PSYC 231 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Freud'S Seduction Theory, Word Association, Defence Mechanisms

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 231
• Professor: Mike Condra/ Ada Mullett

Document Summary

This chapter is about freud and psychoanalytic theory. Internal working models: mental representations (e. g. , a composite of one"s caregiver or first love). Transference: redirecting feelings from one person to another (e. g. , love for mother manifests in love for similar romantic partners). Psychoanalysis is three things: theory of personality, means for investigating the unconscious and its processes, therapeutic treatment. Key premises of psychoanalysis: way in which we act and view the world is guided by early-life experiences, we are largely unconscious creatures, personality can change. Instincts: impulsive wants/needs: proposed bridge between mind and body, psychic energy engenders mental processes, combined, psychic energy and body energy engender instincts. Eros: life instinct; psychic energy is libido: survival and propogation, sex is the most important of the life instincts. If these instincts guide us, what then does freud say about their apparent absence: channeled into socialized behaviours, dealt with by the unconscious.