Freud Flashcards
Eros
The desire for an enduring union with a loved one.
- describes the life instinct, which encompasses the drives associated with survival, reproduction, and the creation of life. Eros is linked to creativity, love, and pleasure.
Thanatos
represents the death instinct, this drive is associated with aggression, destruction, and a desire to return to an inorganic state. It can manifest in self-destructive behaviors, aggression towards others, and a general tendency towards conflict and chaos.
aggression
One of two primary instincts or drives that motivate people. Aggression is the outward manifestation of the death instinct.
anal character
Freudian term for a person who is characterized by compulsive neatness, stubbornness, and miserliness.
anal phase
Sometimes called the anal-sadistic phase, this second stage of the infantile period is characterized by a child’s attempts to gain pleasure from the excretory function and by such related behaviors as destroying or losing objects, stubbornness, neatness, and miserliness. Corresponds roughly to the second year of life.
anal triad
The three traits of compulsive neatness, stubbornness, and miserliness that characterize the anal character.
castration complex
Condition that accompanies the Oedipus complex, but takes different forms in the two sexes. In boys, it takes the form of castration anxiety, or fear of having one’s penis removed, and is responsible for shattering the Oedipus complex. In girls, it takes the form of penis envy, or the desire to have a penis, and it precedes and instigates the Oedipus complex.
catharsis
The process of removing or lessening psychological disorders by talking about one’s problems.
ego
The province of the mind that refers to the “I” or those experiences that are owned (not necessarily consciously) by the person. As the only region of the mind in contact with the real world, the ego is said to serve the reality principle.
erogenous zones
organs of the body that are especially sensitive to the reception of pleasure. In Freudian theory, the three principal erogenous zones are the mouth, anus, and genitals.
fixation
A defense mechanism that arises when psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development, thus making change or psychological growth difficult.
free association
Technique which the therapist instructs the patient to verbalize every thought that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant or repugnant it may appear.
Freudian slips
Slips of the tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect hearing, temporary forgetting of names and intentions, and the misplacing of objects, all of which are caused by unconscious wishes. Also called parapraxes.
hysteria
A mental disorder marked by the conversion of repressed psychical elements into somatic symptoms such as impotency, paralysis, or blindness, when no physiological bases for these symptoms exist.
id
The region of personality that is alien to the ego because it includes experiences that have never been owned by the person. The id is the home base for all the instincts, and its sole function is to seek pleasure regardless of consequences.
idealistic principle
A reference to the ego-ideal, a subsystem of the superego that tells people what they should do.
instinct
From the German Trieb, meaning drive or impulse; refers to an internal stimulus that impels action or thought. The two primary instincts are sex and aggression.
introjection
A defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their ego.
latent dream content
The underlying, unconscious meaning of a dream. Freud held that the latent content, which can be revealed only through dream interpretation, was more important than the surface or manifest content.
libido
Psychic energy of the life instinct; sexual drive or energy.
life instinct
One of two primary drives or impulses; the life instinct is also called Eros or sex.
manifest dream content
The surface or conscious level of a dream. Freud believed that the manifest level of a dream has no deep psychological significance and that the unconscious or latent level holds the key to the dream’s true meaning.
maturity
The final psychosexual stage following infancy, latency, and the genital period. Hypothetically, maturity would be characterized by a strong ego in control of the id and the superego and by an ever-expanding realm of consciousness.
moral anxiety
Anxiety that results from the ego’s conflict with the superego.
moralistic principle
Reference to the conscience, a subsystem of the supergo that tells people what they should not do.
neurotic anxiety
An apprehension about an unknown danger facing the ego but originating from id impulses.
Oedipus complex
the situation in which the child of either sex develops feelings of love and/or hostility for the parent. In the simple male Oedipus complex, the boy has incestuous feelings of love for the mother and hostility toward the father. The simple female Oedipus complex exists when the girl feels hostility for the mother and sexual love for the father.
parapraxes
Freudian slips such as slips of the tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect hearing, temporary forgetting of names and intentions, and the misplacing of objects, all of which are caused by unconscious wishes.
phylogenetic endowment
Unconscious inherited images that have been passed down to us through many generations of repetition.
pleasure principle
A reference to the motivation of the id to seek immediate reduction of tension through the gratification of instinctual drives.
preconscious (Freud)
Mental elements that are currently not in awareness, but that can become conscious with varying degrees of difficulty.
primary narcissism
An infant’s investment of libido in its own ego; self-love or autoerotic behavior of the infant
primary process
A reference to the id, which houses the primary motivators of behavior, called instincts.
realistic anxiety
An unpleasant, nonspecific feeling resulting from the ego’s relationship with the external world.
reality principle
A reference to the ego, which must realistically arbitrate the conflicting demands of the id, the superego, and the external world.
repetition compulsion
The tendency of an instinct, especially the death instinct, to repeat or recreate an earlier condition, particularly one that was frightening or anxiety arousing.
secondary narcissism
Self-love or autoerotic behavior in an adolescent. (See narcissism)
secondary process
A reference to the ego, which chronologically is the second region of the mind (after the id or primary process). Secondary process thinking is in contact with reality.
superego
The moral or ethical processes of personality. The superego has two subsystems—the conscience, which tells us what is wrong, and the ego-ideal, which tells us what is right.
unconscious
All those mental elements of which a person is unaware. Two levels of the unconscious are the unconscious proper and the preconscious. Unconscious ideas can become conscious only through great resistance and difficulty.
