Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalysis

Question 1

What period was Sigmund Freud born in?

Answer 1

Mid 1800s (1856-1939).

Question 2

What did Jean-Martin Charcot study?

Answer 2

Continued the legacy of Mesmerism.
Seen as the Napoleon of the Neurosis.
Demonstration of Grande Mal Hypnotisme.
Hysteria generalising beyond women.

Question 3

What did Freud and Joseph Breuer attribute hysterical symptoms to?

Answer 3

Repressed childhood experiences. Must bring unconscious memories to conscious patients to free them from their emotional energy.

Question 4

Name 5 of Freud’s ideas which eventually led him into Psychoanalysis.

Answer 4

The Pressure technique (turned out to be a placebo effect so this was dropped).
Free association.
Repressed memories.
Intrapsychic conflict.
The Seduction Hypothesis (child sexual abuse - hysteria was seen as a defence to cover these memories).

Question 5

State some of the key ideas in Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900).

Answer 5

Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.
Unconscious process is primary, conscious process is secondary.
Dreams represent wish fulfilment which are differentiated by manifest content + latent content.
Displacement + condensation.
When asleep we have no rationality.

Question 6

What is manifest content and latent content?

Answer 6

Manifest content is when you report the dream.

Latent content is the actual desires represented by the dream.

Question 7

What is displacement and condensation?

Answer 7

Displacement is where one object may really represent something else.
Condensation is where many symbols are represented in one thing.

Question 8

Name all 5 stages of Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Model.

Answer 8

Oral stage. 
Anal stage. 
Phallic stage.
Latency stage.
Genital stage.

Question 9

What is polymorphous perversity?

Answer 9

It is in Freud’s Theory of Sexuality (1905) - the idea that everyone has some perversion.

Question 10

Explain the logic behind Freud’s Theory of Sexual Repression.

Answer 10

If you repress too much you become hysterical.
If you repress the right amount you become normal (heterosexual).
If you don’t repress enough then you become a happy pervert (e.g. homosexual, exhibitionist). You haven’t internalised society’s norms.

Question 11

What was Freud’s main criticism of Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie?

Answer 11

Freud believed that Wundt’s treatment of religion lacked depth.

Question 12

Who did Freud visit in the US?

Answer 12

G. Stanley Hall.

Question 13

Who did Freud split up with and why?

Answer 13

His most trusted disciples - Carl Jung + Alfred Adler. This was over the importance of the sexual instinct.

Question 14

What was Freud’s Death Drive and where did the idea originate from?

Answer 14

The Death Drive is the idea that we have a drive that leads to unwanted intrusive traumatic memories and a compulsion to repeat them.
Shell shock was what led Freud to this idea.

Question 15

What is the Structural Model of The Mind (Freud)?

Answer 15

ID, Ego & Superego (moral conscience created by parents) Model.

Question 16

Name the 6 main defence mechanisms in Freud’s Structural Model of The Mind.

Answer 16

Displacement, projection, intellectualise (sublimation), denial, rationalise, identification.

Question 17

Why was Freud’s idea of penis envy an issue?

Answer 17

Freud’s theory was very androcentric (men were the norm). Freud saw penis envy as the defining trait in the psychosexual development of girls.

Question 18

What was Karen Horney’s main critique of Freud?

Answer 18

Horney believed Freud was limited by his gender and his theory clearly demonstrated the issues of male psychology.
Horney argued for womb envy instead.

Question 19

What is the issue with psychoanalytic epistemology?

Answer 19

No one ever wins the arguments as no data is presented. Horney’s argument of womb envy shows this.