Freud Flashcards
What types of patients did Freud tend to see?
Freud saw patients who were suffering from hysteria
How can material get from the unconscious into the conscious? What obstacles does it face along the way?
Unconscious processes enter into consciousness via memories
The obstacles that it faces are a primary censor and final censor that are used to prevent anxiety-producing memories from entering our awareness
- To enter the conscious level of the mind, these unconscious images must first slip past a primary censor
- Then they elude a final censor that watches the passageway between the preconscious and the conscious
- Once they reach our conscious mind, we no longer recognize them for what they are and instead see them as relatively pleasant, non threatening experiences
Explain the functions and origins of the Id
Serves as the pleasure principle
- It is present at birth and has no contact with reality
- Seeks gratification by satisfying basic needs without regard for what is possible (that is, the demands of the ego) or what is proper (that is, the restraints of the superego)
- It is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and primitive behaviors
Explain the functions and origins of the Ego
Serves as the reality principle
- It grows out of the id during infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the external world.
- As a result, the ego becomes the decision-making branch of personality
- Functions as the mediator between the ID and superego by considering the Id’s need for self-gratification and the Superego’s strict adherence towards morality.
- To reduce anxiety, the Ego uses defense mechanisms to protect itself
Explain the functions and origins of the Superego
Serves as the moralistic and idealistic principles
- Develops around age 5 or 6
- Has two subsystems, the conscience and the ego-ideal
- Conscience : results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we should not do
- Ego-ideal : develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we should do
-It is concerned with striving unrealistically toward perfection
- It acts to control sexual and aggressive impulses through the process of repression which the superego orders the ego to produce
What are the two drives or instincts that Freud thought formed the basis of personality?
All motivation can be traced to sexual and aggressive drives
- Childhood behaviors related to sex and aggression are often punished, which leads to either repression or anxiety
Where does anxiety come from according to Freud? What are the three types of anxiety and how do they differ?
Anxiety comes from the ego when it is unable to mediate the conflict between the id and superego
3 Types of Anxiety
1. Neurotic Anxiety
2. Moral Anxiety
3. Realistic Anxiety
Neurotic Anxiety
Is the apprehension about an unknown danger
- The feeling itself exists in the ego, but it originates from id impulses.
- People may experience neurotic anxiety in the presence of an authority figure because they previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against one or both of their parents
- During childhood, these feelings of hostility are often accompanied by fear of punishment which turn in into unconscious neurotic anxiety
Moral Anxiety
Stems from the conflict between the ego and the superego
- After children establish a superego, they may experience moral anxiety due to the conflict between the realistic needs of their ego and the desires of their superego.
Realistic Anxiety
Consists of unpleasant feelings when one is in danger
- Closely related to fear but it differs in that it does not involve a specific fearful object
Freud’s Psychosexual stages - Oral (1)
From birth- 1 years old
The mouth is the primary erogenous zone
- Pleasure derived from sucking and especially their mother’s nipples
- Infants can develop anxiety due to a lack of constant feedings and eventual weening
Freud’s Psychosexual stages - Anal (2)
From 1-3 years old
- Early anal stage : infants behave aggressively toward their parents which is their reaction to underging toilet training
- Late anal stage : infants receive self gratification from defecation and will show their parents to be rewarded
- If rejected they will choose to obtain anal pleasure by withholding defecation until the pressure becomes both painful and erotically stimulating
Freud’s Psychosexual stages - Phallic (3)
From 3-4 years old
- Genitals are the primary erogenous zone and there is a focus on receiving pleasure
- Children develop an interest in exploring theirs and playmates
Male Phallic Phase
- Boys undergo the oedipus complex by having a sexual desire for their mother and being hostile towards their father
- Develop castration complex in the form of castration anxiety (fear that their penis will be cut off) which shatters the Oedipus complex
- Boys learn to identify with the father
- Strong superego replaces the nearly completely dissolved Oedipus complex
Female Phallic Phase
- Girls develop the castration complex in the form of penis envy
- They develop the oedipus complex as an attempt to obtain a penis; results in having a sexual desire for their father and being hostile towards their mother
- Gradually realizes that their Oedipal desires are self-defeating and they will not be given a penis
- Girls learn to identify with the mother
- Weak superego replaces the partially dissolved Oedipus complex
Freud’s Psychosexual stages - Latency (4)
From age 5 through puberty
Described as a period of sublimation of the sex instinct which makes the sex instinct dormant
- This stage is brought about partly by parents’ attempts to punish/discourage sexual activity in their young children
- If parental suppression is successful, children will repress their sexual drive and direct their psychic energy toward nonsexual activities
Freud’s Psychosexual stages - Genital (5)
From adolescence to adulthood
The development of sex role identity and adult social relationships
- Adolescents begin to direct their sexual energy toward another person instead of toward themselves
- Reproduction becomes possible via sexual activity
The vagina finally obtains the same status that the penis had during infancy
- Boys now see the female organ as a sought-after object rather than a source of trauma
What are the goals of psychoanalysis/Freudian therapy? What is transference? Resistance?
Early therapy technique :
- Goal → remove repressed childhood memories
- Consisted of patients revealing confessions of childhood seduction that may not have been real
Later therapy technique :
- Goal → bring to the conscious memories using free association and dream analysis
- Free association : patients are required to verbalize every thought that comes to their mind
- The purpose is to start with a present conscious idea and expand it through association to reach the unconscious
What is transference? Resistance?
Consists of strong sexual or aggressive feelings, positive or negative, that patients develop toward their analyst during the course of treatment
- Positive transference : patient allows themselves to relive childhood experiences within the non threatening climate of their; they respect and love their therapist
- Negative transference : patient is hostile to their therapist and refuses to be helped
- They must overcome their resistance in order to create positive transference
What were Freud’s views on dreams? How does manifest content differ from latent content?
Freud viewed dreams as wish fulfillments that start in the unconscious and make their way into the conscious
Used dream analysis to transform the manifest content of dreams to the more important latent content.
- The manifest content of a dream is the surface meaning or the conscious description given by the dreamer
- While the latent content refers to its unconscious material
Describe and give examples of defense mechanisms
Rep. RF. D. Fix. Reg. P. I. S.
Defense mechanisms protect the ego against anxiety and to to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive implosives
The principal defense mechanisms identified include repression, reaction formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection, and sublimation
Repression
Occurs when one forces anxiety-ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety
- Example : A young girl is bitten by a dog and as a result later develops a severe phobia of dogs but has no memory of when or how this fear originated. She has repressed the painful memory of that fearful experience with the dog; as a result, she is unaware of exactly where her fear came from.
Reaction formation
Occurs when the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites
- Example : A young woman who deeply resents may feel anxious that she is not meeting the social demand of being affectionate towards her mother. To deal with her anxiety, she chooses to focus on the opposite impulse of love and not hate. As a result, she will display her affection towards her mother in an exaggerated way
Displacement
Occcurs when people redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so that the original impulse is concealed
- Example : a woman who is angry at her roommate may displace her anger onto her pet cat. She remains friendly to her roommate, but does not exaggerate her friendliness.
Fixation
Occurs when a person continues to engage in pleasure-seeking behaviors that stem from an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.
- Example : People who continually derive pleasure from eating, smoking, or talking may have an oral fixation
Regression
An individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage
- Example : A completely weaned child may regress to demanding a bottle when their baby sister is born; this is because the attention that is given to the new baby poses a threat to the older child.
Projection
Occurs when people disguise their own unwanted impulses by attributing them to others
- As a result a person may see in others unacceptable feelings that actually reside in their own unconscious
- Example : A cheating wife suspects that their husband is being unfaithful. Rather than acknowledging their own infidelity, the wife is projecting this behavior onto her husband.
Introjection
Occurs when a person incorporates positive qualities of another person into their own ego as a means to feel better about themselves.
- Example : an adolescent chooses to introject or adopt the mannerisms, values, or lifestyle of a movie star; this gives them to an inflated sense of self-worth and reduces feelings of inferiority
Sublimation
Occurs when unacceptable energies are directed into socially approved activities
- Example : A man with anger issues may channel their aggressive urges into sports instead of lashing out at others.
What are some strengths of Freud’s theory?
Some of the strengths of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory are that it recognizes :
- The impact that the unconscious can have on human behavior
- The importance of psychodynamic therapy
- How an adult’s childhood trauma can impact their mental health
