Psychoanalytic Theory

Kate, Niki, Katie, Jake, Amal

What is Psychoanalysis?

psy·cho·a·nal·y·sis      [sahy-koh-uh-nal-uh-sis]

–noun• 1.a systematic structure of theories concerning the relation of

conscious and unconscious psychological processes.• 2.a technical procedure for investigating unconscious mental

processes and for treating psychoneuroses. (dictionary.com)• In other words…. Psychoanalysis is when someone evaluates

someone else and figures out treatment for a mental illness.

Psychoanalysis- transference and resistance analysis of free association.

Dreams & Dream Symbols• During our sleep our unconscious is free to release our fears that we try to

hide away. • Phallic Symbols- Male imagery in a dream (towers, rockets, guns, arrows,

and swords). • Female Imagery- caves, rooms, walled in gardens, cups, enclosures or

containers, milk, and fruit. • Dreams about water- usually mean that you are dreaming about your

sexuality or the realm of emotions. Dreams about water but also have to do with relationships with our moms, because water is a female imagery.

• Dreams about buildings- may have to do with a relationship with yourself, the attic or basement as your unconscious.

• If a dream becomes to threatening we will almost always wake up. • If nightmares start to occur while you are awake that is the breakdown of

defenses, or if the hidden truth of comes out before your conscious cant disguise or handle that is caused crisis or trauma.

Dreams & Dream Symbols Terms

• Latent Content- dreams underlying meaning• Dream displacement- occurs when we use a “safe” person, event,

or object as a stand in.• Condensation- occurs during the dream when we use a dream

image or event to represent more than what it actually is.• Primary Revision- what the process of Displacement and

Condensation are called.• Manifest Content- what we actually dream once primary revision

has disguised the unconscious message.• Secondary Revision- the process that takes place when we are

awake and trying to interpret our dreams. • To interpret dreams accurately first you need to know over time

what certain things in your dream represent • Most dreams about children almost always reveal something about

our feelings towards ourselves, or the child that is still in us.

The Defense

• Defense is the process were we keep the hidden repressed in order to avoid knowing what we feel we can’t handle knowing

• Fear of intimacy is the fear of emotional involvement with another human being which cause us to keep emotional distances in relationships

• By not letting your self get too close to someone, allows us to protect ourselves from painful past experiences that intimate relationships bring up

• By having more than one romantic or sexual partner, keeps oneself to busy to spend time with family and friends. That is one way to maintain an emotional distance from loved ones

The Defense Terms

Selective perception: hearing and seeing only what we feel we can handle

Selective memory: modifying our memories so that we don’t feel overwhelmed by them or forgetting painful events entirely

Denial: believing that the problem doesn’t exist or the unpleasant incident never happened

Avoidance: staying away from people or situations that are liable to make us anxious by stirring up some unconscious experience or emotion

Displacement: “taking it out” on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused the hurt or anger

Projection: ascribing our fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else in order to deny that we have it ourselves

Regression: the temporary return to a former psychological state

Unconscious• Not knowing about a problem or if you do know about a problem,

not realizing when it is influencing your behavior is what give the unconscious so much control.

• Another part of the unconscious is the humans are motivated and driven by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts.

• Until you find a way to know and acknowledge to yourself the true causes of your repressed wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts, you will hang onto them in a disguised, distorted, and self-defeating ways.

• Family- is a very important in this theory because everyone is a product of the role that they are in the family-complex.

• Birth of the unconscious is the way you perceive your place in your family.

• Everyone goes through these experiences and they are a natural and healthy part of maturing and establishing our own identities.

Unconscious Terms

• Unconscious- a storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because of the overwhelming feeling the will cause.

• Repression- the expunging from consciousness of unhappy psychological events.

• Oedipal Conflict- competition with the parent of the same gender for the attention and affection of the parent of the opposite gender.

Theories & Great Gatsby

• The Fear of Intimacy and Romantic Relationship

• Psycho analytics in romantic relationship are less of the apparent romances(Gatsby & Daisy), but in the ways in which it mirrors all of the less appealing romantic relationship. (Tom/Daisy; Myrtle/Tom; Myrtle/George; Nick/Jordan)

• Tom’s relationship with women including his wife reveals his desire for ego gratis faction rather than for emotional intimacy

– This shows that he doesn’t care about other peoples feelings and that he is only there because he is luck self-confidence, meaning he’s not secure

• Taking our anger out in to someone or something else

– Example how Gatsby always takes his anger to Tom instead of taking the anger to Daisy who left him for money from the first place

– Mr. Wilson took his anger out to Gatsby by killing him

Theories & Great Gatsby

• Through the eyes of psychoanalytic reading, drama can be thought of as “a dysfunctional love.”

– Which can be thought of as a fear of intimacy• Why do people have the fear of intimacy?

– Lack of self confidence

– Jealousy

– Greed

– Looking to uphold what they think is right

Who fears intimacy?

– Tom & Daisy

– Nick & Jordan

– Myrtle & Tom

– Myrtle & Wilson

» Though each person may not fear intimacy, the relationship between each of them does

Examples-Tom

• Tom, being a two-timing man, experiences great intimacy issues through his life. One of his first concerns is Gatsby. He fears that Gatsby could take Daisy now that he has money and everything to support her. He knows that he loves her and that a relationship between the two is very possible. Thus, he must show off his car, house, and “stuff” to friends and Daisy to show that he is the “better man”

• He has an affair with Myrtle because she reinforces that he is “the man”, that he is important and he is the best.

• Daisy acts as his social mistress because of her looks, body, charm, and face. However he loves being with Myrtle because of his knowledge that she will make him feel good

Example- Daisy

• Being with Tom has made Daisy extremely self-conscious, thus making her fear intimacy

• She knows that she loves Tom, she is married to him and he loves her back. However there are many problems that arise with their relationship. Daisy knowing that Tom is sleeping around, feels self-insecure of their marriage. She then thinks that it is ok to do the same. She finds a way with her first love, Gatsby. With money and pure love for Daisy, he seems to be the perfect fit but she still loves Tom, creating havoc and disorder that makes Daisy self-conscious and feared of intimacy.

Historical People Associated with Theory/ Influence

"Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand why this illness was bound to come upon you and perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill."

-Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud- The founder of psychoanalysis. (unconscious mind)

"The father of psychoanalysis"

Founded three theories of personality:

• 1) Topographic model- map of the human mind (unconscious, preconscious, and the conscious). Patients exhibited what he described as a defense, unconscious feelings and ideas out of awareness.

• 2) Genetic model- theory of personality categorizing human biological instincts. (Stages of life- children can become developmentally fixated or stuck, leads to psychopathology.)

• 3) Structural model- detailed psychic map of human mind. (Id, ego, and superego.) “Humanity is in a constant struggle between primitive impulses and social civility.” (Freud).

• He explored people’s personalities. He also examined patients with a “free association and dream analysis.”

Other Historical People Involved …

• Donald Woods Winnitcott: questioned Freudian concept of intra- psychic forces primarily affecting an individual. He practiced as a psychoanalyst. He worked with psychologically disturbed children and their mothers. He believes that the mother provides the framework for if the children will have problems later on in life.

Winnitcott’s book where he focused on children and their future problems.

Other Historical People Involved …• Edith Jacobson: a German psychoanalyst who tried to

understand depression. Jacobson revised Freud’s structural model of personality. Jacobson concluded “the assimilation of feeling states plays an integral part in the emotional maturation of a child.” (Jacobson). Jacobson also revised Freud’s ideas pertaining to super ego. She believed that super ego had to do solely with people’s life experiences with others. She believes a lot has to do with people’s pasts.

Other Historical People Involved …

• Harry Stack Sullivan: Sullivan studied interpersonal psychoanalysis. He concentrated on people’s pasts to understand psychoanalogy. He observed people’s actions to determine conclusions. He focused mostly on patient’s relationships.

The End