Theories of Personality

Freud: Psychoanalysis

Chapter 2

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Outline

• Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory• Biography of Freud• Levels of Mental Life• Provinces of Mind• Dynamics of Personality• Defense Mechanisms

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Outline

• Stages of Development• Applications of Psychoanalytic

Theory• Related Research• Critique of Freud• Concept of Humanity

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Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory

• What Made This Theory Interesting– Cornerstones: Sex and aggression– Spread by a dedicated group– Brilliant language (Goethe Prize in

Literature)

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Biography of Freud

• Born in Freiberg Moravia (now the Czech Republic) in 1856

• Spent most of life (80 years) in Vienna Austria

• Was the eldest son of eight• Studied Medicine, specializing in

psychiatry; interested in science• Studied hysteria with Charcot & Breuer

Biography (cont’d)

• Studies on Hysteria (1895)• Abandoned seduction theory in 1897 and

replaced it with Oedipus Complex• In 1900 wrote Interpretation of Dreams• After 1900 developed international circle

of followers (Adler, Jung, and others)• Was driven out of Austria by Nazis in 1938• Died in London in 1939

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Level of Mental Life

• Unconscious– Beyond awareness

• Includes drives, urges, or instincts• Is known only indirectly

– Two sources of unconscious processes• Repression• Phylogenetic Endowment

• Preconscious– Not in conscious awareness, but can be

• Conscious– Mental life that is directly available, plays a

minor role

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The Id

• Pleasure Principle– No contact with reality– unrealistic

• Primary Process– Id operates through primary process

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The Ego

• The Reality Principle– Realistic– Contacts with reality and outer world– Comprimization between Id and

Superego

• Secondary Process

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The Superego

• The Idealistic Principle• Conscience

– Results from experiences with punishment– Tells us what we should not do

• Ego-Ideal– Results from experiences with reward– Tells us what we should do

• Superego controls sexual and aggressive drives through repression– Cannot respress drives but order the ego to do so

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Dynamics of Personality

• Drives– Libido or Sex Drive– Thanatos or Aggression/Destructive

Drive

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Dynamics of Personality

• Anxiety– Neurotic Anxiety

• Apprehension about an unknown danger• For instance, anxiety in the presence of

authority figures • Related to childhood experiences

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Dynamics of Personality

• Anxiety– Moral Anxiety

• Stems from conflict between the ego and the superego

• Internalization of parental authority and punitive parental behaviors in childhood

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Dynamics of Personality

• Anxiety– Realistic Anxiety

• Related to fear but it does not involve a specific fearful object

• For instance, driving in unfamiliar city

• In general, anxiety serves as an ego-preserving (signals danger) and self-regulating (precipitates repression)

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Defense Mechanisms

• Repression (Bastırma)• Reaction Formation (Karşıt tepki

oluşturma)• Displacement (Yer değiştirme)• Fixation (Saplanma)• Regression (Gerileme)• Projection (Yansıtma)• Introjection (İçleştirme)• Sublimation (Yüceltme)

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Stages of Development

• Infantile Period (Birth-5)– Oral Phase– Anal Phase– Phallic Phase

• Male Oedipus Complex– Castration Complex

• Female Oedipus Complex (Electra)– Penis Envy

• Latency Period (5-puberty)• Genital Period (puberty-adulthood)• Maturity

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• Free Association– Transference– Resistance

• Dream Analysis– Manifest and latent content

• Freudian or Unconscious Slips (Parapraxes)

Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory

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Related Research

• Unconscious Mental Processing– Automatic, implicit, nonconscious

processing

• Inhibition and the Ego– Limbic system

• Defense Mechanisms– Neuropsychological underpinnings of repression

• Research on Dreams– Activation-synthesis theory

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Critique of Freud

• Did Freud Understand Women?• Was Freud a Scientist?

– Theories are difficult to test– Generated considerable research– Difficult to falsify– Very loose organizational framework – Not a good guide to solve practical

problems– Internally consistent theory

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Freud’s Concept of Humanity

• Deterministic and Pessimistic• Causality over Teleology• Unconscious over Conscious• Biology over Culture• Equal emphasis on Uniqueness and

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