psychoanalytic

Superego

According to Freud, humans have three main components to their personality that cause us to behave the way we do and make us who we are; the id, ego, and superego. The superego (Latin for "over the I") acts as our moral guide and mediates between the id and the ego. The superego contains the conscience, which makes us feel guilty for doing or thinking something wrong and good when we do something right.

Rorschach Inkblots

There are many types of projective tests, but the most widely used is the Rorschach Inkblot Test. In this test individuals are shown various ambiguous inkblot pictures and asked to describe what they see. By analyzing the responses given by the people, psychologists attempt to understand the person's inner feelings, thoughts, and issues.

Projection

Projection is one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud and still acknowledged today. According to Freud, projection is when someone is threatened by or afraid of their own impulses so they attribute these impulses to someone else. For example, a person in psychoanalysis may insist to the therapist that he knows the therapist wants to rape some women, when in fact the client has these awful feelings to rape the woman.

Free Association

Quick, say whatever comes to your mind when I say the word "marriage". Don't limit or try to evaluate your responses, just say everything that pops into your head. This process is a Freudian (psychoanalytic) method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Defense Mechanisms

A defense mechanism is a way for the mind to protect us from being consciously aware of thoughts or feelings that are too difficult to tolerate. Since the thought or feeling is too difficult to tolerate the defense mechanism only allows the unconscious thought or feeling to be expressed indirectly in some type of disguised form. Doing this allows us to reduce anxiety that is caused by the unconscious thought or feeling. The concept of the defense mechanism was popularized by Freud and the psychoanalytic perspective. There are several different types of defense mechanisms including repression, regression, denial (my personal favorite), projection, compensation, sublimation, reaction formation, rationalization, and hallucination. To find additional information about defense mechanisms go to:

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism where an individual acts in a manner opposite from his or her unconscious beliefs. A homosexual who joined a gay hate group would be an example of reaction formation. Freud believed that defense mechanisms helped us cope with the world around us by letting us repress our deepest unconscious fears.

Superiority Complex

A superiority complex is characterized by feelings of being superior and greater than others. This type of thinking is opposed to an inferiority complex. This was studied by the psychologist Alfred Adler who believed that a superiority complex is a mental defense against the negative feelings of inferiority. People with this complex are masking their feelings of inferiority with the opposite self-perception.

Collective Unconscious

According to Carl Jung, each person not only has their own unique unconscious mind, but also shares some elements of unconsciousness with all other people. He called this shared unconscious, the collective unconscious. Jung suggested that there are archetypes (images and memories of important human experiences) that are passed down from generation to generation. These archetypes can be common designs, shapes, colors, and figures seen over and over again throughout time. For example, Jung suggested that a rash of disk shaped UFO sightings were related to an archetype of god -- he believed that the disk-shape was an archetype of godlike form and perfection and the rash of sightings was an expression by people who wanted to be saved from destruction by some superhuman force.

Ego

According to Freud, the ego is the part of personality that helps us deal with reality by mediating between the demands of the id, superego, and the environment. The ego prevents us from acting on every urge we have (produced by the id) and being so morally driven that we can't function properly. The ego works according to the Reality Principle which helps us direct our unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges to more acceptable targets. For example, when you walk down the street and see an extremely attractive person, the ego, working on the reality principle, helps us realize that it is not socially acceptable to cross the street, grab the person, and have sex with them. Instead, the ego tells us that there will be other, more appropriate people, places, and times to fulfill these needs.

Displacement

According to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, displacement is when a person shifts his/her impulses from an unacceptable target to a more acceptable or less threatening target. For example, if you are very angry at your teacher because you did poorly on a test and think the reason for your poor performance is because the teacher asked tricky, unfair questions, you may become angry at your teacher. But, you obviously can't yell at your teacher (really, you can't!), hit your teacher, or express your angry in any other hostile way toward the teacher, so you go home and "displace" your anger by punching your little brother instead.

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) is known as the founder of Individual Psychology, which emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the role of societal factors in shaping personality. His approach has even become the foundation for the Adler School of Professional Psychology, which makes social responsibility its primary focus in all its curricula and initiatives. One of his most important contributions is the concept of the Inferiority Complex. Inferiority complex is a term used to describe people who compensate for feelings of inferiority (feeling like they're less than other people, not as good as others, worthless, etc.) by acting ways that make them appear superior. They do this because controlling others may help them feel less personally inadequate. Adler is also known for emphasizing the importance of birth order in personality development. He believed that firstborn children experience a period in their life when they are the center of attention, only to be dethroned with the birth of a sibling. Firstborn children also feel a heavy burden of having to be responsible for the younger siblings. The feeling of being dethroned, and the immense pressure of having to be the responsible one, makes them susceptible to developing neuroses and substance addiction. Adler also believed that the youngest children tend to be spoiled, and this leads them to lack empathy. Middle children, who experience neither dethronement or being overindulged, tend to be the most well-adjusted and are more likely to become successful. Adler believed in the importance of prevention, and advocated parent education as the best way to protect children from growing up and developing psychological problems. He emphasized the need for establishing a democratic environment where children feel that they are equal to others - neither inferior nor superior. He discouraged corporal punishment, and admonished parents to avoid the twin evils of pampering and neglect.

Sublimation

Although many people criticize Freud and discount his ideas, he developed many landmark theories and concepts that persist today (I'm not a Freud groupie, just point this out). One of these concepts is a defense mechanism known as sublimation. According to Freud, sublimation is a way in which people can deal with socially unacceptable impulses, feelings, and ideas in social acceptable ways. For example, a person may have a longing to be a banker but has not been able to achieve this goal (Seinfield fans...are you listening?). The frustration with not being able to achieve this goal may be very difficult to deal with and lead to hostility and anger toward bankers, to the point where the person wants to physically hurt all bankers. Of course, hurting all bankers is not socially acceptable, so the person transforms this anger with bankers into building his own venture capital business and becoming incredibly successful.

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is best known as the founder of Analytic Psychology, also known as Jungian Psychology. This school of psychology shares similarities with Freud's psychoanalytic method in the emphasis it places on the role of the unconscious. However, Jung had other ideas about the unconscious. Jung differentiates between the "personal unconscious," which he recognizes as an important part of the normal psyche, and the "collective unconscious", which refers to innate psychological predispositions shared by all human beings throughout history. Jung also developed a theory of personality, which defines eight personality types based on the opposing attitudes of introversion and extroversion. According to him, attitudes refer to a predisposition to behave in a certain manner. People who are classified as introverts place importance on their subjective view of the world, while extroverts place more emphasis on objectivity and surrounding influences. Jung further identified four functions of the personality: feeling, thinking, sensation, and intuition. Feeling and thinking refer to rational thought processes that allow us to understand the value and meaning of things. Sensation and intuition are non-rational functions by which we perceive the world - either through our sense organs (sensation), or by means of an unconscious process (intuition). The four functions and the two attitudes combine to create eight distinct personality types: extroverted-thinking, introverted-thinking, extroverted-feeling, introverted-feeling, extroverted-sensing, introverted-sensing, extroverted-intuitive, and introverted-intuitive. These personality types formed the basis of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is the world's most widely used personality assessment tool used to determine how a person perceives the world and makes decisions.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud believed there to be five stages of psychosexual development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent and Genital. At each of these stages, pleasure is focused on a particular part of the body. Too much or too little pleasure in any one of these stages caused a fixation which would lead to personality or psychological disorders. For example, too much pleasure in the phallic stage could lead to obsessive masturbation and sexual dysfunction as an adult. The first stage is called the Oral Stage, characterized by a preoccupation with oral pleasures such as nursing and sucking. This is followed by the Anal Stage, where the main focus is on eliminating or retaining feces. The third stage is the Phallic Stage, where children derive pleasure from the genitals, and develop a desire for the opposite sex parent. Society dictates that these inappropriate feelings be repressed, and when done successfully, is followed by the Latency Stage where sexual urges lie dormant until the next stage. The last stage is the Genital Stage, when sexual desires reawaken and are directed towards peers of the opposite sex. At each stage, conflicts must come to a successful resolution. Otherwise, it results in fixations that may cause psychological problems in the future.

Inferiority Complex

Inferiority Complex is a term used to describe people who compensate for feelings of inferiority (feeling like they're less than other people, not as good as others, worthless, etc.) by acting ways that make them appear superior. They do this because controlling others may help them feel less personally inadequate. According to Alfred Adler, a feeling of inferiority may be brought about by upbringing as a child (for example, being compared to a sibling), physical and mental limitations, or experiences of social discrimination (for example, having limited opportunities due to race, economic situation, or gender). An Inferiority Complex may cause an individual to overcompensate for his weaknesses. For example, someone who feels inferior because he is shorter than average may become overly concerned with his appearance - he may go on a strict diet or engage in rigorous exercise, hoping that a slimmer body will make him appear taller. If this is taken to the extreme, it becomes a neurosis.

Karen Horney (parental indifference)

Karen Horney (1885 - 1952) is known for developing Feminine Psychology. Her work has influenced how psychology views gender differences. Horney disagreed with Sigmund Freud's view of women, and countered his idea of penis envy, which refers to a girl's reaction upon realizing that she is different from boys, with her own idea of womb envy. According to Horney, both men and women have a need to feel productive. Women are able to satisfy this need in two ways: by being a productive member of society through work, and interiorly by bearing children and giving birth. On the other hand, men can only accomplish this need through external ways, and so they compensate for their inability to bear children by focusing on achievements in their career. Horney's work on feminine psychology was useful in promoting equality between the genders. Horney also developed a theory of neuroses, which she defined as a counterproductive manner of dealing with relationships. She identified three categories of neurotic needs. The need for compliance refers to a tendency to move towards people, manifested by a need to seek approval from others. The need for aggression refers to a tendency to go against people by being selfish, bossy, or demanding. The need for detachment, or a tendency to move away from people by insisting on one's self-sufficiency and insistence on perfection.

Latency

Latency is the fourth stage in Freud's Psychosexual theory of development, and it occurs from about age 5 or 6 to puberty. During the latency stage, a child's sexual impulses are repressed. The reason for this is that during the stage before latency (phallic stage) the child resolves the Oedipus or Electra Complex which are such traumatic events that the child then repress all of his or her sexual impulses. Interestingly, because this stage contains little or no psychosexual development, Freud was fairly uninterested in it.

Phallic

One of Freud's five psychosexual stages of development where pleasure is centered around the genital region. The phallic stage is the third stage of development and usually is between ages 3 and 7. It is this stage where the child learns that there is a difference between males and females.

Oral

One of Freud's five psychosexual stages of development where pleasure is centered in and around the mouth. The oral stage is the initial stage of development. According to Freud, this is when infants will be found putting anything into their mouth including their thumbs.

Rationalization

Rationalization is a defense mechanism identified by Freud. According to Freud when people are not able to deal with the reasons they behave in particular ways, they protect themselves by creating self-justifying explanations for their behaviors. For example, if I flunk out of school because I didn't study properly it might be so hard for me to deal with that I rationalize my behaviors by saying that I simply didn't have enough time to study because I have a full-time job, a baby at home, and so many other demands on my time.

Regression

Regression is another one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud. According to Freud there are times when people are faced with situations that are so anxiety provoking that they can't deal with it and they protect themselves by retreating to an earlier stage of development. For example, my niece was afraid to go to school for the first time (first day of school can be very scary) so she began to exhibit very childish behaviors like throwing a tantrum, crying, not letting go of her mother's leg, and even wetting her pants.

Genital

The genital stage is the final stage in Freud's theory of psychosexual development and begins in puberty. During this stage, the teenager has overcome latency, made associations with one gender or the other, and now seeks out pleasure through sexual contact with others. The sexual contact sought has shifted from the opposite sex parent of the phallic stage (and overcoming this), and is now focused on opposite sex people of similar age. The pleasure that they gain is now through actual physical stimulation of the genitals by the opposite sex.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT

This is a projective test that is used to help people express their feelings in a non-threatening manner. This is done by having people create stories about ambiguous characters, scenes, and situations. People are shown ambiguous pictures and then asked to make up stories about them. This allows the person to "project" their own feelings and interests onto the picture. So rather than saying, I feel really angry, the person may indicate that the person in the picture looks really angry and upset about something.

Fixation

This term has several different meanings in psychology. Fixation has a long history in Freudian and clinical psychology, and refers to when a person is "stuck" in one stage of psychosexual development. For example, if a person does not get through the oral stage of development properly, then Freud would say that the person is fixated in the oral stage and will continue to seek oral pleasures, and will not be able to progress to the next stage of development until the oral issues are resolved. Fixation also refers to an inability to adopt any different or new perspective on a problem. It is similar to fixation in the Freudian sense except that here it is not necessarily referring to psychosexual development.

Repression

When explaining repression, Freud compared the process to "condemnation" and stated the following: "Let us take a model, an impulse, a mental process seeking to convert itself into action: we know that it can suffer rejection, by virtue of what we call 'repudiation' or 'condemnation'; whereupon the energy at its disposal is withdrawn, it becomes powerless, but it can continue to exist as a memory. The whole process of decision on the point takes place with the full cognizance of the ego. It is very different when we imagine the same impulse subject to repression: it would then retain its energy and no memory of it would be left behind; the process of repression, too, would be accomplished without the cognizance of the ego." Wow - what does all that mean? In a nutshell, Freud was saying that when we have memories, impulses, desires, and thoughts that are too difficult or unacceptable to deal with, we unconsciously exclude them from our consciousness (some people like to say we "push" them down from our consciousness to our uncosciousness). This is similar to suppression with one key difference - suppression is a conscious exclusion (or "pushing" down) of these painful memories, thoughts, etc., and is more similar to Freud's explaination of condemnation.

Oedipus Complex

Within psychodynamic theory, the Oedipus Complex occurs during the phallic stage and is a conflict in which the boy wishes to possess his mother sexually and perceives his father to be a rival in love. According to Freud, the child must give up his sexual attraction for his mother in order to resolve this attraction and move to the next stage of psychosexual development. Failure to do so would lead the child to become fixated in this stage. Typically the Oedipus Complex refers to a boy wanting to possess his mother, while the Electra Complex refers to a girl wishing to possess her father. But don't be surprised if some refer to the Oedipus Complex for both boys and girls.

Id

according to Freud, humans have three main components to their personality that cause us to behave the way we do and make us who we are. One of these components, the id, is the part that you may consider that little devil sitting on your shoulder trying to get you to do all those things that feel good, even if they are wrong. More specifically, the id is the part of the human personality that is made up of all our inborn biological urges that seeks out immediate gratification (guided by the Pleasure Principle), regardless of social values or consequences. For example, when you are in a bar and see a really attractive person who stirs some sexual feelings in you, the id is what is pushing you to simply go over to this person, grab them, and ravage them right there. Of course you know that this is completely unacceptable behavior so you don't do it, but the id doesn't care about that. It just wants what it wants no matter what.

Anal

his term is an extension of Freud's anal stage of development (you remember Freud's stages of development, right?) in which a person develops a specific type of a personality that stems from unresolved conflicts during the anal stage of psychosexual development. A person with an anal character typically shows traits such as excessive neatness and orderliness, stinginess, and an inability to be flexible.