TOP – LESSON 2
SIGMUND FREUD’S BIOGRAPHY
Born in Freiberg Moravia (now the
Czech Republic) in 1856
Spent most of life in Vienna Austria
First born child of Jacob and Amalie
Nathanson Freud
Was the eldest son of 8
Studied medicine, specializing in
psychiatry, interested in science
After 1900 wrote developed international
circle of followers (Adler, Jung and
others)
young, ambitious physician
A scholarly, serious-minded youth,
Freud did not have a close friendship
with any of his younger siblings. He did,
however, enjoy a warm, indulgent
relationship with his mother
Freud was drawn into medicine because
he was intensely curious about human
nature
he preferred teaching and doing
research in physiology
Freud literally dreamed of making a
monumental discovery and achieving
fame
childhood sexual experiences were the
source of adult hysteria - Studies on
Hysteria turned into Psychoanalysis
1884
• discovered a drug - used
successfully to energize soldiers
suffering from near exhaustion
• the drug had a pleasant aroma
and an unusual effect on the lips
and mouth
• wild man, feeling the effects of
the drug
• young doctor wrote a pamphlet
extolling the benefits of the drug
• cocaine
1890s, Freud suffered both professional
isolation and personal crises
Freud regarded himself as his own best
patient.
his realization that he was now middle-
aged and had yet to achieve the fame
he so passionately desired.
at midlife, Freud was suffering from self-
doubts, depression, and an obsession
with his own death
OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOANALYTIC
THEORY
twin cornerstones of psychoanalysis,
sex, and aggression
Freud’s understanding of human
personality was based on his
experiences with patients, his analysis
of his own dreams, and his vast
readings in the various sciences and 3 Levels of the Mind
humanities
• Unconscious
theory followed observation o For example, a man may
know that he is attracted to
Freud relied more on deductive
a woman but may not fully
reasoning
understand all the reasons
for the attraction, some of
which may even seem
WHY DID FREUD HAVE
irrational
DIFFICULTIES WITH SO MANY
o Freud believed that
FORMER FRIENDS?
childhood experiences can
Freud himself answered the question, appear in adult dreams
stating that “it is not the scientific even though the dreamer
differences that are so important; it is has no conscious
usually some other kind of animosity recollection of these
(hatred/dislike), jealousy, or revenge experiences
that gives the impulse to enmity (mutual • Preconscious
hatred)” o contents of the
preconscious come from
Freud was a sensitive, passionate
two sources
person who had the capacity for
▪ conscious
intimate, almost secretive friendships.
perception
▪ unconscious
LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE • Conscious
o Ideas can reach
Freud’s greatest contribution to consciousness from two
personality theory is his exploration of different directions
the unconscious and his insistence that ▪ Perceptual
people are motivated primarily by drives conscious system
of which they have little or no awareness ▪ Mental structure
three levels of mental life are used to
designate both a process and a location
merely hypothetical and has no real
existence within the body
 • Ego
o As children begin to
experience parental
rewards and punishment,
they learn what to do in
order to gain pleasure and
avoid pain.
o what they should and
should not do.
o must serve a third master

• Superego
o 2 subsystems
▪ conscience
▪ ego-ideal
o it has no contact with the
PROVINCES OF THE MIND outside world and
therefore is unrealistic
three-part structural model
o not sharp and well defined
merely hypothetical constructs

• Id
o A newborn infant is the
personification of the Id.
The infant seeks
gratification of needs
without regard for what is
possible
o is illogical and can
simultaneously entertain
incompatible ideas
o is primitive, chaotic,
inaccessible to
consciousness,
unchangeable, amoral,
illogical, unorganized, and
filled with energy received
from basic drives
DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY • Repression
• Reaction Formation
Drives
• Displacement
• 2 major headings: • Fixation
o Sex or Eros (Libido) • Regression
▪ The ultimate aim of • Projection
the sexual drive • Introjection
(reduction of sexual • Sublimation
tension) cannot be
changed Too much use of defense mechanism
▪ can take many can lead to psychopathology.
forms, including all defense mechanisms protect the ego
narcissism, love, against anxiety
sadism, and
masochism
o Aggression or Thanatos STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
• Characterization of Impetus
o Impetus developmental theory
o Source 3 primary erogenous Zones
o Aim
o Object • Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
3 KINDS OF ANXIETY
Psychosexual Stages
are seldom clear-cut or easily separated
Infantile Period
• Neurotic Anxiety
• first 4 or 5 years of life
• Moral Anxiety
• most crucial for personality
• Reality Anxiety
formation.
• an interest in the genitals, delight
in sexual pleasure, and manifest
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
sexual excitement.
Freud first elaborated on the idea of
defense mechanisms in 1926 and his
daughter Anna Freud further redefined • Oral phase
and organized the concept. o As they grow older,
however, they are more
the more defensive we are, the less
likely to experience
psychic energy we have left to satisfy id
feelings of frustration and
impulses
anxiety
 o As they become adults,
they are capable of
gratifying their oral needs
in a variety of ways,
including sucking candy,
chewing gum, biting
pencils, overeating,
smoking cigarettes, pipes
and cigars and sarcastic
remarks
• Anal Phase
o Harsh or lenient toilet
training can make a child
either Anal Retentive or
Anal Expulsive
• Phallic Phase
Latency Period
Genital Period
Maturity
• their ego functioning in the center
of an ever-expanding world of
consciousness
APPLICATIONS OF
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Freud was an innovative speculator,
probably more concerned with theory
building than with treating sick people
FREUD’S EARLY THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUE
Freud became increasingly convinced
that neurotic symptoms were related to
childhood fantasies rather than to
material reality, and he gradually
adopted a more passive
psychotherapeutic technique
FREUD’S LATER THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUE
The primary goal of Freud’s later
psychoanalytic therapy was to uncover
repressed memories through free
association and dream analysis
• Free Association
o transference and
resistance
• Dream Analysis
o dreams are wish
fulfilments
o Freud believed that
dreams are formed in the
unconscious but try to
work their way into the
conscious.
o In interpreting dreams,
Freud (1917/1963)
ordinarily followed one of
two methods.
▪ The first was to ask
patients to relate
their dream and all
their associations to
it
 ▪ Freud used a
second method—
dream symbols—to
discover the
unconscious
elements underlying
the manifest
content.
• Freudian Slips
o Freud believed that many
everyday slips of the
tongue or pen, misreading,
incorrect hearing,
misplacing objects, and
temporarily forgetting
names or intentions are
not chance accidents but
reveal a person’s
unconscious intentions.
SEVERAL LIMITATIONS OF
PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT
Not all old memories can or should be
brought into consciousness
Treatment is not effective with
psychoses or with constitutional
illnesses as it is with phobias, hysterias,
and obsessions.
A patient once cured, may later develop
another psychic problem.
CRITERIA OF EVALUATION
- generate research
o researchers have
conducted studies that
relate either directly or
indirectly to psychoanalytic
theory
- low on its openness to
falsification
o much of the research
evidence consistent with
Freud’s ideas can also be
explained by other models,
Freudian theory is nearly
impossible to falsify
- very loose organizational
framework
o is so loose and flexible that
seemingly inconsistent
data can coexist within its
boundaries
- not a good guide to solve
practical problems
o Freudian theory is
unusually comprehensive,
many psycho analytically
trained practitioners rely
on it to find solutions to
practical day-to-day
- low on internal consistency
o Psychoanalysis is an
internally consistent
theory, if one remembers
that Freud wrote over a
period of more than 40
years and gradually
altered the meaning of
some concepts during that
time.
 - theories are difficult to test - unconscious over conscious
o some words are not o unconscious motivation.
operationally defined Freud believed that
o needlessly cumbersome everything from slips of the
tongue to religious
experiences is the result of
CONCEPT OF HUMANITY a deep-rooted desire to
satisfy sexual or
- deterministic
aggressive drives
o Humans have little control
- biology over culture
over their present actions
o Because Freud believed
because many of their
that many infantile
behaviors are rooted in
fantasies and anxieties are
unconscious strivings that
rooted in biology
lie beyond present
- equal emphasis on uniqueness
awareness
and similarity
- Pessimistic
o Humanity’s evolutionary
o we come into the world in
past gives rise to a great
a basic state of conflict,
many similarities among
with life and death forces
people. Nevertheless,
operating on us from
individual experiences,
opposing sides
especially those of early
- causality over teleology
childhood, shape people in
o Freud believed that
a somewhat unique
present behavior is mostly
manner and account for
shaped by past causes
many of the differences
rather than by people’s
among personalities.
goals for the future