Psychoanalysis

Answer 1

The first theory, Psychoanalysis, goes back to the 1800’s. Although it is the oldest theory, psychoanalysis has had a profound effect on counselling psychology. It was developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in the early twentieth century and, although the theory is almost a hundred years old, its impact is continues to be far-reaching. The theory is both cornerstone and foundation of modern counselling. Freud pioneered new techniques for understanding human behaviour, and his efforts resulted in the most comprehensive theory of personality and psychotherapy ever developed. Many of the theories in use today have derived some fundamental formulation, technique, or impetus from this theory. The theory is very complex and cannot be covered in detail in one lesson. The famous Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud spans over 23 volumes. The main focus of this lesson will be on the basic concepts and practices.

Question 2

Upon completion of the lesson you should be able to:

describe the key concepts of the psychoanalytic approach;
describe the aspects of the psychoanalytic theory as they pertain to the general descriptors listed in Lesson 1;
outline the therapeutic process regarding the therapist’s role, the client’s experience, and the relationship between the two.

Question 3

The text reading for this lesson is Chapter 4 of Corey (2024). Read the chapter before you begin to do the work in the lesson in order to get an overview of the theory. After reading the textbook material, supplement that information by reading Ikonen’s (2002) article and Redekop et al.’s (2017) article. As you draw upon the information in the textbook, the article, or any other research sources, think about the definitions of the following basic concepts. If you are still unsure about a definition, you can always consult the on-line Glossary of Terms.

Question 4

What are the basic concepts of psychoanalysis?

Answer 4

Basic Concepts
Personality structure
The topographic model:
Unconscious
Preconscious
Conscious
The structural/functional model:
Id
Ego
Superego
Innate Drives
Life instinct/Libido (Eros)
Death instinct/Aggression (Thanatos)
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
Techniques
Free association (client’s self-observation)
Analysis of resistance
Interpretation (including dream interpretation)
Analysis of transference
Countertransference
Oedipus Complex
Anxiety
Realistic
Moral
Neurotic
Defense Mechanisms

Question 5

What are the basic assumptions of Psychoanalysis?

Answer 5

Psychoanalysis is said to be a deterministic theory. Nothing happens by chance or at random. It focuses on the unconscious aspects of personality, which means that people are driven by unconscious instincts and they are struggling to maintain a balance among various, sometimes contradictory, forces within the psyche. Psychoanalysis recognizes the dynamic interplay between consciousness and the unconscious, between instinctual drives toward gratification and moral prohibitions, as well as between the life and death energy forces.

Question 6

What is the heredity of psychoanalysis?

Answer 6

The theory emphasizes life (libido) and death (aggression) instincts. Heredity lays down the basic framework for personality. Environment: Environment interacts with heredity to provide opportunities for either normal or abnormal development of personality traits. In other words, how the child is treated in the first five years of life will determine if the child will develop normal or abnormal traits. As Freud’s theory of personality formation and mental activity recognizes the roles played by both heredity and environment, three factors governing the changes in mental energy are addressed: constitutional (innate), predisposing (developmental), and precipitating or exciting (immediate).

Question 7

What are the cognitions in psychoanalysis?

Answer 7

Freud placed minor emphasis on cognition. He distinguished between two types of thinking: primary process thinking, which is based on conceptual organization of memories, and secondary process thinking, which is memory of previous experiences of satisfaction and forms the bases for wishes.

Question 8

What are the motivations in psychoanalysis?

Answer 8

Motives are life and death instincts. Freud believed the basic forces motivating personality were Eros (life and sexual energy) and Thanatos (death and aggression) and that the individual is motivated to seek out satisfaction of one of these two instinctual drives. This is a deficiency model based on the pleasure principle whereby people are motivated to seek pleasure and reduce pain.

Question 9

What is the time orientation of psychoanalysis?

Answer 9

Past: The major emphasis is on the past. All treatment of neurotic disorders must be historically based. Behaviour is determined by past experiences. Early childhood development has a profound effect on adult functioning, including aspirations and goals. For example, even in dream analysis, Freud interpreted the manifest content of dreams as a symbol of a lingering wish and remained steadfast in his rejection of any premonitory interpretation.

Question 10

What is psychoanalysis’s view of human nature?

Answer 10

Human existence is based on the tension between life and death instincts. How we manage the tension determines whether we will move in the direction of growth and creativity or in the direction of self-destruction and aggressiveness.

Question 11

Does psychoanalysis focus on holistic or atomistic explanations?

Answer 11

Psychoanalytic theory is holistic. The psyche is a dynamic energy system. Change in one part of the personality affects other parts. For example: a change in the energy of the id affects the energy available for the ego and the superego. Freud’s mature views of the mind-body relationship can be characterized as interactionist.

Question 12

Does psychoanalysis focus on external or internal explanations?

Answer 12

Psychoanalysis considers both internal and external determiners of human behaviour. Internal determinants include the life and death instincts and unconscious conflicts. The drive represented by unconscious impulses (id) is intertwined with the anxiety caused by society’s prohibitions and rules (superego), in its attempt to control those impulses. The ego defense mechanisms control these impulses to keep guilt and anxiety to a minimum.

Question 13

Does psychoanalysis focus on Nomothetic/idiographic explanations?

Answer 13

Freud utilized the case study method, which involved the study of the individual over a period of time. His case studies were inspired from his own clinical practice, but also consisted in psychoanalytical commentaries to literary characters (Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Richard III) and biographies (Leonardo da Vinci). Although not employing statistical methods per se, Freud did provide comprehensive analyses of cultures and societies (in such works as: Moses and Monotheism, Totem and Taboo, Civilization and Its Discontents).

Question 14

Does psychoanalysis focus on
Longitudinal/cross sectional explanations?

Answer 14

Psychoanalysis employs both cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. However, the emphasis remains on the long-term effects of childhood experiences, on developmental aspects of personality formation, and on the multitude of aspects involved in maturation and adaptation processes. Freud introduced the psychosexual theory of human development, which describes five distinct stages or phases in the process of identity formation: oral (from birth to approximately 18 months), anal (between the ages of 18 months and three years), phallic (approximately between the ages of three and five years), latency (from age 6 to puberty), and genital (from puberty on).

Question 15

Does psychoanalysis focus on Tension production/reduction explanations?

Answer 15

Freud earlier psychoanalytic theory is said to illustrate a tension reduction model, whereby the human being seek pleasure and avoid pain. With the introduction of the concept of the death instinct, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud’s mature psychoanalytical theory became more complex than a mere tension reduction model. During the course of therapy, clients often experience strong emotional reactions as they attempt to uncover repressed material. Insight is usually accompanied by a feeling of catharsis (release of tension and anxiety).

Question 16

What is the bases for inference for psychoanalysis?

Answer 16

In principle, as with any deterministic theory, psychoanalysis asserts that current human experiences and behaviours are rooted in past experiences and can be understood and/or explained on the basis of a thorough analysis of the individual’s history. However, as psychoanalysis deals with the vicisitudes of unconscious drives, motivations, and fantasies, prediction of actual behaviour is not the goal of either the theory or the therapeutic process. Successful treatment in psychoanalysis is understood not just as a mere reduction in symptomatology (maladaptive responses or behaviours), but as a significant increase in self-awareness, an understanding of the deeper motivations and purposes behind overt behaviour, also referred to as second order change. Positive behavioural change is viewed as an inevitable by-product of increased insight. Of course, successful resolution of past conflicts paves a solid foundation for, but never guarantees, future adaptive reactions.

Question 17

What is the basis for psychopathology for psychoanalysis?

Answer 17

In addition to genetic predispositions, psychopathology can result from any of the following causes:

difficulties at various stages of psychosexual development;

inappropriate use of libido;

absence of adaptive coping strategies;

insufficient ego strength;

presence of repressed needs, wishes, and conflicts in the unconscious;

unrealistic methods of controlling the anxiety (resulting from the conflict between the id, ego, and superego).

In its function as a negotiator between the demands of the id, the prohibitions and aspirations of the superego, and the objective limitations of external reality, the ego employs a range of so-called defense mechanisms meant to achieve an acceptable compromise and reduce anxiety. In addition to repression, the most frequently discussed mechanism of defense, throughout his work, Freud addressed a number of other defensive strategies such as: denial, projection, displacement, substitution, regression, sublimation, humour. It is important to point out that, since the early formulation of the theory of defense mechanisms, Freud saw both the adaptive and the maladaptive functions of these ego strategies. His daughter, Anna Freud (1964), is credited with offering the first systematic account of defensive organization in her seminal book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. Since then, a number of more recent researchers and theorists have offered various classifications of defenses (e.g., Laughlin, 1983; Vaillant, 1992)

Question 18

What is the basis for a healthy personality in psychopathology?

Answer 18

Psychoanalysis attempts to provide a comprehensive description of personality that can explicate both adaptive and maladaptive psychological processes. A healthy personality is characterized by an appropriate distribution of psychic energy among id, ego, and superego. Positive early childhood experiences in a loving environment lay a stable foundation for the subsequent development of a healthy personality. Freud believed that a sound basis for happiness in life is the individual’s active involvement in two most important activities: love and work.

Question 19

What is the role of the therapist in psychoanalysis?

Answer 19

In psychoanalysis, the analyst is an assistant in the client’s process of self-observation. The therapist helps clients identify adaptive channels for the investment of libidinal energy. The physical setting in a classical psychoanalytic process (the use of the couch, the analyst’s position out of the client’s direct view) is meant to create circumstances most likely to promote client’s self-observation. In psychoanalysis, the therapist helps the client become more aware of unconscious influences of childhood experiences. By identifying early conflicts or traumas, the client can understand and integrate their links to current aspects of functioning. Throughout the analytical relationship, the therapist strives to maintain an objective, neutral, and anonymous stance in order not to impede the phenomenon of transference. At the same time, the analyst must remain alert to and scrutinize his/her own reactions for signs of unconscious countertransference that may distort the client’s process of self-observation.

Question 20

What are the techniques and procedures for psychoanalysis?

Answer 20

Free Association: the client talks about anything that comes to mind. This is a central part of the client’s own process of self-observation. The therapist/analyst is engaged in active listening, paying close attention to verbal and non-verbal behaviours, repetitions, pauses, changes in emotional reactions, and omissions or incongruities. Over time, themes and patterns of psychological functioning emerge, as well as the client’s conscious or unconscious attempts to avoid (resist) anxiety producing thoughts or feelings.

Analysis of Resistance: At times, the client will resist therapy by erecting obstacles against self-observation or by opposing the analyst. The analyst will, in a timely manner, highlight those instances, normalize them, and encourage the client’s reflections on the possible unconscious factors behind them.

Analysis of Transference: The therapist acts as a blank screen on which clients could project repressed feelings related to important people in the client’s life. For example, the client could project her feeling of hate for her mother onto the therapist. This allows the client to re-enact early patters of relating and thus bring them into awareness. Transferential feelings are analyzed and gradually dissolved. Resolution of transference is one of the criteria generally used as a signal for timely termination of therapy.

The interpretation process is a joint venture between the client and the analyst, both of whom are committed to identifying possible links among the client’s thoughts, feelings, and patterns of psychological functioning. Interpretations must be timely and in conjunction with the client’s readiness. In addition to instances of resistance and transference, the client’s dreams can also be subjected to interpretation. The manifest (remembered) content of dreams is viewed as the conscious expression of the latent (unconscious) dream content. According to Freud, the vast majority of dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes.

Question 21

What is a note on the oedepous complex?

Answer 21

In your textbook, Corey (2024, p. 74) refers to the “Electra complex” as the female counterpart to the male Oedipus complex. While this term is not infrequent, it is erroneous. Freud never referred to the female unconscious attitude towards parental agencies as the “Electra complex,” but rather as “female Oedipus complex”. The associations with Electra, a character in several ancient Greek tragedies by Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, are misleading.

Question 22

Activities
Try to articulate you own definitions of the basic psychoanalytical concepts listed above. Then, compare your definitions with the ones provided in your reading materials.
Read the Introduction to the Case of Stan, on pages 9-12 in your textbook (Corey, 2024). Try to apply the psychoanalytical basic concepts and general characteristics to the case of Stan and, then, compare your suggestions with Corey’s comments on the same case on pages 99-100.
Explore the ancient Greek legend of Oedipus by researching some mythology-related sources, such as a dictionary, Sophocles’ own play entitled Oedipus King, or the famous 1967 film version directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini Oedipus Rex. Reflect on the metaphorical and psychological relevance of the legend.
Self Reflections
Ikonen (2002) highlights the importance of a psychologically and socially safe setting for the psychoanalytical process. Why do you think that would be an important condition?
What does Ikonen (2002) mean when he states that “in psychoanalysis, the analysand has epistemic priority” (p. 16)?
Is it essential to explore the client’s past if present change is desired?
The psychoanalytic counsellor tries to retain a relatively high degree of neutrality and anonymity. Why is this so? Do you believe this type of anonymity is a help or a hindrance to achieving successful results in therapy?
In your view, what is the most significant contribution of the psychoanalytic approach?
Explain why it would be important to employ a longitudinal method of study when using the psychoanalytic approach?
A more recent development within psychoanalysis is the object relations school. How do the object relations theorists incorporate Freud’s use of the “object” and their own addition of “relations”?