Freud
Freud - Research by RKT
Freud - Therapy
It has enlightened my journey, I invite you to see if his brilliance can teach you.
Richard Kerry Thompson
Id Ego SuperEgo
Psychosexual Stages
Techniques In Freud
Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight.
The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e., make the unconscious conscious. It is only having a cathartic (i.e., healing) experience can the person be helped and "cured."
1) Rorschach ink blots
1) Rorschach ink blots
Due to the nature of defense mechanisms and the inaccessibility of the deterministic forces operating in the unconscious,
The ink blot itself doesn't mean anything, it's ambiguous (i.e., unclear). It is what you read into it that is important. Different people will see different things depending on what unconscious connections they make.
The ink blot is known as a projective test as the patient 'projects' information from their unconscious mind to interpret the ink blot.However, behavioral psychologists such as B.F. Skinner have criticized this method as being subjective and unscientific.
Click here to analyze your unconscious mind using ink blots.
2) Freudian Slip
Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the form of parapraxes, popularly known as Freudian slips or slips of the tongue. We reveal what is really on our mind by saying something we didn't mean to.
For example, a nutritionist giving a lecture intended to say we should always demand the best in bread, but instead said bed. Another example is where a person may call a friend's new partner by the name of a previous one, whom we liked better.
Freud believed that slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious mind and that there were no accidents, every behavior (including slips of the tongue) was significant (i.e., all behavior is determined).
3) Free Association
3) Free Association
A simple technique of psychodynamic therapy, is free association, in which a patient talks of whatever comes into their mind. This technique involves a therapist reading a list of words (e.g.. mother, childhood, etc.) and the patient immediately responds with the first word that comes to mind. It is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the course of free association.
Free association may not prove useful if the client shows resistance, and is reluctant to say what he or she is thinking. On the other hand, the presence of resistance (e.g., an excessively long pause) often provides a strong clue that the client is getting close to some important repressed idea in his or her thinking, and that further probing by the therapist is called for.
Freud reported that his free associating patients occasionally experienced such an emotionally intense and vivid memory that they almost relived the experience. This is like a "flashback" from a war or a rape experience. Such a stressful memory, so real it feels like it is happening again, is called an abreaction. If such a disturbing memory occurred in therapy or with a supportive friend and one felt better--relieved or cleansed--later, it would be called a catharsis.
Frequently, these intense emotional experiences provided Freud a valuable insight into the patient's problems.
Dream Analysis
Dream Analysis
According to Freud the analysis of dreams is "the royal road to the unconscious." He argued that the conscious mind is like a censor, but it is less vigilant when we are asleep. As a result, repressed ideas come to the surface - though what we remember may well have been altered during the dream process.
As a result, we need to distinguish between the manifest content and the latent content of a dream. The former is what we actually remember. The latter is what it really means. Freud believed that very often the real meaning of a dream had a sexual significance and in his theory of sexual symbolism he speculates on the underlying meaning of common dream themes.
Word association
Defense Mechanism
Sigmund Freud (1894, 1896) noted a number of ego defenses which he refers to throughout his written works. His daughter Anna (1936) developed these ideas and elaborated on them, adding ten of her own. Many psychoanalysts have also added further types of ego defenses.
Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html
Why do we need Ego defenses?
Why do we need Ego defenses?
Freud once said, "Life is not easy!" The ego -- the "I" -- sits at the center of some pretty powerful forces: reality; society, as represented by the superego; biology, as represented by the Id.
Identification with the Aggressor
Identification with the Aggressor
A focus on negative or feared traits. I.e., if you are afraid of someone, you can practically conquer that fear by becoming more like them.
An extreme example of this is the Stockholm Syndrome, where hostages identify with the terrorists. E.g., Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Patty was abused and raped by her captors, yet she joined their movement and even took part in one of their bank robberies. At her trial, she was acquitted because she was a victim suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Repression
Repression
This was the first defense mechanism that Freud discovered, and arguably the most important. Repression is an unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious.
Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego. For example, in the Oedipus complex, aggressive thoughts about the same sex parents are repressed.
This is not a very successful defense in the long term since it involves forcing disturbing wishes, ideas or memories into the unconscious, where, although hidden, they will create anxiety.
Projection
Projection
This involves individuals attributing their own thoughts, feeling, and motives to another person (A. Freud, 1936). Thoughts most commonly projected onto another are the ones that would cause guilt such as aggressive and sexual fantasies or thoughts.
For instance, you might hate someone, but your superego tells you that such hatred is unacceptable. You can 'solve' the problem by believing that they hate you.
Displacement
Displacement
Displacement is the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target (A. Freud, 1936). The target can be a person or an object that can serve as a symbolic substitute. Someone who feels uncomfortable with their sexual desire for a real person may substitute a fetish.
Someone who is frustrated by his or her superiors may go home and kick the dog, beat up a family member, or engage in cross-burnings.
Sublimation
Sublimation
This is similar to displacement, but takes place when we manage to displace our emotions into a constructive rather than destructive activity (A. Freud, 1936). This might, for example, be artistic.
Many great artists and musicians have had unhappy lives and have used the medium of art of music to express themselves. Sport is another example of putting our emotions (e.g., aggression) into something constructive.
For example, fixation at the oral stage of development may later lead to seeking oral pleasure as an adult through sucking one's thumb, pen or cigarette. Also, fixation during the anal stage may cause a person to sublimate their desire to handle faeces with an enjoyment of pottery.
Sublimation for Freud was the cornerstone of civilized life, arts and science are all sublimated sexuality. (NB. this is a value-laden concept, based on the aspirations of a European society at the end of the 1800 century).
Denial
Denial
Anna Freud (1936) proposed denial involves blocking external events from awareness. If some situation is just too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it.
As you might imagine, this is a primitive and dangerous defense - no one disregards reality and gets away with it for long! It can operate by itself or, more commonly, in combination with other, more subtle mechanisms that support it.
For example, smokers may refuse to admit to themselves that smoking is bad for their health.
Regression
Regression
This is a movement back in psychological time when one is faced with stress (A. Freud, 1936). When we are troubled or frightened, our behaviors often become more childish or primitive.
A child may begin to suck their thumb again or wet the bed when they need to spend some time in the hospital. Teenagers may giggle uncontrollably when introduced into a social situation involving the opposite sex.
Rationalization
Rationalization
Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of "the facts" to make an event or an impulse less threatening (A. Freud, 1936). We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses.
But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies.
Reaction Formation
Reaction Formation
This is where a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels (A. Freud, 1936). By using the reaction formation, the id is satisfied while keeping the ego in ignorance of the true motives.
Conscious feelings are the opposite of the unconscious. Love - hate. Shame - disgust and moralizing are reaction formation against sexuality.Usually, a reaction formation is marked by showiness and compulsiveness.
For example, Freud claimed that men who are prejudice against homosexuals are making a defense against their own homosexual feelings by adopting a harsh anti-homosexual attitude which helps convince them of their heterosexuality. Other examples include:
* The dutiful daughter who loves her mother is reacting to her Oedipus hatred of her mother.
* Anal fixation usually leads to meanness, but occasionally a person will react against this (unconsciously) leading to over-generosity
self-ac·tu·al·i·za·tion
Dictionary result for self-actualization
noun
the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.