Psychoanalytic Theory

SIGMUND FREUD

Born on May 6, 1856 in Moravia

• He was close to his mother when he was young.

• He was a medical doctor and is fond of drug cocaine.
• Married to Martha Bernays and have six children, youngest child, Anna, followed his
calling
• Took up medicine at University of Vienna as means to become scientist
• Interest in neurology caused him to specialize treatment nervous disorders
• Studied under Jean Charcot to learn hypnosis in curing neurosis, so he left
• Collaborated with Joseph Breuer in treating hysteria through talking-out technique “talk
therapy” where he found effective
• Parted with Breuer over the clash of perspective where Freud that sexual conflict is the
cause of hysteria while Breuer held a more conservative view
• Thereafter, worked alone developing the ideas which were to form the foundation of
psychoanalytic theory
• Died on September 23, 1939 in London
• Freud follows the philosophy of determinism which means that there is no thing such as
accidents.
• Everything has an underlying factor or reason why a person behaves as such.

PSYCHOANALYSIS
• is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality.
• The unconscious can affect our behaviour.
• Human personality & abnormality can develop from childhood. • You can treat neurotic
patients through talking.
• His ideas were based on dream interpretation.

LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE

 The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that our beyond our
awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of words, feelings, and actions.
• This part of our mind is inaccessible. We are not aware of what lurks here!
• The preconscious- contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become
conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty.
• Can come from either conscious or unconscious.
• Most of our thoughts & ideas are not accessible at that time.
• The conscious- defined as those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time.
• Perceptual Conscious System – which is turned toward the outer world and acts as
medium for the perception of external stimuli.
• What we are aware of at the time represents the tip of
the iceberg.

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

 ID
-The Pleasure principle
-At the core of personality and completely unconscious is the physical region called the
id, a term derived from the impersonal pronoun meaning “the it”, or the not-yet owned
component of personality.
- is the primitive, biological part of the mind. It is the psychic energy of the sexual &
aggressive drives & hidden memories. -No contact with reality
-Illogical, primitive, chaotic, inaccessible.
  EGO
- The Reality principle
- The ego, or I, is the only region of the mind in contact with reality.
- aims to gratify the id if it is possible. It considers social reality & defends the conscious
mind against displeasure.
- It grows out of the id during infancy and becomes a person's sole source of
communication with the external world.
- When performing its cognitive and intellectual functions, the ego must take into
consideration the incompatible but equally unrealistic demands of the id and the
superego. In addition to these two tyrants, the ego must serve a third master – the
external world.
- The great reconciler, the diplomat and employs defense mechanisms.

 SUPEREGO
- The Morality and Idealistic Principle
- Pressures the ego to control the id.
- It is the moral and ideal aspects of personality.
- It consists of the ego-ideal which sets ideal standards & rewards with feelings of pride
or what we should do
- The conscience punishes bad behavior with feelings of guilt or what we should not do.

A healthy individual must have a strong ego that can deal with the demands of id and
superego.

STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY (THE MOVEMENT)

• Drives – Drives operate as a constant motivational force. As an internal stimulus, drives

differ from external stimuli in that they cannot be avoided through flight.
• Sexual drive – Freud believed that the entire body is invested with libido (energy for
sexual drive) especially on the erogenous zones.
• The ultimate aim of the sexual drive (reduction of sexual tension) cannot be
changed, but the path by which the aim is reached can be verified.
• Can be expressed via narcissism, love, sadism and masochism
 o Aggression – The aim of the destructive drive, according to Freud, is to return the
organism to an inorganic state.
• Because the ultimate inorganic condition is death, the final aim of the aggressive
drive is self-destruction.
• Can be expressed via teasing, gossip, sarcasm, humiliation, humor and enjoyment of
other people’s suffering.
• Thanatos – Death drive

 Anxiety – Freud (1933/1964) emphasized that it is a felt, affective, unpleasant state

accompanied by a physical tension that warns the person against impending danger.
• Neurotic Anxiety – defined as apprehension about unknown danger; during
childhood, these feelings of hostility are often accompanied by fear of
punishment, and this fear becomes generalized into unconscious
neurotic anxiety.
• Moral Anxiety – stem from the conflict between the ego and super ego (should and
should nots)
• Realistic Anxiety – it is defined as unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a
possible danger.

DEFENSE MECHANISM

• To protect the Ego from the impulses and demands of id and superego (which manifests
as drives and anxiety0, the ego uses techniques to avoid breaking down.
• Mechanisms or patterns of thought that the ego uses to satisfy the demands of id and
superego.
• Because we must expend psychic energy to establish and maintain defense mechanisms,
the more defensive we are, the less psychic energy we have left to satisfy id impulses.
• This can result to having a weak ego, therefore weaker control and personality

KINDS OF DEFENSE MECHANISM

PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

 Freud believed that adult personality problems were the result of early experiences in life.
 He believed that we go through five stages of psychosexual development and that at each stage
of development we experience pleasure in one part of the body than in others.

WHAT ARE EROGENOUS ZONES?

❑ from Greek eros “love” and English –genous “producing” from Greek –genes “born”
Erogenous zones are parts of the body that have especially strong pleasure-giving qualities,
heightened sensitivity, the stimulation of which may result in the production of sexual fantasies,
sexual arousal and orgasm at particular stages of development.
WHAT IS FIXATION?
Fixation is the psychoanalytic defense mechanism that occurs when the individual remains
locked in an earlier developmental stage because needs are under- or over-gratified

INFANTILE PERIOD
• Before, people are hesitant to accept that infants sexual drive. Today, however, nearly all
close observes accept the idea that children show an interest in the genitals, delight in
sexual pleasure, and manifest sexual excitement.

STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

Oral Stage
 It occurs during birth to 1 year of life when the infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth.
 During this time, an infant is focused with receiving oral pleasure.
 Infants obtain in life-sustaining nourishment through the oral cavity, but beyond that, they also
gain pleasure through the act of sucking.
• Oral-receptive phase – infants feel no ambivalence toward the pleasurable object and
their needs are usually satisfied with a minimum of frustration and anxiety.
• Oral-sadistic phase – infants respond to others through biting, cooing closing their
mouth, smiling, crying.

They are therefore preoccupied with the

mouth-related activities:
satisfying
hunger
chewing
biting
sucking

Anal Stage
 It occurs during the 1 to 3 years of life.
 The aggressive drive, which during the first year of life takes the form of oral sadism,
reaches fuller development during the second year when the anus emerges as sexually
pleasurable zone.
 Through toilet training, the child comes in contact with the rules of society.
o Early Anal Period – children receive satisfaction by destroying or losing objects.
At this time, the destructive nature of the sadistic drive is stronger that the erotic one,
and children often behave aggressively toward their parents for frustrating them
with toilet training.
o Late Anal Period – they sometimes take a friendly interest toward their feces, an
interest that stems from the erotic pleasure of defecating.
 If children will be forced to withhold their feces, they may develop anal character.

FIXATIONS AT ANAL STAGE:

 ANAL RETENTIVE CHARACTER
 ANAL EXPULSIVE CHARACTER

Phallic Stage
 It occurs between the ages of 3-4. The word “phallic” comes the Latin word “phallus”, which
means “penis”.
 During this stage, pleasure focuses on the genitals as the self-simulation is enjoyable.
  In Freud’s view, the phallic stage has a special importance in personality development because
this period triggers the Oedipus Complex.
 The Oedipus Complex is the young child’s development of an intense desire to replace the
parent of the same sex and enjoy the affection of the opposite-sex parent.

RESOLVING THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

❑ If the conflict is not resolved, the individual may become fixated at the phallic stage.

FIXATIONS AT PHALLIC STAGE:

-Sex Maniac, Sublimation, Obsession for men etc.

Latency Stage
 It occurs at approximately between 4 to 5 years of age until puberty.
 Latent means hidden.
 At this stage, the child al interest in sexuality and develops social and intellectual skills. Sexual
drives are now expressed in socially accepted forms; friends, clubs, school, fun and problem-
solving activities.

 The Oedipal and Electra conflicts are resolved.

• Children interact and play mostly with same sex peers. o Freud thought that most sexual impulses
are repressed during the latent stage and sexual energy can be sublimated towards school work,
hobbies and friendships.
 Primitive drives over the past 6 years develop into reasonable human being with complex
feelings including shame, guilt and disgust.

Genital Stage

 The final stage of psychosexual development occurs from puberty onwards.

 It is the time of sexual reawakening, but the source of sexual pleasure now becomes someone
outside the family.
 Freud believed that sexual desires/urges are once again awakened due to puberty.
 Freud believed that unresolved conflicts with parents re-emerged during adolescence.
 During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong
sexual interest in the opposite sex.

MATURITY
• A stage attained after a person has passed through the earlier developmental periods in
an ideal manner.
• Unfortunately, psychological maturity seldom happens, because people have too
many opportunities to develop pathological disorders or neurotic predospisitions.