Sigmund FreudThe First Armchair Psychiatrist

Why does he matter?

Freud is the first major theorist of Psychology - he began the movement that viewed the unconscious mind as the source of all behavior

Theories are most significantly applied to PERSONALITY.

What is the Unconscious mind?

We cannot knowingly connect to it = REPRESSION It only comes out when we are not conscious (e.g.

dreams), or by accident - like a reaction (e.g. Freudian slip)

The unconscious mind is responsible for our behavior without us realizing it.

So?

If you are to cure anyone you need to go through the unconscious mind

How do you get at the unconscious mind?

Free association - patient responds to a prompt

Dream analysis - dreams are unconscious urges so try to understand them

Where does personality come from?

For Freud, personality is the result of our efforts to resolve the conflict between our biological impulses and social restraints against them.

How do things fit together?

Mind is theoretically composed of several parts: id, ego, superego

Id

Ego

Superego

Our Psyche

ID - pleasure principle

contains instinctual/biological urges - our unconscious desires

Problems can happen when ID desires begins to take over.

EGO - reality principle

Rational process of our mind that counteracts the Id.

Gratifies the Id’s impulses in realistic ways.

SUPEREGO - moral principle

Moral part of our mind, our conscience, holds us to moral principles.

Goes beyond reality into an ideal sense of behavior.

Development of PersonalityThe Psychosexual Stages

Psychosexual Stages

The Id in children focuses its pleasure seeking energies on different areas of the body - each part of the body is a stage of development.

Oral Stage

0-18 months

Pleasure is focused on the mouth.

Anal Stage

18-36 months

Pleasure is focused on bowel and bladder elimination.

Phallic Stage

3-6 years

Pleasure zone is genitals - this is when kids start to cope with incestuous feelings.

A baby's fight for mom's attention

Oedipus/Electra Complex

Boys develop unconscious sexual desire for mother, and hate their father.

Kids cope with that feeling and eventually identify with father.

Identification with same sex parent

Electra Complex Oedipus Complex

Final Stages

Latency - 6-puberty; dormant sexual feelings

“cooties” stage

Genital - puberty +; maturation of sexual interests

Fixations

Unresolved conflicts result in bad behavior such as FIXATION - a focus on pleasure seeking activities of a specific stage

Oral Fixation

Anal Fixation

Anal Retentive Anal Expulsive

Phallic Fixation

Conclusion

Problems with this theory?