Psychoanalytic

Theory
Ciara Alafriz Abella-Estayo
 KEY CONCEPTS
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

 Behavior is determined by
irrational forces, unconscious
motivation and biological and
instinctual drives as these evolve
through key psychosexual stages
in the first 6 years of life.
 Life instincts: serve the
purpose of the survival of the
individual and the human race
that oriented toward growth,
development and creativity,
which included all pleasurable
acts.
  Death instincts:
• account for the
aggressive drive
and manifest
though their
behavior an
unconscious wish
to die or to hurt
themselves or
others.
LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE

A. Unconscious
 The unconscious includes drives and instincts that are beyond
awareness but that motivate most human behaviors

B. Preconscious
 The preconscious contains images that are not in awareness but
that can become conscious either quite easily or with some
level of difficulty.
C. Conscious
 Thoughts, feelings, and urges that we are aware of or can easily
bring into awareness.
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

ID EGO SUPEREGO
PLEASURE REALITY MORAL

INBORN EXECUTIVE LEARN FROM

PARENTS &
SOCIETY

UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS
ID
 the primary source of psychic
energy and the seat of the
instincts.
 Ruled by pleasure principle
 Aimed at reducing tension,
avoiding pain and gaining
pleasure
 Largely unconscious or out of
awareness.
THE EGO
(TRAFFIC

COP)
The “executive” that
governs, controls and
regulates the personality.
 Mediates between the
instincts and the surrounding
environment
 Ruled by reality principle
 Does realistic and logical
thinking and formulates plans
of action for satisfying needs.
 Check and control the blind
impulse of the id.
SUPEREGO

 person’s moral code

 Serve as the judicial
branch of personality
 Represent ideal
rather than reality
 Strive for perfection
but not pleasure
 ANXIETY

1. Reality anxiety is the fear of danger

from the external world, and the level
of such anxiety is proportionate to
the degree of real threat.
2. Neurotic anxiety is the fear that the
instincts will get out of hand and
cause one to do something for which
one will be punished.
3. Moral anxiety is the fear of one’s own
conscience.
 Neurotic and moral anxiety are
evoked by threats to the “balance of
power” within the person.
EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISMS

 Help to cope with anxiety and prevent the

ego from being overwhelmed

 characteristics: deny or distort reality

 Operate in unconscious level to reduce

anxiety and lower tension
1. Repression

 Selective exclusion of
painful experiences of the
past from conscious
awareness
 Freud: “ an involuntary
removal of something from
consciousness”
 Most of the painful events
of the first 5 years of the
life are so excluded, yet
influencing later behavior
2. Denial
 Distortion of reality by
pretending that
undesirable or
unacceptable events are
not really happening
 “Closing one’s eyes”
3. Reaction formation

 To actively express the opposite impulse

 Do not have to face the anxiety by doing so
4. Projection
 self-deception consists of attributing to
others one’s own unacceptable desires
and impulse
 5. Displacement

 Rechanneling of
energy from one
object to
another,
especially from
a threatening
object to a
“safer target
6. Rationalization

 Making good (logical)

reasons to explain away a
bruised ego
 Help softening the blow
connected with
disappointments
7. Sublimation

 Diverting sexual
or aggressive
energy into
socially
acceptable
channels
8. Regression
 The retreat to an earlier stage of development
because of fear
9. Introjection
 Taking in and “swallowing” the values and
standards of others
10. Avoidance:
Refusing to deal with or encounter unpleasant
objects or situations
11. Compensation
 Masking perceived weaknesses or developing
certain positive traits to make up for
limitations
12. Undoing: 
Trying to make up for what one feels are
inappropriate thoughts, feelings, or behaviors 
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
1. Oral stage(0-1)

• Mouth and lips are sensitive erogenous zones,

sucking produces erotic pleasure for the infant
• Lacking of enough food may lead to greediness
and acquisitiveness
• Fear of reaching out to others, rejection of
affection
• Fear of love and trusting, low self-esteem and
isolation
2. Anal stage(1-3)
 Children find pleasure both in withholding
and in expelling feces
 These pleasures come into conflict with
parents who are attempting toilet training
 The child’s first experience with imposed
control
 Anal-aggressive personality
 Anal-retentive personality
3. Phallic stage(3-6)

 Children begin to derive pleasure from fondling

their genitals
 They observe the differences between male and
female
 Begin to direct their sex impulses toward their
parent
 Oedipal complex
 Castration anxiety: boy fears his father will
retaliate by castrating him
 Electra complex
4. Latency stage(6-12)

 New interests replace infantile sexual

impulses
 Socialization take place, major structure of
personality are formed
 Sexual drive is sublimated to some extent to
activities in school, hobbies, sports, and
friendship with members of the same sex
5. Genital stage (12-60+)

 Adolescents develop interest in the

opposite sex
 Engage in some sexual experimentation
 move out of adolescents and into mature
adult responsibilities
 CONCLUSION

 Freud believed that most of our behavior is

determined by past events rather than molded by
present goals.
 According to Freud, we come into the world in a basic
state of conflict, with life and death forces operating
on us from opposing sides. The innate death wish
drives us incessantly toward self-destruction or
aggression, while the sexual drive causes us to seek
blindly after pleasure.
CONCLUSION

• Present behavior is mostly shaped by past

causes rather than by people’s goals for the
future
• Psychoanalytic theory obviously leans
heavily in the direction
of unconscious motivation.
• Freud believed that many infantile fantasies
and anxieties are rooted in biology
 THE END
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