Psychoanalysis

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Psychoanalysis

• Developed by Freud

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Basic Concepts

• Determinism encompasses the idea that
  psychological events are causally related to each
  other and to the individuals past.
• The elements that occur in consciousness are not
  random and unrelated.

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Basic Concepts

• Dynamics
• There is an interplay of forces in the mind which
  act in unison or opposition.
• These elements ultimately express themselves
  through compromise.

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Basic Concepts

• Topography
• Individual psychic elements are layered in
  consciousness.
• A sort of layering of mental contents according
  to the criterion of accessibility to awareness.

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Basic Concepts

• Genetics
• There is an enduring influence of the past on our
  present mental activity.
• It recognizes the extent to which the past is
  embedded in the present and shapes current
  thoughts, behavior and feelings.
• In accordance with psychoanalytic theory the
  genetic principle asserts that the past
  influences the present

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Basic Concepts

• The pleasure principle
• The idea that human psychology is governed by a
  tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
• According to Freud the behavior of a newborn is
  dominantly controlled by the pleasure principle

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Basic Concepts

• An instinct is a stereotyped response (e.g.,
  animal instinct) while a drive is a state of
  central excitation in response to a stimuli

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Other Systems

• Alfred Adler believed that Freud overemphasized
  sexual drive (the libido) and underestimated the
  role of social and political pressures shaping
  personality.

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Other Systems

• As part of the psychoanalytic situation, the
  analyst listens patiently, emphatically,
  uncritically, and receptively. This technique
  forms the core of Carl Rogers Person-Centered
  Therapy.

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History

• The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
• Freud's view of the individual psychic elements
  of the mind as layered in consciousness is known
  as topography
• Freud's earliest theory of mental functioning
  described it in layers referred to as conscious,
  preconscious, and unconscious and was called
  topographic theory

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Topographical Model

• Freud's topographical model of the mind proposed
  conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

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Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious
Conscious
Preconscious
Unconscious
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Topography of the psyche (unconscious,
pre-conscious, conscious)

• Using an iceberg metaphor,
• The unconscious is understood to be the large
  part of the mind, which is hidden from view. 
• The pre-conscious is represented by the waterline
  - but it is the zone in which there are fleeting
  glimpses of the unconscious, "flickering" across
  the screen of consciousness. 
• Finally, the relatively small part of the iceberg
  which sticks of the water is seen as equivalent
  to the small amount of conscious awareness that
  the human experiences. 

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• Freud also believed that if there was information
  that was too painful for the conscious part to
  bear, that defense mechanisms would act to push
  it down it into the unconscious part of the mind.
  

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• The process by which mental elements are barred
  from consciousness is termed repression

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Freuds Topographical Model
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Id, Ego, Superego

• Freud described a structural model of mental
  functioning consisting of the id, ego and
  superego. These structures were repetitive,
  organized mental functions serving separate roles
  in intrapsychic conflict

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Id, Ego, Superego

• Id Instinctual Pressures (e.g., aggression and
  sexual)
• Ego Orients us toward the external world
  (Mediates the internal and external)
• Superego Individuals moral voice

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Id, Ego, Superego

• THE ID The Demanding Child (biological
  component, unconsciousness)
• Ruled by the pleasure principle
• THE EGO The Traffic Cop (psychological
  component)
• Ruled by the reality principle
• THE SUPEREGO The Judge (social component)
• Ruled by the moral principle

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• The ego is a psychic apparatus which balances
  internal and external realities

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Personality Development

• 1. ORAL STAGE Birth 18 months
• Gratification - Feeding, reduces tension and
  induces sleep
• 2. ANAL STAGE 18 mths 3 years
• Gratification - Toilet training, reaction
  formation may lead to compulsive meticulousness
• 3. PHALLIC STAGE Ages 3-6
• Gratification Genitals, Males -Oedipus Complex
  and Females - Electra Complex
• 4. LATENCY STAGE Ages 6-12
• A time of socialization
• 5. GENITAL STAGE Ages 12 on
• Gratification - sex
• Puberty and continues into adulthood

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Example

• Tommy was toilet trained by age 3. During the
  training his parents would often make him feel
  shameful if he accidentally soiled himself.
  Tommy's apartment is now meticulously clean and
  he is quite rigid in his views and a
  perfectionist. This represents reaction formation

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Example

• A male child's erotic impulses for his mother and
  feelings of hostility toward his father
  constitute what Freud called the Oedipus complex

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Onset of Neuroses

• Unable to cope/develop
• Disappointment, defeat, loss, physical illness
• Current reality is misperceived in terms of
  childhood conflict, and the individual responds
  as he or she did in childhood, by forming
  symptoms.
• Intrapsychic conflicts occur when the mental
  components of the mind are incongruent

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Onset of Neurosis

• Psychoanalytic theorists would hypothesize that
  neurosis occurs due to an imbalance between
  drives and defenses

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Ego-Defense Mechanisms

• Ego-defense mechanisms
• Are normal behaviors which operate on an
  unconscious level and tend to deny or distort
  reality
• Help the individual cope with anxiety and prevent
  the ego from being overwhelmed
• Have adaptive value if they do not become a style
  of life to avoid facing reality

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Ego-Defense Mechanisms

• Repression Regression
• Denial Introjection
• Reaction formation Identification
• Projection Compensation
• Displacement
• Rationalization
• Sublimation

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PsychotherapyThree Types of Anxiety

• Reality fear of danger from external world
• Neurotic fear of instincts overthrowing ego
  (punishment)
• Moral fear of ones own conscious (guilt)

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Process of Psychotherapy

• Transference Patient responds to therapist
  based on past experience
• Countertransference Therapist responds to
  patient based on past experience

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The major portion of the therapeutic work in
  psychoanalysis is thought to occur in a phase
  called development of transference

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Process of Psychotherapy

• Goals
• Tactical goals involve analysis of the immediate
  presenting material in terms of some conflict,
  usually involving the analyst
• Strategic goal is to explain the unconscious
  fantasy and demonstrate many ways in which it
  affects the patients current life.

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Example

• A therapist points out the similarities between
  her female patient's current anger at a female
  boss and the childhood anger she felt towards her
  mother when she was ignored by her father. The
  goal of psychoanalysis this illustrates is
  tactical

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Process of Psychotherapy

• Freud viewed the main task of therapy as
  catharsis, which he referred to as a release of
  emotion connected with painful experiences which
  had not been naturally discharged.

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The principle goal was to make conscious the
  content of the unconscious
• The goal of therapy is to make the unconscious
  conscious, for only then can the individual
  exercise choice

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The unconscious cannot be studied directly but is
  inferred from behavior

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Process of Psychotherapy

• In utilizing hypnosis, free association, and
  other techniques Freud's therapeutic goal
  centered primarily on making unconscious events
  conscious

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Process of Psychotherapy

• Clinical evidence for postulating the
  unconscious
• Dreams
• Slips of the tongue
• Posthypnotic suggestions
• Material derived from free-association
• Material derived from projective techniques
• Symbolic content of psychotic symptoms
• NOTE consciousness is only a thin slice of the
  total mind

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The most significant difference between
  traditional psychoanalysis and current
  psychoanalysis is
• One-person psychology understanding the patient
  exclusively
• Two-person psychology understanding the
  interaction between the two (patient and analyst)

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Process of Psychotherapy

• Distractions by the patient which impede
  psychoanalytic progress are referred to as
  resistance

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The Psychoanalytic Situation
• The patient lies down on a couch, facing away
  from the analyst, and is asked to report, without
  criticism as far as possible, the thoughts that
  come to his or her mind.
• Basic premise bring the unconscious conflicts
  into awareness

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Process of Psychotherapy

• The Psychoanalytic Situation
• In free association there are various levels of
  relevance of the data obtained within the
  psychoanalytic situation.
• Observation (the order of material)
• Interpretation (relationship to behavior)
• Generalization (accumulated data is generalized)
• Theory (clinical theory is formulated)

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References

• Dr. Jeffrey Arnow, Phd