1
Q
The structure of personality -
According to Freud, there are 2 ways of perceiving what personality is made of -
A
- the structural theory
- the topographical theory
Freud developed the psychoanalytic theory of personality dev, which argued that personality is formed through conflicts among 3 fundamental structures of the human mind - the ID, ego and superego.
2
Q
The 3 structures -
A
ID - driven by instinct, pleasure
Ego - controls and reasons
Superego - driven by the right and wrong
3
Q
The ID (serves the pleasure principle)
A
- what motivates us to act, reservoir of psychic energy
- completely unconscious in the physical region
- has no contact with reality
- strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires.
- all of the ID’s energy is spent on 1 purpose - the sole function to seek pleasure.
- is illogical, has no morality - cannot make valued judgements or distinguish between good and evil.
- not immoral.
- its primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, unchangeable, amoral, unorganised.
- operates through the primary process and is dependent on the dev of the secondary process to bring it into contact with the external world. The secondary process functions through the ego.
4
Q
The Ego (the decision making region)
A
- only region in the mind that is in contact with reality.
- grows out of the ID during infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the external world.
- governed by the reality principle, tried to substitute for the pleasure principle of the ID.
- partly conscious, partly preconscious and partly unconscious - the ego is able to decide on each of these 3 levels.
- the ego constantly tried reconciling the blind, irrational claims of the ID and the superego with the realistic demands of the external world.
- when surrounded by divergent and hostile forces, the ego reacts by becoming anxious. It then uses repression and other defence mechanisms to defend itself against this anxiety.
- according to Freud, ego becomes differentiated from the ID when infants learn to distinguish themselves from the outer world.
5
Q
The Superego
A
- formed at the age of 4-7
- represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality
- guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed to the pleasure principle of the ID and the realistic principle of the ego.
- the superego has 2 subsystems - the conscience and the ego-ideal.
- the conscience results from experiences with punishments for improper behaviour and tells us what we should not do.
- the ego-ideal develops from experiences with rewards for proper behaviour and tells us what we should do.
- a well developed superego acts to control sexual and aggressive impulses through the process of repression. It watches closely over the ego, judging its actions and intentions.
- superego is not concerned with the happiness of the ego. It strives towards perfection.
6
Q
Drives/instincts -
A
- operates as a constant motivational force.
- cannot be avoided through flight.
- each basic drive is characterised by an impetus, a source, an aim and an object.
The 4 qualities of an instinct -
A source - the need (hunger) is constant throughout life.
An aim - what needs to be done (eat - to satisfy hunger), also constant.
An object - how this need will be achieved (tell others you’re hungry, cook etc), not constant, displaced and shifts interest.
Impetus - the strength or power of the instinct (thirst after being stranded in a desert)
7
Q
The 2 types of instinct -
A
- according to Freud, the various drives can all be grouped under 2 major headings - sex (Eros) which is the life instinct and death (thanatos) which is the death instinct.
- these drives originate from the ID, controlled by the ego.
- libido - sex drive, aggressive drive remained nameless.
8
Q
Sex, libido and life instinct
A
- aim of sexual drive is pleasure, not limited to genital satisfaction. Freud believed the entire body is invested with libido.
- apart from the genital area, the mouth and anus are also capable of producing sexual pleasure and are called erogenous zones.
- sex can take many forms including narcissism, sadism, love and masochism.
- infants primarily self-centred - primary narcissism. As ego develops, they let go of the primary narcissism and start investing more in others.
- during puberty, adols redirect their libido back to the ego end become preoccupied with personal appearance and other self-interests - secondary narcissism.
- a 2nd manifestation of eros is love - develops when people invest their libido on an object or person other than themselves.
- in infancy, kids feel sexual love towards mothers, with this love becoming repressed. Aim-inhibited love - the love people feel for their parents or siblings.
- love and narcissism closely related with narcissism involving love of self.
- 2 drives that are intertwined - sadism and masochism.
- Sadism - need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on others. Depend on others to inflict pain or humiliation.
- Masochism - common need, experience sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted by themselves or others. Masochists provide self-inflicted pain, making them not dependable on others to satisfy their masochistic needs.
9
Q
Aggression -
A
- final aim of aggression is self-destruction
- aggression is flexible and takes many forms ie: sarcasm, gossip, teasing, humiliation, humour and enjoyment of other people’s suffering.
Life and death impulses constantly struggle against one another. These demands of the real world prevent a direct, covert and unopposed fulfillment of either sex or aggression - creating anxiety, relegating sexual and aggressive desires to the realm of the unconscious.
10
Q
Anxiety -
A
- Freud - affective and unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person of an impending danger. The unpleasant feeling is often vague and hard to pinpoint, but the anxiety itself is always felt.
- only the ego can produce or feel anxiety.
- 3 kinds of anxiety - neurotic, moral and realistic.
- ego’s dependence on the id results in neurotic anxiety, dependence on the superego produces moral anxiety, dependence on outer world leads to realistic anxiety.
- is self-regulating as it brings on repression - reduced pain of anxiety.
- neurotic anxiety - apprehension about an unknown danger, exists in the ego but originates from ID impulses. Experience of neurotic anxiety in presence of teacher, authority figure etc. In childhood, feelings of hostility are often accompanied by fear of punishment and this fear turns into neurotic anxiety.
- moral anxiety - stems from conflict between ego and superego. Yielding to temptation might be seen as morally wrong. It may result from the failure to behave consistently with what they regard as morally right.
- realistic anxiety - related to fear. Unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger. However, it may not always be the case that there is a specific fearful object present.
11
Q
Cathexis and anticathexis -
A
- cathexis - process of investing of mental or emotional energy in a person, idea or object. Attaching ID energy to an outside object.
- anti-cathexis - blocks inappropriate use of this energy.
12
Q
Ego ideal
A
- ideal perceptions of ourselves, how we think we should be.
- ‘i am not that kind of person’ - language of ego ideal.
- ex: the inability to accept a sexual orientation because it conflicts with the ego ideal (social acceptability)
The superego uses guilt and punishment to gain power and control personality.
The superego is not always negative - it helps you to study and achieve, helps you have meaningful and lasting relationships, helps you be a good parent etc.
It also inhibits the ID, forces ego to act morally, forces people towards perfection.
13
Q
3 types of consciousness
A
- the conscious - the part of the mind that is aware of itself
- the preconscious - thoughts and memories brought to mind with effort from the person.
- the unconscious - part of the mind humans have no access to, or access is difficult or incomplete.
13
Q
The conscious
A
- minor role in psychoanalytic theory
- awareness at any given time, only level of mental life that is available to us.
Ideas can reach consciousness from 2 different directions -
1 - the perceptual conscious system is what we perceive through our sense organs and if not too threatening enters into consciousness.
2 - the second source of consciousness comes from within the mental structure which include non-threatening ideas from the preconscious and also menacing but well-disguised images from the unconscious.
14
Q
The unconscious
A
- contains drives, urges, instincts that are beyond our awareness but still motivate us
- we are aware of our overt behaviours but not of the mental processes that lie behind them.
- freud felt that the existence of the unconscious could only be proved indirectly, and to him the unconscious is the explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue and certain kinds of forgetfulness (repression etc)
- dreams - rich source of unconscious material. Freud - childhood experiences appear in adult dreams even though the person dreaming has no conscious recollection of those experiences.
- unconscious processes often enter the consciousness after being disguised or distorted enough to elude censorship.
- unconscious images only enter the conscious level of the mind after being disguised to slip past our primary sensor. When the memories enter the conscious mind, we no longer recognise them for what they are but instead we see them as pleasant and non-threatening. Images most of the time contain sexual or aggressive motifs, because childhood sexual and aggressive behaviours are usually punished or suppressed. Punishment and suppression - create anxiety which in return stimulates repression.
- freud - believed that some of our unconsciousness originates from the experience of our early ancestors, passed to us through generations of repetition. Phylogenetic endowment (similar to Jung’s idea of collective unconscious) - inherited unconscious images. Freud relied on the idea of these inherited dispositions as the last resort. When such explanations were not adequate, freud turned to the idea of collectively inherited experiences to fill in the gaps left by individual experiences. He later used the concept of phylogenetic endowment to explain imp concepts like the oedipus complex and castration anxiety.
- unconscious drives appear in consciousness after transformation.
- unconscious - does not mean inactive or dormant. Forces in the unconscious constantly strive to become conscious, and they may succeed although may no longer appear in their original form.
16
Q
The preconscious
A
- contains all elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty.
- contents of preconscious come from 2 sources - from preconscious perception and the unconscious.
- from the preconscious: what a person conceives as conscious for a brief time passes into the preconscious when the focus is shifted onto another idea. These ideas which alternate easily between the conscious and preconscious are largely free from anxiety and in reality are much more similar to the conscious images when compared to unconscious urges.
- from the unconscious: ideas slipped past vigilante censor and entering the preconscious in a disguised form. These images never become conscious because if we do recognise them we would experience high levels of anxiety, which would finally activate the final censor to repress anxiety-loaded images and forcing them back into the unconscious. Images in the unconscious turn to conscious through dreams, slips of the tongue or an elaborate defensive measure.
17
Q
Defence mechanisms -
A
- normal and universally used
- when taken to extreme - compulsive, repetitive & neurotic behaviour.
- the more defensive, the less psychic energy left to satisfy ID impulses. This is the ego’s purpose in establishing defence mechanisms to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive impulses and defend itself from anxiety brought on.
- defence mechanisms - repression, reaction formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection and sublimation.
18
Q
Repression -
A
- when ego is threatened by undesirable ID impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses - forcing threatening feelings into the unconscious.
- forcing of unwanted anxiety ridden experiences and putting them into the unconscious as a defence against the pain of the anxiety.
- forgetting and forgetting we forgot, we use resistance and defence to keep it there. We have to repress continuously to keep the memories/experiences from emerging to our conscious.
- impulses may remain unchanged in the unconscious, however, they can also force their way into the conscious, creating more anxiety than a person could ever handle. A repressed drive can also be expressed in displaced and disguised forms, with the disguise being clever enough to deceive the ego. Repressed drives may be disguised as physical symptoms - ex: sexual impotency in a man troubled by sexual guilt.
What do we repress?
- aspects of our character we are not willing to accept ex: liar
- trauma ex: abuse, violence
- inappropriate experiences and childhood memories
- sexual feelings for opposite sex parent
- whatever threatens our sense of security
- dark or blind areas about of ourselves.
The ego does not always have a strong hold over us and repression weakens (drunkiness, relaxation, drugs, tiredness, stress and also during sleep). When we no longer feel threatened by repressed material, it will be transferred to our consciousness. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is concerned with uncovering the unconscious - helps people feel safe, they put their defences down, recognising what happens and how they are reacting - coming out of the unconscious.
19
Q
Reaction formation -
A
- overemphasising the opposite of what you feel instead of admitting the truth.
- a repressed impulse may become conscious by adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form.
- identified by its exaggerated character and its obsessive and compulsive form.
- defence mechanism of supergo
20
Q
How can we know what there is in the unconscious if we are not conscious of it?
A
Through manifestations!
Ways how the unconscious manifests itself:
- introspection - non-defensive self-reflection. Observing own’s mental and emotional processes.
- free association - talking without thinking, saying what first pops up in our head. Technique used in Freudian psychotherapy in which the therapist instructs the patient to verbalize every thought that comes to mind.
- dreams - the ego relaxes its control over the personality in sleep so unconscious material comes out. Dreams are the work of the mind during sleep and their function is to preserve sleep. Repressed thoughts and memories threaten to wake you when they come in sleep so the mind creates an appropriate and less threatening dream about them. Leftover thoughts from the day and past memories incorporate into the dream to keep you from waking up.
21
Q
The content of the dream -
A
Is divided into 2:
the manifest content
- the obvious content of the dream
- what we remember when we wake up
- what the dream appears to be saying
- images and events
The latent content
- hidden meaning of the dream
- what comes from the unconscious
- psychoanalysts use dream interpretation to figure out the latent content from the manifest content.
Second purpose of a dream - wish-fulfilment or satisfaction of ID.
22
Q
Types of dreams (Not freudian)
A
- Ordinary dreams
- anxiety dreams - falling down stairs etc
- recurring dreams - unresolved conflict or central life theme.
- healing dreams - messages of mental and physical health ie: talking to a dead loved one.
- prophetic dreams - our unconscious mind puts together bits of info we may consciously ignore and figure out what is coming.
- lucid dreams
- epic dreams - vivid, unforgettable
- false awakening dreams - enuresis (bedwetting)
- nightmares - signs of worry, stress, trauma
23
Q
5 psychological mechanisms operating in dreams -
- condensation
- displacement
- dramatisation
- symbolisation
- secondary elaboration
A
- condensation - several meanings to a dream. A single item of the manifest content of the dream may be formed of parts of several ideas and wishes of the latent content.
- displacement - ego defending itself by disguising the meaning of a dream. Shifting to another safer image. Each person’s wish has emotional tone attached to it, the conscious expression focuses on the more significant idea but when the idea is unconscious and under repression and when it is not affected by the ego, the affect/feeling tone may be displaced to less significant ideas.
- dramatisation - a process of distortion that ensures a greater certainty of the process of disguise. Dramatic, realistic and absorbing - to prove that things appear real. in the process of becoming conscious in the dream, wishes have to be converted into visual images. By means of dramatisation, the true meaning of the dream is concealed to cheat the ego.
- symbolisation - objects in a dream are representations that have a deeper meaning.
- secondary elaboration - reveals defences and projections. The way a dream is narrated also reveals the unconscious and what is left out is usually important. Makes a dream more orderly - fills in the gaps, makes minor revisions, adds etc. This mechanism makes the dream more coherent and meaningful, brings distorted products of dream work more into harmony with the standards of conscious thinking ie: to make sense of a dream.
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- resistance - reveals the unconscious. person is very defensive. Indicative of repressed fears and insecurities. We sometimes resist admitting to having a problem. A mother who states that her kids are too naughty might repress the fact that she has a problem with discipline and represses it because it is too threatening to see herself as an imperfect mother. People who resist intimacy or praise - might have an unconscious fear of closeness.
- parapraxes - small accidents that occur in our daily life reveal our unconscious and what we are trying to repress - so they are not really accidents.
24
Q
parapraxes cont..
A
- freudian slip - slip of the tongue. We mistakenly say something we unconsciously mean (unaware of), something we wanted to repress. A freudian slip is usually the result of an incomplete repression. Non-verbal slips - warm smile, kicking, making a fist.
Mistakes and forgetting -
- a man leaves his ID card behind by mistake at his exes house - unconscious desire to go back.
- forgetting you had a date - unconscious fear.
Freud stated that forgetting names was significant as it reveals unconscious indifference, hostility or association to an unpleasant event.
Things don’t always just happen - there may be an unconscious reason for accidental events.
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Parapraxes cont...
Losing objects - wedding ring, bill, key.
We are more likely to lose a bill than a cheque because we unconsciously don’t want to pay it.
According to Freud - losing something when we acquired it in circumstances we no longer wish to recall ex: a gift given by ex partner.
Joking and humour - an acceptable way of releasing unconscious unacceptable thoughts. An allowable playground for the ID - releases tension and gives pleasure. Contains primary process thinking. The ego here quiets the superego and allows the ID to come out through humour.
False perceptions - we see what we unconsciously desire to see, or what we are unconsciously afraid that slips out. Ex: mistaking someone’s voice - someone you unconsciously wish to hear.
Mishaps and accidents - random accidents which usually are incomplete repressions of ID impulses.
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Projection
How we react to something ambiguous
In the way we fill the blanks to reveal our unconscious - this is determined by our unconscious needs, desires etc which you then project into story.
Projective testing - psychologists use this to reveal the unconscious, revealing the unconscious without being aware.
3 types of projective techniques:
- completion - sentence completion test:
- association - making an association that symbolises you: who are you more like, your mother or father? Which animal symbolises you? EX: The rorschach test (projective psychological test) helps asses personality structure and identify emotional and mental problems. During the test, the subjects’ perceptions of inkbots are recorded and then analysed using psychological interpretation and/or complex algorithms.
- construction - TAT (thematic apperception test) another psychological projection test that identifies subjects’ responses revealing underlying motives, concerns and the way they see the social world.
