psychodynamic Flashcards
who was Freud influenced by
Josef Breuer working with patient Anna O
explain Anna O and her significance
Anna O had been experiencing paralysis and he found out there was no medical explanation as to why, he used talking therapy “chimney sweeping” and through sharing stories and experiences he got to know her more and realized her father had TB, sibling was favored by the father even though she was primary caregiver of father, she was feeling resentful. She realized that part of the paralysis was that she was feeling stuck (wanting to help father but being resentful), there was also anticipatory grief because she knew her father would die.
He was the first to realize that other events can influence behavior and how someone is feeling even if they are unaware of them.
what do dynamic therapists look at
what something means and how to process it
explain the level of consciousness in the iceberg model
consciousness is what is above the surface (things you are currently aware of, what you are feeling and thinking, actions)
the bottom is the unconscious (consists of things that are beyond normal level of awareness, instincts, fears, passions, dreams, wish fulfillment)
right below the surface of the water is the preconscious (second level of awareness, things you aren’t aware of right now but you can bring to awareness/ things you can recall if needed)
what are the three levels of personality structures
id, ego, and superego
what is the id
The Demanding Child (in the unconscious)
-Ruled by the pleasure principle (wants what it wants when it wants it)
what is the ego
The Regulator (balances unconscious desires in terms of reality) (conscious and preconscious) -Ruled by the reality principle
what is the superego
The Judge (ex. Parents yell at kid for not going to bathroom before they left) (exists on all three levels) -Ruled by the moral principle (religion can play a part in this)
explain ego, id, and superego conflicts
- The three aspects of personality inevitably come into conflict with each other because of the different roles they have.
- However, much of this conflict is unconscious due to defense mechanisms (we do not want people to know what’s in the unconscious, we engage in ways that prevent this)
what is clinical evidence for the existence of the unconscious (4 things)
1) Dreams (are in unconscious, material that is stored and free/not controlled)
2) Slips of the tongue (Freudian slips, when you say something that just comes out, indicates what you were thinking in unconscious)
3) Material derived from free-association
4) Symbolic content of psychotic symptoms
NOTE: consciousness is only a thin slice of the total mind
two tests to access unconscious
1) Rorshach inkblot test (looking at ambiguous pictures and see what they see, access to the unconscious)
2) TAT thematic apperception test: looking for unconscious material, saying what you see in pictures (want client to tell you more, “why do you think that?”), looking for patterns in what people see in the cards
what are ego defense mechanisms
- Are normal behaviors which operate on an unconscious level and tend to deny or distort reality
- Help the individual cope with anxiety and prevent the ego from being overwhelmed
are ego defense mechanisms important
- Have adaptive value if they do not become a style of life to avoid facing reality
- They are there for a reason, so it is not therapist’s job to tear them down
what is repression
aware of something but you push it down /try to hide it, can be easily accessed with certain stimuli
what is denial
completely reject thought or feeling
what is displacement
when you have negative feelings towards something, but redirect feelings to something else rather than taking it out on object
what is projection
attributing one’s own unacceptable behavior onto someone else
projective identification
when a person projects something onto you, you begin to question if you actually are those things (ex. “You look stressed out” when the speaker is the one stressed out, the person being spoken too begins to think they are stressed out)
what is reaction formation
when you turn a feeling into its opposite
what is sublimation
feeling some stress and take it out in a more positive way (engaging in something more purposeful)
what is introjection
taking messages from outside world and forming your own identity about them (ex. Hearing girls can’t be scientists, and then integrating this into identity)
what is undoing
attempt to nullify or undo an action that resulted in guilt
what is regression
revert to an old feeling or more primitive levels of functioning
what is intellectualization
trying to understand on a more intellectual/philosophical level of your emotions (theoretical)
what is isolation of affect
asking a client about feelings and they say “I think I’m feeling…” but they do not actually feel it
what is rationalization
justifying a disturbing thought or feeling by selecting a logical reason to feel that way
what is splitting
end up making things polarized (ex. Children cannot take complexity, good mommy vs. bad mommy and only see themselves as good or bad)
therapists job surrounding defense mechanisms
We all have different defenses we gravitate towards so it is our job to find out what these are for our clients