Freud's psychoanalytical theory

Question 0

3 changing models of the dualistic division of the instinct

Answer 0

1. original dualism = SURVIVAL vs. LIBIDO (life maintenance vs. pressure)
2. quasi-unitary scheme = EGO LIBIDO vs. OBJECT LIBIDO (self-preservation vs. pleasure-seeking)
3. final dualism = EROS vs. THANATOS (life and death)

Question 1

instincts

4 characteristics

Answer 1

= the mental representation of a physical or bodily need

1. PRESSURE
2. AIM - satisfaction (ultimate or intermediate; substitute form)
3. OBJECT- thing that reduces the tension
4. SOURCE - e.g.,genital arousal/hormonal secretions

Question 2

THANATOS; death instinct

Answer 2

rarely observable, only seen through its derivatives; aggression & hate

• eros succeeds in preventing thantos from achieving the destruction of the individual by diverting the death instincts energy [aggression and hate] to other individuals

Question 3

metapsychology

Answer 3

= ‘above or beyond’ psychology; whenever a psychological process was understand from (3 levels of consciousness) its descriptive, dynamic and systematic aspects.

Question 4

3 levels of consciousness (that understood lead to metapsychology)

Answer 4

descriptive(what)
dynamic (why)
systematic (where)

Question 5

structural theory

Answer 5

ID = pleasure principle
ego = reality principle (repression)
superego = conscience/morality

Question 6

structural model and anxiety (3 types)

Answer 6

realistic anxiety = fear of the external world
neurotic anxiety = fear of being overwhelmed by the id’s instincts
moral anxiety = fear of the superego’s censure

-> birth trauma is the prototype(why ego compares everything to) of adult anxiety

Question 7

personality development (based on structural model)

Answer 7

infancy - all ID, unsocialised desires
ego developlment - identification, socialisation leads to repression
superego development - build moral beliefs, morality as an extension of socialisation

Question 8

primal repression vs. repression proper

Answer 8

primal repression = impulse is frozen in development (6-8yrs)
repression proper = ideas associated t o primally repressed impulse are also denied access to conscious awareness

Question 9

repression (defence mechanism)

Answer 9

banishing ‘wrongful’ thoughts from conscious awareness

Question 10

denial (defence mechanism)

Answer 10

not accepting the reality of a threatening situation

Question 11

reaction formations (defence mechanism)

Answer 11

form an opposite reaction to what you desire

e.e., homosexuals express homophobic attidudes

Question 12

projection (defence mechanism)

Answer 12

refusing to see or accept undesirable desires in oneself; instead attributing them to others
e.g., paranoid person believes everyones out to kill them may be harbouring such wishes themselves

Question 13

isolation (defence mechanism)

Answer 13

thinking without feeling

• the ‘unacceptable’ act is not forgotten, but is separated from the emotions linked to it

Question 14

sublimation (defence mechanism)

Answer 14

transforming socially unacceptable desires into socially acceptable outlets
e.g., aggression channeled into sports

Question 15

transference

Answer 15

not a defence mechanism

the redirection of feelings and desires, especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object

Question 16

compulsion to repeat (beyond the pleasure principle)

Answer 16

death instinct operates to return the organism to the prior evolutionary state of inorganic existence

Question 17

limitations of psychoanalysis

Answer 17

unscientific/unfalsifiable/untestable (can’t test unconsciousness)

but still thousands of expleriments

Question 18

benefits of psychoanalysis

Answer 18

lead to attachment theory, object relations approach, neuropsychoanalysis