The Psychoanalytic Approach: Sigmund Freud

The Psychoanalytic Approach:Sigmund Freud Mr. van Over Psychology Spring 2012

Contents • Biography • Psychoanalytic Method & Tools • Structure of the Personality • Ego Defense Mechanisms • Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud was born in 1856 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were Jews from Galicia, but lived in a small Moravian village at the time Freud was born. Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939 The Freud family moved to Vienna, capital of the empire, when Sigmund was 4; he would live there until the Germans occupied Austria in 1938

-Jakob, a merchant, had 2 sons from a previous marriage -Jakob is 40 when he marries 20-year-old Amalié (she is his son’s age) -Sigmund is the first of 8 children born to Jakob and Amalié The Jakob Freud Families Ca. 1878

Father was old enough to be his grandfather Father is not very successful in business Story—complied meekly when told “Get off the sidewalk, Jew” After Jakob’s 1896 death, Freud analyzed himself and admitted hostile feelings toward his father Father and Son

Mother and Son • OTOH Freud’s relationship with his mother was much warmer

A Brilliant Student • Freud enters the University of Vienna in 1873 and later, its medical school • He prefers research, but must go into private practice to earn enough money to marry • In 1881 he qualifies for a doctor of medicine degree

The Courtship of Martha Bernays • In the same year Freud earns his M.D. (1881), he falls in love • Engagement to Martha Bernays lasts 4 years • He writes her over 900 letters • “Victorian” romance

Cocaine studies, 1884-1887 • Freud is able to prove that cocaine can be used as a local anaesthetic. "So coca is associated above all with my name" he wrote to Martha • On the basis of Freud's research Carl Koller is to use cocaine in eye surgery, for which he gains scientific recognition. • Freud's attempt to cure Fleischl's morphine addiction by cocaine only results in a substitute addiction. Top, Carl Koller Bottom, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow

Study in Paris (1885) • Freud wins a travelling scholarship to study the effects of nervous diseases such as hysteria, under Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpetriere in Paris A lesson of Jean-Martin Charcot in which a hysterical patient is presented. A lithograph of this painting by Brouillet hung in Freud's consulting room.

Freud weds Martha in September 1886 After 6th child is born, Freud gives up sex for a number of years In 1936 the couple celebrate their golden (50th) anniversary Marriage

Freud’s Children From left: Freud with sons Martin and Ernst, in uniform, January 1916;Freud’s sons Martin, Ernst, and Oliver c. 1900; daughters Anna, Mathilde, and Sophie; Freud with Anna c. 1913; the Freud children with grandmother Minna Bernays

Freud opens his private practice in 1886, allowing him to marry In 1896 he moves his practice to 19 Bergasse, where he will stay until 1938 Fashionable district of Vienna A museum today Private Practice

Hysteria • Freud gives a lecture at the scientific society on the etiology of hysteria in which he claims that "at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience” • The response: "It sounds like a scientific fairy tale."

Freud’s WorkFirst Phase, 1886-1895 • Freud studies hysteria from private practice (mostly white upper-class women)

Freud’s WorkSecond Phase, 1895-1900 • Upon the October 1896 death of his father, Freud analyzes himself • During this period he • Names his new science psychoanalysis • Abandons hypnotism in favor of interpretation of dreams • Emerges with a whole new theory

Freud’s WorkThird Phase, 1900-1914 • Freud studies id psychology and develops his first system of psychoanalytic theory • asdf

Freud’s WorkFourth Phase, 1915-1939 • Ego psychology • Extension and reworking of earlier ideas • Thanatos, the death instinct

Freud Visits America • In 1909 G Stanley Hall invites Freud to do a series of lectures at Clark University • Freud is pleased to find his American audiences have read his works

A Dark Period • Austria loses the Great War (and its empire) • Freud’s daughter Sophie dies in 1920 • By 1923, Freud has the first of over 30 surgeries for his cancer of the throat • Begins writing about Thanatos, the Death Instincts

Leaving Nazi Austria • Freud decides to leave his homeland after • Nazi Germany takes over Austria • Hitler burns his books • his home is entered (and robbed) by the Nazis • daughter Anna and son Martin are arrested for a day Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (center), escorted by Marie Bonaparte (Princess Marie of Greece), and by American ambassador to France William Bullitt, shortly after his arrival in Paris after leaving Vienna en route to London, June 1938.

Charcot used hypnosis to treat hysteria Breakthrough idea Diseases can be caused by ideas Can produce a physical symptom Not just in body, but also in mind Leads Freud to develop the “unconscious” mind Studying in Paris with Charcot, 1885-1886 Professor Jean-Martin Charcot teaching at the Salpêtrière in Paris, France: showing his students a woman in an "hysterical fit“. (Painted in 1887 by André Brouillet)

Like Freud, Breuer was a Viennese psychiatrist The case of Anna O The “talking cure” Traumatic childhood experiences Sexual abuse—real or fantasy Repression Josef Breuer and Anna O Anna O is the pseudonym for Bertha Pappenheim

Uncovering the Unconscious • Free Association—the patient, relaxed (usually reclined upon a couch), describes free-flowing thoughts without editing them

Uncovering the Unconscious • Dream Interpretation—a window for viewing the contents of the unconscious • “royal road to the unconscious” Frontispiece from Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams

Uncovering the Unconscious • Parapraxis—(pl. parapraxes) a leakage from the unconscious mind manifesting a mistake, accident, omission, or memory lapse; also called Freudian slip

By the 1870s the “conservation of energy” was regarded as a law of science German scholars suggested this applied to all living systems and called it psychodynamics Freud took the idea a step forward in looking for an energy system that could power living organisms, including humans Freud called it instincts Instincts:The Propelling Force of Personality

Instinct is the representation in the mind of stimuli that originate within the body a force that drives one to take action When the body is in a state of need, the person experiences a condition of tension The aim of an instinct is to satisfy the need and reduce the state of tension Instincts:The Propelling Force of Personality

Life Instincts • Life instincts—the drive for survival of the individual and the species by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex. The most important is sex (Eros). • Libido—the form of psychic energy manifested by the life instincts that drives the individual toward pleasurable behaviors and thoughts

Death Instincts • The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression. • Aggressive drive—the compulsion to destroy, conquer, and kill. • Developed after WWI • At the end of our lives, the death instinct is victorious

Structure of the Mind • In the structural theory, the mind is divided into three psychic structures • Consciousness • Preconscious • Unconscious

Consciousness deals with reality is tied to your perception of the external world operates on the Reality Principle Preconscious contains material that can easily be brought into consciousness (e.g., 3 x 7 = ?) memories Levels of Consciousness

Unconscious Rooted in biology not organized not logical makes no time distinctions basic premise called the Pleasure Principle ultimate source of motivation always in conflict with society Levels of Consciousness (continued)

Freud’s Iceberg Model of the Mind

The Structure of Personality • Id (“It”) • instincts, energy, aim of tension-reduction • Pleasure Principle, primary process thinking • Ego (“I”) • Reality Principle, secondary process thinking • deals with the external world; behaves defensively • Superego (“over-I”) • Conscience, Ego-ideal

The Id versus the Superego

Freud’s Iceberg Model

Anxiety—to Freud, a feeling of fear and dread without an obvious cause. The birth trauma is the first experience with anxiety and fear. Trauma—to Freud, unable to cope with anxiety; helpless Three Types of Anxiety Reality (or objective) anxiety—a fear of tangible dangers in the real world Neurotic anxiety Moral anxiety Anxiety: A Threat to the Ego

A fear of tangible dangers in the real world Objective Anxiety

Immediate gratification of needs Internally oriented Unconcerned with safety Gratification of needs when appropriate Externally and internally oriented Concerned with safety Neurotic Anxiety: Conflict between Id and Ego Id Pleasure Principle Ego Reality Principle Conflict

Occurs when an instinctual impulse is contrary to one’s moral code. Feelings of guilt, shame, or of being “conscience-stricken” Internal Moral Anxiety: Conflict between Id and Superego Id Pleasure Principle Superego Ego-ideal and Conscience Conflict

Frankly admits the nature of instinctual demands, environmental forces, and the superego’s commands Then, directly deals with problems in reasoned ways Still childish and immature, the ego uses more devious techniques of adjustment The ego seeks to fool itself and others about its inability to solve conflicts by using… Defense mechanisms Weak Ego Strong Ego

Abnormal behavior stems from intrapsychic conflicts • Hysteria • Phobias, obsessions, compulsions • Everyday life expressions (jokes, slips of the tongue) • Defense mechanisms…

Defense Mechanisms • A strategy used by the ego to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by the conflicts of everyday life; involves denials or distortions of reality.

Defense Mechanisms repression • The automatic, non-conscious process of pushing distressing matters out of consciousness and into the unconscious • Repressed material continues to foment distress, producing the neurotic symptoms Freud saw in his medical practice

Defense Mechanisms regression • returning to a previous stage of development • e.g., sitting in a corner and crying after hearing bad news; throwing a temper tantrum when you don’t get your way

reaction formation Defense Mechanisms • taking the opposite belief because the true belief causes anxiety • e.g., having a bias against a particular race or culture, and then embracing that race or culture to the extreme

The Psychoanalytic Approach: Sigmund Freud