Sigmund Freud was founder of the the psychodynamic approach to psychology and psychotherapy and is largely responsible for the modern way in which we think of ourselves PDF

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Sigmund Freud and the Psychodynamic approach to psychology....

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Sigmund Freud was founder of the the psychodynamic approach to psychology and psychotherapy and is largely responsible for the modern way in which we think of ourselves. In his theories, he offered a new language for discussing mental events. In his clinical work, he took seriously the anxieties and disturbances his client's experienced that others might dismiss as trivial. He observed how people often experience phenomena as happening to them, rather than under conscious control. This included dreams, free associations, slips of the tongue and mistakes, reemergent feelings of anger, fear and despair, neurotic symptoms, and changes in bodily states (breath, heart beat, etc.). In such experiences, in the tension between consciousness and unconsciousness, there is almost the feeling of "losing oneself", and so the idea of therapy began, as a search to make whole, to recover "lost selves".

(1) SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939) 1856-1886

Born in Freiberg, Moravia. Family settles in Vienna: 1860. Medical Training: 18731881. Marriage to Martha Bernays. Research on physiology, cocaine, hypnosis, hysteria. Studies under Charcot in Paris: 1885/86.

1887-1900

Research on Neurology. Influence of Fleiss and Breuer. Monograph on Aphasia (1891).Studies on Hysteria (1895). Death of father: 1896 - self analysis. Introduces the term - Psychoanalysis. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). (Topographical Model of the psyche).

1901-1923

Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905). Works with Carl Jung: 1906. Break with Alder and Jung: 1911/1914.Totem and Taboo (1912). Introductory Lectures (19151917). Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920). The Ego and the Id (1923). (Structural Model of the psyche).

1924-1939

Onset of cancer. The Future of an Illusion (1927). Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). Moses and Monotheism (1934-38). Leaves Vienna for London: 1938. Dies in London, 23rd Sept 1939.

(2) SIGMUND FREUD - His influences G FAMILY/ CULTURAL BACKGROUND (Brentano, Schopenhauer, Milton, Goethe) G EDUCATION/ SCHOLARSHIP (M.D.) G BIOLOGY/PHYSIOLOGY (Darwin, Brucke, Helmholtz) G SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH G NEUROLOGY/NEUROPATHOLOGY (Charcot) G SELF ANALYSIS (Fliess) G CLINICAL PRACTICE (Breuer) G HIS FOLLOWERS & CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

(3) FREUD's PLACE IN PSYCHOLOGY: THE FOUR FORCES IN PSYCHOLOGY M 1st force: PSYCHODYNAMIC

Freud, Jung, Adler, etc. (Metaphors: depth, forces, conflict, energy, drive, etc.) M 2nd force: BEHAVIOURISM Skinner, Watson, Eysenck, etc. (Metaphors: process, mechanism, computation, animal behaviour) M 3rd force: HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL Maslow, Rogers, Perls, Laing, Jung, etc. (Metaphors: growth, potential, wholeness, self, etc.) M 4th force: TRANSPERSONAL Maslow, Wilber, Grof, Jung, etc. (Metaphors: levels, health, light, god-head, suffering, Self, etc.)

(4) SIGMUND FREUD - Some key concepts the unconscious topographical model preconscious unconscious primary process thinking secondary process thinking oedipus complex trauma theory libido

structural model (id, ego, super-ego) the pleasure principle thanatos (death instinct) dreams free association projection transference resistance defences

(5) STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE STRUCTURE

CONSCIOUSNESS

CONTENTS & FUNCTIONS

ID

UNCONSCIOUS (Primary Process Thinking)

Pleasure Principle: Basic impulses (sex & aggression), seeks immediate gratification regardless of consequences; irrational; immediate; impulsive.

EGO

PREDOMINANTLY CONSCIOUS (Secondary Process Thinking)

Executive mediating between Id impulses & Super-ego inhibitions; reality testing; safety & survival concerns; rational, logical, takes account of space & time.

SUPER-EGO

BOTH CONSCIOUS & UNCONSCIOUS

Ideals & morals; strives for perfection; observes, dictates, criticizes & prohibits; imposes limitations on satisfactions; internalizes social rules. Two sub-components:(1) Conscience (guilt) (2) Ego-Ideal (shame)

(6) DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHE AGE: (approx)

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGE:

PERSONALITY STRUCTURE:

0;0 - 1;0

ORAL STAGE

Id in place at birth; ego begins to emerge

1;0 - 3;0

ANAL STAGE

Further development of ego

3;0 - 5;0

PHALLIC STAGE

Oedipal phase (Electra phase) Emergence of Super-ego

5;0 - 8;0

LATENCY PERIOD

Puberty -

GENITAL STAGE

Emergence of mature personality and sexuality

(7) SOME BASIC PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTS G Projection is a process of unconsciously attributing one's own traits, attitudes, or subjective feelings to others; ascribing to others one's own unacknowledged desires and faults as a defence against guilt or inadequacy; or perceiving objective stimuli in line with personal interests, desires, fears or expectations. The boundaries between self and other become blurred by such projections. The boundaries of the therapeutic alliance become powerful metaphors for the exploration of self and otherness. G Transference is a term coined by Freud to describe the process whereby a client shifts affects/feelings applicable to another person onto the therapist/counsellor, eg. the client projects onto the counsellor the hatred he feels toward his father. Transference can be positive or negative. It is interesting to note that transference comes from the Latin:- "to carry over", which in Greek is the word metaphor. G Counter-transference concerns the arousal of the therapist/counsellor's repressed feelings by the therapeutic situation. Once seen as an embarrassment to the therapeutic alliance, it is now viewed as an important site of unconscious communication. With appropriate self-awareness the counsellor can gain insight into the counter-transference. G Working alliance amajor contribution of psychoanalytic practice is the emphasis on a working alliance, i.e. client and therapist working together, the therapist not involved in offering treatment per se to the client, but the therapist acting as facilitator of growth and change, with the client possessing the potential and structures for change. This alliance and interpersonal connectedness between therapist and client is fundamental to all counselling and psychotherapeutic practice. "Therapy springs from the hope that authentic meeting between human beings is still possible. In therapy, it is the way we treat each other that is the treatment. [ . . ] The really decisive moments in psychotherapy are unpredictable, unique, unforgettable, always unrepeatable, and often indescribable". R.D. Laing (1981). G Psychoanalytic techniques include:- the "talking cure", dream analysis, free association, exploration of early issues and fixations, analysis of unconscious communication (e.g. transference/countertransference, the minutiae of the consulting situation, Primary/Secondary process thinking, etc), interpretation of resistance and defence mechanisms. G Resistance involves opposition to any attempt to lay bare the content of unconscious material. This usually takes the form of defence mechanisms such as denial, repression, regression, intellectualization, displacement, sublimation, etc, that enable a person to avoid awareness of

unpleasant feelings, or anxiety. By the process/skill of confrontation the counsellor/therapist can challenge such resistance.

(8) EVALUATING PSYCHOANALYSIS and FREUDIAN THEORY The contribution of Freud to the development of clinical practice in the field of psychotherapy is enormous. It has been remarked that all counselling and psychotherapy theory is really "a footnote to Freud". In the areas of social and cultural theory, Freud too has made a very major impact. Some of the strengths of Freud�s ideas include:1)

the transference as an enactment of unconscious processes in the present situation (e.g. in the client-therapist relationship)

2)

the model of the unconscious, the distinction between primary and secondary process thinking, the convincing case that important contents of mental states are unconscious

3)

offering a new language (or narrative) by which to understand human mental processes

4)

the primacy of early experience

5)

observation, attention to detail, taking people seriously

6)

the idea of symptoms as encoding the "truths" that clients are avoiding

7)

dream analysis; free association techniques

8)

the structure of the personality: id - ego - super-ego

9)

the conflict model of neurosis: e.g. id - ego; unconscious - conscious

10) self-deception as a constitutive feature of the human mind, i.e. there are deep epistemological problems related to self-knowledge 11)

the need for social and cultural theory to recognise the role that the irrational plays in the complex psychodynamic basis of human experience and action (viz. the application of Freud�s ideas, by Edward Bernays, to the area of public relations)

12) Some Criticisms: Freud�s theory can be seen as clumsy, over-deterministic, dogmatic and drawing on a very limited narrative range. The theory of infantile sexuality is overstressed, the skills of the therapist are emphasised at the expense of the client �s experience and resources, and the intrapersonal is emphasised at the expense of the interpersonal (the later development of object-relations theory goes some way to overcome this however). Freud�s concept of the unconscious is limited in comparison to that of Carl Jung, and the focus of psychopathology is on neurosis at the expense of psychosis.

(9) DEVELOPMENTS SINCE FREUD This is an enormous topic, and only the briefest of outlines can be offered, with an emphasis on British psychoanalytic movement. G Some key followers in the tradition of Freud: Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology) Carl Jung (Analytical Psychology) Otto Rank Wilhelm Reich Karl Abraham Sandor Ferenczi

A. A. Brill Ernest Jones Melanie Klein Karen Horney Erich Fromm Anna Freud Erik Erikson...