsciously forgotten the experience but can have reminders of it; experienced mostly as infants

Question 20

Stuff/Stifle

Answer 20

aka repression or the exclusion of desire from awareness/consciousness; very effective but costs the person energy of constantly keeping the door shut

Question 21

Settling

Answer 21

aka compromise formation or managing with a good enough approximation of gratification of desire

Question 22

Sneak

Answer 22

aka freudian slip or something that allows us to gratify desire temporarily and partially by letting it emerge in a disguised form

Question 23

Ego

Answer 23

does not mean arrogant or self absorbed; refers to a set of processes that are mostly not unconscious

Question 24

What are ego mechanisms of defense?

Answer 24

what we do when we supervise desire and conflict

Question 25

Denial and Example

Answer 25

refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant ex) Kaila refuses to admit she has an alcohol problem even though she can not go one day without drinking

Question 26

Displacement and Example

Answer 26

transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto a more acceptable or less threatening target ex) Mark is angry at his brother and takes it out on a waiter at a restaurant

Question 27

Projection and Example

Answer 27

attributing unacceptable desires to others ex) Chris often cheats on her boyfriends because she suspects he is already cheating on her

Question 28

Rationalization and Example

Answer 28

justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable real reasons ex)Kim failed his history course because he did not study but instead told people he failed because the professor did not like him

Question 29

Reaction Formation and Example

Answer 29

reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs ex) Nadia is angry that her co worker is late due to partying the night before, but Nadia says that the partying is ‘cool’ to the co worker

Question 30

Regression and Example

Answer 30

returning to coping strategies for less mature stages of development ex) after failing a major exam, Jeff stays in bed all day cuddling his childhood toy

Question 31

Repression and Example

Answer 31

suppressing painful memories and thoughts ex) Leah can not remember her Father’s fatal heart attack, even though she was present

Question 32

Sublimation and Example

Answer 32

redirecting unaccepting desires through socially acceptable channels ex) Mark’s desire for revenge against a drunk driver that killed his daughter is directed into a support group for victims of drunk drivings

Question 33

What are primitive defense mechanisms?

Answer 33

denial, regression, acting out, disassociation, compartmentalization, projection, reaction formation

Question 34

What are less primitive and more mature defense mechanisms?

Answer 34

repression, displacement, intellectualization, rationalization, undoing

Question 35

What are mature defense mechanisms?

Answer 35

sublimation, self assertion, suppression, compensation, altruism, anticipation, affiliation, self observation

Question 36

Oral Stage

Answer 36

0-2 years old; infant achieves gratification through oral activities such as feeding, thumb sucking and babbling

Question 37

Anal Stage

Answer 37

2-3 years old; the child learns to respond to some of the demands of society (such as bowel and bladder control); overriding lesson- that individual needs must be surrendered to obedience and conformity and others demands

Question 38

Phallic Stage

Answer 38

3-7 years old; the child learns to realize the differences between males and females and becomes aware of sexuality; lessons of power- how manage desire, experience desire, bring desire

Question 39

Latency Stage

Answer 39

7-11 years old; the child continues his or her development but sexual urges are relatively low

Question 40

Genital Stage

Answer 40

11-adult; the growing adolescent shakes off old dependencies and learns to deal maturely with the opposite sex; is about connectedness- dynamic, relational and transcendent

Question 41

Fixation

Answer 41

a name for the inability or unwillingness to move or shift our energies and our objects of desire and our way of managing conflict, from one developmental stage to the next

Question 42

Healthy Personalities

Answer 42

characterized by the ability to regress in ways that are more or less self-aware and maintain ego watchfulness and observation

Question 43

Regression in the Service of Ego

Answer 43

we choose to move our loving and aggressive energies backward, to become less sophisticated or civilized so that we might play or be creative or use imagination