Key ideas of psychoanalysis: psychic determinism, internal structure, psychic conflict, and mental energy
Activity 10-1. Freud’s impact on popular culture
Left Austria when Hitler came to power: Freud was Jewish.
Became a psychiatrist: noticed that patients who simply talked about their problems often improved
Free association: patient says whatever came to mind; to get people to talk about difficult topics
Talking cure: makes thoughts and fears explicit so the conscious, rational mind can deal with them; therapist can provide emotional support as patient tries to figure out what is going on
Influenced by his patients: well-to-do women who often reported sexual abuse by their fathers
Activity 10-2. Psychic determinism
Definition: Everything that happens in a person’s mind, including everything a person thinks and does, has a specific cause.
Things that look like contradictions of thoughts and behavior can be resolved, usually by looking at the unconscious part of the mind.
Leads to idea of the unconscious: areas and processes of the mind of which a person is not aware
Definition of mind: the psychological result of what the brain and the rest of the body do
Modern research: The mind is not neatly divided into three parts; different structures of the mind work independently and can process different thoughts and motivations at the same time .
Activity 10-3. Id versus ego versus superego demonstration
Psychic conflict: the phenomenon of one part of the mind being at cross-purposes with another part of the mind
Compromise formation: finding a compromise among the different structures of the mind and the different things the individual wants
The middle ground: conscious thought and behavior
Assumption that the psychological part of the mind needs energy
Libido: the mental or psychic energy used by the mind
Expression of anger: Freud thought that if anger was not expressed, it would build up over time; research shows that expressing anger usually makes people more angry, not less.
Moral (Victorians)
Scientific (current): Theory is unscientific because it deals with things that cannot be seen or proven.
Two fundamental motives: are always present and competing
Libido: the life drive or sexual drive
Thanatos: drive toward death; based on belief in duality of nature, or that everything contains its own opposite; similar to the concept of entropy (basic universal force toward randomness and disorder)
The doctrine of opposites: Everything implies, and even requires, its opposite.
Example: Some emotion is normal; no emotion makes people unable to love, and too much emotion makes people unable to work
Physical focus: where energy is concentrated and gratification is obtained
Psychological theme: related to the physical focus and the demands from the outside world
Adult character type: associated with being fixated, or not resolving the psychological issues, in a stage
Regression: when under stress, the retreat to a stage on which the person fixated
Dependency: everything must be provided by someone else
needs are not fulfilled: and basic mistrust is developed
needs are fulfilled instantly and automatically: and anxiety is common for issues involving dependency, passivity, and activity
Adult character type: too independent (refuse help from anyone) vs. passive (spend more time thinking about what they want than how to get it)
Self-control: of emotions, behavior (following orders, inappropriate urges), and toilet training; Freud focused too much on literal defecation and not enough on other demands being made during this stage.
Development of the ego: to find compromises between what is wanted and what is possible
Two ways things can go wrong: These don’t allow the child to figure out how to control the self and when to be controlled by those in authority.
Overcontrolled: obsessive, compulsive, stingy, orderly, rigid, subservient to authority, unable to tolerate disorganization or ambiguity
Undercontrolled: unable to do anything on time, chaotic, disorganized, compulsive need to defy authority
Oedipus complex: fall in love with opposite-sex parent, fear of same-sex parent (castration anxiety for boys), leading to identification with same-sex parent; not supported by research
Gender identity and sexuality: figure out what it means to be a boy or girl; develop a self-image as masculine or feminine
Identification: taking on many of the same-sex parent’s attitudes, values, and ways of relating to the opposite sex
Development of morality, conscience, and the superego: by-product of identification; superego passes moral judgments on the id and ego
Attainment of this stage: having a mature attitude about sexuality and aspects of adulthood
Creation and enhancement of life: not limited to children, also intellectual, artistic, or scientific contributions
How the id thinks
Condensation: Several ideas are compressed into one.
Symbolization: One thing stands for another; Freud originally thought symbols were universal, but later realized they differ across individuals.
Rarely directly conscious
Can leak out in slips of the tongue, accidents, and memory lapses
Conscious mind: the part of mental functioning you can observe
Preconscious: ideas you are not currently aware of but that can be brought into awareness
Unconscious: those areas and processes of the mind of which a person is not aware
Freud article from the reader—Lecture XXXI: The dissection of the psychical personality
Figure 10.4 Freud’s diagram showing the relationship between consciousness and id, ego, and superego
Clues: based on free association, slips of the tongue, and dreams
Takes time and can be painful (must be dealt with logically and emotionally)
Patients must be comforted and guided through this process by a therapist with whom they have an emotional bond (therapeutic alliance)
Transference: the tendency to bring ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that developed in response to one important relationship into a relationship with a different person (the therapist)
Criticism: Recent research showed that long-term psychotherapy is more effective that shorter treatments.
Steinem article from the reader: Womb envy, testyria, and breast castration anxiety
Correct answer: d (opposite explanations are possible)
