Psychodynamic Perspective Sigmund Freud Main Point Id, Ego, Superego Personality Development

Psychodynamic Perspective What is at stake in all these attacks?...The real object of attack—for which Freud is only a stalking-horse—is the very idea that humans have unconscious motivation. A battle may be fought over Freud, but the war is over our culture’s image of the human soul. Are we to see humans as having depth—as complex psychological organisms who generate layers of meaning which lie beneath the surface of their own understanding? Or are we to take ourselves as transparent to ourselves? Jonathan Lear, Open Minded The principal Freudian concept on which everything turns holds that mental illness is a result of defense against anxiety. Peter Madison

Psychodynamic Perspective In one of his Introductory Lectures, Freud told the following story: I was once a guest of a young married couple and heard the young woman laughingly describe her latest experience. The day after her return from her honeymoon she had gone shopping with her unmarried younger sister while her husband went to his business. Suddenly she noticed a gentleman on the other side of the street, and nudging her sister had cried: “Look, there goes Herr L.” She had forgotten that this gentleman had been her husband for some weeks. I shuddered as I heard the story, but I did not dare to draw the inference. The little incident only occurred to my mind some years later when the marriage had come to a most unhappy end.

Psychodynamic Perspective Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Father of Psychoanalytic Theory Psychodynamic Theory focuses on the inner person Defined: Much of behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control. They stem from one’s childhood and influence behavior throughout the lifespan.

Main Point Unconscious forces act to determine both: Personality Behavior Part of everyone’s personality. We are unaware of it. Though it strongly influences our behavior.

The all Powerful Unconscious Preconscious Unconscious

Two Powerful Forces Genetic Dead End? Thanatos Libido Death Drive Sexual Instinct Life Instinct

ID Raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality Primitive desires of hunger, sex, and aggression Pleasure Principle Satisfaction is the ultimate goal

MINE!!!

EGO Rational and reasonable Reality Principle: Instinctual energy (ID) is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and keep him/her within societies norms

SUPEREGO Right and wrong Develops at age 5 or 6 Learned from others Moral Ideals and Conscience Guides us toward socially acceptable behavior through the use of guilt and anxiety The cost of advanced civilization is the sense of guilt. –Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

Scenario Child in grocery store check-out lane: “To take the candy or not to take the candy, that is the question!”

Personality Development Key Features Consists of stages Focused on particular biological functions If children are unable to gratify themselves sufficiently during a particular stage or receive too much of it: Fixation will occur

Stages of Development Oral: Anal: Phallic: Latency: Genital: (Birth to 12-18 months) (12-18 m to 3 years) (3 to 5-6 years) Latency: Genital: (5-6 years to adolescence) (Adolescence to adulthood) It is astonishing that the human race could have for so long clung to the belief that children were asexual beings. –Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures