Week 5: Psychodynamic theories of personality

Question 1

When did Freud form the conceptual basis for psychoanalysis?

Answer 1

1880-1890

Question 2

Outline Freud’s 3 conditions for hysteria

Answer 2

1. Presence of physical symptoms not due to any physical pathology
2. Behaviour suggesting that those symptoms fulfill a psychological function eg relief from anxiety
3. Amnesia of those significant events

Question 3

The technical procedure, is otherwise known as the ____ method

Answer 3

The cathartic method

Question 4

Describe the process which takes place during the cathartic method, when successful

Answer 4

Physical symptoms of psychological distress are dissolved, through re-living the trauma and releasing the pent-up emotions

Question 5

Freud had 3 main questions which relate to the mind/body relationship and the presence of hysteria. What were they?

Answer 5

1. What explains the physical symptoms?
2. How does the amnesia of the traumatic event take place?
3. What are the mechanisms which give physical expression to the psychological distress?

Question 6

Define the 2 conditions necessary for Freud’s obsessional neurosis diagnosis.

What modern day diagnosis does this relate to?

Answer 6

1. Compulsion towards undesirable acts and rituals (physical manifestation)
2. Compulsive modes of thinking eg rumination and doubt
3. OCD

Question 7

Why did Freud believe traumatic memories needed to be kept out of consciousness?

Answer 7

Because they clashed with family and societal belief systems and values.

Question 8

What did Freud believe happened to the energy from the damned up memories?

Answer 8

The energy excites the CNS, therefore an affect is converted into a somatic complaint

Question 9

When the CNS is excited by the pent-up energy from repressed memories, what are the manifestations of this for:

1. Hysteria
2. Obsessional neurosis

Answer 9

1. (Emotional) Affect is converted into somatic complaints

2. Affect is converted into obsessions/ compulsions

Question 10

For Freud, excess emotions which had built up and excited the CNS were discharged as ____

Answer 10

For Freud, excess emotions which had built up and excited the CNS were discharged as symptoms

Question 11

Describe Freud’s Seduction Theory, and the 4 grounds on which he abandoned it in 1897

Answer 11

The seduction theory stated that the majority of people had been sexually seduced by an adult in childhood, and this was the cause of their neurosis.

Later he abandoned the theory on 4 grounds:

1. He had only partially succeeded in self-analysis and analysing his patients. He wanted to explore other possible theories that may lead to higher analytical success.
2. Unlikely that that many people were seduced as children
3. Unconscious processes often about fantasy, can’t be teased out from reality
4. No childhood seductions revealed during severe psychosis when unconscious material floods consciousness

Question 12

If all dreams are wish-fulfillments, why do we dream of unpleasant things?

Answer 12

The true wish that the dream is expressing is camouflaged by ‘the censor’, because the content is unacceptable to the dreamer.

Question 13

All dreams have manifest and latent content. How are condensation and displacement used to achieve the censor?

Answer 13

Condensation occurs via the fusion of 2 objects eg the ship and mother.

Displacement occurs by energy displacing from the true object and attaching to a related concept of idea.

Question 14

The camouflaging of the dream is known as the ______, and was later equated with which part of the ego?

Answer 14

The camouflaging of the dream is known as the censor. This was later equated with the super-ego, the bully that holds high moral ground over all psychological content

Question 15

Why did the client fuse the ship with his mother , what was his true wish?

Answer 15

His true wish was to separate from his mother. This was camouflaged by the fusion of the ship with disliked elements of his mother. This way he could dislike the feeling of being ‘pressed down on’ by the ship, so that his relationship with his mother could be protected.

Question 16

All dreams can be understood through the technique of free-association. What is this?

Answer 16

Free association is the fundamental process of psychoanalysis. The client is asked to say anything that comes to mind without censorship. Over various sessions, the psychoanalyst will pick up on any patterns which emerge.

Question 17

Give an example of some more recent evidence which supports Freud’s theory of dreams as wish-fulfillments

Answer 17

Research using brain imaging techniques and verbal reports demonstrates that the part of the brain that stimulates, and is necessary for, dreaming is the part identified as the ‘seeking system’. This system’s primary function is to instigate behaviour that gratifies our desires (Solms, 1997).

Question 18

Give an example of some more recent evidence which supports Freud’s theory of dreams as wish-fulfillments

Answer 18

Research using brain imaging techniques and verbal reports demonstrates that the part of the brain that stimulates, and is necessary for, dreaming is the part identified as the ‘seeking system’ (medial fore-brain bundle). This system’s primary function is to instigate behaviour that gratifies our desires (Solms, 1997).