PSYCHOANALYSIS

 SIGMUND FREUD
 Point of Psychoanalysis
-Tucker Max
 To really understand the roots of your behavior

 To understand why you are doing the things you

are doing

 To connect your unconscious to your conscious

Psychoanalysis refers
to..
A. Theory on how the mind works

B. A treatment method
  a number of mental disorders could be cured by
uncovering a patient's unconscious wishes and
fears

 He believed that behavior is influenced by instincts,

fears, and unconscious mental processes not
controlled by rational thought

 Claimed that early childhood bodily experiences,

including sexual ones shape an individual's
behavior in later life
 Psychoanalysts believe that unpleasant
experiences, especially during childhood, may
become buried in the unconscious mind, and
together with inborn tendencies, may cause mental
illness

Psychoanalytic treatment tries to bring these

experiences out of the patient's unconscious mind
and into the conscious mind
Psychoanalytic Treatment
Generally lasts for 2 to 5 years with sessions 3 to 5
times a week

FREE ASSOCIATION analyst attempt to understand the

-patient is instructed to reveal all psychological meaning of the ideas,
thoughts as they occur fantasies, dreams, and behaviors that
are expressed

Dreams- symbolic wish fulfillment which was considered as the

primary key to the unconscious and thus, important: analysis
 The patient is instructed to reveal all thoughts as they
occur. This is called free association. The patient and the
analyst attempt to understand the psychological meaning
of the ideas, fantasies, dreams, and behaviors that are
expressed. During the course of the treatment, patients
often transfer strong feelings they have for other people to
the therapist. This process is called transference.
Transference reveals certain attitudes acquired by
patients in early life that have continued to interfere with
their relationships with other people. By interpreting this
transference, the therapist attempts to help patients
achieve greater maturity and freedom in their
relationships. Today, variations of psychoanalysis that
involve much briefer and less intense treatments are
much more commonly practiced
 Psychoanalytic Theory
claims that...
In all mental functioning, nothing happens by chance
(feelings, fantasies, dreams-have psychological motive

Unconscious mental activity causes such"accidents" (slips of the tongue,

calling a person by the wrong name, forgetting to attend a meeting, etc.

Unconscious is the key to understand personality

"impulses" originate in our unconscious

 3 Parts of the Mind
Id

...unconscious; drives and instincts

...operates on pleasure principle

...it says "I want it now"

...babies are born with an "id" (set of instincts within the

unconscious)

...deepest level of the unconscious

...as they grow they develop the.

 Ego

...mediator

...operates on "reality principle"

...governs areas such as memory, voluntary movement, and

decision-making

...resolves the conflict between id and superego

...says "Maybe I can find a compromise"

 Superego

...operates on "moral principle"

...strives for perfection and not pleasure

...it enables the mind to tell what is right from wrong

...represses the urges of the id

...says "nice people don't do that"

*conflicts between two of the parts may cause emotional problems/ neurosis

Eg. If ID produces strong desires to do things, but the superego insists that
such desires are wrong
 Freud Psychosexual Stages of Dev't

Primary focus is on social/emotion dev't – personality

theory
Past traumatic experiences highly influence personality
dev't

At particular points in the developmental process, he

claimed a single body part is particularly sensitive to
sexual, erotic stimulation
These erogenous zones are the mouth and the anus and
the genital region
 The Oral Stage
From birth to about 18 months
Infants' pleasure comes from stimulation of the mouth. Ife
we get fixated at this stage, we might have oral fixations
like gum chewing, smoking etc.

Characteristics of frustration at this stage, ( mother

refused to nurse on demand or truncated nursing
sessions early) are pessimism, envy, suspicion, and
sarcasm.

The overindulged oral characteristics (nursing urges were

always and often excessively satisfied) are optimistic,
gullibe, and full of admiration for others around him.
 The Anal Stage
18 mos. To 3 years
- the influencing factor at this stage is toilet training
-the infant achieves satisfaction from the witholding or
expelling of feces
-much of the child's activity is anal-centered during this
stage
-if the child is potty trained properly: anal fixation
characerized by excessive neatness, excessive
punctuality, stinginess, possessiveness
- if parents are too lenient, and the child manages to
derive pleasure and success from an expulsion, the result
is the formation of an anal explusive character. This
character is generally messy, disorganized, reckless,
careless and defiant.
 PHALLIC STAGE (3-5 years)
- greatest source of pleasure: sex organ
"oedipal stage"- unconscious desire for sexual
attachment with the parent of the opposite sex
"electra stage"

-how to weaken the complex?

- if not resolved: personality problems like inability to

function in an adult sexual role
 LATENCY STAGE (5 years to adolescence)
- children turn their attention to the
surrounding world in which they are dominated by
their intellectual and social development
- sexual urgings become dormant and no
dynamic conflict or basic personality changes
occur
 GENITAL STAGE (adolescence and beyond)
- sexual impulses become active again and
the individual focuses on the opposite sex, looks
around for a potential marriage partner, and
prepares for marriage and adult responsibilities
 Defense Mechanism
 When ego cannot manage or resolve the conflict
between the id and superego, the person would
use defense mechanisms to deal with a problem or
to avoid pain

 to protect the conscious mind from aspects of

reality it may find difficult to accept
 Rationalization
 Positioning something into a different light or
offering a different explanation for one's
perceptions or behaviors in the face of a changing
reality

 The ego replaces less acceptable motive or

impulse with a more acceptable one
 Reaction Formation
 Converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts,
feelings, impulses into their opposites

 Eg. A man experiencing feelings of love towards a

married woman may experience feelings of dislike
towards her (opposite of the original feelings)
 Acting Out
 Performing an extreme behavior in order to express
thoughts or feelings the person feels incapable of
otherwise expressing

 Eg. A person might act out by theatrically storming

out of a stressful meeting when they would
otherwise stay calm and hide their unease
 Displacement
 Negative feelings or thoughts are displaced or
directed to a safer target
 Regression
 Seeking the security of an earlier developmental
stage

 Eg. Stress of adult life and the associated anxiety

may lead to a person seeking comfort in things
which they associate with more secure and happier
times
 Compensation
 Process of psychologically counterbalancing
perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in
other arenas
 Repression
 Unconscious forgetting

Minds repress the thoughts at the source of our

anxieties instead of contemplating them
consciously, they are bottled up in the unconscious
mind, emerging in symbolic dreams and
unexplained patterns of behavior
 Using Humor
 Focusing on funny aspects of a painful situation
because one would not like to face the real problem
or the pain involved if one will face the problem
 Using Altruism
 Handling your own pain by helping others

 Eg. Being helpful to a person who we feel might

dislike us or neutralizing an argument with kind
words and positivity
 Dissociation
 A person loses track of time and/or person, and
instead finds another representation of their self in
order to continue in the moment

 Tendency to momentarily lose their connection to

the world around them (another realm)

 Eg. Entering into a state of daydreaming, staring

into space and letting their mind wander
 Denial
 Ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety-provoking
situations, or to avoid dealing with the guild

 It contravenes the reality principle

 Projection
 Misattribution of a person's undesired thoughts,
feelings, or impulses onto another person who does
not have those thoughts, feelings, or impulses

 Eg. A person who is afraidn of crossing a bridge

with a friend might accuse them of having a fear of
heights, thus avoids accepting his own weaknesses
 Wishful Thinking
 Attempt to avoid facing undesirable realities,
disappointment, and sadness