Neo-Freudians and Psychodynamics Flashcards
What is Neo-Freudian psychology (often just psychodynamic
theory)?
a general term for the psychoanalytically oriented work of many theorists and researchers who are
influenced by Freud’s theory
How is this psychology diff and similar to Freud?
Used the variations on the same methods (like use of the
transference) but tended to focus on certain elements of
Freud’s theory (rejecting or modifying others)
What are common themes? (1/4)
Less emphasis on and reinterpretation of the Id (or
libido) as a general motivation behind life and creativity
What are common themes? (2/4)
More emphasis on ego functioning and strength,
motivations, and interpersonal relationships
What are common themes? (3/4)
Less emphasis on unconscious mental processes and
more on conscious thought
Ego psychology:
focus on the processes driving the
perception and conscious comprehension of reality
What is Ego’s function?
Ego’s function is to make sense of everything a
person experiences
What are common themes? (4/4)
Less emphasis on instinctual drives and mental life as
the source of psychological difficulties, and more on interpersonal relationships
What did Alfred Adler think about Freud?
Thought Freud focused too much on sex as the ultimate
motivator and organizer of thought and behavior
What did Alfred Adler emphasize in his work?
Emphasized the importance of human culture and society
in the development of individual personality
What is Social interest?
: the desire to relate positively and productively with other people
What is Finalism?
individuals are oriented toward goals that guide their behavior, many of which cannot be proven and are judged by their usefulness
What is Inferiority and the “Will to Power”?
: the idea that individuals are motivated to attain equality with or superiority over other people and try to accomplish this to compensate for what they felt in childhood was their weakest aspect
-Perceptions of weakness are more important than reality
What is Masculine protest?
: the desire of an adult to act and become powerful, because of feeling inadequate or inferior
- Can also be experienced by women; everyone feels inferior as a child
- Particularly acute for boys because the most powerful person in their lives is their mother
- Inferiority complex
What is Style of life?
: a particular mode of behavior that is based on compensations for perceived childhood inferiorities
What are Adler’s theories influential for?
for early social psychology, for the Freudo-Marxist Frankfurt School, and for existential psychology
What did Carl Jung Believe in?
Collective Unconscious
What was Carl Jung interested in?
-Interested in a transpersonal or transcendent psychology; thought Freud’s model too narrow and too negative
What were Carl Jung’s thoughts about ego and the unconscious?
Ego and the personal unconscious only a part of the psyche, but humans motivated toward transcendence and “individuation”; beyond ego to Self
What did Carl Jung believe the process involve?
Process involves engagement of the Collective unconscious: memories and ideas that all humans share, most of which reside in the unconscious
What is Archetypes?
core ideas of how people think about the world, both consciously and unconsciously
Earth mother, hero, trickster or devil, eternal youth, sky father
Appear in dreams, thoughts, and mythology, typically symbolically
Persona?
- the social mask one wears in public
- Everyone’s persona is false to some degree
- Possible danger: identifying more with the persona than the real self
- Identification with true self vs. social self
What is Anima?
the idea, or prototype, of the female, as held in the mind of a male or identified with by females
What is Animus?
: the idea, or prototype, of the male as held in the mind of a female or identified with by males
- Cause a masculine side and feminine side in everyone
- Shape responses to the other sex
- Ultimate goal (rarely achieved) of incorporating both into Self
What is The Shadow?
similar in ways to aspects of Freud’s unconscious, the rejected and “dark” aspects of the ego; ultimate goal is to face and incorporate it into consciousness
Introverts vs. extraverts
psychologically turned inward vs. outward. Essentially the same “journey” either way, the difference is where it was played out
Ways of apprehending experience?
: rational thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting
—–People vary in which way predominates. Jung thought thinking and feeling were contrary to one another, as were sensing and intuiting, so one function predominated and the other was left to unconscious operation and projection (the dominant and inferior functions).
Who is Karen Homey?
An early co-founder of ego psychology, but later ostracized for her “heretical” critique of orthodox psychoanalysis
What did Karen Homey disagree with?
Disagreed with the notion of “penis envy” and women’s desire to be male: women envy freedom to pursue interests and ambitions; Posited men’s “womb envy”
What is Basic anxiety?
fear of being alone and helpless in a hostile world
What can happen if people avoid anxiety?
Attempts to avoid this anxiety can result in neurotic needs that people feel but that are neither realistic nor truly desirable
What are unrealistic ways people try avoid anxiety?
- finding a life partner who will solve all your problems, to be loved by everybody and to dominate everybody, etc.
- can lead to self-defeating behavior and relationship problems because the needs are contradictory
