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