Classical Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud (1859-1939)

 Sigmund Freud
Czechoslovakia (May 6, 1856),
moved to Vienna
Father-strict, developed a close
relationship with his mother
17, medical school-University
of Vienna
Published the “Studies on
Hysteria”
In 1896, his father died (anxiety
tendencies and psychosomatic
problems).
 Sigmund Freud
Self-analysis of Oedipus
Complex and dreams
1900, “Interpretation of
Dreams”
Psychoanalytic society
(1902)
Relationship with Jung and
Adler
Died in 1939
We are in an era of theoretical
pluralism in psychoanalytic theory
today and can no longer speak of
the psychoanalytic theory of
treatment (Wolitzky, 2011b).
Psychodynamic vs Psychoanalysis

• The psychodynamic theory is a psychological theory

Sigmund Freud and his later followers applied to explain
the origins of human behavior.

• The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in

psychology that see human functioning based upon the
interaction of drives and forces within the person,
particularly unconscious, and between the different
structures of the personality.

• Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis was the original

psychodynamic theory, but the psychodynamic approach
as a whole includes all theories that were based on his
ideas, e.g., Carl Jung (1912), Melanie Klein (1921),
Alfred Adler (1927), Anna Freud (1936), and Erik Erikson
(1950).
Psychodynamic vs Psychoanalysis

• The words psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often

confused. Remember that Freud’s theories were
psychoanalytic, whereas the term ‘psychodynamic’
refers to both his theories and those of his followers.

• Freud’s psychoanalysis is both a theory and therapy.

Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Basic Assumptions of Psychodynamic Theory

• Our behavior and feelings are powerfully affected by

unconscious motives

• Our behavior and feelings as adults (including

psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood
experiences

• All behavior has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips

of the tongue. Therefore all behavior is determined

• Personality is made up of three parts (i.e., tripartite): the id,

ego, and super-ego
 Freud’s Psychoanalysis

Classical Psychoanalysis = Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Although deviating from Freud’s CA, neo-Freudian

approaches retain emphasis on the unconscious, the
role of transference and countertransference, and the
importance of early life experiences.
 Human Nature: Behavior
determined by…

Irrational forces
Unconscious
motivations
Drives and instincts
(libido)
 Instincts
Life and Death Continuum

Eros Thanatos

Libido Nirvana
L, “I desire”
 Instincts
Life and Death Continuum

Eros Thanatos

Libido Nirvana
L, “I desire”
 Id – drives or impulses;
Structure of biological component

Ego – between Id and

Personality dangers posed by Id’s
impulses

Superego – internalized
social component;
imagined expectations
 Neurotic Anxiety
Id
Pleasure Principle
Infancy

Anxiety
Ego Superego
Reality Principle Morality Principle
1 year old onwards Completed at 7 years

Realistic Anxiety Moral Anxiety

 Stable Personality

Id Superego

EGO
Restricted Personality, OCD

EGO
Pleasure-seeking Personality,
Histrionic PD, Antisocial PD

EGO
Schizophrenic Personality

Id Superego
Levels of Personality
 Levels of Personality

CONSCIOUS

sensations and experiences of which we are aware at

any given moment
Small portion of our thoughts, sensations and memories
 Levels of Personality

PRECONSCIOUS

Storehouse of memories, perceptions and thoughts

Not consciously aware at the moment but can easily
summon into consciousness
 Levels of Personality

UNCONSCIOUS

Instincts, wishes and desires that directs our behavior

Focus of psychoanalytic theory
Major driving power behind all behaviors
When egocannot control
anxiety through rational and
direct methods, it relies on
indirect ones– Defense
Mechanisms
 Repression
Denial “I can’t remember if I tried to kill myself.
“That did not just happen” I must have blacked out”

Displacement
“Let’s play kick the cat”
Regression
“Where’s my teddy?”

Projection
“I hate you!”
Introjection
“I am you!”
 Reaction Formation
“I’m gonna do otherwise”

Sublimation
“I’m a good boy”

Compensation
Rationalization
“Excuses, excuses, excuses”
The child is the
Father to the
Man.
 Psychosexual stages
Develops from parent-child interactions

Adult personality was firmly shaped by the 5th

year of life

Defined by erogenous zone

Conflict must be resolved to move to the next

stage

Fixation- psychic energy remains invested on

one stage leaving less energy for the next stage
 Oral Stage
0-18 months

Source of pleasure is the mouth and other senses

Consumption is not only eating but taking in every

stimulus in the environment

Sucking, biting and swallowing

Oral incorporative- oral passive personality

Oral aggressive or oral sadistic- oral aggressive

personality
 Anal Stage
18 months to 3/4
Source of pleasure is the anus

Retention of feces and willful defecation

Toilet training- regulate the time and place of

defecation

Anal expulsion- anal aggressive personality

Anal retention- anal retentive personality

OCD and OCPD

 Phallic Stage
3/4 – 6/7

Focus of pleasure: genitals

Exploring and manipulating the genitals

Oedipus complex (boys)

Penis envy (girls)

Development of an individual’s personality

 Phallic Stage
Phallic personality:
A: rejected by mother + harsh father=poor sense of sexuality
Boys: sexually withdrawn; bookworm
macho; ladies’ man
Girls: the wallflower;
hyper-feminine; belle

B: not rejected by the mother + favored over the weak

father= homosexuality
Boys: no need to identify with father
Girl: mother as servant, daddy as buddy
 Latency Stage
6/7 to puberty, somewhere around 12 years old

sexual impulse was suppressed in the service of

learning

Sublimated in school activities, sports and hobbies,

and in developing friendship with the same sex
 Genital Stage
begins at puberty

Can be at least partially satisfied through socially

acceptable substitutes and committed adult
relationship

Genital personality
enjoys a satisfying adult sexuality
Narcissism is overcome
Love others

Psychological maturity
 Freud and Therapy
Relaxed atmosphere: The client must feel free to
express anything. Physically relaxing couch, dim lights,
sound- proof walls, and the stage is set.

Free association. The client may talk about anything at

all. With relaxation, the unconscious conflicts will
inevitably drift to the fore.
 Freud and Therapy
Resistance. When a client tries to change the topic,
draws a complete blank, falls asleep, comes in late, or
skips an appointment altogether, the therapist says
"aha!”

Dream analysis. In sleep, we are somewhat less

resistant to our unconscious and we will allow a few
things, in symbolic form, of course, to come to
awareness. Freudian interpretation is distinct in the
tendency to find sexual meanings.
 Freud and Therapy
Parapraxes: slip of the tongue, often called a Freudian
slip; jokes clients told. Almost everything meant
something almost all the time. Freud himself noted, in
response to a student who asked what his cigar might be
a symbol for, that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Or is
it?

Projective tests: When the stimulus is vague, the client

fills it with his or her own unconscious themes.
 Freud and Therapy
Transference: Client projects feelings toward the
therapist; necessary in therapy in order to bring the
repressed emotions to the surface.

Catharsis: is the sudden and dramatic outpouring of

emotion that occurs when the trauma is resurrected. The
box of tissues on the end table is not there for decoration.

Insight: being aware of the source of the emotion, of the

original traumatic event.
 Freud and Therapy

To make the unconscious

conscious
To strengthen the ego
How many psychoanalysts does it take to
change a light bulb?

1
But the light bulb
must want to be
changed
Current Literature
 LPTs
50 sessions, at least 1 year
Psychoanalysis is always long-term; psychotherapy can
be short-term or long-term.
Similarity: rooted in psychoanalytic theories
Differences:
- psychoanalysis: couch, 3 sessions/week, interpretation
- Psychotherapy: face-to-face, 2 sessions/week,
interpretation and support
 Ultimate goals of LPT:

- Symptom reduction

- Prevention of recurrence

- Better social functioning

- Higher quality of life

- Higher life satisfaction

 Results
Psychotherapy yielded large mean ESs(0.78 at termination; 0.94
at follow-up) and high mean overall successrates (64% at
termination; 55% at follow-up) in moderate/mixed pathology.
The mean ESwaslarger for symptom reduction (1.03) than for
personality change (0.54).

In severepathology, the results were similar.

Psychoanalysis achieved large mean ESs(0.87 at termination;

1.18 at follow-up) and high mean overall successrates (71% at
termination; 54% at follow-up) in moderate pathology. The
mean ESfor symptom reduction waslarger (1.38) than for
personality change (0.76).

Conclusion: Our data suggestthat LPT is effective treatment for

alarge range of pathologies, with moderate to largeeffects.
 Results
The recovery rate of various mental disorders wasequal
after LTPP or various control treatments, including
treatments without aspecialized psychotherapy
component.

Similarly, no statistically significant differences were

found for the domains target problems, general
psychiatric problems, personality pathology, social
functioning, overall effectiveness or quality of life.

Limitation: 11 studies