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The Psychodynamic Theory of Personality

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Freud s legacy of ideas In Memory of Sigmund Freud poem by W.H.Auden so many long-forgotten objects revealed by his undiscouraged shining are returned to us and ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Psychodynamic Theory of Personality


1
The Psychodynamic Theory of Personality
  • Of
  • Sigmund Freud
  • 1856-1939
  • (Lecture by Janet Jagger)

2
Who was Sigmund Freud?
  • Lived in Vienna
  • Once a physician , later a psychologist
  • A major founder of modern psychiatry
  • Trained in scientific method, but interested in
    hypnosis and the workings of the mind
  • Also influenced by Joseph Breuer and talking out
    your problems

3
Freuds legacy of ideas
  • Psychoanalytic theory devised and developed by
    Freud continuously for over 40 years
  • Freud (1923a 145) lists the essential
    cornerstones of psychoanalytic theory as -
  • Unconscious mental processes
  • Resistance and repression
  • Sexuality and the Oedipus complex
  • Importance of infantile experiences (1925d 145)

4
In Memory of Sigmund Freudpoem by
W.H.Auden so many long-forgotten
objectsrevealed by his undiscouraged shiningare
returned to us and made precious againgames we
had thought we must drop as we grew up,little
noises we dared not laugh at,faces we made when
no one was looking
5
Analysing the Unconscious mind
  • Freuds consulting room - the couch
  • Middle class patients with neuroses
  • Interpretation of dreams, slips of the tongue and
    slips of the pen, jokes, childhood memories,
    self-analysis
  • Developed and refined his theory of personality

6
Some of his published work
  • The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
  • The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904)
  • A Case of Hysteria (1905)
  • Three Essays on Sexuality (1905)
  • Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious (1905)
  • (published 24 volumes of collected works)

7
Freuds Associates
  • Initially worked alone his work attracted a
    number of followers including
  • Carl Jung and Alfred Adler important followers
    before second world war, and helped establish
    psychoanalysis as an international movement
  • they both later withdrew from Freudian theory
    and set up rival schools of thought.

8
The Dynamics of Personality
  • Psychodynamic - movement of psychological energy
    within the person, in the form of attachments,
    conflicts, and motivations.
  • Freud borrowed from physics idea of conservation
    of energy that energy can be shifted or
    transformed, but the amount of energy remains

9
The Structure of Personality
  • Three major systems-
  • id, ego and superego
  • Id present at birth, the reservoir of all
    psychological energies and inherited instincts.
    Id is true psychic reality and represents inner
    subjective experience. Operates according to the
    pleasure principle. Consists of basic
    biological drives, including aggression which
    Freud believed was an innate instinct. Id seeks
    gratification of innate impulses. When ids
    energy builds up, tension is caused resulting
    in displacement, physical symptoms, dreams
    (images).

10
  • Ego second system, emerging in early childhood
    when child learns that impulses cannot always be
    immediately gratified. Ego takes account of the
    reality principle- and it acts as a referee
    between the instinctive needs of the id and the
    demands of society. Holds reins on ids desires
    until a suitable outlet can be found. Represents
    reason and good sense.

11
  • Superego last system to develop. Represents
    voice of morality, rules of parents and
    society,authority.
  • Consists of
  • Ego ideal - the moral and social standards you
    come to believe are right
  • Conscience the inner voice that says you did
    something wrong

12
  • Freud proposed that the healthy personality keeps
    all three systems in balance
  • Someone who is controlled by their id is
    impulsive and selfish
  • Someone who is controlled by their superego is
    rigid, moralistic and authoritarian

13
Repression
  • This is whereby feelings which are unacceptable
    are repressed from conscious thought
  • As a concept it helped to explain origin of types
    of hysterical conversion. This could take highly
    individual forms, e.g. Little Hans fear of horses
    representing his father, said to illustrate
    castration anxiety.
  • Freud explained this in terms of a need to avoid
    displeasure
  • In his 1915 paper , Freud used the term
    repression to describe every type of blocking of
    ideas and feelings, and appeared to equate it to
    defence. Later he described repression as just
    one, but the most important type of defence.

14
Stages of Psychosexual Development
  • Oral Stage 0-2 years
  • Anal stage 2-4 years
  • Phallic stage 4-6 years
  • Latency stage 6 years puberty
  • Genital stage - puberty onwards
  • Concept of fixation

15
Oedipus Complex
  • Freud was interested in the affections of
    children for the parent of the opposite sex
  • He observed that men tend to spoil their
    daughters and women their sons
  • He cited sayings of children Mummy can go
    awayDaddy will marry me and I will be his wife!
  • He compared it to the gripping power of the Greek
    legend Oedipus Rex that it is recognised in all
    of us
  • For Freud this complex was The central
    phenomenon of the sexual period of early
    childhood
  • The child resolves the subsequent conflict by
    identification with the same sex parent

16
  • Freuds theory has been highly influential in
    Psychotherapy and in everyday modern thinking.
  • Some of his ideas have been heavily criticised,
    others have been embraced and extended e.g.
    ideas on grief and depression, attachment,
    defence mechanisms.
  • Some different ideas from post- Freudians, such
    as Melanie Klein (other psychodynamic theorists).
  • Next session looking at defence mechanisms and
    transference which can be understood in everyday
    relationships and particularly those in
    therapeutic/healthcare settings.
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