Introduction

Originally he was more a neurologist than a psychiatrist, but at that time psychiatry was organically oriented. In
1885, Freud went to study in France with the great Charcot and was introduced to the enigmatic phenomena of
suggestion, hypnosis, and hysteria. Back in Vienna, and together with Breuer, he embarked on the study of these
phenomena, a study that bears witness to the empirical method employed by both of them.

Freud was consistently a realist who believed in transcendent truth, that is, the dependence of truth upon
experience.

Postulates

EMPIRICISM

Freud started by observing phenomena of overt human behavior in a clinical setting. He developed far-reaching
hypotheses that had to be verified by observation. Whenever his clinical observations did not corroborate his
hypotheses or his hypotheses failed to interpret the empirical data, he changed his hypotheses accordingly.

Eg: dream is a somatic or mental phenomenon?

THEORY CONSTRUCTION

Psychanalysis as a S-R theory

Life history of patient= stimulus / IV

Symptoms= response

Prediction of R through S by psychoanalyst

Freud did not believe that psychology could be presented as a series of mathematical equations (like physics or
chemistry). Just as scientific laws are estd in inferences, psychology does the same through the use of perceptual
apparatus to understand the breaks in the series of conscious mental events.

Causation

 Freud accepted a most rigorous determinism that says, "no causes without effects, no effects without
causes," and this is the most general research principle of psychoanalysis.
 This strict determinism helped Freud in the study of the most irrational areas of dreaming and symptom
formation in neuroses.

REDUCTIONISM

 All mental activities and everything that psychology deals with are discharges of mental energy analogous to,
or some derivative of physicochemical energy.
 Organic foundations of mental life. Eg: id is inherited, present at birth
 Mental processes utilise energy
 Supporter of monism= combines both physical & mental processes
 But some concepts could not be reduced to physics or chemistry
 Therefore need fresh hypotheses & fresh concepts
 Not just describe individual psychic processes but also general laws

Mental Energy

 Relates mental processes to physiochemical processes

 one energy in nature and that all the observable types of energy are variations or transformations of that
basic energy, be it electrical or any other.

 Energy is not perishable; it can be accumulated, preserved, discharged, dissipated, blocked but not
annihilated
  psychic energy is a transformation of somatic energy

Constancy principle & repetition compulsion

 Any organism is capable of responding or reacting to inner and outer stimuli.

 This capability of reaction to stimuli, or irritability, is a general feature of living, organic matter.

 When an organism is stimulated, a tension or disequilibrium takes place.

 state of equilibrium = Nirvana

 Stimulation disequilibrium  restore equilibrium by discharging energy

 Mental apparatus tries to keep the quantity of excitation as low as possible or, at least, to keep it constant,
and as if the increasing excitation were jeopardizing the existence of the organism.

 This tendency to restore equilibrium, or homeostasis, is called by Freud the principle of constancy.

INSTINCTS

 express the conservative nature of the living substance.

 is a compulsion inherent in organic life to restore an earlier stage of things which the living entity has been
obliged to abandon under the pressure of external disturbing forces.

 Equilibrium is pleasurable

 Trauma imbalance relive unpleasant experience emotionally so as to resolve it = repetition-compulsion

 instinctual forces are bound to produce continuous repetitions of a disturbance until the balance is restored.

 Sleep is escape from overstimulation

 death= perfect rest?? death instinct

Principle of economy

 Energy is nonperishable.

 Once some amount of energy is put into something, the latter becomes loaded or charged with mental
energy as bodies become charged with electricity.

 charging ideas or objects with mental energy=cathexis

 Could be wish, fantasy, person, goal, idea, social group, or the self.

 eg; image of food is charged with energy when one is hungry but cant eat

 When strong instinctual drives urge immediate discharge of energy, a great amount of energy is needed to
prevent it.

 Individuals who have strong inner conflicts cannot be very efficient because too much of their energy is
being tied up, and they can feel very tired even if they do not do anything.

Pleasure & relief

 pleasure principle follows the principle of constancy

 Mental apparatus strives to keep the quantity of excitation low

 Any stimulus that increases the stimulation is felt as unpleasurable

 Unpleasure corresponds to an increase in the quantity of excitation and pleasure to a diminution

 Eg: hunger, noise= unpleasure= tension

 Discharge of tension relief= pleasure/ gratification of instinctual demands

 In case of sexual drives, expectation of relief = pleasure; build tension through foreplay which is pleasure
(sexual drives= a tension experienced as pleasure)