Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud (1856—1939)

-Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist,
medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early
twentieth century. Working initially in close collaboration with Joseph
Breuer, Freud elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex
energy-system, the structural investigation of which is the proper
province of psychology.

He was qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the

University of Vienna. Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up
his clinical practice there in 1886. By encouraging the patient to
express any random thoughts that came associatively to mind, the
technique aimed at uncovering hitherto unarticulated material from
the realm of the psyche that Freud, following a long tradition, called
the unconscious. In 1938, Freud left Austria to escape Nazi
persecution. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939.
 What is Psychoanalysis?
According to the Dictionary of Critical Theory, psychoanalysis is
1) a discipline founded on a procedure for the investigation of mental
processes that are otherwise inaccessible because they are unconscious.
2) a therapeutic method for the treatment of neurotic disorders; and
3) a body of psychological data evolving into a new scientific discipline.”
Freud believes that society sublimates or channels its unconscious
through the creative process. This is where literature comes into play.
 Psychoanalysis also suggests that:

 A person's behavior is influenced by their unconscious drives.

 Emotional and psychological problems such as depression and anxiety

are often rooted in conflicts between the conscious and unconscious
mind.

 Personality development is heavily influenced by the events of early

childhood (Freud suggested that personality was largely set in stone by
the age of five).
Models of the human
psyche
1. Dynamic Model
In this model the human psyche shows a dynamic relationship
between both conscious and unconscious.
 The conscious mind: perceives and records external reality, it is
the reasoning part of the mind.

 The unconscious mind: is a storehouse of feelings, thoughts,

urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness.
The unconscious contains contents that are unacceptable or
unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or fear. It contains our
suppressed desires, unresolved conflicts and disguised truths.
2.Economic Model
In this model Freud introduces two new concepts:
1. pleasure principle:
-It craves only pleasure.
-It seeks immediate satisfaction of instinctual desires.
-It ignores moral and social boundaries.
- If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of
anxiety or tension.
2. Reality principle:
-It recognizes the need for societal standards and regulations on
pleasure principle.
3. The typographical model
It is divided into two versions:
1. in the early version Freud separated the human psyche into 3 parts:
The preconscious
The preconscious refers to those facts of which we are not currently conscious,
but which exist in latency and can be easily called up when needed.. The
preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently
aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness , easily recalled. It
exists just below the level of consciousness, before the unconscious mind. The
preconscious is like a mental waiting room, in which thoughts remain until they
'succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious’.
The conscious mind contains all the thoughts, feelings, and wishes of which
we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental
processing that we can think and talk about rationally .
The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and
memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. The unconscious
contains contents that are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of
pain, anxiety, or conflict.
Freud likened the three levels of mind to an iceberg. The top of the iceberg
that you can see above the water represents the conscious mind. The part of
the iceberg that is submerged below the water, but is still visible, is the
preconscious. The bulk of the iceberg that lies unseen beneath the waterline
represents the unconscious.
3- the typographical model (the
revised version or the Tripartite
model)
This model divides the psyche into 3 parts:

1. The ID
-The id is the only component of personality that is present
from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious
and includes the instinctive and primitive desires.
-The id is driven by the (Pleasure principle)
2. The Ego
 -The second aspect of personality to emerge is known as
the ego. This is the part of the personality that must deal
with the demands of reality. It helps control the urges of
the id and makes us behave in ways that are both realistic
and acceptable.
 The ego is driven by the (Reality principle)
 3. The Superego
The last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is
-

the aspect of personality that holds all our internalized moral standards and ideals
that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong.
- It is the internal censor, the filtering agent, causing us to make moral judgments
considering social pressure.
- The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all
unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic
standards rather that upon realistic principles
-It can create a sense of guilt and fear because of the conscience’s pricks.

-The superego is driven by “The Morality Principle”

-
 How does the
unconscious work?
1.Freud believed that many of our feelings, desires, and emotions are repressed or held out
of awareness because they are simply too threatening. Freud believed that sometimes these
hidden desires and wishes make themselves known through dreams and parapraxes (aka "
Freudian slips").e.g. slips of the tongue, failure of memory, misplacing of objects,
misreading of texts.
Freud also believed that all our basic instincts and urges were also contained in the
unconscious mind. The life and death instincts, for example, were found in the unconscious.
The life instincts, sometimes known as the sexual instincts, are those that are related to
survival. The death instincts include such things as thoughts of aggression, trauma, and
danger.
2.Such urges are kept out of consciousness because our conscious minds often view them as
unacceptable or irrational. In order to keep these urges out of awareness, Freud suggested
that people utilize several different defense mechanisms to prevent them from rising to
awareness.
3. Dreams represent another avenue to let unconscious out.
What Is a Dream?

1. Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams suggests that dreams represent

unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations.
According to Freud’s view of personality, people are driven by
repressed longings and primitive thoughts, such as aggressive and
sexual instincts, that are subverted from conscious awareness.
2. A dream includes the images, thoughts, and emotions that are
experienced during sleep. Dreams can range from extraordinarily
intense or emotional to very vague, fleeting, confusing, or even boring.
Some dreams are joyful, while others are frightening or sad.
Sometimes dreams seem to have a clear narrative, while many others
appear to make no sense at all.
Freud: Dreams as the Road to the Unconscious Mind

In his book "The Interpretation of Dreams," Sigmund Freud suggested that the
content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment. Freud believed that the
manifest content of a dream, or the actual imagery and events of the dream, served
to disguise the latent content or the unconscious wishes of the dreamer. Freud also
described four elements of this process that he referred to as "dream work":
 1. Condensation: Many different ideas and concepts are represented within the
span of a single dream. Information is condensed into a single thought , image or
symbol.
In a sense the word says it all. A number of dream-elements (themes, images,
figures, ideas etc.) are combined into one.
Condensation can be observed in:
•Two images overlaid onto one-another: “The face that I saw in the dream was at
once my friend’s and my uncle’s.”
2. Displacement:

- It is the shifting of actions from a desired target to a substitute target

when there is some reason why the first target is not permitted or not
available.
e.g. The boss gets angry and shouts at me. I go home and shout at my
wife. She then shouts at our son. With nobody left to displace anger
onto, he goes and kicks the dog.

3. Symbolization:
-This operation also censors the repressed ideas contained in the dream
by including objects that are meant to symbolize the latent content of
the dream. Mr. Appleby is replaced with the symbol of a rotting apple.
Defense Mechanism
DEFENSE MECHANISMS:
When certain events, feelings, or yearnings cause an
individual anxiety, the individual wishes to reduce that anxiety.
To do that, the individual’s unconscious mind uses defense
mechanisms, unconscious protective behaviors that aim
to reduce anxiety. The conscious resorts to unconscious
strivings to be protected from being overwhelmed by anxiety.
When we use defense mechanisms, we are unaware that we
are using them. Further, they operate in various ways that
distort reality. According to Freud, we all use ego defense
mechanisms.
More defense mechanisms:
Avoidance

When a perceived situation creates anxiety, one convenient option is sometimes to

avoid it. Although avoidance can provide an escape from a particular event, it
neglects to deal with the cause of the anxiety. For example, a person might know
that they are due to give a stressful presentations to colleagues at work, and take a
sick day in order to avoid giving it. Avoidance in this situation might be only a short
term option, however, if the presentation is rescheduled to another day. Someone
may also avoid thinking about something which causes anxiety, preferring to leave it
unresolved instead of confronting it.
Fantasy
When life seems mundane or distressing, people often use fantasy as a way of
escaping reality. They may fantasize about winning the lottery or idealized outcomes
of their lives changing for the better in some way. Fantasies help us to explore
alternatives to situations that we are unhappy with but unrealistic expectations of
them being fulfilled can lead to us losing touch with reality and taking more viable
actions to improve our lives
Humor

Humor is a “mature” defense mechanism - a primarily adaptive technique to help us

to cope with tense or stressful situations. Looking for a funny aspect in an
environment in which we lack control to help us endure it.

Somatization
occurs when the internal conflicts between the drives of the id, ego and super ego
take on physical characteristics.
Josef Breuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, observed this in the case of Anna O, who
sought help from Breuer for hysteria. Breuer discovered that Anna’s anxieties had
resulted from traumatic events that had been repressed, but later manifested
themselves physically. For example, she experienced paralysis on one side, which
Breuer linked to a dream in which she felt paralyzed whilst trying to fend off a snake
from her bed-bound father.
Fear of intimacy:

The fear of intimacy, also sometimes referred to as intimacy avoidance or avoidance

anxiety, is characterized as the fear of sharing a close emotional or physical
relationship. People who experience this fear don't usually wish to avoid intimacy, and
may even long for closeness, but frequently push others away or even
sabotage relationships nonetheless.
Fear of intimacy can stem from several causes, including certain childhood experiences
such as a history of abuse or neglect. Overcoming this fear and anxiety can take time,
both to explore and understand the contributing issues and to practice allowing
greater vulnerability.