The psychoanalytic approach to personality

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The psychoanalytic approach to personality

• Nóra Domján
• 25. 04. 2008.

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Psychoanalytic approach

• Psychoanalytic Approach was developed by Sigmund
  Freud.
• Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and
  a theory of personality.
• The basic assumption is that everything is
  directed by the unconscious.

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Sigmund Freud

• Sigmund Freud was born on 6 May 1856 to Galician
  Jewish parents in Príbor (German Freiberg in
  Mähren), Moravia, Austrian Empire, now Czech
  Republic.
• He studied medicine at the University of Vienna,
  he specialized in neurology.
• In October 1885 Freud went to Paris on a
  travelling fellowship to study with Europe's most
  renowned neurologist, Jean Martin Charcot, who
  used hypnosis to cure hysteria.
• In 1899 he published The Interpretation of Dreams
  
• He died on September 23, 1939.

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Freuds importance

• Based on his clinical observations, he
• Developed a theory of how the human mind is
  organized and operates internally, and how human
  behavior both conditions and results from this
  particular theoretical understanding.
• He favored certain clinical techniques for
  attempting to help cure psychopathology.
• He theorized that personality is developed by the
  person's childhood experiences.

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The main parts of the freudian theory

• The topographic model (conscious, preconscious,
  unconscious processes)
• The structural model (id, ego, superego)
• Libido gives the energy to the personality
• Psychosexual developmental stages
• Defense mechanisms (Anna Freud)

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The topographic model of personality

• 1. Conscious mind like the top of the iceberg,
  only a small portion of our mind is accessible to
  us.
• 2. Preconscious mind material that is
  unconscious, but can be easily brought into
  awareness.
• 3. Unconscious mind is completely outside of
  our awareness (could produce anxiety if made
  conscious).

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The structural model of personality

• 1. Id unconscious impulses that want to be
  gratified, without regard to potential
  punishment. Is source of psychic energy (libido).
• 2. Ego (primarily conscious) tries to satisfy
  id impulses while minimizing punishment, guilt.
• 3. Superego the moral center of our personality
  (somewhat conscious).

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The iceberg model of personality (topographic and
structural approach included)
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The development of personality

• The first five years are the most important.
• Personality development is result of conflicts we
  resolve in childhood. We learn to satisfy id
  impulses while handling social pressures.
• Freud defined five psychosexual stages, each
  associated with a particular erogenous zone
  fixation.

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Fixation

• If a conflict is not resolved during a
  psychosexual stage, the fixation persists.
• This fixation can be manifested either in
  overexpressing or underexpressing specific
  activities.
• This is often regarded as neurosis by
  psychodinamical theorists and clinicians.

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1. Oral Stage (birth - 1 year)

• Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure
• Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not
  handled correctly. Fixation can lead to oral
  activities in adulthood.

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2. Anal Stage (1 3 years)

• Anus is associated with pleasure
• Toilet training can lead to fixation if not
  handled correctly. Fixation can lead to anal
  retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood.

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3. Phallic Stage (3 5 years)

• Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals.
• Oedipus or Electra complex can occur. Fixation
  can lead to excessive masculinity in males and
  the need for attention or domination in females.
  Sex roles are internalized through identification
  to the parent of the same sex.

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4. Latency Stage (5 - puberty)

• Sexuality is repressed
• Children participate in hobbies, school and
  same-sex friendships. Achievement and knowledge
  are in focus.

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5. Genital Stage (from puberty on)

• Sexual feelings re-emerge and are oriented toward
  others.
• Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work,
  fixated adults have their energy tied up in
  earlier stages.

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Eros and Thanatos

• Life Instinct
• Biological urges that perpetuate
• -the individual
• -the species

• Death Instinct
• Destructive energy that is reflected in
• -aggression
• -recklessness
• -life threatening or self-defeating behaviors

The fight between the two instincts determines
every activities and mental health.
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Defense mechanisms I.

• Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego
  to reduce anxiety.
• Repression - keeping anxiety-producing thoughts
  out of the conscious mind.
• Reaction formation - replacing an unacceptable
  wish with its opposite.
• Displacement - when a drive directed to one
  activity by the id is redirected to a more
  acceptable activity by the ego.

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Defense mechanisms II.

• Sublimation - displacement to activities that are
  valued by society
• Projection - reducing anxiety by attributing
  unacceptable impulses to someone else
• Rationalization - reasoning away
  anxiety-producing thoughts
• Regression - retreating to a mode of behavior
  characteristic of an earlier stage of development
  

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Therapeutical methods

• Talking cure
• Free associations
• Interpretation of dreams
• Patients attend five fifty minute sessions
  weekly, usually for several years, working with
  their psychoanalyst to examine and to explore
  unconscious conflicts of feeling, emotion and
  phantasy that are at the root of their symptoms
  and the problems that are troubling them.

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Criticisms of Freuds theory

• Freud had no scientific data to support his
  theories.
• Freuds theories (unconscious, libido, etc.)
  cannot be observed.
• Theory explains behavior after the fact.
• Observations are not representative of
  population.

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Pros of Freuds theory

• He argued that childhood experiences are
  important in personality development.
• Information outside of awareness does influence
  us.
• Defense mechanisms provide good descriptions of
  some of our behaviors.

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Post-Freudian Psychodynamic Theories

• Karen Horneys focus on security ? Object
  relations theories (Melanie Klein, D. W.
  Winnicott)
• Alfred Adlers individual psychology
• Erik Eriksons psychosocial development
• Carl G. Jungs analytical psychology
• Egopsychology - Hartmann, Kohut

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Karen Horney (1885 1952)

• She placed significant emphasis on parental
  indifference towards the child, believing that a
  child's perception of events, as opposed to the
  parent's intentions, is the key to understanding
  a person's neurosis.
• She named ten patterns of neurotic needs, which
  can be grouped into 3 categories
• Move Towards other people
• Have an excessive need for approval and
  affection.
• Move Against Other People
• Have an excessive need for power (especially
  socially).
• Move Away From Other People
• Have an excessive need for independency and
  self-sufficiency.

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Alfred Adler (1870 1937)

• Constructed individual psychology.
• He believed that the most fundamental human
  motive is
• Striving for Superiority
• to improve oneself
• to master challenges
• to move towards self-perfection and
  self-realization

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C. G. Jung (1875 1961)

• Analytical psychology
• Personality typology
• introverted and the extraverted type
• four functions (thinking, feeling, sensation,
  and intuition)
• Personal and collective unconscious
• Archetypes (an element of the archaic common
  substratum of the mind)
• Method of active imagination
• Synchronicity

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