The Psychoanalytic PerspectiveModule 44 : 1 The Psychoanalytic PerspectiveModule 44
Personality : 2 Personality The Psychoanalytic Perspective
Exploring the Unconscious
The Neo-Freudian and Psychodynamic Theories
Assessing Unconscious Processes
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective
Personality : 3 Personality An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Each dwarf has a distinct personality.
Psychodynamic Perspective : 4 Psychodynamic Perspective In his clinical practice, Freud encountered patients suffering from nervous disorders whose complaints could not be explained in terms of purely physical causes. Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939) Culver Pictures
Psychodynamic Perspective : 5 Psychodynamic Perspective Freud’s clinical experience led him to develop the first comprehensive theory of personality which included, the unconscious mind, psychosexual stages and defense mechanisms. Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939) Culver Pictures
Exploring the Unconscious : 6 Exploring the Unconscious A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their mind (free association) to tap the unconscious. http://www.english.upenn.edu
Dream Analysis : 7 Dream Analysis Another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through interpreting the manifest and latent contents of dreams. The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791)
Psychoanalysis : 8 Psychoanalysis The process of free association (chain of thoughts) led to painful, embarrassing unconscious memories. Once these memories were retrieved and released (treatment: psychoanalysis) the patient felt better.
Model of Mind : 9 Model of Mind The mind is like an iceberg. Mostly hidden and below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The preconscious, stores temporary memories.
Personality Structure : 10 Personality Structure Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).
Id, Ego and Superego : 11 Id, Ego and Superego Id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives operating on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. Largely conscious, ego functions as the “executive” and mediates the demands of id and superego. Superego provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Personality Development : 12 Personality Development Freud believed that personality formed during life’s first few years divided into psychosexual stages. During these stages the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous zones.
Psychosexual Stages : 13 Psychosexual Stages Freud divided development of personality through five psychosexual stages.
Oedipus Complex : 14 Oedipus Complex A boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. Also Electra complex for the girl’s desire for the father.
Identification : 15 Identification Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent. Through this process of identification their superego gains strength incorporating parents’ values. From the K. Vandervelde private collection
Defense Mechanisms : 16 Defense Mechanisms Ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality. 1. Repression banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness. 2. Regression leads an individual faced with anxiety to retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage.
Defense Mechanisms : 17 Defense Mechanisms 3. Reaction Formation causes the ego to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites. People may express feelings of purity when they may be suffering anxiety from unconscious feelings about sex. 4. Projection leads people to disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.
Defense Mechanisms : 18 Defense Mechanisms 5. Rationalization offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions. 6. Displacement shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or persons… redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.
The Neo-Freudians : 19 The Neo-Freudians Jung believed in the collective unconscious which contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species’ past. That is why many cultures share certain myths and images such as the mother as a symbol of nurturance. Carl Jung (1875-1961) Archive of the History of American Psychology/ University of Akron
The Neo-Freudians : 20 The Neo-Freudians Like Freud, Adler believed in childhood tensions, however these tensions were social in nature and not sexual. A child struggles with the inferiority complex during growth and strives for superiority and power. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) National Library of Medicine
The Neo-Freudians : 21 The Neo-Freudians Like Adler, Horney believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development. She countered Freud’s assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer “penis envy.” Karen Horney (1885-1952) The Bettmann Archive/ Corbis
Assessing Unconscious Processes : 22 Assessing Unconscious Processes Evaluating personality from an unconscious mind perspective would require a psychological instrument (projective tests) that would reveal the hidden unconscious mind.
Thematic Apperception Test(TAT) : 23 Thematic Apperception Test(TAT) Developed by Henry Murray, TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
Rorschach Inkblot Test : 24 Rorschach Inkblot Test The most widely used projective test with a set of 10 inkblots was designed by Hermann Rorschach. It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
Projective Tests: Criticisms : 25 Projective Tests: Criticisms Critics argue that projective test lack both reliability (consistency of results) and validity (predicting what it is supposed to). Even trained raters evaluating the same patient come up with different interpretations (reliability). 2. And projective tests may misdiagnose a normal individual as pathological (validity).
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective : 26 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood.
Freud underemphasize peer influence on the individual which may be as powerful as parental influence.
Gender identity may develop before 5-6 years of age. Modern Research
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective : 27 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective There may be other reasons for dreams to arise than wish fulfillment.
Verbal slips can be explained on basis of cognitive processing of verbal choices.
Suppressed sexuality leads to psychological disorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased, but psychological disorders have not. Modern Research
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective : 28 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on repression of painful experiences into the unconscious mind. Majority of children, death camp survivors, battle-scared veterans are unable to repress painful experiences into their unconscious mind.
Freud and the Unconscious Mind : 29 Freud and the Unconscious Mind Modern research shows the existence of non-conscious information processing. Schemas that automatically control perceptions and interpretations.
Parallel processing during vision and thinking.
Implicit memories.
Emotions activate instantly without consciousness.
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective : 30 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Freud’s theory has been criticized on scientific merits. Psychoanalysis meagerly testable. Most of its concepts arise out of clinical practice which are after-the-fact explanations.