Freud: The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality

Dr. Kelley Kline

FSU-Panama City

I. Freud—1856-1939

An Austrian Neurologist who became fascinated with studying hysteria.

His clinical observations led him to form his controversial, but famous theory.

Freud’s lectures in US (Clark U.) had a huge impact on field of psychology.

II. Basic concepts of Psychoanalytic approach:

1. We are motivated to satisfy instinctual needs (sexual)—libidinous energy.

2. Unconscious conflicts are forcibly kept from awareness; this influences our behavior.

3. Past events shape subsequent behavior.

4. Is a stage theory -Assumes one must pass each stage successfully to move on.

III. Levels of Consciousness: Iceberg theory

1. Conscious mind – like the top of the iceberg, only a small portion of our mind is accessible to us.

2. Preconscious mind – material that is unconscious, but can be easily brought into awareness. Moves back & forth easily between conscious & unconscious.

3. Unconscious mind – is completely outside of our awareness (could produce anxiety if made conscious).

IV. Structures of Personality

1. Id – unconscious impulses that want to be gratified, without regard to potential punishment.

Is source of psychic energy (libido).

2. Ego (primarily conscious) – tries to satisfy id impulses while minimizing punishment & guilt.

3. Superego – the “moral” center of our personality which tells us right from wrong (somewhat conscious).

Life & Death Instincts: 1. Eros – the “life” instinct. Motivates us

to survive.

2. Thanatos- Death wish. From moment of birth we are striving towards our death.

To release this tension, we externalize our aggression (act out toward others).

Personality Development

Freud argued that personality development- is result of conflicts we resolve in childhood.

We learn to satisfy id impulses while handling societal pressures.

V. Psychosexual Stages of development: 1. Oral (birth to 1 yr)- needs to be gratified orally (sucking, chewing,

biting).

2. Anal (2yr)-needs met- through elimination of waste. Either retaining or expelling feces.

3. Phallic (3-5 yrs)-needs met through genital stimulation (self-stimulation).

4. Latency (6-12 yrs)-impulses dormant.

5. Genital (13+)-needs met through intercourse.

During Phallic stage-2 complexes develop: A. Oedipus complex:

Male child wants to kill father & replace him as mother’s sexual partner.

Boy fears father will castrate him (castration anxiety), so he rejects his mother & identifies with his father.

B. Electra complex Freud argued that females believe they’ve been

castrated because they lack a penis.

Girls interpret the clitoris as inferior to a penis (penis envy).

Girls transform desire from mother to father & become angry at mother for not protecting them from being castrated.

Girls ultimately reject father & identify with mother in healthy development.

What happens if stages aren’t resolved?

We become fixated at that stage & don’t move on to the next stage.

The concerns of that stage continue to dominate adult personality.

Handling Anxiety Freud argued we need to reduce the anxiety

associated with unpleasant thoughts.

To do this, we reject unpleasant thoughts from the conscious mind & force them into the unconscious mind.

The “ego” employs “defense mechanisms” to regulate anxieties.

VI. Defense mechanisms

1. Repression: the suppression of unpleasant thoughts. We push unpleasant thoughts into unconscious so that we can’t access them.

E.g., a child who is molested, may suppress the traumatic event so that he/she has no memory for the event.

2. Denial- refusing to believe something unpleasant has occurred.

We refuse to accept horrible news, even with evidence to the contrary.

E.g., you hear a friend has died & can’t believe it’s true.

3. Rationalization – we justify the actions or events that have happened.

E.g., A student who decides to forgo studying for an exam the night before & goes out with friends.

4. Displacement- you take out your anger & frustration on a person or object not the actual target of your anger.

E.g., After being grilled by your boss, you go home & yell at your partner or the dog/cat.

5. Projection – You attribute your negative characteristics to another person.

When people project their own faults onto others, they generally do not deny that they themselves possess those faults.

E.g., Your partner tells you how selfish you are, when they are in fact selfish.

6. Reaction Formation – acting the opposite of how you feel.

You do the opposite of how you feel to defend your own doubts.

E.g., A person who doubts his faith may act like a religious zealot to defend his religion.

7. Sublimation – the transformation of an unacceptable impulse into an acceptable behavior.

E.g., Aggressive impulses are transformed into the urge to engage in competitive sports.

Most desirable way of dealing with unacceptable id impulses.

VII. Psychoanalysis (psychodynamic): Unconscious thoughts & emotions are

brought into awareness to be dealt with.

Psychological problems – the result of unconscious processes.

Bringing unpleasant unconscious thoughts into to consciousness, produces catharsis.

A. Psychoanalytic methods:

1. Free Association – patient reports anything that comes to his/her mind.

The psychoanalyst listens for links & themes that might tie the patient’s fragmentary thoughts or remarks together.

B. Dream analysis:

Dreams have two types of content:

Manifest content- actual events in dream. Latent content – hidden message in dream.

Freud thought that each dream represents a form of wish fulfillment. The wish may be disguised, but it is always there.

C. Transference Feelings of love or other emotions (hatred)

are expressed toward the therapist.

These feelings are actually unconsciously felt toward others; the patient is projecting these feelings onto the therapist.

This provides clues about the clients feelings about these other people.

Criticisms of Freud’s theory:

1.   Freud had no scientific data to support his theories.

2.   Freud’s theories (unconscious, libido, etc.) cannot be observed.

3.   Theory explains behavior (post-hoc) after the fact.

4.    Observations not representative of population.

Pros of Freud’s theory

1. Argued that childhood experiences are important in personality development.

2. Information outside of awareness does influence us.

3. Defense mechanisms—good descriptions of some of our behaviors.