Freud: The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality

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Freud The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality

• Dr. Kelley Kline
• FSU-Panama City

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I. Freud1856-1939

• An Austrian Neurologist who became fascinated
  with studying hysteria.
• His clinical observations led him to form his
  controversial, but famous theory.
• Freuds lectures in US (Clark U.) had a huge
  impact on field of psychology.

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II. Basic concepts of Psychoanalytic approach

• 1. We are motivated to satisfy instinctual needs
  (sexual)libidinous energy.
• 2. Unconscious conflicts are forcibly kept from
  awareness this influences our behavior.
• 3. Past events shape subsequent behavior.
• 4. Is a stage theory -Assumes one must pass each
  stage successfully to move on.

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III. Levels of Consciousness Iceberg theory

• 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. Moves back forth easily between
  conscious unconscious.
• 3. Unconscious mind is completely outside of
  our awareness (could produce anxiety if made
  conscious).

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IV. Structures 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 which tells us right from wrong
  (somewhat conscious).

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Life Death Instincts

• 1. Eros the life instinct. Motivates us to
  survive.
• 2. Thanatos- Death wish. From moment of birth we
  are striving towards our death.
• To release this tension, we externalize our
  aggression (act out toward others).

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Personality Development

• Freud argued that personality development- is
  result of conflicts we resolve in childhood.
• We learn to satisfy id impulses while handling
  societal pressures.

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V. Psychosexual Stages of development

• 1. Oral (birth to 1 yr)- needs to be gratified
  orally (sucking, chewing, biting).
• 2. Anal (2yr)-needs met- through elimination of
  waste. Either retaining or expelling feces.
• 3. Phallic (3-5 yrs)-needs met through genital
  stimulation (self-stimulation).
• 4. Latency (6-12 yrs)-impulses dormant.
• 5. Genital (13)-needs met through intercourse.

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During Phallic stage-2 complexes develop

• A. Oedipus complex
• Male child wants to kill father replace him as
  mothers sexual partner.
• Boy fears father will castrate him (castration
  anxiety), so he rejects his mother identifies
  with his father.

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B. Electra complex

• Freud argued that females believe theyve been
  castrated because they lack a penis.
• Girls interpret the clitoris as inferior to a
  penis (penis envy).
• Girls transform desire from mother to father
  become angry at mother for not protecting them
  from being castrated.
• Girls ultimately reject father identify with
  mother in healthy development.

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What happens if stages arent resolved?

• We become fixated at that stage dont move on
  to the next stage.
• The concerns of that stage continue to dominate
  adult personality.

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Handling Anxiety

• Freud argued we need to reduce the anxiety
  associated with unpleasant thoughts.
• To do this, we reject unpleasant thoughts from
  the conscious mind force them into the
  unconscious mind.
• The ego employs defense mechanisms to
  regulate anxieties.

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VI. Defense mechanisms

• 1. Repression the suppression of unpleasant
  thoughts. We push unpleasant thoughts into
  unconscious so that we cant access them.
• E.g., a child who is molested, may suppress the
  traumatic event so that he/she has no memory for
  the event.

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2. Denial- refusing to believe something
unpleasant has occurred.

• We refuse to accept horrible news, even with
  evidence to the contrary.
• E.g., you hear a friend has died cant believe
  its true.

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3. Rationalization we justify the actions or
events that have happened.

• E.g., A student who decides to forgo studying for
  an exam the night before goes out with friends.
  

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4. Displacement- you take out your anger
frustration on a person or object not the actual
target of your anger.

• E.g., After being grilled by your boss, you go
  home yell at your partner or the dog/cat.

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5. Projection You attribute your negative
characteristics to another person.

• When people project their own faults onto others,
  they generally do not deny that they themselves
  possess those faults.
• E.g., Your partner tells you how selfish you are,
  when they are in fact selfish.

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6. Reaction Formation acting the opposite of
how you feel.

• You do the opposite of how you feel to defend
  your own doubts.
• E.g., A person who doubts his faith may act like
  a religious zealot to defend his religion.

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7. Sublimation the transformation of an
unacceptable impulse into an acceptable behavior.

• E.g., Aggressive impulses are transformed into
  the urge to engage in competitive sports.
• Most desirable way of dealing with unacceptable
  id impulses.

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VII. Psychoanalysis (psychodynamic)

• Unconscious thoughts emotions are brought into
  awareness to be dealt with.
• Psychological problems the result of
  unconscious processes.
• Bringing unpleasant unconscious thoughts into to
  consciousness, produces catharsis.

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A. Psychoanalytic methods

• 1. Free Association patient reports anything
  that comes to his/her mind.
• The psychoanalyst listens for links themes
  that might tie the patients fragmentary thoughts
  or remarks together.

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B. Dream analysis

• Dreams have two types of content
• Manifest content- actual events in dream.
• Latent content hidden message in dream.
• Freud thought that each dream represents a form
  of wish fulfillment. The wish may be disguised,
  but it is always there.

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C. Transference

• Feelings of love or other emotions (hatred) are
  expressed toward the therapist.
• These feelings are actually unconsciously felt
  toward others the patient is projecting these
  feelings onto the therapist.
• This provides clues about the clients feelings
  about these other people.

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Criticisms of Freuds theory

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

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Pros of Freuds theory

• 1. Argued that childhood experiences are
  important in personality development.
• 2. Information outside of awareness does
  influence us.
• 3. Defense mechanismsgood descriptions of some
  of our behaviors.