Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud
● Father of psychoanalysis
○ Jean Martin Charcot
- hypnosis → hysteria
■ Hysteria - conversion disorder
○ Josef Breuer
- catharsis → Free Association Technique (fundamental rule of Psychoanalysis)

● Association Technique
○ Cornerstones: Sex & Aggression
● Uses phylogenetic endowment

Level of Mental Life (Parts of the Mind)

1. Conscious
● Mental elements in awareness at any given point in time
2. Preconscious
● Not in conscious awareness but can be
3. Unconscious
● Contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond awareness
● Freudian Slip, Slip of the tongue

Provinces of the Mind

1. Id
● It seeks pleasure without regard for what is proper or just.
○ Like a child
○ Irrational
○ Principle:
■ Pleasure
2. Ego
● The decision-making branch of personality.
○ Like an adult
○ Has access to
■ Consciousness, preconsciousness, & unconsciousness
○ Responsible for reality testing
○ Goes through all stages of mental life
○ Principle:
■ Reality
3. Superego
● Represents the moral and deal aspects of personality.
○ Like a parent
○ Moral and idealistic principle
○ Principle:
■ Moral & Idealistic

Dynamics of Personality

1. Drives
a. Sex - eros/libido
i. Narcissism - love self
ii. Love
iii. Sadism - pain to others
iv. Masochism - pain to self
b. Aggression - Thanatos - destructive/death drive
2. Anxiety
a. Neurotic anxiety
- apprehension about an unknown danger.
● Irrational
b. Moral anxiety
- stems from a conflict between the ego and the superego.
● Consciousness
c. Realistic anxiety
- an unpleasant nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger.
Defense Mechanisms (unconscious)

1. Repression
● It forces threatening feelings into the unconscious.
○ From conscious to unconscious to conscious
○ Mother of all defense mechanism
○ Most basic defense mechanism
2. Reaction formation
● Adopting a disguise that is directly opposite of its original form.
○ Different action than what you feel
3. Displacement
● Takes place when people redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of
people or objects so that the original impulse is concealed.
○ Redirects unacceptable urges to others that can’t fight back
4. Fixation
● The permanent attachment of the libido onto earlier, more primitive stages of
development.
○ Wasn’t satisfied from childhood
○ Long term
5. Regression
● Occurs whenever reverts to earlier, safer, more secure patterns of behavior.
○ Reverts to habits from childhood
○ Response to something
○ Short term
6. Projection
● Seeing in others unacceptable, feelings or tendencies that actually reside in
one’s own conscious.
○ The hate is not coming from others but from self.
○ Saying that others don’t like but it the other way around
7. Introjection
● Takes place when people incorporate positive qualities of another person into
their own ego.
○ If you can’t beat them join them
○ Internalized positive qualities
8. Sublimation
● Involves the elevation of the sexual instinct’s aim to a higher level, which permits
people to make contributions to society and culture.
○ Positive defense mechanism
○ Channeling
○ Substitute negative impulse to socially accepted behavior
Stages of Psychosexual Development
- Most crucial stage in life is 4-5 years old (Phallic stage)
● Stage 1 - Oral stage
○ 1st year of life
○ Sucking and biting
○ Smoking
○ Cursing
○ Alcoholism
○ Oral receptive - too much; gullible
○ Oral sadistic - too little; likes exploiting others
● Stage 2 - Anal stage
○ 2-3 years
○ Focus on control and elimination of bodily waste products
○ Toilet stage of life
○ Toilet training
○ Anal retentive - too much toilet training; stubborn
○ Anal repulsive - not enough; messy
● Stage 3 - Phallic stage
○ Focus on parent/child conflict over child’s personal sexual exploration
○ Sexual desire for the opposite parent
○ Focus on genital
○ Castration anxiety - fear of getting castrated; Oedipus complex and then
castration anxiety
○ Penis envy - wants to have a penis; penis envy then Oedipus complex
○ Oedipus complex - boy
○ Electra complex - girl (not made by Freud)
● Stage 4 - Latency stage
○ Focus on schoolwork
○ Sexual feelings remain unconscious
○ Children play with same-sex playmates
○ Focuses on socialization
● Stage 5 - Genital stage
○ Begins with biological changes in adolescence resulting in the desire for
intercourse
○ Where psychological maturation is formed

Techniques used in Psychoanalysis

1. Free association
● Counter-transference - therapist to client
● Transference - client to therapist
2. Dream analysis
● Manifestation of wish fulfillment
● Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious
● Our desires
○ Manifest content - what you dream of
○ Latent content - unconscious interpretation of dreams
3. Freudian slips
● Not intentional
● Slip of the tongue