Task 7 Flashcards
Freud and Psychoanalysis
Freud
- 1856-1939
- one of the first neurologists
- first to actually talk to patients —> psychological treatment
Psychoanalysis
- massive impact (on both neurologists and on psychologists) —> provided coherent and attractive theory of psychopathology
- used medical case studies as a research method
Freud’s Early Life
- pathogenic idas = memories of emotionally charged experiences that have been somehow “forgotten” and placed beyond the reach of ordinary consciousness —> disease-producing ideas
- life:
- unusual family constellation
- medical school in Vienna
- training at Vienna’s General Hospital
- started accepting patients with hysteria at some point
Method of Free Association
- through pressure technique —> started realizing that everything patients report might be significant
- free association = practice of encouraging patients to let their thoughts run free and report fully and honestly whatever came to mind
(1) came to believe that most hysterical symptoms were overdetermined (=caused by multiple memories)
(2) started believing in unconscious process of repression
(3) detected intrapsychic conflict in patients
—> seduction theory of hysteria ( = all hysterics must have undergone sexual abuse in childhood)
The Interpretation of Dreams
- book: 1900
- distinguished:
(1) manifest content = consciously experienced content of the dream
(2) latent content = originally inspired the dream but emerged in consciousness only after free association - dream work = series of latent thoughts or ideas, which the sleeping mind transforms into manifest content by means of three processes
(1) process of displacement ( = latent content being displaced onto related but emotionally more neutral ideas of manifest content)
(2) condensation ( = several latent thoughts might be symbolized by a single image or element of the manifest content)
(3) concrete representation ( = manifest content typically represents latent ideas by means of concretely experienced sensations, or hallucinations)
The Interpretation of Dreams
- Primary and Secondary Processes
- two ideal and diametrically opposed modes of mental activity
(1) primary process = unconscious and associated with dream and symptom formation
(2) secondary process = conscious and responsible for rational thought - regression to earlier and more primitive ways of thinking
The Interpretation of Dreams
- The Wish-Fulfillment Hypothesis
= all dreams represent some element of the fulfillment of wishes
- sexual scenes reported by hysterical patients father wishes than actual experiences
- concluded that dreams and symptoms of hysteria were also similar in origins
Self-Analysis and the Theory of Childhood Sexuality
- analyzed vivid childhood dream of self
- conclusion: Oedipus complex ( = infantile desire to possess the opposite-sexed parent for one’s exclusive sensual pleasure, and to be rid of the same-sex parent as the major rival for such attentions)
Self-Analysis and the Theory of Childhood Sexuality
- Stages of Childhood Sexuality
- generalized form of human sexual drive, present from birth onward
(1) polymorphous perversity = state that human infant is born in; capable of taking sexual pleasure from the gentle stimulation of any part of the body
(2) erogenous zones: certain parts of body emerge as such
(3) early infancy: oral zone predominates as location of broadened sexual gratification
(4) anal zone: when toilet training begins —> pleasure in voluntary control of bodily functions
(5) gental zone: after having full control over body; zone becomes major source of sexual pleasure - latency stage = lasts until physical maturation of puberty reawakens the sexual drive
- positive identification with same-sex parent as socially approved role model
Self-Analysis and the Theory of Childhood Sexuality
- Freudian Character Types
(1) Anal character
- parents: strict in enforcement of toilet training —> fixation of infantile sexuality at anal stage
- character: orderly in arranging affairs; parsimonious in managing money and resources; obstinate in many of their interpersonal interactions
(2) Oral character
- parents:
- overindulged —> cheerful and optimistic as adult
- underindulged —> envious, acquisitive and pessimistic as adult
- particularly interested throughout life in “oral” activities
(3) Phallic/Genital character
- relative couriosity; competitiveness; exhibitionism
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
- The Case of Dora
- concluded transference feeling ( = patients tended to transfer onto Freud himself)
Metapsychology and the Ego’s Defense Mechanisms
- The Ego and the Id
- 1923: The Ego and the Id —> human mind constantly beset by three kinds of demands that inevitably conflict with one another and that the mind’s major function is to resolve those conflicts as best it can
- instincts
- demands by external reality
- moral demands
Metapsychology and the Ego’s Defense Mechanisms
- The Ego and the Id
- Id; pcpt.-c.s.; superego; ego
Id = repository of unconscious but powerful impulses and energies from the instincts
perception-consiousness system = system that conveys information about the external reality to the mind
superego = moral demands
—> all produce different and conflicting demands into psyche (must sort out and compromise) —> ego ( = hypothetical psychic agency for producing these compromises)
Metapsychology and the Ego’s Defense Mechanisms
- Defense Mechanisms
= other, less dramatic ego compromises that dominate everyday life
- displacement = redirecting impulse towards “safer” substitute target
- projection = attibuting one’s won unacceptable impulses to someone else
- intellecutalization = addressing emotional problems in a strictly intellectual manner
- denial = pretend event never occurred
- rationalization = explain unacceptable behavior on basis of another, more acceptable one
- identification = when child “internalizes” parent’s prohibitions against childhood sexuality and Oedipal impulses
Freud and Watson - John Watson’s Paradoxical Struggle to Explain Freud
Watson…
- rejected Freud’s central concept of the unconscious
- explained Freud’s theory in terms of classical conditioning and behavioristically in terms of habit
- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of the emotion —> Watson’s behavioristic theory of emotions
- experiments with Little Albert
