chapters 8 & 9 the psychoanalytic perspective: chapters 8 & 9 the neoanalytic perspective:...

The Psychoanalytic Perspective: Chapters 8 & 9Chapters 8 & 9The Neoanalytic Perspective: Chapter 10

Theories of PersonalityTheories of Personality

March 14, 2003March 14, 2003Class #8Class #8

Guess what Dr. Freud it wasn’t penis envy after all. Rather it was…???? Horney (1967)

Womb envy Perterson (1980)

Vagina envy

GETTING IT OFF YOUR CHEST One of Freud's great contributions was his

emphasis on the unconscious Today, it is generally accepted in clinical

psychology and psychiatry that certain emotions and motives are so repulsive or upsetting that we may suppress or repress these scary, disgusting, embarrassing feelings into our unconscious

Freudian Theory

Many therapists believe that unconsciously repressed emotions cause a variety of major problems: neurotic and psychotic behaviors, interpersonal conflicts, psychosomatic disorders, etc.

Some people become overwhelmed by their emotions; others hold in their feelings and don't even know they are there

Catharsis... Venting... Discharging... Expressing Emotions... Holding in our feelings causes mental and physical

stress. And, stress can be very destructive. Often suppressing and hiding "awful" thoughts actually results in uncontrollable obsessions about the very thing we are trying to hide

So, maybe its better to let all our vile feelings spew out to the guy down the block who is happily watering his lawn on a summer day?

Catharsis: Good or Crazy? Well, maybe that’s going too far but…

Venting or discharging emotions involves vigorously expressing the emotion--fear, sadness, anger, dependency--so completely you feel "drained." Then, according to Freud, the strength of the emotion is markedly reduced or eliminated. And you feel better. Are healthier.

So is it healthy or abnormal to punch a hole in the wall after you bomb that big psych test???

It worked when we were kids… We all knew how to throw a temper tantrum

at age 3…it worked back then. Usually made us feel better I think

One of the goals of psychotherapy, then, is to make unconscious conflict conscious and provide relief through catharsis

Other forms of Catharsis? Sharing our secrets often provides relief

Freud’s Defense Mechanisms

Freud believed we protect ourselves from anxiety by using these: Repression Denial Projection Rationalization Intellectualization Reaction Formation Regression Displacement Sublimation

Recovered Memories vs. False Memory Syndrome Is it possible to repress traumatic incidents

and then recover these memories many years later?

Hochman (1994) Feels that thousands of patients (mostly

women) in the United States are undergoing treatment for a non-existent memory disorder

Feels that recovered memories are nothing more than false memories

Hochman's Theory

A woman is seeking relief for a variety of emotional complaints

She hears about recovered memories on an afternoon talk show

Now motivated for memory recovery so she goes and sees her therapist

Her therapist informs her that she may have been molested as a child and does not know it – this could explain her symptoms

The therapist then may refer the client to a "survivor recovery group"

Complications

Patients start out with the hopes that life will get better but it usually becomes far more complicated

She becomes estranged from the "perpetrator" (often her father or step-father or uncle)

If she has children they become off-limits to the perpetrator Relationships with other family members is contingent on

whether or not they challenge these allegations Patients may file belated crime reports and may try to sue the

perpetrator Preoccupied with all these things, the patient may come to

ignore more pressing problems (marriage, family, school, career, etc.)

Often the time demands and expense of the therapy itself become a major life disruption

Hochman (1994)

Is Hochman's theory correct??? Or should recovered memories be

believed???

No such thing as an accident? Parapraxes

According to Freud: Memory lapses, slips of speech or pen,

dreams, humor, etc. all provide insight into a person’s true desires

Unconscious seeping into conscious

The royal road to the unconscious… Dreams

Manifest Content Sensory images of a dream

Latent Content These are the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and

wishes that are apparent in the manifest content Symbolism

Unacceptable latent content is expressed symbolically in manifest content

Psychoanalysis: Be careful of transference… A set of displacements from the patient onto the

therapist is possible Very possible that the client will fall “in love” with the

therapist This is a defense mechanism on the part of the

client Can cause many problems including the client being

caught up in what they are feeling towards the therapist

Therapist needs to find out where the displacement has originated from

Interesting Note…

Wilhelm Fliess was a good friend of Freud’s… Fliess believed that he had discovered a

'nasal reflex neurosis‘ associated with a wide variety of somatic symptoms, including pains in various parts of the body and disturbances in the functioning of the sexual organs

He related some of these symptoms to a 'genital spot' within the nose, and claimed to remove them temporarily by the application of cocaine

And you thought Freud’s theories were a bit strange… Longer-lasting remission of symptoms was

supposedly achieved by cauterization of this “genital spot”

In a few cases, such as that of Emma Eckstein, Fliess performed a surgical procedure involving the removal of a bone within the nose

The operation had almost fatal consequences for Eckstein

Chapter 10: Ego Psychology

Shifting the Emphasis From Id to Ego If Freud had lived longer, indications are that

he may have modified his theory a bit He may have put more emphasis on the ego

as did some of his followers

Freud’s Unconscious

Freud said that the goal of therapy was to make the unconscious conscious. He certainly made that the goal of his work as a theorist

But he makes the unconscious sound very unpleasant A bottomless pit of perverse and incestuous

cravings A burial ground for frightening experiences

which nevertheless come back to haunt us It doesn't sound like anything I'd like to make

conscious!

Jung’s Unconscious

A younger colleague of his, Carl Jung, was to make the exploration of the unconscious his life's work

He was equipped with a background in Freudian theory and with an apparently inexhaustible knowledge of mythology, religion, and philosophy

Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)

Jung was born in the small Swiss village of Kessewil

He was surrounded by a fairly well educated extended family, including quite a few clergymen

His father started Carl on Latin when he was six years old, beginning a long interest in language and literature -- especially ancient literature

Besides most modern western European languages, Jung could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language of the original Hindu holy books.

Jung’s Background

Carl was a rather solitary adolescent, who didn't care much for school, and especially couldn't take competition

He went to boarding school in Basel, Switzerland, where he found himself the object of a lot of jealous harassment

He began to use sickness as an excuse, developing an embarrassing tendency to faint under pressure

Jung’s Background Although his first career choice

was archeology, he went on to study medicine at the University of Basel

While working under the famous neurologist Krafft-Ebing, he settled on psychiatry as his career

After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital in Zurich under Eugene Bleuler, an expert on schizophrenia

In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach

He also taught classes at the University of Zurich while having a private practice as well

Instant friends… Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in

Vienna in 1907 The story goes that after they met, Freud

canceled all his appointments for the day, and they talked for 13 hours straight, such was the impact of the meeting of these two great minds!

Freud eventually came to see Jung as the crown prince of psychoanalysis and his heir apparent

In 1911, the two teamed up to do a series of lectures in the United States

But not lifetime ones…

Around that time their relationship began to cool… They were entertaining themselves by

analyzing each others' dreams, when Freud seemed to show an excess of resistance to Jung's efforts at analysis

Freud finally said that they'd have to stop because he was afraid he would lose his authority! Jung felt rather insulted

The two soon broke apart…

One fundamental reason was that Jung did not subscribe to Freud's thought that all aspects of one's personality stemmed from his or her own sexuality

Jung saw no real proof for this theory Carl, being headstrong and a true

individual, could not be controlled or overly influenced by Freud

Finally, in 1912, all ties between the two were severed

Jung’s Background In the latter stages of his life, Jung traveled widely,

visiting tribal people in Africa, America, and India Jung's adulthood saw much accomplishment

and rewar He studied, wrote, thought, and theorized He took time off of his work and thought

introspectively He lectured worldwide with his influence

reaching farther than his travels He retired in 1946, and began to retreat from public

attention after his wife died in 1955 He died on June 6, 1961, in Zurich

Jung: Analytic Psychology Levels of the Psyche

Jung saw the human psyche as being divided into a conscious and an unconscious level, with the latter subdivided into a personal and a collective unconscious

The Conscious Images sensed by the ego are said to be conscious. The ego

thus represents the conscious side of personality, and in the psychologically mature individual, the ego is secondary to the self.

The UnconsciousThe unconscious refers to those psychic images not sensed by the ego. Some unconscious processes flow from our personal experiences, but others stem from our ancestors' experiences with universal themes.

Jung: Analytic Psychology

The Personal Unconscious Repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences

make up the personal unconscious, a concept analogous to Freud's notion of an unconscious. Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes, or emotionally toned groups of related ideas.

The Collective Unconscious Ideas that are beyond our personal experiences and that

originate from the repeated experiences of our ancestors become part of our collective unconscious.

Collective unconscious images are not inherited ideas, but rather they refer to our innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever our personal experiences stimulate an inherited predisposition toward action.


Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, and the rising of the dead

These represented the unconscious itself -- not the "little" personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of, but a new collective unconscious of humanity itself This was an unconscious that could contain all the

dead, not just our personal ghosts. Jung began to see the mentally ill as people who are

haunted by these ghosts He felt that if we would understand these ghosts, we

would become comfortable with the dead, and heal our mental illnesses

Criticism

Critics have suggested that Jung was ill himself when he developed this theory


Archetypes Contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. Jung believed that archetypes originate through repeated

experiences of our ancestors and that they are expressed in certain dreams, fantasies, delusions, and hallucinations

Several archetypes acquire their own personality, and Jung identified these by name

The persona The side of our personality that we show to others.

The shadow or dark side of our personality To reach full psychological maturity, Jung believed, we

must first realize or accept our shadow


A second hurdle in achieving maturity is for men to accept their anima, or feminine side, and for women to embrace their animus, or masculine disposition

Other archetypes include the great mother (the archetype of nourishment and destruction); the old wise man (the archetype of wisdom and meaning); and the hero, (the image we have of a conqueror who vanquishes evil, but has a single fatal flaw

The most comprehensive archetype is the self; that is, the image we have of fulfillment, completion, or perfection


Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow

It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren't self-conscious

It is the "dark side" of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there

The shadow is amoral -- neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesn't choose to do either


It just does what it does It is "innocent" But from our human perspective, the animal

world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we can't quite admit to


The persona represents your public image. The persona is the mask you put on before you

show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time

we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Adler became a charter member of Freud's organization and its first president

However, personal and professional differences between the two led to Adler's departure from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1911

Adler soon after founded his own group, the Society for Individual Psychology

Adler’s Biography Adler was born in Vienna, Austria During the early decades of this century he originated

the ideas which, to a large extent, have been incorporated in the mainstream of present-day theory and practice of psychology and psychopathology

The second of six children, Adler spent his childhood in the suburbs of Vienna

He remembered that when he was about 5 years old, gravely ill with pneumonia, the physician told his father that he doubted the child would recover

It was at that time that Alfred decided he wanted to become a doctor so that he might be able to fight deadly diseases. He never changed his mind, and in 1895 he acquired his M.D. degree at the University of Vienna.

The invite from Freud…

In 1902, when Adler was one of the few who reacted favorably to Freud’s book on dream interpretations

Freud sent him a hand-written postcard suggesting he join the circle which met weekly in Freud's home to discuss newer aspects of psychopathology

At that time Adler had already started collecting material on patients with physical handicaps, studying both their organic and psychological reactions to them

Only when Freud had assured him that in his circle a variety of views, including Adler's, would be discussed did Adler accept the invitation

No longer invited…

Five years later, in 1907, Adler published his book on organ inferiority and its compensation

From then on, the difference between Freud's and Adler's views became steadily more marked

Adler had never accepted Freud's original theories that mental difficulties were caused exclusively by a sexual trauma, and he opposed the generalizations when dreams were interpreted, in each instance, as sexual wish fulfillment

After prolonged discussions, during which each of the two men tried to win the other over to his point of view--attempts doomed to failure from the start-- Adler left Freud's circle in 1911 with a group of eight colleagues and formed his own school

After that, Freud and Adler never met again

Adler’s Biography

In 1918, Adler started founding several child guidance clinics in Vienna

In 1926 Adler was invited to lecture at Columbia University, and from 1932 on he held the first chair of Visiting Professor of Medical Psychology at Long Island College of Medicine

During these and the following years he spent only the summer months, from May to October, in Vienna, and the academic year lecturing in the States. His family joined him there in 1935.

Adler's lectures were overcrowded from the beginning, and he communicated as easily with his audiences in English as he did when using his native German tongue

On May 28, 1937 while in Scotland to deliver a series of lectures at the University, he suddenly collapsed while walking in the street and died from heart failure within a few minutes

Individual Psychology

Striving for Success or Superiority According to Adler, the sole dynamic force

behind all our actions is the striving for success or superiority


Another Adlerian personality concept: striving for superiority

Although striving for superiority does refer to the desire to be better, it also contains the idea that people want to be better than others, rather than better in their own right

Adler later tended to use striving for superiority more in reference to unhealthy or neurotic striving


Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single motivating force

His earliest phrase was the aggression drive--- the reaction we have when other drives (e.g., the need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved) are frustrated

The aggression drive: might be better called the assertiveness drive

Individual Psychology: Compensation We all have problems, short-comings, inferiorities of one

sort or another Adler felt that our personalities could be accounted for

by the ways in which we do -- or do not -- compensate or overcome those problems

Later, however, Adler rejected compensation as a label for the basic motive, because compensation makes it sound as if it is people’s problems that cause them to be what they are

Another word Adler used to refer to basic motivation was compensation, or striving to overcome.

Individual Psychology: Compensation People respond to psychological inferiorities with

compensation Some compensate by becoming good at what they

feel inferior about More compensate by becoming good at something

else, but otherwise retaining their sense of inferiority.

And, some just never develop any self esteem at all

Individual Psychology: Inferiority If people are overwhelmed by the forces of

inferiority -- whether it is their body hurting, the people around them holding them in contempt, or just the general difficulties of growing up -- they develop an inferiority complex

An inferiority complex is not just a little problem--it is a neurosis, a psychological problem

Individual Psychology: Superiority People can respond to inferiority by

developing a superiority complex A superiority complex involves covering up

one’s inferiority by pretending to be superior Bullies, braggarts, and petty dictators

everywhere are the prime example Even more subtle: people who hide their

feelings of worthlessness in the delusions of power afforded by alcohol and drugs

Individual Psychology: Neurosis Adler: all neurosis is a matter of insufficient

social interest… Three types can be distinguished:

The first is the ruling type The second is the learning type The third type is the avoiding type

The Ruling Type From childhood on, they are characterized by a

tendency to be rather aggressive and dominant over others

The strength of their striving after personal power is so great that they tend to push over anything or anybody who gets in their way

The most energetic of them are bullies and sadists; somewhat less energetic ones hurt others by hurting themselves, and include alcoholics, drug addicts, and suicides

The Learning Type

They are sensitive people who have developed a shell around themselves which protects them

They have low energy levels and so become dependent

When overwhelmed, they develop neurotic symptoms: phobias, obsessions and compulsions, general anxiety, hysteria, amnesias, and so on----depending on the specific details of their lifestyle

The Avoiding Type

These have the lowest levels of energy and only survive by essentially avoiding life -- especially other people.

When pushed to the limits, they tend to become psychotic, retreating finally into their own personal worlds.

Individual Psychology: Masculine Protest

One of Adler's earliest phrases was masculine protest

In many cultures boys are often held in higher esteem than girls are

In fact, males in many cultures often do have the power, the education, and the talent and motivation needed to do "great things," and women do not

Individual Psychology: Masculine Protest Adler: Men's assertiveness and success in the

world is not due to some innate superiority Rather, boys are encouraged to be assertive in

life, and girls are discouraged Both boys and girls, however, begin life with the

capacity for "protest!" People want, often desperately, to be thought of

as strong, aggressive, in control (i.e. "masculine”) and not weak or passive or dependent (i.e. "feminine”)


Adler: We should see people as wholes rather than parts-- “individual psychology”

Adler did not want to talk about a person's personality in the traditional sense of internal traits, structures, dynamics, and conflicts

Instead, Adler preferred to talk about style of life --- "lifestyle"

Life style: how people live life, how they handle problems and interpersonal relations

Individual Psychology: Human Motivation

Adler felt that motivation is a matter of moving towards the future, rather than being driven, mechanistically, by the past

Humans are drawn towards goals, purposes, and ideals

This approach to psychology is called teleology

Individual Psychology: Human Motivation

Adler believed that ultimate truth would always be beyond us, but that, for practical purposes, we need to create partial truths… Adler called these partial truths fictions We use these fictions in day to day living We behave as if we know the world will be

here tomorrow, as if we are sure what good and bad are all about, as if everything we see is as we see it, and so on

Adler called this fictional finalism

Individual Psychology: Social Interest Second in importance only to striving for

perfection is the idea of social interest Adler felt that social concern was not simply

inborn, nor just learned, but a combination of both

Social Interest is based on an innate disposition, but it has to be nurtured to survive

Babies and small children often show sympathy for others without having been taught to do so

Individual Psychology: Social Interest

One misunderstanding Adler wanted to avoid was the idea that social interest was somehow another version of extraversion

Adler meant social interest in the broad sense of caring for family, for community, for society, for humanity, and even for life

Social interest is a matter of being useful to others

Individual Psychology: Social Interest “Social failures” are failures because they are

lacking in social interest -- including neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, and perverts

Their goals involve personal superiority, and their triumphs have meaning only to themselves

Individual Psychology: Childhood

Adler, like Freud, saw personality or lifestyle as something established quite early in life

Adler felt that there were three basic childhood situations that most contribute to a faulty lifestyle… See next slides

Individual Psychology: Childhood Childhood feelings of inferiority…

Most will go through life with a strong sense of inferiority

A few will overcompensate with a superiority complex

Only with the encouragement of loved ones will some of these truly compensate

Individual Psychology: Childhood Pampering also contributes to a faulty

lifestyle… Many children are taught, by the actions of

others, that they can take without giving Their wishes are everyone else's commands This sounds like a pretty good situation but…

Individual Psychology: Childhood Pampering The pampered child fails in two ways:

First, they do not learn to do for themselves, and discover later that they are truly inferior

Secondly, they do not learn any other way to deal with others than the giving of commands.

Adler felt that society responds to pampered people in only one way: with hatred

Individual Psychology: Childhood The third situation concerns neglect…

A child who is neglected or abused learns what the pampered child learns, but learns it in a far more direct manner:

They learn inferiority because they are told and shown every day that they are of no value

They learn selfishness because they are taught to trust no one.

Individual Psychology: Childhood A neglectful childhood contributes to a

faulty lifestyle: If the neglected child has not known love, s/he

often do not develop a capacity for it later The neglected child includes not only orphans

and the victims of abuse, but the children whose parents are never there, and the ones raised in a rigid, authoritarian manner

Individual Psychology: Birth Order

Adler is credited as the first theorist to include a child's brothers and sisters as an early influence on the child

If You’re An Only Child…

The only child is more likely than others to be pampered with all the ill results we’ve already discussed… Parents of the only child are more likely to take

special care (sometimes anxiety-filled care) of their first born

They may feel like “they have all their eggs in one basket”

If the parents are abusive, on the other hand, the only child will have to bear that abuse alone

If You’re The First Born…

The first child begins life as an only child, with all the family attention to themselves

However, the second child arrives and "dethrones" the first born

First born children often battle for their lost position

Some become disobedient and rebellious, others sullen and withdrawn

First children are more likely than any other to become problem children

First Borns More positively, first children are often

precocious They tend to be relatively solitary and more

conservative than the other children in the family

If You’re #2…you try harder??? Tend to become quite competitive, constantly

trying to surpass the older child They often succeed, but many feel as if the race

is never done, and they tend to dream of constant running without getting anywhere Other "middle" children will tend to be similar

to the second child, although each may focus on a different "competitor"

If You’re The Youngest… Likely to be the most pampered in a family with

other children They are never dethroned!

Youngest children are the 2nd most likely source of problem children ( just behind 1st)

Youngest may also feel incredible inferiority, with everyone older & "therefore” superior

But, the youngest can also be driven to exceed all of their older siblings

Note: Several slides on Jung’s biography and pictures prepared by Dr. C. George Boeree (http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html) and http://web.bentley.edu/students/g/grdina_jack/adulthood.html.

Note: Several slides on Adler’s biography and picture prepared by http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/adler.htm

chapters 8 & 9 the psychoanalytic perspective: chapters 8 & 9 the neoanalytic perspective:...

Documents