Psychoanalysis

Question 1

Why is Freud so heavily criticised by modern psychologists?

Answer 1

It is believed that his methods are not verifiable.

Question 2

Hans talked about how people are (for the most part) really well-behaved in their day to day lives. But… what is the flip-side?

Answer 2

There is another part of life that is much darker, more aggressive…. for example, when I became jealous about my partner. There is an entire range of irrational and not constructive behaviour. Freud was interested in this side.

Question 3

Hans talked about some impulses in nature, when we ___ the people we love most.

Answer 3

He talked about how common it is for people to attack the ones they love the most. And this is the area that Freud had an interest.

Question 4

Freud believed that psychoanalysis would show us what… ?

Answer 4

Those darker sides of human nature, and the elements of ourselves that are not transparent.

Question 5

What was Freud’s addiction that he did not give up?

Answer 5

His cigars… even after having cancer he did not give it up. He would not analyse his own use of tobacco, saying that ‘a cigar is just a cigar.’

Question 6

What is the Freudian ‘iceberg’ metaphor for the mind?

Answer 6

• Conscious: ego is the very tip of the iceberg.
• Unconscious: superego is underneath the water, taking up a large amount.
• Id is right at the bottom as the impulses, instincts.

Question 7

What is the superego?

Answer 7

The parts of us deep inside that contain our social norms, expectations, morality. The ideas that parents and society have installed in us when we were young.

Question 8

What is the Id?

Answer 8

The unconscious part of the mind containing sex, lust and desire. It was where ‘fulfilment’ was present. Also deeply destructive impulses (toward others, and ourselves).

Question 9

How do the superego and the id interact?

Answer 9

The superego (due to its conditioning from society) postpones the gratification that the id is desiring. Most of the time the superego was capable of putting a lid on the id, or finding acceptable ways to express the desires of the id. It is a difficult, constant process of negotiation.

Question 10

What is the ‘cat’ metaphor about?

Answer 10

Cats are a metaphor for the id, they want to fulfil all their wishes as they happen.

Question 11

What is the dynamic of the unconscious?

Answer 11

It is the repression of unaccepted desires, lust, aggression, pain (by the superego).
And then the return of the repressed, because it cannot be repressed indefinitely.

Question 12

What were the six new ideas that Freud brought to psychology?

Answer 12

He introduced:

1. the idea that the MIND causes mental disorders (psychogenesis/mental causation).
2. the talking cure: psychotherapy, and handled mental disorders with conversation.
3. methods for understanding the mind (analysing dreams, etc.).
4. a theory of society, talked about culture and its discontent - the role an advancing society has in the increased prevalence of discontent.
5. the role of religion in mental illness (religion gives a way of repression, and coping but it is an illusion.
6. the idea of being a detective of the self, and of culture.

Question 13

Psychoanalysis was an important theory in the field of psychology and psychiatry… but where else?

Answer 13

In the wider culture as well. Films, TV shows, magazines. Hitchcock’s ‘spellbound’.

Question 14

Which famous French neurologist did Freud visit, and what did he write about?

Answer 14

He visited Charcot, and wrote about Hysteria.

Question 15

What happened to Freud in 1938?

Answer 15

The Nazi’s let Freud go in Vienna, but he had to leave a lot behind.

Question 16

What history/ancient cultures did he love (that he decorated his house with)? And why?

Answer 16

He loved Roman and Greek antiquities because he believed the psychoanalyst was the archeologist of the mind.

Question 17

What is the ‘seduction hypothesis’ (aka the sexual harassment hypothesis)?

Answer 17

The idea that a lot of neuroses in women was the result of sexual abuse by family members or friends (fathers, uncles, etc.).

Question 18

What happened after Freud published his ‘seduction hypothesis’?

Answer 18

In his account, all of Vienna’s physicians became upset.

Question 19

After Freud’s Father died, he decided he was wrong about the ‘seduction hypothesis’, what did he come up with instead?

Answer 19

The Oedipus Complex, which is the idea that a young boy will at some point become in love with his Mother and wants to kill his Father. The Father prohibits this, which makes the young boy conform to the demands of society and their Father.

Question 20

What happens for girls in the ‘Oedipus complex’ theory?

Answer 20

Apparently, it’s a bit more complicated for young girls. They want to marry their Father and kill their Mother, but it doesn’t happen and they also conform to social expectations.

Question 21

What are some major questions that have plagued psychiatrists about the aetiology or development of a mental disorder?

And what was Freud’s take on it?

Answer 21

WHY do only some people develop PTSD (for example) after exposure to a trauma, whereas others come out of it okay. It is internal vulnerability? Or life experience?

Freud initially talked about life experiences but then abandoned that and talked about internal desire.

Question 22

How did Freud believe we get access to the unconscious?

Answer 22

It was through psychoanalysis, or the ‘talking cure’.

Question 23

Who was Joseph Breuer and ‘Anna O.’?

Answer 23

Joseph Breuer was a colleague of Freud’s who treated ‘Anna O.’, the pseudonym for a woman who suffered from Hysteria. At times she forgot her native German and could only speak French or English.

Question 24

How did Joseph Breuer discovered the benefits of the ‘talking cure’ or ‘chimney sweeping’?

Answer 24

His patient ‘Anna O.’ refused to drink water. She would drink juice or wine, but not water. She eventually explained it was because her little dog drank from her water glass, which she found disgusting. But once she talked about it, it became easier to manage.

Question 25

What happened between Joseph Breuer and ‘Anna O.’?

Answer 25

Well, he would visit her twice a day to check in and see how she was doing, get her to talk about everything. Eventually ‘transference’ happened and ‘Anna O.’ fell in love with Joseph Breuer, she made a move and he disappeared.

Question 26

What became of ‘Anna O.’?

Answer 26

She eventually became a social worker and led a happy and fulfilled life, quite uncaused by her experience with psychoanalysis.

Question 27

Who was Dora?

Answer 27

Dora grew up with her little brother, where they went through school together. Eventually, he went off to university but Dora was told to stay home, do some dusting and flower arrangements, etc. Dora was smart and deeply frustrated and developed all kinds of symptoms. In the meantime, the Father had an affair with the neighbour’s wife, the neighbour found out and Dora’s Father said he could have some fun with Dora. Dora was appalled by this and deeply hurt.

Question 28

What did Freud make of Dora’s case and experiences?

Answer 28

Well, he said that Dora was actually attracted to the neighbour who was harassing her (which was completely wrong). And at one point she said that she wanted no more psychoanalysis and left, never really recovering from her pain and leading an unhappy life.

Question 29

What are seven underlying theories for Freud’s psychoanalysis?

Answer 29

1. the ‘talking cure’, or ‘chimney sweeping’.
2. the patient’s story being an essential part of diagnosis and treatment.
3. psychiatrists start listening in addition to observing.
4. psychogenic origin of hysteria (and mental disorder).
5. role of repression in denying experiences (source of later mental anguish).
6. the psychoanalysis method as detective work.
7. the unconscious will eventually return the repressed emotions/desires/etc.

Question 30

What did Freud publish in 1899?

What is a common criticism of this publication?

Answer 30

The Interpretation of Dreams, which contained a self-analysis of his own dreams.

It is criticised as he could always come up with a new angle to interpret his and others dreams. Also, people remember small amounts of their dreams.

Question 31

Once more, what does Freud’s ‘structure of the personality’ look like?

Answer 31

1. the id - sexual energy, aggression, emotion.
2. the superego - norms and values.
3. the ego - mediates between the id, the world, and the superego. Ruled by the reality principle.

Question 32

What are the 5 stages of psychosexual development?

Who developed it in the end?

Answer 32

1. oral stage - newborn babies, disturbances here can result in alcoholism later in life, biting pencils, or making biting and cynical comments all the time.
2. anal stage - disturbances during this stage causes anal/OCD personality later in life.
3. phallic stage - around 4 or 5, oedipus/electra complex.
4. latency phase - 5/6 - 12.
5. genital stage - starts in puberty.

The followers of psychoanalysis because Freud would often change his mind on his ideas, and others wanted to solidify this concept.

Question 33

What was Freud’s writing style like?

Answer 33

If his work is read in German (his native tongue), it is very chatty and less formal. The translation into English is made to sound a lot more scientific.

Question 34

Who was Anna Freud?

What did she come up with, and the nine things it involves?

Answer 34

Freud’s daughter, who he analysed. She elaborated on the mechanisms of the Ego, which are:

1. Repression.
2. Denial.
3. Projection.
4. Displacement.
5. Sublimation.
6. Reaction formation.
7. Regression.
8. Denial.
9. Rationalisation.

Question 35

What was Freud’s two ideas about modern culture?

Answer 35

1. Modern culture requires repression.
2. Inherent tension between modern society and desire.

The challenge for modern society is to allow the expression of these basic impulses in a way that does not disturb the social order.

Question 36

What are four critiques on psychoanalysis?

Answer 36

The four common critiques of psychoanalysis are:

1. its overemphasis on sexual factors.
2. its not scientific.
3. its not effective.
4. feminist critique (the annoyance with the ‘penis envy’ concept).

Question 37

What are Hans’ 5 points on Freud in his conclusion?

Answer 37

1. the breakthroughs he brought to psychiatry.
2. the location of psychiatry to be in the private practice.
3. object of curiosity for psychiatry became neuroses.
4. continuum between mental illness and normality (no person is just one or the other).
5. the limitations of psychoanalysis, which he was aware of.