Chapter 2 - Freud Flashcards
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality and system of therapy for treating mental disorders
Instincts
In Freud’s system, mental representations of internal stimuli, such as hunger, that drive a person to take certain actions
- form of energy that connects needs and wishes of the mind
- homeostatic approach - people are motivated to restore and maintain psychological equilibrium (a peace within themselves)
Life instincts
The drive for ensuring survival of the individual and the species by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex.
(Involves libido and cathexis)
Libido
To Freud, the form of psychic energy, manifested by the life instincts, that drives a person toward pleasurable behaviour and thoughts.
Also understood to be our sexual drive and can be attached to an object or person
Cathexis
Investment of psychic energy (sexual drive) in an object or person
Death instincts
The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression
Involves the aggressive drive - the compulsion to destroy, conquer, and kill
“The goal of all of life is to die” - but our life instincts balances this desire out
Structures of the personality
Id
Ego
Superego
Id
To Freud, the aspect of the personality allied with the instincts; the source of psychic energy, the id operates according to the pleasure principle
Pleasure principle
Functions to avoid pain and maximize pleasure
Primary-process thought
Childlike thinking by which the is attempts to satisfy instinctual drive
Ego
To Freud, the rational aspect of the personality, responsible for directing and controlling the instincts according to the reality principle
Weighs out consequences and benefits
Wrestled between Id and superego (goes between unconscious, subconscious, and conscious)
Reality principle
The principle by which the ego functions to provide appropriate constraints on the expression of the is instincts (stands in opposition to the pleasure principle)
Secondary-process thought
Mature thought processes needed to deal rationally with the external world
Superego
To Freud, the moral aspect of personality; the internalization of parental and societal values and standards
Conscience
A component of the superego that contains behaviours for which the child has been punished
Ego-ideal
A component of the superego that contains the moral and ideal behaviours for which a person should strive (awareness of inability to attain this, though seek to in order to achieve pride and reward)
Anxiety
To Freud, a feeling of fear without an obvious cause
Reality anxiety
Fear of tangible dangers
Neurotic anxiety
Involves conflict between Id and ego (unconscious fear of being punished for impulsively displaying id-dominated behaviour
Moral anxiety
Involves conflict between Id and super ego (fear of conscience - motivated to express an instinctual impulse that is contrary to your moral code, your super ego retaliates by causing you to feel shame or guilt)
Purpose of anxiety
- signals problem - ego is threatened
- induces tension - drive that individual must satisfy
Defence mechanisms
Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflict of every day life - involve denials or distortions of reality
Example: repression, denial, reaction formation, projection, regression, rationalization, displacement, sublimation
Repression
A defence mechanism that involves the unconscious denial of the existence of something that causes anxiety
Denial
Involves denying the existence of an external threat or traumatic event
Reaction formation
Involves expressing an Id impulse that is the opposite of the one truly driving the person
Projection
Involves attributing a disturbing impulse to someone else
Regression
Involves retreating to an earlier, less frustrating period of life and displaying the childish and dependent behaviours characteristic of the more secure time.
Rationalization
Involves reinterpreting behaviour to make more acceptable and less threatening
Displacement
Involves shifting Id impulses from a threatening or unavailable object to a substitute object that is available
Sublimation
Involves altering or displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual energy into socially acceptable behaviours (compromise) - expressing oneself through art
Psychosexual stages of development.
To Freud, the oral, anal, phallic, and genital stages through which all children lass. In these stages, gratification of the id instincts depends on the stimulation of corresponding areas of the body.
Each stage has erogenous zone - must resolve conflict to move to next stage
Fixation
Portion of the libido remains invested in one of the stages - caused due to excessive frustration or gratification
Oral stage
Age: birth - 1 Characteristics - mouth is erogenous zone - pleasure derived from suckling - Id is dominant - involves taking in (oral incorporation), or spitting out (oral aggression)
Oral fixation
Oral incorporation: taking things in - pleasurable activities like nursing and eating.
- those fixated here may be passive or gullible
Oral aggressive: excessive pessimism and aggressively
- those fixated here may be aggressive and have foul language
Anal stage
Age: 1-3 Characteristics: - anus is primary erogenous zone - toilet training (external reality) interferes with gratification received from defecation (conflict emerges here!) - involves letting go or holding back
Phallic stage
Age: 4-5
Characteristic:
- genitals are primary erogenous zone - desire to explore and manipulate their genitals
- superego development - parents say touching genitals and exploring other is not appropriate and child begins to understand those values
Oedipus Complex
During the phallic stage (4-5), the unconscious desire of a boy for his mother, accompanied by a desire to replace or destroy his father.
Castration anxiety
Belief that his father will cut off his penis as a punishment for being too aggressive towards his father as result of jealousy
Electra complex
During phallic stage (ages 4-5) the unconscious Infatuated and longing for what the father has - may he upset with mother for her state
Penis envy
Belief that she has somehow lost her penis and feelings of jealousy toward male.
Latency period
Age: 5- puberty Characteristics: - not a true stage - period of rest - Id is repressed, not gone - but energy is utilized for different tasks - sex instinct sublimated into school activities, hobbies, and sports - focus on same sex relationships
Genital stage
Age: adolescence - adulthood
Characteristics:
- focus of sexual longing no longer in mother/father, but rather, a peer of the opposite sex
- homosexual behaviour would have been seen as a result of fixation on earlier stage
- confirming to societal sanctions of sexual expression
- finding satisfaction in love and work
- focus committed adult relationships-begin to think about what will be helpful to others and their welfare
Freud’s view of human nature
Deterministic
- ultimate goal was to reduce tension
- universality in human nature
- personality is determined by childhood experience
- contended that psychoanalysis can create free will
Free association
A technique in which the patient says whatever comes to mind. In other words, it is a kind of daydreaming out loud
Catharsis
Expression of emotion expected to reduce symptoms (a releasing of negative emotions)
Resistance
In free association, a blockage or refusal to disclose painful memories
Dream analysis
Manifest content: actual dream events
Latent content: hidden and symbolic meaning
Subliminal perception
Perception below the threshold or conscious awareness
Case study
A detailed history of an individual that contains data from the variety of sources
