Ch 16 Psychoanalysis

overdetermination

Freud's observation that behavioral and psychological phenomena often have two or more causes

psychosexual stages

Freud's theory is still considered controversial today, but imagine how audacious it seemed during the late 1800s and early 1900s

manifest vs. latent content

Manifest content is WHAT a dream APPEARS to be about. Latent content is WHAT a dream is ACTUALLY about.

dream work

The mechanism that distorts the meaning of a dream, thereby making it more tolerable to the dreamer.

Intrapsychic conflict

an emotional clash of opposing impulses within oneself, for example, of the id versus the ego or the ego versus the superego

castration complex

an unconscious fear of losing the genital organs, especially as punishment for oedipal feelings

pathogenic ideas

ideas that cause physical disorders

denial

in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence

regression

is a defense mechanism leading to the temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way. The defense mechanism of regression, in psychoanalytic theory, occurs when an individual's personality reverts to an earlier stage of development, adopting more childish mannerisms.

fixation

is a persistent focus of the id's pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier stage of psychosexual development. These fixations occur when an issue or conflict in a psychosexual stage remains unresolved, leaving the individual focused on this stage and unable to move onto the next.

penis envy

is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding female psychosexual development, in which female adolescents experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of transitions toward a mature female sexuality and gender identity.

reality principle

is the ability of the mind to assess the reality of the external world, and to act upon it accordingly, as opposed to acting on the pleasure principle

pleasure principle

is the instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain in order to satisfy biological and psychological needs. Specifically, the pleasure principle is the driving force guiding the id

Sigmund Freud

the founder of psychoanalysis, a school of psychology that stresses the conflict between the animalistic impulses possessed by humans and the human desire to live in a civilized society.

repression

the holding of traumatic memories in the unconscious mind because pondering them consciously would cause too much anxiety.

Erik Erikson

A psychoanalyst best known for his stage theory of life span development and his psychological biographies

eros

According to Freud humans have a death instinct (thanatos) and a life instinct, called eros. This life instinct is important as it promotes behaviors that help us survive. A prime example of life instinct is sex - can you think of something that promotes life more than sex?

edo

According to Freud, the component of the personality that is responsible for locating events in the environment that will satisfy the needs of the id without violating the values of the superego. According to Jung, that aspect of the psyche responsible for problem solving, remembering, and perceiving.

superego

According to Freud, the internalized values that act as a guide for a person's conduct.

instinct

According to Freud, the motivational forces behind personality. Each instinct has a source, which is a bodily deficiency of some type; an aim of removing the deficiency; an object, which is anything capable of removing the deficiency; and an impetus, which is a driving force whose strength is determined by the magnitude of the deficiency.

id

According to Freud, the powerful, entirely unconscious portion of the personality that contains all instincts and is therefore the driving force for the entire personality.

Melanie Klein

An early child analyst whose theory emphasized the importance of the mother-child relationship and the development of the superego during the oral stage of development. By using play therapy, she believed that child analysis could begin as early as two years of age. Klein's ideas concerning the psychology of children were often in conflict with those of Anna Freud.

Carl Jung

An early follower of Freud who eventually broke with him because of Freud's emphasis on sexual motivation. He developed his own theory, which emphasized the collective unconscious and self-actualization.

Alfred Adler

An early follower of Freud who left the Freudian camp and created his own theory of personality, which emphasized conscious mind and the individual creation of a worldview, guiding fictions, and a lifestyle in order to overcome feelings of inferiority and to seek perfection

Animal magnetism

Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was the name given by the German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century to what he believed to be an invisible natural force exerted by animals. He believed that the force could have physical effects, including healing. He tried persistently but without success to achieve scientific recognition of his theories

Anna Freud

Became the official spokesperson for psychoanalysis after her father's death. In addition to perpetuating traditional psychoanalytic concepts, she extended them into new areas such as child psychology, education, and child rearing. By elaborating on autonomous ego functions, she encouraged the development of ego psychology.

seduction theory

Freud's contention that hysteria is caused by a sexual attack: Someone familiar to or related to the hysteric patient had attacked him or her when the patient was a young child. Freud later concluded that in most cases such attacks are imagined rather than real.

free association

Freud's major tool for studying the contents of the unconscious mind. With free association, a patient is encouraged to express freely everything that comes to his or her mind.

Primary processes

In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the primary process works to resolve tension created by the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is what drives the id and seeks instant gratification of all needs, wants, and desires. When the pleasure principle creates tension, the id must find a way to discharge this energy. The primary process acts as the id's mechanism for discharging the tension created by the pleasure principle.

secondary processes

In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the secondary process discharges the tension between the ego and the id that is caused by unmet urges or needs. The secondary process functions through the ego's action of looking for an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process.

wish fulfillment

In an effort to satisfy bodily needs, the id conjures up images of objects or events that will satisfy those needs.

psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining "insight". The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make the unconscious conscious. Psychoanalysis is commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorders. It is only having a cathartic (i.e. healing) experience can the person be helped and "cured"

Josef Breuer

The person Freud credited with the founding of psychoanalysis. He discovered that when the memory of a traumatic event is recalled under deep relaxation or hypnosis, there is a release of emotional energy (catharsis) and the symptoms caused by the repressed memory are relieved.

oedipus complex

The situation that, according to Freud, typically manifests itself during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, whereby children sexually desire the parent of the opposite sex and are hostile toward the parent of the same sex.

defense mechanisms

The strategies available to the ego for distorting the anxiety-provoking aspects of reality, thus making them more tolerable.

psychosocial stages

The theory of psychosocial development created by Erik Erikson is perhaps one of the best known personality theories.

Karen Horney

Trained in the Freudian tradition, she later broke away from the Freudians and created her own theory of mental disorders that emphasized cultural rather than biological (such as sexual) causes.

displacement

is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.

projection

it is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings—basically parts of oneself—onto someone else (usually another person, but psychological projection onto animals and inanimate objects also occurs).

cathartic method

the alleviation of hysterical symptoms by allowing pathogenic ideas to be expressed consciously

transference

the process by which a patient responds to the therapist as if the therapist were a relevant person in the patient's life