Brief Biography (Sigmund Freud)

Historical Development
View of Human Nature
Development of Maladaptive
Behavior
Goals of Therapy
SIGMUND FREUD

May 6, 1856 (March 6)

-In Freiberg, Moravia which is
now Czech Republic

-Freuds father , JAKOB, a wool

merchant , was married the
third time to Amalie
-GOLDEN SIGI
-They had seven other children
within 10 years
 When Freud was three years old, his father
moved the family to VIENNA, where Freud lived
most of his life.
Brilliant student, graduating from high school
with honors
Loves literature- Shakespeare
Proficient- German, French, Italian, Spanish,
Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
After receiving his medical degree from the
University of Vienna at age 25, he practiced
medicine at Viennas General Hospital
 In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays
They had 6 children, three boys and three girls,
Supported his family through his private practice
in psychiatry, specializing in nervous diseases.
Freuds interests moved away from physical
aspects of the nervous system and more toward
the psychological factors.
During the last 16 years of his life, Freud was
afflicted with painful cancer of the mouth and
jaw, requiring 33 operations.
 Having abandoned his long time home in
Vienna in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution,
Freud died at his sons home in London a year
later at age 83.
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901),
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), The Ego
and the Id (1923) and Civilization and Its
Discontents (1930)
 Psychoanalysis origins are identified with early
1880s, at the height of the industrial revolution
In late 19th century Vienna, JOSEF BREUER, the
neurologist known as the doctor with the
golden touch, was especially successful in
treating hysteria.
HYSTERIA- a disorder typically characterized by
paralysis or the improper functioning of certain
parts of the body (Feist, 2003)
Freud developed a close professional association
and a personal friendship with Breuer while he
was still a medical student.
 Bertha Pappenheim, (Anna O. ), patient of Dr.
Breuer, had a variety of hysterical symptoms,
including a nervous cough, anorexia, paralysis, a
double personality, and despite an inability to
speak her native German, a proficiency in
English.
CATHARSIS- release of tension, the process of
removing hysterical symptoms through talking
them out.
talking cure
Bertha- Germanys first social worker
 Studies on Hysteria
To respect Bertha Pappenheims privacy,
Breuer would refer her as ANNA O. best
known of all psychotherapy patients, played
an important role in Freuds formulation of
Psychoanalysis
In 1885 Freud was awarded a grant that
allowed him to study HYSTERIA in Paris with
the famous French neurologist JeanMartin
Charcot.
 Under hypnosis, Charcot found that some
hysterical patients relinquished (let go, give up
or surrender) their symptoms and recalled the
traumatic experiences that had generated them.
Impressed by Charcots techniques, Freud
quickly recognized the connection to Breuers
work.
Breuers method, then as psychical analysis,
and finally as psychoanalysis
Freud first used the term PSYCHOANALYSIS in
1896.
 Freud believed people were dominated by
instinctual, unconscious, and irrational forces,
leaving them at war internally and externally.
But chief among these drives was aggression
and sex, housed within an inner core
dominated by the superego.
Everyone was highly sexual, even during
years of childhood innocence.
 Freud believed a revelation of the unconscious could
explain all human thought, feeling, and action.
The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or
instincts that are beyond our awareness but that
nevertheless motivate of our words, feelings and
actions,
Although we may be conscious of our overt behaviors,
we often are not aware of the mental processes that
lie behind them.
For example, a man may know that he is attracted to
a woman but may not fully understand all the reasons
for the attractions, some of which may even seem
irrational.
 In traditional psychoanalytic theory there are
three levels of personality:
1. Consciousness- consists of everything
within cognitive awareness
2. Preconscious- made up of material that is
fairly accessible but not immediately within
the persons awareness
3. Unconscious- consists of every aspect in
human personality of which we are
unaware.
Freud divided personality, which he called the
scaffold of the mind.
Three Components: the ID, which represents
the biological self in personality, the EGO, the
partially unconscious drive or psychological
center of personality; and the SUPEREGO,
the governor, the social controller in the
tower that brings behavior within culturally
acceptable limits.
 Das Es, or the it which is almost always
translated into English as id
A reservoir of instincts, of needs and wishes, it is
entirely unconscious.
Preoccupied with its own needs and desires, the
id is entirely self-centered and selfish.
The id has no contact with reality, yet it strives
constantly to reduce tension by satisfying
instinctual desires. Because its sole function is to
seek pleasure, we say that id serves the pleasure
principle.
 Besides being unrealistic and pleasure
seeking, the id is illogical and can
simultaneously entertain incompatible
ideas.(Feist, 2003)
For example, a woman may have an
unconscious wish for the death of her
husband while at the same time desiring sex
with him. Or she may consciously love her
mother while unconsciously wishing to
destroy her.
 Das Ich, or the I , translated as ego.
The ego spans the conscious, preconscious and
unconscious aspects of the mind.
For instance, a womans ego may consciously
motivate her to choose excessively neat, well-tailored
clothes because she feels comfortable when well
dressed. At the same time, she may be unaware or
only dimly (preconsciously) aware that she has been
previously rewarded for choosing nice clothes, or she
may have no awareness or understanding that her
excessive neatness relates to early childhood
experiences with toilet training.
 Rational and capable of forming realistic
plans of action, the ego serves as a liaison
between the real world and the hidden world
of the id.
Psychological in nature and oriented toward
the present, the behavior of the ego is guided
by reality, and it seeks out the safety of the
self.
Reality principle
 ANXIETY, is caused by the egos reaction to
threatening or destructive urges from the id,
to minimize this unpleasant emotional state,
which may run from mild to extreme, the ego
recruits a variety of internal defense
mechanisms.
 Das Uber-Ich, or the above I, which is
rendered into English as superego, which
operates according to the morality principle.
It represents societys views of right and
wrong.
Social in nature and oriented toward the past,
then the behavior of the superego is guided
by morality, and it seeks perfection.
 The superego has two subsystems, the
conscience and ego-ideal. Freud did not
clearly distinguish between these two
functions, but in general, the conscience
results from experiences with punishments
for improper behavior and tells us what we
should not do, whereas the ego-ideal
develops from experiences with rewards for
proper behavior and tells us what we should
do.
 Denial- Elvis is dead! No way. When
circumstances of reality frustrate an id
impulse, denial intervenes to protect the ego
from the frustration of the real situation. It
protects the self from unpleasant reality by
refusing to perceive it.
Example, Sheila who always suffers from the
physical abuse of her parent denies that this
ever happened to her.
 Displacement- this defense replaces the
object of an impulse with a substitute object.
Example- a researchers grant proposal is
rejected for funding. She tells her lab
assistant hes been goofing off, who tells his
wife shes been ignoring the kids, who tells
their six year old to pick up his toys. Who
throws a shoe at the dog which pees on the
kitchen floor.
 Intellectualization- involves escaping ones
emotions through a focus on intellectual
concepts, abstract and insignificant details,
or rational explanation devoid of physical
acceptance.
Example, after learning that Carla is not
invited to attend a costume party, she coolly
discusses the way social cliques form and
how they serve to regulate and control school
life.
 Projection- process of unconsciously
attributing ones own unacceptable impulses,
attitudes and behaviors to other people.
Projection enables us to blame someone else
for our shortcomings.
Example. A student blames his poor grade on
a professor who cant teach
 Rationalization- sour grapes
Allows a person to defend the selfs real
feeling by creating false motives.
Example- a man loses his job would say that
the job is not really desirable.
A girl who convinces herself that it is better to
buy two sets of shoes rather than buying one
expensive shoes in malls.
 Reaction Formation- unacceptable impulse is
repressed, next the opposite is expressed on
a conscious level.
Example- a man who always teases a girl and
criticizes her is actually manifesting a strong
liking towards the girl
 Regression- is a way of alleviating anxiety by
retreating to an earlier period of life that was
more secure and pleasant.
Losing ones temper, pouting, talking baby
talk, rebelling against authority, and other
childish behavior are forms of aggression.

Example- because he is angry that his plan to

have a vacation is not granted, Lito throws a
tantrum
 Repression- visual or auditory perceptions
may be distorted or memories associated
with painful events may be obliterated
completely. It is excluding uncomfortable
thoughts from consciousness
Example, Myrna who is at higher risk of
developing breast cancer since most of her
female relatives died of cancer, still routinely
forgets to do self-examination.
 Sublimation- is the only healthy way to deal
with objectionable impulses because it allows
the ego to convert then into socially accepted
forms of expression.
Sexual desires may be sublimated by sports,
arts, music, dances, and literature
 For Freud, human behavior is primarily
instinctive and motivated mainly by
unconscious mechanisms.
Instinct inborn psychological
representations of an inner somatic souce of
excitation. It is the driving force behind
personality.
 The Source where the need arises. It may be
a part of a whole body; a deficiency of some
kind. E.g. hunger
The Aim is to reduce the need until no more
action is necessary; satisfaction of desires so
as to re-establish internal balance.
The impetus the amount of energy, force or
pressure used to satisfy or gratify the
impulse.
 The object represents experiences or
objects that reduce or remove body
deficiency. It refers to a thing, action, or
expression that allows satisfaction of the
original aim.
 Eros life instinct
- Libido psychic energy associated with
the life instinct.

Thanatos death instinct

 Since Freud believed adult personality is
established by about the age of five, the
importance of early childhood development
is a cornerstone in his theory. Freud theorized
that personality development follows a more
or less set course from birth, a series of
discrete stages defined the erogenous
zones, those parts of the body that are
sensitive to sexual stimulation: mouth, anus,
penis, clitoris and vagina.
1. The ORAL stage- first year- related later to
mistrust and rejection issues
2. ANAL stage- ages 1-3- related to later personal
power issues
3. PHALIIC stage- ages 3-6- related to later sexual
attitudes
4. LATENCY stage- ages 6-12- a time of
socialization
5. GENITAL stage- ages 12-60- sexual energies are
invested in life
 Infant receives satisfaction through sucking,
eating, biting, and crying.
Erogenous zone is the mouth
Oral expression: receptive (taking in) and
aggressive (spitting out).
Overindulgent- oral receptive trait, as adults
they become dependent on others, overly
gullible, swallowing anything they are told,
passive
 Underindulgent- oral aggressive trait, chewing,
crunching, biting and use of teeth are dominant
expressions of this trait. People of this type are
expected to favor hard candy to soft, hard
stemmed pipes of cigarettes, they chomp the ice
in their drinks and chew the end of their pencil.
The orally aggressive character is sarcastic and
argumentative.
Oral fixated adults orient their life around their
mouth by excessive concern in eating, drinking,
smoking, talking too much, and kissing
 2-3 years old- the child receives satisfaction
by having or eliminating feces and retaining
bowel movements.
Erogenous zone is the anus.
Toilet training is the highlight of the anal
period.
Fixation results in retentive or expulsive
personality
 Anal- retentive- people delay satisfactions until
the last possible moment, saving dessert, for
example, to eat after others have finished
others. They are orderly, highly controlled,
compulsively neat.
Anal expulsive- children who discover social
control by means of direct opposition. They are
expected to express anger by becoming
wasteful, disorderly or messy. Their room, office
or car tends to be unkempt. They are also
rebellious and destructive
 4-5 years satisfaction is gained primarily through
stimulation of the penis or clitoris.
Dominated by the realization that boys have penises
whereas girls do not.
Freud maintained that this realization is startling to
both boys and girls because of their assumption that
all persons are supposed to have penises.
Castration anxiety in boys and penis envy in girls.
Boys fear losing their highly prized organ of pleasure
while girls wish to someday overcome feelings of
inferiority by obtaining a penis of their own.
 The last and most crucial childhood conflict
involves the childs unconscious wish to
possess the parent of the opposite sex and, at
the same time, to eliminate the parent of the
same sex.
Boys love their mothers and see their fathers
as rivals.
Oedipus Complex
 6-12 years- children repress sexual thought
and engage in nonsexual activities such as
developing social and intellectual skills
Task is develop successful interactions with
same-sex peers and refine appropriate
gender roles.
 Adolescence- genitals are again the
erogenous zones.
Individuals seeks to fulfill his or her desires
through emotional attachment to members
of the opposite sex.
Unsuccessful outcomes lead to sexual
relationships based on lustful desires rather
than respect and commitment.
 We are all a little neurotic (Freud)
Maladaptive behavior is universal and
inevitable because conflicts and fixations in
our formative years are unavoidable.
Nobody proceeds through early development
of stages without problems.
 Free Association trained observer can
detect hints of the unconscious mind from
conscious expressions.
Dream Analysis The manifest content of a
dream is what it appears to be, while the
latent content is the underlying repressed
thought that caused the dream
 Forms of Dream Distortion
1. Condensation a part of something
symbolizes a whole thing. E.g. A street
represents a city
2. Synthesis when an idea contained in the
manifest content of a dream is actually a
combination of many ideas in the latent
content. E.g. Childhood pet represents an
entire family.
 Forms of Dream Distortion
3. Dislocation displacement of unacceptable
ideas to something that is symbolically
equivalent and acceptable. E.g breast =
mountains; penis = baseball bat
 Everyday Life Freud believed all human
behaviors have a cause and nothing happens
simply by chance.
Humor allows expression of repressed
thoughts in a socially approved manner.
 Strengths
- influenced developmental approach.
- development of projective techniques (free
association, dream interpretation, etc.)
- discovery and investigation of human
phenomena
- developed a theory about complex human
behavior.
 Strengths
- Freud makes fine literary style and exciting
subject matter.
- His ideas are challenging, broad and deep.
- He was patient, meticulous penetrating
observer and tenacious, disciplined,
courageous and original thinker.
 Weakness
- criticized for over-emphasizing on sex
energy or libido. His negative perception of
women and their sexuality was a part of
Victorian belief.
-He focused too much on the unconscious
level of the mind.
Thank you for
listening