PSYB30H3 Chapter : PSYB30 CH8.odt
Document Summary
Freud defined psychoanalysis as a theory of personality, a method for investigating unconscious processes, and a technique of treatment. >a key premise of this field is that we form mental representations of ourselves, others, and our relationships from early experiences. Background- instincts: the connection between mind and body. Freud believed he had the answer to the mind-body problem: instincts. Just as the body used energy to carry out its bodily functions of breathing, blood circulation, muscular and glandular activity, he reasoned there is psychic energy used a source of energy for the mind. According to law of conservation in physics, he reasoned energy w/in the mind-body system must also be conserved, that is, neither created nor destroyed. He hypothesized that body energy and psychic energy could be turned into each other through an instinct, a mental representation of a physical or bodily need .