Psychoanalytic Theory

Question 1

Who are the Key Figures?

Answer 1

Sigmund Frued,
Ego Psychologist: Erik Erikson
Object Relations: Margaret Mahler

Question 2

What is the major focus of Psychoanalytic Theory?

Answer 2

Historically, psychoanalysis was the first system of psychotherapy. It is a personality theory, a philosophy of human nature, and a method of therapy.

Question 3

The personality can be divided into (3)…

Answer 3

The id, ego, and superego

Question 4

Healthy Personality Development is based on…

Answer 4

successful resolution of both psychosexual and psychosocial issues at the appropriate stages.

Question 5

Psychopathology is the result of …

Answer 5

failing to meet some critical developmental task or becoming fixated at some early level of development.

Question 6

The primary goal is …

Answer 6

to make the unconscious conscious; restructuring the personality; growth of the ego through analysis of resistance and transference

Question 7

In classical psychoanalysis, the therapist is …

Answer 7

anonymous ( to allow clients to project feelings onto the therapist)

Question 8

In psychoanalytically oriented therapy, the therapist is …

Answer 8

not anonymous; relates objectively with warm detachment; the focus is on resistance to the therapeutic process, on interpretation of these resistances, and on working through transference feelings. During this process, clients explore the parallels between their past and present experience and gain new understanding that can be the basis for personality change.

Question 9

Techniques and Procedures

Answer 9

Maintaining the analytic framework, free association, interpretation, dream analysis, analysis of resistance, gaining intellectual insight, and beginning a working-through process that will lead to a reorganization of the personality

Question 10

Contributions of Psychoanalytic Therapy

Answer 10

Comprehensive and detailed system of personality. Emphasizes the legitimate place of the unconscious as a determinant of behaviour, highlights the profound effect of early childhood development, and provides procedures for tapping the unconscious.

Question 11

Limitations

Answer 11

Lengthy training and commitment (time/money) from clients; based on the study of neurotics ( not healthy people)
Orthodox Freudian approach puts stress on instinctual forces, plays down social, cultural, and interpersonal factors
Limited applicability to crisis counselling, working with minorities, and social work

Question 12

Blank Screen

Answer 12

An anonymous stance assumed by classical psychoanalysis aimed at fostering transference

Question 13

Borderline Personality

Answer 13

A disorder characterized by instability, irritability, self-destructive acts, impulsivity, and extreme mood shifts. Such people lack a sense of their own identify and do not have a deep understanding of others.

Question 14

Brief Psychodynamic Theory

Answer 14

An adaptation of the principles of psychoanalytic theory and therapy aimed at treating selective disorders within a pre-established time limit.

Question 15

Collective Unconscious

Answer 15

From a Jungian perspective, the deepest level of the psyche that contains an accumulation of inherited experiences.

Question 16

Countertransference

Answer 16

The therapist’s unconscious emotional responses to a client that are likely to interfere with objectivity; unresolved conflicts of the therapist that are projected onto the client.

Question 17

Ego

Answer 17

The part of the personality that is the mediator between external reality and inner demands.

Question 18

Ego-defense mechanisms

Answer 18

Intrapsychic processes that operate unconsciously to protect the person from threatening and, therefore, anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, and impulses.

Question 19

Ego-Psychology

Answer 19

The psychosocial approach of Erik Erikson, emphasizes the development of the ego or self at various stages of life.

Question 20

Fixation

Answer 20

The condition of being arrested, or “stuck,” at one level of psychosexual development.

Question 21

Free association

Answer 21

A primary technique, consisting of spontaneous and uncensored verbalization by a client which gives clues to the nature of the client’s unconscious conflicts.

Question 22

Id

Answer 22

The part of personality, present at birth, that is blind, demanding, and insistent. Its function is to discharge tension and return to homeostasis.

Question 23

Identity Crisis

Answer 23

A developmental challenge, occurring during adolescent, whereby the person seeks to establish a stable view of self and to define a place in life.

Question 24

Individuation

Answer 24

The harmonious integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of personality

Question 25

Libido

Answer 25

The instinctual drives of the id and the source of psychic energy

Question 26

Narcissism

Answer 26

Extreme self-love, as opposed to love of others. A narcissistic personality is characterized by a grandiose and exaggerated sense of self-importance and an exploitative attitude toward others, which hides a poor self-concept

Question 27

Object relatedness

Answer 27

Interpersonal relationships as they are represented intrapsychically

Question 28

Object-relations theory

Answer 28

A newer version of psychoanalytic thinking, which focuses on predictable developmental sequences in which early experiences of self shift in relation to an expanding awareness of others. It holds that individuals go through phases of autism, normal symbiosis, and separation and individuation, culminating in a state of integration.

Question 29

Psychodynamics

Answer 29

The interplay of opposing forces and intrapsychic conflicts, providing a basis for understanding human motivation.

Question 30

Psychosexual stages

Answer 30

The Freudian chronological phases of development, beginning in infancy. Each is characterized by a primacy way of gaining sensual and sexual gratification.

Question 31

Psychosocial stages

Answer 31

Erikson’s turning points, from infancy through old age. Each presents psychological and social tasks that must be mastered if maturation is to proceed in a healthy fashion.

Question 32

Reaction Formation

Answer 32

A defense against a threatening impulse, involving actively expressing the opposite impulse.

Question 33

Relational analysis

Answer 33

An analytics model based on the assumption that therapy is an interactive process between client and therapist. The interpersonal analyst assumes that countertransference is a source of information about the client’s character and dynamics.

Question 34

Repression

Answer 34

The ego-defense mechanism whereby threatening or painful thoughts or feelings are excluded from awareness.

Question 35

Anxiety

Question 36

Archetypes

Question 37

Deterministic

Question 38

Dream Analysis

Question 39

Interpretation

Question 40

Oedipus Complex

Question 41

Resistance

Answer 41

The client’s reluctance to bring to awareness threatening unconscious material that has been repressed.

Question 42

Shadow

Answer 42

A Jungian archetype representing thoughts, feelings, and actions that we tend to disown by projecting them outward.

Question 43

Superego

Answer 43

That aspect of personality that represents one’s moral training. It strives for perfection, not pleasure.

Question 44

Transference

Answer 44

The client’s unconscious shifting to the therapist of feelings and fantasies, both positive and negative, that are displacements from reactions to significant others from the client’s past.

Question 45

Unconscious

Answer 45

That aspect of psychological functioning or of personality that houses experiences, wishes, impulses, and memories in an out-of-awareness state as a protection against anxiety.