COUN1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Psychoanalytic Theory, Dream Interpretation, Toilet Training
25 May 2018
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WEEK 7: Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939):
- Lived in Vienna until Nazi occupation in 1938
- Had medical background – wanted to so “neurophysiologic research”
- Private practice in nervous and brain disorders
- Studied the mind – how we think
Overview:
- Psychoanalysis = analysis of the brain
- Theory is basically a family theory as Freud considered how the individual
develops overtime within the context of a family, specifically interacting with
mother and father, later siblings
- Psychoanalytic theory was the first of many psychodynamic theories to follow
many within a direct line from Freudian thinking
- Freud ‘discovered’ the unconscious which is the basis for all psychodynamic
theories
- Psychodynamic theories hold that human behaviour is primarily the function of
reactions to internal (thus most unconscious) stimuli instincts, urges, thoughts
- “seeing the brain as a computer” – able to delete info/files but really you are able
to retrieve that info because its stored somewhere
- You can control the mind – eg. Forgetting where you’ve placed your keys may
make you feel like you’re losing your mind, but really its just in overdrive and its
overworked so it doesn’t mean you’re going crazy
- Behavioural theories on the other hand hold that behaviour is in response to
external stimuli – responses are learned and over time appear as automatic.
Some would hold the possibility of internal stimuli, however, such cannot be seen
and/or measured and thus are not a fit subject for science
- Internal = brain, external = behaviour
- Phenomenological theories hold that the human is I process of becoming and just
‘is’
- Current psychodynamic theories are derived from Freud’s original concepts with
addition of new knowledge and info. More recent theorists are known as Neo-
Freudians. Few, if any, practice as Freud once did
- Psychoanalysis was not conceived as just a method of treatment, but also as a
training method for new analysis. Basically, it was an attempt to surface and
interpret all material located in the unconscious. This process was deemed to be
curative for the patient.
- Hypnotising and dream analysis – tapping into the unconscious and dreams are
an extension of our mindset (Freud interpreted other people’s dreams)
- The purpose was to develop an acute awareness of one’s own psyche so as to
prevent interference from one’s own biases with the analysis of another - this is
called counter-transference
- Freud named the level of consciousness – unconscious, conscious and
preconscious
- Freud developed a topography of the self – id, ego, superego
- Feud also posited that human behaviour was built up over time through distinct
stages
- Freudian stages were oral, anal, oedipal, latency, genital. Observation of infant
revealed to him the preoccupation with feeding and nurturance; excretion and
toilet training, discovery of genitals and sensation from erogenous zones
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- Following is a period of when the child is less preoccupied with their bodily
functions and concerned about relations in the social world
- When adolescence presents another radical physiological change, once more the
person is preoccupied with the body and sexual feeling and activities now they
are living in an adult body
Three levels of awareness:
Conscious:
- Current contents of your mind that you actively think of
- What we call working memory
- Easily accessed all the time
Preconscious:
- Contents of the mind you are not currently aware of
- Thoughts, memories, knowledge, wishes, feelings
- Available for easy access when needed
Unconscious:
- Contents kept out of conscious awareness
- Not accessible at all
- Process that actively keep these thoughts from awareness
Freudian component of personality:
- Extensions of our personality
Id: unconsciousness - child
- Resides completely at the unconscious level
- Acts under pleasure principle (biological urges)
immediate gratification of instinct in action or
fantasy, not willing to compromise
- Generates all of the personality’s energy -
People who are outspoken and fearless
- Unconscious biological component
➢ Based of instinctual life
➢ Source of drive energy – libido
➢ A social – no regard for social norms
➢ Life and death drives co-exist in
dynamic tension
Ego: Preconscious - parent
- The moralist and idealistic part of the personality
- Resides in preconscious
- Operates on ‘ideal/reality principle’ – begins forming at 4-5yrs of age
- Essentially your ‘conscience’
- Resides in all levels of awareness
- Attempts negotiation/mediates the demands between Id and Superego to satisfy
both realistically
- The geo has no concept of right and wrong; something is good simply if it
achieves its end pf satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id
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