Freud

Question 1

Outline some facts about Freud

Answer 1

Born in Freiburg, Moravia in 1856
Lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria
1st of 8
Studied Medicine, Academic Physiology, Neurology
Studied with Charcot − Hypnosis for nervous system illnesses (esp. Hysteria)
With Breur − The “Talking Cure” …psychoanalysis.
He liked to write: 21 books between 1900-1931
Both parents Jewish so was Driven out of Austria by the Nazis in 1938
• Died in London in 1939.

Question 2

What are the 3 areas of the mind according to Freud?

Answer 2

Conscious- material we are aware of at any given time

Preconscious- currently unconscious thoughts that we could recall quite easy, quite quickly e.g. what we had for breakfast, what time we arrived etc.

Unconscious: memories, urges, fantasies we are unaware of due to their unacceptable nature e.g. aggressive urges.

Question 3

Outline the ways to access the unconcious according to Freud:

Answer 3

Repression links to unconscious- keeps them out of consciousness- protects us and the EGO to stop anxiety from conflict between the ego and superego

Repression could weaken overtime so unconsciousness becomes conscious e.g. through dreams, stress. Mental illness, intoxication. A lot of drugs and alcohol are disinhibitors…

Dreams are “the royal road” to the unconscious
They preserve sleep by representing our wishes as fulfilled

Question 4

What did Freud say was the purpose of dreams?

Answer 4

Dreams are “the royal road” to the unconscious

They preserve sleep by representing our wishes as fulfilled

e. g. desires that are unacceptable
e. g. Worries or stresses that are solved in a dream.

representing these desires through dreams mean our sleep can be better preserved as we’re no longer to solve our problems as it is fixed in the dream.

Dreams difficult to test, also people lie…probably not scientifically valid- how could we test it…

Question 5

What is Latent content?

Answer 5

dreams censor real meanings of unconscious. Dreams are symbolic and require a skilled psychotherapist to analyse these dreams.
e.g. Snakes and knives are penis
Staircase or ladders represent sexual intercourse

Freud used dreams to explore unconscious conflicts; get patients to record dream diaries during sessions Freud wold interpret the manifest content to uncover the latent content of dreams so he could access the unconscious mind.

Question 6

What is manifest content?

Answer 6

how you/I might recall our dreams

Question 7

What are the sources of human motivation acording to Freud?

Answer 7

Freud assumed each child born with fixed amount of mental energy called the Libido, this will, after development, become the basis of adult sexual drives

1) Hunger and pain:
2) sexual drives (libido) humans born with a fixed amount of mental energy- pushes us through life- end goal to reproduce
3) death instinct: humans are self-destructive, wiping oneself out- thought this was the reason of the 1st world war.

Human motivation emerges by our attempts to satisfy these basic instinctual drives.

Question 8

What are the psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 8

Oral, anal, phallic, latent, gential

Question 9

Outline the oral stage of psychosexual development and what issues would occur if fixation was to happen

Answer 9

Oral stage:
Birth to 1 year old
rooting and sucking reflex.
Pleasure and self- gratification acquired by the mouth- satisfaction= sense of trust for the infant.

Fixation: eating disorder, smoking, alcoholism

Question 10

Outline the Anal stage of psychosexual development and what issues would occur if fixation was to happen?

Answer 10

Anal Stage: 18mnths-3 years
Focus or holding or eliminating waste
Toilet training is important here, too early or too late and conflicts can occur causing anal fixation.

Fixation at this stage; stingy, Obsessive complusive (anally retentive) or anally expulsive (disorganised in life)

Question 11

Outline the phallic stage of psychosexual development and why this is an important stage to development. and what problems fixation causes.

Answer 11

Phallic stage: 3-5 years 
Preoccupation around the gential area 
Oedipus,castration anxiety in boys  
Girls: penis envy, Elctra complex, 
-convinced mother castrated them- castration anxiety  
 doesn't fully resolve  
Self-identification with parents 

Fixation: problems maintaining relationships

Question 12

Outline the Latent stage of psychosexual development and why fixation at this stage is a problem.

Answer 12

Latency stage:
5-12 years
Social growth and social activities
Identification with same sex is important
Development of defence mechnaisms
Essential stage for acquiring skills necessary for integrating into society

Fixation at this stage: poor self-confidence, poor self esteem leading to difficulties with social interaction

Question 13

Outline the genital stage of psychosexual development.

Answer 13

Genital stage −
12-18 years. −
Physical, emotional, and sexual development.
Usually stick with same sex groups, until the “need” for interaction with the opposite sex.
Dating and establishing relationships.

Question 14

At what age did freud think the adult personality had formed?

Answer 14

5

Question 15

What did freud think were the 3 eleemtns of the psyche?

Answer 15

Id, Ego and Superego

The three elements interact.

• Conflicts can be observed as symptoms of mental upset or disturbance, also called “intra-psychic conflict”

Question 16

Outline the IDWhat is

Answer 16

ID is completely sumberged into unconcious
Raw, uninhibited, instinctual energy.
− Cravings, survival drives, sexual drives, drive for reproduction, aggression.
− Freud thought that the only the id is present in a baby (the others come later).
− The id is the “naughty child” side of our personality.
-acts on the pleasure principle

Question 17

Outline the Ego:

Answer 17

fluctuate between levels of conciousness
The “executive” part of the personality.
− Acts according to the reality principle and becomes the mediator between the child and the outside world.
Child tries to get what it wants but takes into account the social reality.
The ego is the voice of reason: “Can’t always get what you want”.

Question 18

Outline the superego

Answer 18

Final part to develop.
fluctuates between all 3 stages of conciousness
Consciousness of the child, important for judgements about what is right or wrong.
Internalised parental attitudes and evaluations.

Question 19

What is a defence mechanism?

Answer 19

Conflicting demands of the id, ego, and super-ego create anxiety in the individual at every age.

• Defence mechanisms protect our self-esteem, protect us from pain, and make us feel better.
• Keeps the bad things in our unconscious

Question 20

who came up wit hthe 12 defence mechanisms?

Answer 20

Sigmund Freud describes 11 by 1936, repression, denial, projection, reaction formation, rationalisation, conversion reaction, phobic avoidance, displacement, regression, isolation and undoing.

Anna Freud added a twelfth, sublimation and others have later also been added .

Question 21

What is repression as a defence mechanism

Answer 21

push unacceptable thoughts feelings into unconsciousness

Question 22

What is denial as a defence mechanism

Answer 22

deny unpleasant events of reality of a situation e.g. phantom limb

Question 23

What is Projection as a defence mechansism

Answer 23

blaming others for your own shortcomings.

Question 24

what is reaction formation as a defence mechanism?

Answer 24

overcome impulses that are unacceptable to us; gaining mastery of initial impulse by exaggerating opposing tendencies e.g. impulse to be messy overcome by being very clean.

Question 25

What is rationalisation as a defence mechanism?

Answer 25

reasons for a course of action are given after an event has happened

Question 26

what is conversion reaction as a defence mechanism?

Answer 26

unacceptable thoughts or emotions converted into physical symptoms as in hysterical symptoms e.g. Anna O psychological distress into paralysis of arm

Question 27

what is phobic avoidance as adefence mechanism?

Answer 27

avoid unpleasant emotions at all costs to the point it is out of proportion

Question 28

what is displacement as adefence mechanism?

Answer 28

can’t express feelings directly onto the person so will vent feelings onto someone else.

Question 29

What is regression as a defence mechanism?

Answer 29

avoid anxiety by returning to an earlier, similar time in our life e.g. older child might bed wet again after new sibling born- regressed to time before toilet training before felt anxiety about competing for attention

Question 30

what is isolation as a defence mechanism?

Answer 30

anxiety of an event dealt with by recalling event without emotion associated with it – feelings normally associated with the event are denied or separated such individuals come across as unemotional

Question 31

What is undoing as a defence mechnaism?

Answer 31

frequently accompanying isolation, ritualistic behaviours adopted that negate the thoughts and actions someone had earlier

Question 32

What is sublimation as a defence mechanism?

Answer 32

Anna Freud added this- causes partial expression of unconscious drives in a modified socially acceptable, even desirable way Instinctual drives diverted from original aim e.g. individuals who protect society from porn may actually watch it so they can protest decisions made about official censors. Art and music are often cited as examples of successful sublimation of instinctual drives. Anna Freud saw healthy levels of sublimation as enriching society.

Question 33

Outline clinical application of Freudian theory:

Answer 33

Analysist sat behind patient so they were not visible so no cues could be given

Analysist aims to locate where fixation occurred and help individual understand issues and resolve emotional conflicts associated with them within the therapy session- the physical expression of emotion is termed Catharises or purging

Patients encouraged to discharge emotions associated with their conflicts within the therapy session- abreaction.

To access unconscious Freud uses free association and recounts of dreams under three assumptions.

1: All patients thoughts lead to material in the unconscious that is significant in some way.
2: the patients therapeutic needs and the knowledge that they are in therapy will lead their associations towards what is psychologically significant except so far as resistance operates
3: resistance is minimalised by relaxation hence patients lie down and is maximised by concentration- only have a ceiling to distract them.

Analysist listen to patients problems and help interpret patients problems to patient could gain insight into them- although the relationship is emotional it is one sided- analysis should remain detached- transference- patient displaces onto his analyst Freud (1913/1950) saw it as essential to therapy

Question 34

Outline some evaluations of Freudian theory.

Answer 34

Freud theory published on very few case studies to protect anonymity he didn’t annotate many case studies in much detail- often writing his case studies up from memories (Storr, 1989) -

Freud often revised his ideas, making his work difficult to follow

Provides good description of personality development and how it’s structured

But is it appropriate to produce “normal” and “abnormal behaviour development based on observations of neurotic individuals.

Addressed complexity of human behaviour

Led to psychologists debate important issues for development of personality

Defence mechanisms- great insight into how we function psychologically

Vagueness to theories e.g. how to avoid fixations and gain normal development

Face validity

Research shown subliminal perception- demonstrates existence of unconscious Erdelyi 1984

Parapraxes research  

Cognitive psyches suggest slips of tongue occur by attentional errors- Reason 2000

For more facts and figures see book page 34-36

His work influenced other disciplines e.g. art and literature

Huge advances for treatment and treating patients humanely emphasising the fact they need to talk though effectiveness debates of psychoanalysis still rage