Psychoanalytic Theory

Presented By-

Jasleen Kaur Brar

Introduction Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) born in

Vienna was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud developed the best-known theory of personality focused upon internal growth or psychodynamics’. The theory stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires and motivation on thoughts and behavior. Freud psychoanalysis became both a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic theory has three major parts:

A theory of the structure of personality, in which the id, ego and superego are the principal parts.

A theory of personality dynamics, in which conscious and unconscious motivation and ego- defense mechanisms play a major role.

A theory of psychosexual development, in which different motives and body regions influence the child at different stages of growth, with effects persisting in the form of adult personality traits.

Structure of personality: 

Freud thought of personality as being based upon a structure of three parts: the id, the ego and the superego.

ID – Pleasure

EGO – Reality

SUPEREGO – For perfection/ideal

Psycho Analytic Model

ID (primitive, instinctive component of personality) – Latin word of Id is ‘It’ Id is the original source of personality,

which is present in a newborn. The Id, the most primitive part, can be thought of as a sort

of storehouse of biologically based urges: to eat, drink, eliminate, and especially, to be sexually stimulated.

The sexual energy that underlies these urges is called the libido.

Id is present in the deepest level of the unconscious and represents the inner world of subjective experience.

It is unconcerned with objective reality and is unaffected by the environment Id is completely selfish; concerned with immediate gratification of instinctual needs, and the biological drives, like hunger, sex.

The id operates according to the pleasure principle, seeking to reduce tension, avoid pain, and obtain pleasure. In a formal gathering if a person is feeling very hungry and may start eating without the formal invitation for starting the meal or a student may start eating his lunch in the class when the teacher is teaching disregarding his classroom act as Id.

The pleasure principle attempts to reduce tension by wish fulfillment. In other words, it is referred to as primary process thinking. Whatever comes first in the person’s mind, he or she wants to satisfy that desire immediately.

If the demands of Id are blocked for a longer time, frustrations occur.

Ego (the decision-making component) – The Latin word of ego is ‘I’ which means ‘self’. The ego acts as a mediator or balancer between the demands

of Id and superego. Ego is based on the Reality Principle. Ego delays the discharge of tension. It postponed the desires.

This adaptive measure of Ego is refereed as secondary process thinking.

Process Thinking – Ego waits for the right moment for the satisfaction of desire, whereas id satisfies desires immediately.

Ego develops from Id and works for Id. Ego is an executive, which mediate between the demands of id and realities of world and demands of super ego

Functions of Ego – Control and regulation of instinctual derives.Relation to reality

o Sense of realityo Reality testingo Adaptation to reality

Primary autonomous functiono Perceptiono Thinkingo Speakingo IQo Memory

Intuition

Superego (the moral component ) – It is ideal rather than real. The superego is that part of personality that represents

internalized value, ideals and moral attitude of society. It is outgrowth of learning the taboos and moral values

of society. It is refer to conscience and is concerned with right and wrong.

It inhabits the ID desires. Sex and aggressive superego operates through the ego system and compel the ego to inhibit desires that are considering wrong or immoral.

Its psychiatric function is expresses as guilt, self-criticism and consciences.

Rewarding functions – ego ideal- superego develops with Oedipus complex. It strives for perfection. It is society himself. It is extreme of Id and it is for self-preservation by society norms.

Consciences: negative part of superego. It is developed by punishment, lack of reward, conditioning of childhood brings conscience. It gives guilt and self-criticism. Child takes or interjects the moral standards of parents.

Ego Ideal: It is rewarding function of superego. It is by positive reinforcement for i.e. copy, menu rimes of father or any beloved person.

Example

LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Conscious level

Preconscious level

Unconscious part

Conscious level, which relates to the awareness of an individual to his environment.

It function when the individual is awake. It is concerned with thought, feelings and sensations,

memory, IQ. Conscious as sense organ of attention. It is only 1/9 of total mind.

Through attention, person becomes conscious of perceptual stimuli from the outside world within the organism.

Only elements in pre conscious enter consciousness. It is one-way traffic to unconscious mind.

Conscious part of mind is aware of here and now as it relates individual and his environment.

Preconscious level is described as that part of mind in which ideas and reactions are stored and partially forgotten.

It also acts as a watchman because it prevents certain painful, unpleasant, unacceptable, distributing unconscious memories from reaching the conscious mind.

Slip of tongue, slip of pen. Preconscious region of mind is not present at birth but develops in childhood. It is accessible to both unconscious and conscious mind.

Elements of unconscious mind are accessible to conscious through preconscious. So, it works as censor for a person’s wishes and desires.

It is associated with mental activity i.e. secondary process of thinking. Aims of secondary thinking are to avoid unpleasantness and delaying instinctual discharge.

It respects logical connection. It is associated with reality principle. It works accordingly demands of external reality and person’s moral values etc.

Unconscious part is the largest part of mind (9/10).

It is hidden part of iceberg that floats under water. It contains repressed ideas and affects.

Elements of unconscious mind are in accessible to consciousness.

They become conscious only through preconscious mind. Repressed ideas may reach to consciousness when censor is over powered or relaxed (dream state).

It is storehouse for all the memories, feelings and responses experienced by the individual during his entire life.

Unconscious is associated with particular form of mental activities that is primary process – with fulfillment and instinctual discharge.

It is associated with pleasure principle. Primary process thinking has no conception of time, logic, circumstances and needs immediate gratification of their desires, which is very common in infancy.

Memories in unconscious mind lose their connection with verbal expressions.

They can reach consciousness once words are reapplied to forgotten memory.

Psychosexual DevelopmentFreud believed that personality develops through

a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior.

If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur.

According to Freud, all human being pass through a series of five psychosexual stages:

Oral stage 0 to 2 years – During the first year of life the mouth is the principal organ. Gratification is by sucking the breast of mother and bottle.

Anal stage 2 to 3 years – Membranes of the anal region provide pleasure. Not passing fecal matter also gives pleasure to the child.

Phallic stage 3 to 6 years – self-manipulation of the genital organs; the child also identifies group to which he belongs’; what is the difference between him and his younger sister.

Latency stage of 6 to 12 years – this is a stage of psychosexual development when overt sexual interest is repressed and sublimated. The child’s attention is focused on learning skills and other peer activities.

Genital stage – This is the final stage of psychosexual development reached in puberty when the deepest feelings of pleasure are said to come from heterosexual relations.

Freud believed that gratification during each stage in important if the individual is not to be fixated at that level.

A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage.

For example, a person who is fixated at the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating.

A person fixated at the anal stage may be abnormally concerned with cleanliness and orderliness.

Development of Personality:First 6 years in a child’s life contribute the most to

personality development. These years provide the foundation for future patterns of behavior.

1-Infancy -0 year to 18 months

Freud called it as oral stage because child’s libidinal energy is focused on his oral cavity.

Infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and sucking reflex is especially important.

Singular focus on self is referred as primary narcissism means self-love. 1st few months infant is not able to differentiate between him and environment.

He feels that he causes all that happens to him. This feeling of being all-powerful is called Omnipotence.

He is bundle of Id impulses. When need arises, tension is raised and he gets relief from this tension by using his mouth, lips and tongue to cry, suck and swallow. These activities give him pleasures.

Infant is depended on mother that meets his need for sucking and gets milk to swallow so his raised tension, which was caused by hunger, is over. Accidentally he finds his thumb and discovers that he can meet his need of sucking himself. Sucking his own thumb gives him pleasure but it also gives experience that it is different from mother. Through this simple realization infant differentiate himself from environment. So ego develops.

With weaning child is forced to recognize reality and its demands. When weaning start, infant receives less oral satisfaction. When cup or solid food is substituted for the breast or bottle, infant feels frustration. He reacts to it in an aggressive, destructive way and begins to bite.

He may seek symbolic oral gratification by sucking and biting others, teeth provides tool for oral aggression because love and food are given simultaneously during oral period.

Oral needs become synonyms with protective love and security by closed mother child relationship. When child gets love and food by loving mother unconditionally, he learns to trust her.

Basic sense of trust in mother starts which is a basis for future trusting relationship.

If child’s experience with mother is anxious and conditional he learns to mistrust her. So this basic mistrust gives paranoid idea in adult hood.

Maternal Depression cause personality disorderMask mothering or rejection cause

schizophrenia in later life.Oral fixation personality relieves their tension

by excessive eating or drinking alcohol so they become drunkard.

Mistrust cause suspicious nature and paranoid personality disorder.

2-Early Childhood:

Anal phase/(1 year to 3 year). Freud called it as anal phase because libidinal energy shifts from oral cavity to anus and urethra. Child gratifies his love of self with the pleasurable sensation involved in evacuation of bladder and bowel without restriction. He drives his greatest pleasure from anus and urethra.

Superego develops when mother begins to insist that child should have certain control regarding toileting. He faces his 1st major frustration of his Id drives. To retain the love of his mother the child must learn to post-pone the immediate pleasure of urinating or evacuation until appropriate time and place are available. Child starts having ambivalent feelings towards her. If his toilet training is very strict and mother insists him to be clean he may grow up to be compulsive or dissolve his anxiety by reaction formation and become very untidy and unconcerned about cleanliness in his adult life.

According to Freud, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative outcomes. Rigid toilet training include stubbornness, excessive concern with bowel function and sadistic.

Strict toilet training gives rise to O.C.N. personality, perfectionist, stubborn, sadistic etc. If parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could develop in which the individual has a messy, wasteful or destructive personality.

If parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early, Freud believed that an anal-retentive personality develops in which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid and obsessive.

3-Later childhood –Phallic stage (3-6year)Freud called this period the phallic stage. Pleasurable sensations shifted from mouth and excretory

organs to the genitalia and child begins to identify with parents of same sex and wishes to replace that parent in family situation.

They begin to examine their own bodies and others. They get pleasure sensation from manipulation of penis or clitoris.

Difference between sexual structure of men and woman is of great interest to them. They feel that girl has lost that organ. Anxiety about loss of sex organs developed. It is called Castration anxiety.

A little girl notice that she has no penis and concludes that she has lost it or it has been taken away. This attitude is called penis envy. It is sometime basic to the problems of sibling rivalry.

Little boy begins to feel very possessive towards mother. He wants her for himself and resents the close tie that he feels exists between his mother and father. He develops competitive feeling towards his father and tries to become a rival with him for his mother’s love. But father figure is great opponent and child has fear of him. This situation is called Oedipus complex. He fears that father may punish him.

So he resolves this anxiety by becoming like his father, he can get mother’s love and attention. He begins to take on masculine behaviour of his father. This is called identification.

Similarly little girl begins to identify with feminine role. If there is arrival of another child if increase their problems. Sibling rivalry usually develops. Super ego development also develops at its height.

4- Latency- 6-12 yrs

Freud refers it as latency stage. During the latent period, the libido interests are suppressed. The development of the ego and superego contribute to this

period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter into

school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies and other interests.

The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions.

This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence. Temporary intra- psychic equilibrium established by id, ego and super ego.

5-Puberty/ adolescence/ genital stage 12-18Sexual glands are developing in this stage. Libidinal energy is focused on genital organs. Satisfactory hetrosexual relationship with a mate

should develop. It is a problematic stage of personality. He is drawn

towards parents and driven away from parent, which cause ambivalence, which comes in the form of conflict.

Defense Mechanisms/ Ego Mechanisms Defenses are unconscious mental process that ego uses to resolve

conflicts among instincts (wish or need}. When defense is most effective they abolish anxiety and depression. Defenses are dynamic and reversible.

Ego defense mechanisms are mental mechanism, used when individual unconsciously experiences a basic conflict between id-impulses and demands of superego.

The ego unconsciously uses some of its energy to initiate a defense mechanism that effect a compromise between id and super ego, thereby relieving anxiety. Sullivan, those called into play when anxiety is a response to a threat to the self-concept, calls another form of mental mechanism security operation.

They act without awareness of the individual employing them. Use of mental mechanism is healthy and lowers/reduce the anxiety and It is a normal process of adjustment. Method of self-protection is by Ego Mechanisms.

COMPENSATION:

Compensation a pattern of adaptive behaviors by which anxiety from feeling of inadequacy or weakness is relieved as individual emphasizes of intensive training of some personal or social attribute that over shadows his inadequacy and gain social approval .It can be seen in infant who substitute his thumb for nipple to relieve tension and compensate for some pleasurable sensation of sucking.

A Polio child can be an artist and painter or develop his muscles of upper limbs and becomes archery expert.

DISPLACEMENT:

When an individual unconsciously believes he would be in great danger of that person knew his feelings about same person. He discharge of feelings on to a person or object entirely different from the one to which they actually belong. He displaces his emotion to other person or object which is less anxiety producing. Example {1}; -Teacher, who is angry with supervisor, cannot show his feelings but reacts with unreasonable anger when a student breaks a windowpane. Actually teacher has unconsciously substituted the student for supervisor and displaced his feelings. Example {2}; -Husband got annoyed with boss came home, scolds the wife unnecessarily and wife beats the child when he ask for a sweet. In this emotional feeling is transferred to person or object that is less dangerous than who initially aroused the emotion.

SUBLIMATION:

In mechanism of sublimation the energy involved in anxiety produced primitive impulses is unconsciously redirected into constructive and socially acceptable channels. It is one of positive adaptation to anxiety and responsible for much of artistic and cultural achievements of civilized people. It is when woman redirects her sexual desires into successful career of poetess. Example {1}; - Maha Devi Verma and Tulsi dass are example of this sublimation. Tulsidass after scolded by his wife, turned his psychic energy / libido energy into poetry. Sublimation is a positive mechanism in which the primitive impulses are transferred or directed to a socially useful goal. Unacceptable desires find an acceptable out let. Example {2}; - Man with strong sex desire utilize in painting a nude woman.

SUBSTITUTION:

Mechanism used to reduce tension resulting from frustration. Substituting action must have certain similarities to the frustrated one. Example {1}; a student who has not been able to get admission in M.B.B.S. may try to substitute it with other course of physiotherapy or Nursing.

FIXATIONS:

It is arrest of emotional development at a stage. Fixation refers to the point in the individual’s development at certain aspects of emotional development cease to advance. Further development is blocked. They cannot bypass that phase, he is always handicapped in proceeding to the stages that follow. Example {1}; Child who is not breast-fed and did not get love and security, he will achieve gratification through oral cavity. He may overeat, or take huge quantity of alcohol and becomes drunkard. They are called as oral personality individual. Thumb sucking in adult life is an example of it.

DENIAL:.

It is a process where the individual truly does not recognize the existence of an event or feeling. Denial is used in Schizophrenia. It is often seen as a reaction of the healthy person when he is confronted by a disastrous situation. Example {1}-Sudden death of husband in road accident but wife refused to accept it. She says that he had breakfast with me, you are mistaken. Please excuse me. In cardiac case or cancer, it is a response to sudden passive amount of anxiety. Denial is not lying; individual does not accept existence of something that’s disturbing.

IDENTIFICATION:

It useful mechanism because it plays a large part in development of a child personality. Through this process individual defends against anxiety resulting from feeling of inadequacy by unconsciously taking on desirable attributes found in people for whom he has admiration and affection. He integrates these attributes into his own personality. Example {1}- A child takes on masculine attributes that he admires in his father. Another form of identification is observed when an individual develops unreasonable sympathy for a criminal because of an unconscious sense of guilt.

INTROJECTIONS:

Mechanism of introjections is closely related to identification. Introjection tends to replace all or part of personality. Introjection is that entire personality of a second person has been incorporated and has replaced the original personality. Introjections may operate in a less constructive way than identification. Example {1}- Psychotic patient acts as Moses, his own personality had given up. A depressed person may have unconsciously incorporated another person and attempt to commit suicide to kill the interjected person whom he unconsciously hates. Example {2}- After marriage lady takes all values of husband and thinks its own. she incorporate the personality of her husband.

ISOLATION:

Where feelings are detached from the event in the individual’s memory, enabling the person to recall the event without anxiety. It is found in (OCN) compulsive personality. They value efficiency, cleanliness and punctuality Example {1}- giving death pack to a patient without any emotions by nursing staff.

RATIONALIZATION:

Rationalization is a mental mechanism that is almost universally employed. It is an attempt to make his behavior as result of logical thinking rather than result of unconscious desires that are anxiety producing. It is a face saving device that may or may not deal with the actual truth. Rationalization is almost unconscious avoidance. It relieves anxiety temporarily but not an effective mechanism of adjustment because it helps the person to avoid facing the reality. Person gives logical excuse. Student says that due to sickness she could not pass. It is” grapes are sour mechanism.”

Example {1}-Alcoholic will say that due to lack of sleep, he take drinks.

Example {2}-Paranoid patient will say that people are after me because I have lot of money.

REGRESSION:

{Hebephrenic , depression} Regression occurs when an individual is faced with anxiety from a conflict, that cannot to solved by using the adaptive mechanism with which he used to solve problems. In such a situation, he may unconsciously return to the patterns of behavior appropriate to an earlier developmental stage. Any retreat into a state of dependency on others to avoid facing acute problems “Crying on someone shoulder” is symbolic of infants seeking comfort on maternal bosom.

Example {1}- When a grown up girl failed and cries, lies on floor and have tamper tantrum. It is found in Hebephrenic Schizophrenia when patient regress backs into infant stage. He smears his hands with own stool.

REPRESSION:

Painful experiences unacceptable thoughts and impulses are dismissed from conscious mind to unconscious mind. During child hood they are repressed and becomes unconscious source of emotional conflict in later life. Selfish, hostile, sexual feeding are repressed. Such repression cause internal conflict.

Example {1}-Mother’s death and trauma was repressed in unconscious mind. These Repressed conflicts may come out through conversion into physical symptoms. This is common in Hysteria and Hypochondrias

PROJECTION :

Projection is transferring the responsibility for unacceptable ideas, wishes or thoughts to another person when individual’s own aggressive thoughts are unacceptable to him and cause anxiety, he blames some one else for it. It is used in paranoid, he is suspicious about infidelity of his wife when actually he lack of fidelity in his mind. Example {1}- Student blame the teacher that he has failed me. I have done well but he has some thing against me, so he has failed me. Example {2}- Paranoid person may project his own inner hate of others by saying that group of people is plotting to kill him or intending to exploit him.

CONVERSION:

Conversion refers to the expression of emotional conflict through physical symptoms for which there is no organic basis. It is preceded after repression. All painful experience repressed into unconscious mind when the conflict reappears as physical symptoms, pt. is not aware of connection between two pheromones. Although physical symptoms is symbolically related to the nature of conflict. This symptom always serves to distract attention from his real problem. He gains two ways.

His anxiety is relieved (primary gain). He gains attention and sympathy of others (secondary gain). Example {1}- A child who sees the conflicts between parents, both

of them loves him. He became blind. Example {2}- A soldier who loves his country but don’t like killings, get paralysis of right hand. So he is not able to pull the trigger. Example {2}- A child who has to go to boarding next day. He got paralysis of legs. So she is saved from going away from parents and get attention also. It is used in hysteria.

SYMBOLIZATION AND CONDENSATION.

Symbol is an idea or object used by conscious mind in lieu of actual idea or object. Instinctual desires may appear through symbols, the meanings of which are not clear to conscious mind. Example {1}- “Phallic symbolism of large automobiles serves to reassure this individual about his adequacy as a male. Symbols are the language of unconscious mind, such symbols appear in dreams or fantasy. Condensations represent a wide range of anxiety producing ideas that become lumped together. When they rise to conscious level they take the form of an apparently incoherent jumble of words, real meaning of which is hidden in the unconscious mind. Example {1}-In schizophrenic patient has irrational language. This condensation has meaning for themselves only (word salad).

REACTION FORMATION:

When individual experiences anxieties resulting from unconscious feeling that are unacceptable to him and relieve the anxiety by doing in a may that is directly opposite to which he really feels. Example {1}- People who behave extremely friendly and polite have unconscious feelings of anger and hatred. These true feelings may be evident in slips of tongue. Example {2}- Reaction formation develops out of rigid toilet training experience. He wants love of his mother but don’t want to expel the stool and enjoy anal retention. If he does not expel mother is angry with him so he does against his wish and expel it to gain love of mother. Example {3}- OCN person may be very untidy unorganized in adult life because his mother was very strict to cleanliness. He will do opposite what he wants to do really.

SummarizationIntroductionStructure of personalityLevel of consciousnessPsychosexual developmentDefense mechanisms

BibliographyMichael W. Eyesenck & cara

Flanagan.Psychology for A2 Level;[1];306-24Fernald/Fernald. Munn’s Introduction to

Psychology. [5];241-65Carole Wade, Carol Tavris. Psychology.[8];407-15Clifford T. Morgan, Richard A. King, John R.

Weisz, John Schopler. Introduction to Psychology;[8]64-87

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