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.