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THE EMERGENCE OF PSYCHODYNAMICS

GASSNER (18the century)
- Father of psychodynamics
- He was a priest and he was good at practicing exorcism

- He talked about 2 kinds of illnesses, that he cured with exorcism

 Natural illnesses: biological/medical illnesses
 Preternatural illnesses: could be circumsessio (caused by devil), obsession (effect of
sorcery) and possession (diabolical possession)

- In order to practice exorcism, he simply asked the patient to show the symptoms of the illness.
If no symptoms appeared, it was a natural illness and he sent the patient to the doctor

- He had the support of a lot of ecclesiastical people, but there were also a lot of people against him
Some people and countries created some inquiries about him

Mesmer created an inquiry against him He treated Father Kennedy better than Gassner, but without
using exorcism. This demonstrated that exorcism was not helpful
to treat illnesses

After this, Gassner retired to private life

MESMER (18th-19th century)

- He practiced magnetism on a woman  he made them swallow something with iron and then attached
three magnets to their body
 the woman told him that she felt a kind of fluid running inside
her body, and it swept away the demons for a couple of hours

- He gained a lot of popularity and there is the belief that when he was around, people started
developing symptoms

The Doctrine (=his theory):

- Four basic principles a physical fluid fills the universe. The fluid is everywhere
 diseases arise from an unequal distribution of the fluid in the body
 with the magnets, he is able to restore the balance of the fluid
 diseases can be cured through the use of magnets

In other words, he believed that, inside human beings, there is a fluid called “animal magnetism”.
When there is an unbalance of this fluid, a disease arises. It can be cured through the use of the
magnets, which adjust the magnetism and bring back the balance

- He was able to evoke the appearance of the symptoms just with his presence

- In his opinion there is only one illness and only one healing The scientific community didn’t approve
This idea and doctrine
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He tried to cure a blind girl and, at first, she got her sight back, but then she started being blind again and
her family got mad at Mesmer.
Due to this reason, he moved to Paris and started collective treatments, with a large group of people

The setting of the room was important, and it was intended to increase the flow of magnetism.
He used baquet in order to connect people between each other

He later created the Société de l’Harmonie, where other people started using his techniques to treat
patients

The King of France then appointed 2 scientific commissions to check the validity of his techniques.
These two commissions stated that there was no fluid they didn’t discuss about the effects of the
techniques used by Mesmer tho. They just said
that the results are not obtained by changing the
balance of the fluid

Mesmer then left and retired to private life

Mesmer’s legacy he introduced the idea of psychotherapy

 he established a relationship with the patients, and psychotherapists now do the same
 he introduced the idea that healings take place by studying the crises

PUYSEGUR
He founded Mesmerism based on Mesmer’s ideas
- He practice magnetism on Victor, one of his servants. He looked like he was sleeping, even tho he was
awake. The servant himself was able to find the cure to his disease. When the effect ended, he had
no memory of it

Later on, it was called “Artificial Somnambulism” today we call it Hypnosis

Characteristics of Artificial Somnambulism: - Perfect crisis it seems like we are sleeping, even if we aren’t
 after it, there is amnesia
- Lucidity: magnetized people were able to explain their
Symptoms and find a diagnosis and therapy

After the practice of magnetism on Victor, his servant got worse

Puysegur understood that magnetism can only be practice for therapeutic reasons and not
experimental ones

He got very popular and therefore he started doing collective treatments

He connected people among each other and with a tree. Immediately, they entered an altered state of
mind, and Mesmer told them they were now doctors and they became able to cure one another.

1818 (30 years after the first magnetism): Victor got severely sick

Puysegur went to magnetize Victor again and he noticed that Victor remembered every detail about the
first time he magnetized him
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DIFFUSION OF MESMERISM
1. Puysegur founded mesmerism based on Mesmer’s ideas
2. 1779 - 1789: temporary stop
3. Abbé Faria he had a different idea about how to create the artificial somnambulism
 he created a relationship with the patients, and then told them to fall asleep, and they did
 he didn’t get very famous because he was Portuguese and didn’t speak the language

The diffusion of Mesmerism in France was very limited, because the academics believed that it was not
possible to magnetize people

In Germany, mesmerism got diffused Romanticists and the philosophers of nature used it, because
the idea of fluid was in line with their ideas
German universities adopted magnetism as a subject it then declined with the arise of positivism

KLUGE
- one of the most important German magnetizers

He identified 6 degrees of magnetic states

1. Waking state, but with a sensation of warmth
2. Half-sleep
3. Inner darkness = deep sleep
4. Inner clarity = sleep but with lucidity
5. Self-Contemplation = subject’s ability to perceive the interior of his own body
6. Universal Clarity = lack of time and space and the subject perceives things hidden in the past

There are no proofs that the last 2 stages exist

1857: Spiritism arose use of hypnotic stimuli in order to get connected to the death
 they created an Automatic writing module

The Nancy School and the Salpetriere school were famous for the use of Spiritism

THE NANCY SCHOOL  it was not really a school

Liebeault was the founder of this “school”
During this period, magnetism was very discredited in relation to medicine. Therefore, Liebeault offered
clients to treat them through magnetism for free or to give them and official medicine, but paying.
Most of the clients opted for magnetism

Liebeault hypnotized patients by looking at them in the eyes after the hypnosis, he claimed that
symptoms disappeared
 this method was used for all diseases

Bernheim (a physician) believed that hypnosis was easier to be induced to people that aren’t obedient
He believed that hypnosis was the consequence of Suggestions in awaken periods like psychotherapies
nowadays
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THE SALPETRIERE SCHOOL

Charcot (a neurologist) was the main participant
He treated female hysterical patients with hypnosis
Hypnosis is developed through 3 stages:
1. Lethargy
2. Catalepsy
3. Somnambulism

Hypnosis was used to cure traumatic paralysis (ex. mutism)

The Science community accepted hypnosis because Charcot was considered to be the best neurologist
and, therefore, everyone believed what he said

Freud went to this school to study with Charcot he learnt about hypnosis thanks to Charcot

PIERRE JANET

Philosophy was important for his development

He wanted to build a philosophy which is able to reconciliate science and religion
He distinguished: - Scientific philosophy its aims to use science in order to change the world
- Moral philosophy it deals with freedom, God, human consciousness…

In his opinion, science is possible only with the help of philosophers who create the metaphysical basis

He was also interested in hypnosis he magnetized Leonie (an hysterical woman) from a distance

Janet was one of the first ones to believe that pathologies are the result of subconscious processes and
dissociated behaviors

He wanted to treat psychopathology, but he couldn’t do so without a medical degree. Therefore, he

moved to the Salpetriere School to study medicine he spent a lot of time with Charcot

He tried to reconstruct the human’s mind through analysis and synthesis

PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOMATISM
Through Automatism, Janet was able to identify and cure some pathologies
Janet identified 2 kinds of Automatism:
Total Automatism = process that deals with the entire body and mind of the person
 ex. catalepsy, artificial somnambulism…

Partial automatism = process in which only a part of the body is occupied with a specific task,
without the awareness of the person the subconscious is free to express itself
 ex. automatic writing, post traumatic suggestions (the person does everything you
tell them to do) …
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He used the Psychological Automatism on Lucie = a girl who used to have terror attacks

Through the use of automatic writing, Janet discovered that when Lucie was a kid, she got traumatized by a
man who tried to scare her as a joke. This caused a trauma
A second personality was created within her, in order to isolate the trauma.
With the use of Rapport (= creation of a relationship of trust, which leads the patient to follow the
therapist’s suggestions and exclude the other people), Janet was able to make the second personality
disappear. It then relapsed 8 months later, but he still managed to make it disappear, with the use of
automatic writing and hypnosis.
When Janet used the hypnosis, he discovered Lucie’s third personality. In fact, when Lucie was hypnotized,
the “hypnotic personality” had a second personality.

Janet stated that traumatic experiences are so violent that they create dissociative behaviors, which then
lead to multiple personalities disorders.
The same thing happens with hypnosis, which is considered to be violent and aggressive. This is the reason
of the third personality
Simultaneous existences= multiple personalities It’s how Janet called them

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Through psychological analysis, he tried to reveal the subconscious ideas, which are the cause and also the
effect of pathologies

Ex. I’m scared of spiders (idea) and I get panic attacks (pathology) every time I see one (in
this case, the idea is a cause of the pathology). The fact that I get panic attacks, tho,
worsens my fear (in this latter case, the idea is an effect of the pathology)

Subconscious ideas are due to a frightening event or trauma and they cause a pathology usually hysteria

Subconscious ideas can be: - 1. Derivative fixed ideas those associated with the main one
- 2. Stratified fixed ideas those that arise after the removal of a previous
fixed idea
- 3. Accidental fixed ideas new ones provoked by an accident in life

In order to remove these subconscious ideas, we need to use hypnosis and automatic writing
Tho, CATHARSIS (= the process of transferring subconscious ideas into the consciousness) is not enough to
cure a pathology. We also need a Rapport

Psychological analysis must be followed by psychological synthesis = reconstruction of the development

of the illness

NEUROSES
We don’t use this name anymore
Neuroses can be divided into Hysteria and Psychasthenia

Hysteria there are 2 forms: - Accidents they are random, and they go away after a bit
 due to the arise of subconscious ideas
 nowadays it’ s called “Acute”
- Stigmata they last in time
 nowadays it’s called “Chronic”
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Psychasthenia difficulty is adjusting to new environments, anxiety, phobias…

 there are 2 forms: - Acute random crises that go away
 ex. anxiety
- Chronic crises that last in time
 disturbance in the function of reality

Function of Reality= ability to recognize what is real and what is just in our mind
 it implies attention and voluntary actions

They both allow the Presentification (= formation in the mind of present moments)

Janet created a Hierarchy of Functions Motor discharges at the bottom and Presentification at the top
The lower the capacity of reality is, the more persistent the Psychasthenia is.
The higher the capacity of reality is, the less the Psychasthenia persists
Janet talked about a model of mind, composed by nine Tendencies
The 9 tendencies are divided into 3 groups Lower tendencies: reflection
 Middle tendencies: immediate believes
 Higher tendencies: willing to work

In his opinion, neurosis arose from a failure in these tendencies

Dynamic theory we are made by a psychological force and a psychological tension

Psychological Force= energy to accomplish vary psychological acts  it can be latent or manifest
Psychological Tension= capacity of using the psychological force different functions require
different amounts of force
The degree of psychological tension of a person is determined
by the level reached in the hierarchy of functions

There must be an equilibrium between Psychological force and psychological tension.

If there is no balance, a psychological disease arises

Aesthetic syndrome psychological force is insufficient

 people with this syndrome are too tired to do anything
 it causes disappointment because people want to do things, but they can’t
 Intermediate: they don’t like other people
 Severe: schizophrenic conditions

Hypotonic Syndrome psychological tension is not enough

 feeling of inadequacy
 Primary symptoms: incapacity to perform abstract acts
 Secondary symptoms: they waste the energy (ex. tics)

TREATMENTS:
Aesthetic Syndrome: - Increase the income get energy through sleep
- Diminish expenditure remove who/what wastes your energy social surgery
- Liquidate debts remove the subconscious ideas
Hypotonic Syndrome: - Resorb the derivations reduce the force (ex. through sedatives)
- Improve the psychological tension through training
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SIGMUND FREUD
He changed his view about psychoanalysis and the emphasis of it during the stages of his career

One thing that never changed throughout his career is the attempt to build a universal theory and approach
that could be considered a science

He created an Energy Driven Project the mind is influenced by the quantity of energy that is
retained and the quantity of energy that is discharged
(ex. Orgasm is a moment in which we discharge. Sleep is the
moment in which we charge)
 the mind is ruled both by Inertia (= tendency to discharge energy)
and Constancy (= tendency to keep the energy constant)

Freud created a connection between sexual frustration and psychological states/quantity of energy
He believed that symptoms could be divided between actual Neuroses and Psychoneuroses

Actual neuroses people suffer of it when there is an imbalance in the distance-accumulation

process of energy
 originated in the present sexual life of the patient
 2 forms: - Neurasthenia excessive masturbation and excitement
- Anxiety Neurosis frustration in sexual life and

Psychoneuroses originated in the past sexual life of the patient

 Hysteria is considered to be a psychoneuroses disease

- It is characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances…

- Charcot believed that hysteria was due to a sensible uterus therefore, only women could be
affected by hysteria
- Seduction Theory Freud thought that hysteria was related to Child Sexual Abuse It comprehends all
 both men and women could be affected by hysteria ranges of sexual
experiences, like the
the memory is stored in the unconscious, until some other events triggered stimulation of genitals,
penetration…
the original event which causes the symptoms of hysteria to show

 Obsessions (= never stopping thoughts) are also psychoneuroses diseases

- they also have the origin in child sexual abuse, but with the
difference that the child felt pleasure
- obsessions arise because the person feels guilty for having felt pleasure

Therefore, Hysterical symptoms are related to a psychic trauma

This trauma occurs during a state of Auto-hypnosis (=reduced level of consciousness) and this state doesn’t
allow us to discharge the energy accumulated during this event.
Freud believes that the fact that memories of a traumatic events slip into the unconscious is due to the fact
we have some Defense Mechanisms, that protect us from getting hurt

Through therapy and the use of words we can bring the trauma to the conscious and discharge the energy
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THERAPY:
At the basis of hysterical symptoms, there is Suitability = the symptoms must fit the cause
Ex. If a person pukes, it’s because the trauma is connected to disgust

In order to discover the origin of the symptoms, we need to use the power of speech (=therapy)
Freud asked the patients to do to a Free Association non-linear associations

The patients usually talk about the memories indirectly related to the trauma Screen Memories

They express something but without directly doing it

Symptoms start to make sense when, through free association, the therapist is able to understand how the
behaviors express something that was previously depressed

According to this model, the original trauma could also be not related to a sexual abuse.
Freud, tho, thought that no other event is so powerful to cause such a strong disease.
The only event that is strong enough to cause this disease is related to a Sexual Abuse

In 1897, Freud changed his prospective on neuroses he abandoned the Seduction theory
 now, he believes that the presence of sexual abuse
is not necessary for hysteria. Unconscious desires
and thoughts are sufficient

In fact, the unconscious is not able to distinguish what is real and what is made up by the mind

Symptoms are both a fulfillment of impulses and a defense from desires, in terms of punishment
Ex. When a person smokes, it’s because they have the desire of sucking tits. Tho, cigarettes are more
bitter and so it’s like a punishment to this impulse of sucking tits

Repression keeps in balance the pull to fulfill the impulse and the pull to repress the desire
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Freud believed that there are three levels of awareness in the mind:
- Consciousness
- Preconsciousness it contains ideas that we are not aware of, but that we can become aware
of under certain conditions
- Unconsciousness

Repression prevents some preconscious ideas from going to the consciousness. By providing some energy,
we are able to make them emerge.
In therapy, this energy is obtained through the use of Transfert= tendency to project one’s feelings
toward the therapist

Freud abandoned hypnosis there was too much rapport that made the patient fall in love
with the therapist, that was seen as a “God”
 resistance and transference were present, but they were not analyzed

For his therapy, Freud used Free Association

During free association, patients experiment both Resistance (= moments of inner difficulties and non-
collaboration) and Transference (= irrational feeling of love toward the therapist)

Analysis= interpretation of the resistance and transference in order to

make the patient understand the source of the symptoms

The innovation of Freud’s therapy is that he analyzed the resistance and the transference

Free Association is able to express the repressed materials, thanks to the similarity of the content. Thus,
thanks to it, the therapist is able to study the preconscious ideas
Even if the person represses some memories, they will still be expressed through the emotions or behaviors

After the trauma has been revealed, there is usually a moment of resistance, but, as time passes, the
patient starts collaborating more

DREAMS
Dream= form of our consciousness while we sleep they are the product of the conscious
During sleeping, consciousness tends to fade away Unconsciousness is the strategy used by our mind to
continue sleeping
Dreams are like symptoms they are both a fulfillment of impulses and a defense from desires
During dreams, the latent content, made of unconscious and hidden desires and ideas emerge and it is
transformed into manifest content there is usually a censorship that disguises the latent content

Features of dreams:
- the dreamer is the subject or the observer
- the scene is not determined by where the dreamer is
- the dreamer can’t act in the dream scene as in reality
- dreams are out of control
- dreams are illogical
- the dreamer doesn’t realize the illogical connection in dreams
- all actions performed seem to be normal while sleeping
- the dream can be coherent of discordant with the emotional state of the subject
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Dreams are hard to remember for 2 main reasons:

- they are illogical our memory struggles to encode them,
- they are subject to oblivion and transformation = our mind tries to change the material that can be
emotionally tough on us CENSORSHIP

Dreams can be made of different contents:

- Diurnal rests = the content of our dreams is made of experiences that the dreamer had during the day.
Sometimes, we have Hyper-mnestic dreams = dreams that include content that the
dreamer forgot to have experienced

- Sensory stimuli sometimes, the dreams contain some needs that the dreamer has while he sleeps

- Desires They can be: - Unfulfilled desires

- Repressed desires
- Desires of remote development they are in the unconscious
 Overdetermination= a dream represents multiple desires sometimes, they are in contrast
 Freud believed that only Infantile dreams have sufficient strength to create a dream

Freud described some processes that take place in the formation of dreams
They make the transformation from the latent content to the manifest content

1. Primary Process it creates dreams, in order to satisfy a desire dreams don’t have a logic
 dreams are created by censorship, which is used to disguise the latent content
 Dramatization= process of distortion of the fantasy to disguise the latent content.
The manifest content appears dramatic and realistic, so that it
appears real but also far from one’s actual experience

 Condensation= the complex latent content is transformed into a very brief story.
Single items in the manifest content express several wishes and ideas
of the latent content

 Displacement= the manifest content is purposely centered elsewhere, so that the

emotional valence of the unconscious is displaced onto a different
representation which acquires the qualities of the latent content
(Ex. If I’m scared to die, I dream something that represents it, but I
don’t directly dream my death, because that would be too tough)

 Symbolization= the latent content is expressed into objects of symbolic form

2. Secondary process it uses censorship to give a logic sense to dreams

 Rationalization= the dream is re-elaborated in order to eliminate some apparent
absurdities and contradictions. It gives sense to what we dream
and it allows us to be able to express it and remember it

Otherwise, the dream is too absurd for us to remember it

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Dreams can be Dreams from above= unfulfilled desires find unconscious energy to emerge
 Dreams from below= unconscious energy that takes possession of preconscious
material and uses it to come out

The expression and he content of dreams is tolerated by our self, thanks to a mechanism of translation,
which separates the real life to the dream

INTERPRETATION:
Key points:
- Distinction between latent and manifest content, and they show something that is at the same time
present and also past
- The manifest content represents the latent content in a distorted way. The distortion is due to a
repression
- Free association is able to reconstruct the latent content
- Psychotherapy should use free association to discover the unconscious through the analysis of dreams

Processes of interpretation:
1. neglect the order of the phases
2. unify several elements into one
3. give importance to inessential elements usually, general details are victim of elaboration
4. invert the emotional tone
5. invert the causal-effect relation ship
6. use the known symbolic meaning
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Limits of interpretation
- There are dreams that cannot be explained in their latent content because of resistances .
In these cases, Freud asked to tell the patient to tell the dreams without the elements with
greater resistance
- Sometimes we understand the factors, but not the desires expressed in the dream
- Dreams are not meant to be interpreted the more successful a dream is, the more it will remain hidden
- The analysis is successful only if the therapist has all the elements of the dream
- Repression can be strong traumatic memories can remain latent, or they may disappear for a bit
 if the repression is strong, the person doesn’t feel much pain and he doesn’t
have many symptoms, therefore it’s hard to analyze the unconscious
- Repression can be weak the traumatic memories may emerge by themselves
 the weaker the repression is, the higher is the pain felt by the dreamer/the
higher is the number of symptoms, and so it’s easier to analyze the unconscious

THEORY OF SEXUALITY
It discusses about the different phases of sexual development that children go through

We have only a few memories of our sexual experience when we were children infantile amnesia
Freud believed that this is due to a process of repression

Libido= sexual and erotic drive, which is evident already at birth it is connected to vital bodily functions
(ex. feeding, walking…)
Libidinal drives are linked to a pleasure principle a passage to a new phase signs a development, but
there is also a loss of something that we had in the
previous phase. Therefore, the child needs to readapt.
The aim is to switch phases without felling a trauma

Effects of traumas:
Fixation= persistence of a specific phase the child doesn’t experience following phases
Regression= returning to a previous phase the kid never arrives to the ending point

The phases of libido are strictly connected to bodily functions the experience of all the phases is needed
in order to grow to a healthy adult.

PHASES:
1. Oral Phase (0-24 months)  exploration of the world with the mouth
 the kid finds pleasure in sucking, breast feeding, thumb sucking…
 in adults, this phase can show up in kissing
 children need to stop being breast fed at around 6-12 months, otherwise
they experience a trauma
 disturbances in this phase lead to a fixation of oral activities (ex. smoking)
and it can generate personality traits of impatience, dependence…

2. Anal Phase (2-4 yo) the lack of breast is fulfilled with the exploration of the anus
 kids start beings independent, and their ego develops
 the kid finds pleasure in defecation and in release or retain
 in adults, this phase can show up in attraction to the posterior and for all kinds of
retention and release (ex. saving money)
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 children need to learn how to use the toilet by themselves around 18-36 months,
otherwise they experience trauma
 fixation can be experienced if the kid has a strict or a loosen toilet education. It can
generate personality traits of strictness, stubbornness…
 if this phase is too tough and provokes a trauma, the kid experiences regression and
goes back to the oral phase

3. Phallic Phase (4-7 yo) exploration of the genitals

 the kid finds pleasure in, peeing rubbing the genitals and in showing them
 in adults, it can show up in the pleasure of penetrating
 the Complex of Oedipus needs to be overcome, otherwise the kid experiences a
trauma and fixation takes place

Oedipus Complex = attraction to the parent of the opposite sex that generates a rivalry with the
parent of the same sex
 at the end of the Oedipus complex, kids develop their Superego

In boys desire of the mother, but fear of the father’s retaliation in form of castration (the kid fears
to be castrated by the father) this fear rises because they see the mothers without a
penis, and they believe that the mother was castrated
 progressive identification with the father and displacement of the love for the mother to
new objects
In girls they are already identified with the mother, but they realize that they don’t have the penis
and they feel betrayed by the mother penis envy
 they start identifying themselves to the father
 women develop less super ego, due to a less conflictual identification with the father

Oedipal situation children tend to hate the father and love the mother
 growth makes the rivalry and the positive instinct toward the father incompatible
 conflict with the father leads to an attachment to the mother
Signs in adulthood: - reconciliation with the father due to a decrease of jealousy
- some parts of conflicts remain active

4. Latency Phase (7yo-puberty) libidinal activity settles down

 the brain is able to repress the sexual desires that distract us
 the personal identity develops

5. Genital Phase (puberty- death) explosion of libidinal activity, due to the hormones
 pleasure is found in the genitals, through masturbation or sex
 people experience other desires connected to the genitals (ex. sex)
 reproduction is the highest form of libido
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NARCISSISM  it is a personality disorder

1. Primary Narcissism in the first years of life, the kids’ libido is completely focused on the self
 it is an early stage of autoerotism

2. Secondary Narcissism after Primary Narcissism, a part of libido is invested on the mother, through
breast feeding (orality) and the other part is still invested on the self
 when breast feeding is abandoned, the breast is substituted by the objects.
Therefore, the libido is now focused on the self (narcissistic libido) and also on
some objects (object libido)
 a lack of object-libido can lead to schizophrenia

3. The kid chooses the objects to which invest love

Anaclitic love= the object/subject is chosen and loved because it resembles the features of
the mother and of the father we like the person because he shares our values

Narcissistic love= the object/subject is chosen and loved because it resembles some aspects of
the self and what the person would like to be

4. After the choice of the libidinal object, different processes take place:
- Idealization= defense mechanism in which an object is exalted  this leads to a devaluation
- Devaluation= defense mechanism in which an object is discredited
- Sublimation= process of alteration of the object libido, in which the object becomes something other
than a sexual satisfaction

Idealization and Devaluation are typical defenses mechanisms of Narcissistic people

UNCONSCIOUS
It contains: - repressed materials
- drives/ fantasies they disguise themselves through several psychological defenses, that
our brain uses to allow our drives and instincts to overcome censorship
and be fulfilled fantasies generate both love and hatred at the same time

Psychological defenses: - Sublimination I make an intolerable desire as something acceptable

 Ex. I wanna punch someone so I do kick boxing
- Reaction Formation I transform the drive in its opposite
 Ex. I hate cats, so I adopt one
- Introjection I make other people’s desires as my own desires
- Projection I project my desires on others
- Repression there is a primary repression and a secondary repression

Primary Repression repressed ideas and instincts have never been allowed into consciousness

Secondary Repression repressed ideas are dragged into the unconsciousness, after being allowed
to the consciousness of the person
 these repressed ideas split up the idea becomes a fantasy
 the emotional part becomes anxiety
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Narcissistic projections are generally very effective to repress a desire they claim not to have any kind of
problems, but claim that others do

After a loss, during the period of Mourning, there is a slow and gradual dissolution of the emotional ties
with the subject, and the incorporation* of the idealized picture we feel love for the person, even if we
hated her when she was alive

This happens because there was a psychological defense that repressed an unconscious love for the person

As a result of this incorporation*, we develop melancholia, that leads to self-hatred and suicidal tendencies

EGO AND THE ID

In 1895, Freud modified his previous theory
Before, he theorized the existence of three layers of mind: unconscious, preconscious and conscious
Neuroses was the results of the conflict between the unconscious and the conscious

Now, there are three psychic agencies:

- Id similar to unconscious
 it contains libidinal forces that the person wants to satisfy it doesn’t follow a morality
 it doesn’t obey to secondary processes
 Through Language, we can reach the Id, subtracting it from the regulatory function of the Super Ego

- Super Ego it is generated by the introjection of the father figure, as a consequence of Oedipus complex
 it is mostly preconscious, but a part is unconscious  therefore, we can’t have complete
control of it
 it always wants to follow the morality and it aims to perfection

- Ego it has a conscious section and a preconscious one

 Conscious ego: - it has a delay in gratification
- Functions: organizing memory, guiding attention, and organizing perception
 Preconscious ego: it activates repression (in life) and censorship (in dreams)
 it tries to find a balance between Id and Super-Ego this generates a Drive Anxiety for the Id, and
a Guilt Anxiety for the Super-Ego

- These two kinds of anxiety generate an Anxiety for reality

- In order to reduce the Drive Anxiety, we use Psychological defenses to reduce the fantasies
- In order to reduce the Guilt Anxiety, we punish ourselves (ex. biting nails)

The aim of psychoanalysis is to support the ego in order to: reduce the pressure (= ways in which drives can
be fulfilled safely) , increase the strength (= increasing the ability to cope with demanding situations) and
improve the quality of defenses (= using more adaptive defenses)

Psychoanalysis wants the patient to use more advanced defense mechanisms, rather than archaic ones
Some of the best defenses: humor, altruism and sublimation
More archaic defenses: - neurotic defenses they separate the feelings from the actions
 they allow a part of the intolerable material to emerge to the
conscious and to repress other parts
- borderline level defenses good and bad are completely split
- denial defenses
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

HOW HIS LIFE INFLUENCED HIS THEORIES:

Childhood
- he was born in a step-family before Freud was born, his father already had a wife from which he had 2
children. Then, the wife died, and the father married Freud’s mother
- Freud hated Philip, one of his step-brothers because Philip didn’t accept his father’s second marriage
- in the first 11 months of his life, he had a narcissistic relationship with his mother he idealized her
- when Freud was 11 months old, his parents had another child, called Julius Freud didn’t like him
- Julius was considered the special one by the mother Freud started hating his brother and the mother
- when Julius was born, he started spending a lot of time with a nanny  she had a crucial role in
Freud’s theories
The attachment went from his mother to his nanny

- then, Julius died Freud felt that the hatred he felt for Julius was responsible for his death
- after a couple of years, Freud’s sister, called Anna, was born Freud was jealous
- Philip sued Freud’s nanny to the police, saying that she was stealing from them she went to jail
- Freud’s father was abused by the Nazi’s abuses Freud felt powerless for not saving his father’s own life
and from not saving him from the Nazi’s abuses

Adulthood
- he was interested in Goethe’s script called “Great mother nature”
- he got engaged with Martha, his future wife he was very jealous and obsessed

it’s the result of the lack of relationship with his mother

- Martha cheated on Freud at first, he freaked out

- Freud started idealizing Martha he believed he couldn’t live without her
 Freud blamed himself for Martha’s infidelity

- he idealized Fleiss’s approach (he was a surgeon) he felt a kind of love toward him
- one day, one of Freud’s clients had a nose problem and Freud suggested her to go see Fleiss.
After the surgery, the woman almost died for a Fleiss’ mistake

- Freud blamed himself for the fact that the women almost died he believed it was not Fleiss’s fault,
because it was him who sent the woman
to see him

Influences on his theories:

 Need to absolve his parents he developed the idea that pain arises from the internal of individuals.
From here, he developed the stages for development

 Need to avoid painful memories he developed the idea of the unconscious, which is not accessible by
us and which causes psychological pain to the Ego, as the result of
its conflict with the Superego

 Need to protect the mother from ambivalence he developed the Oedipus complex for the boys
 boys hate the mother because she sleeps with
the father and because they pay more attention to
the second sibling
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

 Need to protect the mother from the hatred he developed the Oedipus complex in girls.
 girls hate the mother because, when they have an older
sibling, they can see that, due to breast feeding, the
mother doesn’t pay attention to the older sibling

Concepts in Freud’s life that helped develop his theories:

Idealization= exaggeration of positive qualities of the self or others, and denial of any limit of ourselves or
of the other

Omnipotence thinking= believing that what we think can become real ex. superstition
 it can reach delusion
 they are universal and he used it
to make self of his life

Displacement= frustrated need and desires are the basis of choices in adult’s life Freud’s adult choices
were influenced by his
childhood

Splitting= defense mechanism used to protect ourselves from conflict, in which objects provoking anxiety
are considered either extremely good or extremely bad ex. I hate her, so she is the worst
 this leads to polarized viewpoints ex. one day, we like something. The other, we hate it

Introjection= defense mechanisms in which we incorporate the external reality into ourselves
 every child does that with the mother we can’t hate our mother
 ex. Freud blamed himself for Martha’s infidelity

Projection= defense mechanisms in which we project the idea of ourselves onto another person
 Freud felt guilty for the events in his childhood, so he married an unfaithful woman
 ex. if we hate ourselves, we marry a person we don’t like
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

CARL JUNG

He studied medicine he had a cousin with somnambulism experienced. Therefore, he wrote the thesis
about psychological reality and started studying psychology and psychiatry

For his medicine thesis, he talked about the phenomenon of a medium

Classification of Mediumistic phenomena Somnambulism (= a person seems to be sleeping)
 Semi somnambulism (= a person seems to be about to sleep)
 Automatic writing
 Hallucinations

All these phenomena are an expression and personification of the human’s mind

Psychology= scientific study of the human soul, taking the psychological reality as a starting point

= anything that comes to the mind and that is real in my mind

ex. I see the devil

1905 Burgholzli Period

 He moved to Zurich and started working at the Burgholzli Clinic
 he started a word-association test

1907 Psychoanalytic period

 he started working with Freud
 deeply studied psychoanalysis
 he founded analytical psychology
 he left Freud in 1913, because he wanted to change psychoanalysis, but Freud was against it

Differences between Jung and Freud

- Philosophical foundations psychoanalysis tackled only scientific topics Freud considered it a science
 analytical psychology is open to both scientific topics and also topics that
science can’t tackle Jung didn’t care if it was considered as a science or not
- Aims psychoanalysis wanted to study the human mind
 analytical psychology wanted to study the human soul between religion and psychology

1913-1915 Intermediate Period

 period of Creative Illness Nekyia took place

BURGHOLZLI PERIOD
- he started a Word-Association test he presented a list of word, and, for every word, he asked the
patient to make an association
- he aimed to measure the reaction time to make an association a lower reaction time indicates a strong
association
- the list of words was chosen differently for each person

- with this test, he discovered that fatigue, psychopathology, and the different states of consciousness
influence the reaction time to make an association (ex. If I’m drunk, I have a slower reaction time)
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

- Jung then realized that this is not the best way to study a person’s unconscious
He said that experimental psychology is not able to study the unconscious, because it is not objective
enough, but it has a lot of personal interpretation

- Jung’s main objective was to study the Complexes

Complex= image of a certain situation which is strongly accentuated emotionally and is incompatible with
the habitudinal attitude of consciousness they alter the well-being of the person

Normal complexes ex. erotic complexes (Oedipus complex)

Accidental complexes related to specific events that happened in the past of the patient
Permanent complexes typical of hysteria and dementia praecox

The stronger the complexes are, the stronger is the possibility that they will cause psychopathology
In hysteria, the associations were submerged by one great complex related to an old secret wound
The individuals could be healed if someone could bring the person to conquer and assimilate the complex

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERIOD
- he wanted to explore the fixed ideas that Janet through about
- he interpreted Freud’s dreams interpretation and he started to make modifications of it

- he used myths in order to study the dreams of the person

- he changed psychoanalysis in 3 ways

 he extended the concept of Libido he thought that Libido is a psychic energy, not sexual
 Libido can be expressed through symbols
 he introduced that Myth of the hero = we can study the unconscious an come back from it

Evolution of Libido:
- Parasexual 0-5 years there is no Sexual energy. Libido is at the service of growth
- 5 years to Puberty sexual instincts start appearing
- Sexual maturity Libido is not just sexual energy

Therefore, Jung doesn’t believe that Neurosis arises from the childhood and from the libido.
He believes that Neurosis is caused by present situations
Basically, Jung disagree with the fact that everything was about sexual instincts

Jung was against Freud’s Oedipus Complex he agrees that kids are more or less attached to the mother,
which may lead to a rivalry with the father, but the mother is
viewed as a protective and nourishing figure, not as the
object of sexual wishes
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

INTERMIDIATE PERIOD
- he started the Nekyia (= digging of the unconscious),

After Jung left Freud, he notices some “Archetypes” (= frequent symbols in psychotic patient). From this
observation, he theorized a new idea of Unconscious, that can’t be explained by primary and secondary
processes (= repression)

In order to study these Archetypes, he started the Nekyia, in which he tried to evoke and analyze
the Unconscious Imaginary  similarity with the Psychoanalysis: they are both used for self-therapy
To evoke the Unconscious Imaginary, he first tried to direct his daydream, by imagining himself digging the
earth, as a metaphor of the Nekyia
Later, the archetypes began to manifest directly by themselves

He then realized than this self-exploration was too dangerous for him, so he set some rules, which allowed
him to arrive to the unconscious and to come back from it

Rules 1. he had to maintain a certain touch with reality

 2. he had to examine every single image and translate it into the language of consciousness
 3. he had to translate the revelations with something that deals with everyday life

For the Nekyia, he made a Progression and a Regression

Regression= temporary movement from the conscious to the unconscious in increases introversion
Progression= temporary movement from the unconscious to the conscious it increases extraversion

With the termination of the Nekyia, he noticed some permanent changes in his personality. He became
more extroverted

The Nekyia allowed him to make an individuation

Individuation= progression from an undifferentiated unconscious to the formation of a specific personality
It’s called Individuation because this process is what makes a person an individual

When he finished the Nekyia, he discovered so many Archetypes that he spent the rest of his life trying to
describe them

- he became an expert in Gnosticism

- he wrote “Psychological types” he believed that Schizophrenia and Hysteria are extreme
degrees of Extroversion and Introversion

Introversion= attitude in which individuals find motivations within themselves

Extroversion= attitude in which individuals find motivations from social factors

Some people may be both introverted and extroverted, but one of the two is more dominant
Introverts and Extroverts are usually complementary to each other people with opposite personalities
often marry each other
Personality can change over time Jung became more extroverted after the Nekyia
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

Jung individuated 4 fundamental functions, divided in 2 pairs:

1. Two Rational functions of Thinking and Feeling
2. Two Irrational functions of Sensation and Intuition

These two pairs are complementary if we are irrational, we don’t think or feel emotions
These 4 functions can be associated with Introversion and Extroversion, generating 8 personality traits

Personality classification:
- Thinking-extroverted life is dependent on fixed rules
 positive thinking
- Feeling-Extrovert focus on the values
 respect of social conventions
 very emotional
- Sensation-Extroverted very easily adjustable to social situations
 pleasure-loving person and very sociable
- Intuition-Extrovert use of insight
 attracted to new possibilities
 big talent for politics and speculation
- Thinking-Introvert no practical sense
 no social life
- Feeling-Introvert highly sensitive
 hard to be understood
- Sensation-Introvert quiet
 attention to the aesthetic quality of things
 benevolence for the world
- Intuition-Introvertdaydreamer
 eccentric and odd

ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
- when he left Freud, Jung stopped being recognized as a psychoanalyst
- he developed his own psychology Analytical Psychology/ Complex psychology

- He developed a system of Psychic Energetics

He substituted the Libido with the Psychic energy this latter is a more general energy , not only
connected to sexual instincts

There are different levels of Energy Higher Psychic Energy and Lower Psychic Energy (connection to Janet)

He believes that the psychic energy always remains constant. Tho, it flow in different levels of the mind.
If it seems to have disappeared, it’s because it’ gone in the unconscious

Progression= process in which energy is used to respond to the external world ex. for challenges
Regression= process in which energy goes to the subconscious it seems to be disappearing

Schizophrenic patients are those that don’t have available energy in order to respond
to the external world, because their energy is fixed in the unconscious
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

He believed that Symbols are a way to transform energy rituals transform energy
ex. if I look at an object which has a huge value to me, it seems life it gives me power and energy

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
Jung’s concept of unconscious differs from Feud’s idea in 3 main aspects:
1. It has an autonomous course of development
2. It is complementary to the consciousness
3. It is the place where Universal Primordial Images stay he called them “Archetypes”

He belied that we all share something that doesn’t depend on our own experiences.
He called this Collective Unconscious, and it is made by Archetypes, which are universal

He developed the idea of Archetypes when he met an old schizophrenic patient. This patient had some
hallucinations in which the sun had a penis that created some wind.
At first, Jung wasn’t able to explain these hallucinations, until he found a book about the history of religion,
which described the exact image that the schizophrenic patient described.

Jung believe that this was not a coincidence, but he thought that there is something rooted, that he
identified as the Archetypes

The images that we see are Archetypal Images they are not the Archetypes, but they are the way our
unconscious interprets them

Characteristics of Archetypes:
- they are universal and don’t depend on one’s experience Jung believed that this universality is due to a
universal Brain structure or as an expression
of a Neo-Platonic world-soul
- they can manipulate our psychic energy and influence our everyday life experiences
- they are likely to be manifested in critical circumstances for exterior events or inner changes
- they may appear in dreams, but they can also be elicited through forced imagination or drawings
- there is an almost infinite number of archetypes

STRUCTURE OF HUMAN PSYCHE:

- Jung believed that the Conscious Ego is in between the Exterior World and the Interior World
- Some specific Subpersonalities, which express some Archetypes, gravitate around the Conscious Ego
- Main Subpersonalities/ Archetypes:
 Persona = social face we have, which is determine by the social group we belong to
 some people identify themselves too much with their social identity, that they end up
losing their personal identity

 Shadow = personal characteristics that we want to hide from ourselves

 the more we try to hide some aspects of ourselves, the more the shadow becomes evil
 it can be projected on other people
 sometimes, it can take control of a person and, when it stops, we may be surprised to
have been capable of such things
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

 Archetypes of the Soul For men: Anima it is a feminine figure

 it represents the feminine side of men
 it is projected on a real woman present in a man’s life
 love at first sight is a projection of the anima
 For women: Animus it a masculine figure
 it represents the masculine side of women
 in ladies, it manifests itself in the infatuation for an
older men
 in mature women, it represents itself in the
infatuation for champions or criminals
 in old women, it manifests itself in the infatuation
for a physician

 Archetype of the Spirit it appears in dreams, under the symbols of wind, ancestral figures,
helping animals, divinities…
 it shows itself in critical situations
 it usually appears as the figure of an old wise man
 it can be projected into a real human being
 Archetype of the Magna Mater: it can be projected on one’s mother

 Self it is the most central archetypes

 it is the perfect representation of what a person is
 it includes conscious and unconscious aspects of the person
 it can appear in dreams through the figure of ourselves or through other figures
Ex. Jesus is the archetype of the self

Individuation= process of going from an undifferentiated unconscious to the unification one’s personality

Through identification, a person differentiate himself from the rest of the people
Ex. when a person grows, he becomes more aware of himself and so, he becomes more individualized

During adolescence, teenagers tend to get distant from the family rituals can help to do it

Ex. going out on Saturday nights

Jung identifies specific points in humans’ life in which there is a turning point:
32-38 yo: Turning of Life archetypical dreams change
 people are more linked to the archetypes of the spirit and of the self
 problems, needs and duties that have been previously neglected now
manifest themselves
 neurosis can arise, due to long-repressed needs
 the ego is not anymore the center of the person this makes people not afraid
of death
 he doesn’t support the “Psycho-Youth” (= pretending to be young)

This is against the concept of Individuation. Because, if an old person

wants to remain young, goes against the idea of individualization

He believed that when people grow, they achieve Wisdom elderly people are wise
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

Jung found that, with the progress of Individuation, there is the development of some symbols, which
represent some archetypes
When we get to the Turning point, we are more likely to express these symbols

Most common symbols: - Quaternity = figures with something that recalls the number 4
 he believes that everything can be divided in 4 part, with 2
opposite poles
 ex. square, four people, four trees…
- Mandala = circular figure ornamented with symbols that is generally divided
into 4 sections
 when we draw it, we express an archetype
- The divine child

Individuation is very different from Progression and Regression

Regression= temporary movement from the conscious to the unconscious it generates a gradual increase
of introversion
Progression= temporary movement from the unconscious to the conscious it generates a gradual
increase of extroversion

JUNGIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY
- it is more concrete than Freud’s situation for Freud, the only thing that counted was what happened
during psychotherapy. For Jung, what happens outside the
session is fundamental as well
- it is composed by several stages
1. Mindfulness = brining the patient back to reality and to the present situation
 this condition doesn’t only influence psychotherapy, but also the patient’s life outside
the therapy
2. Handling of pathogenic secrets Jung believed that we all have secrets, and, during therapy, the
patient should share them
 Secrets include both something that we are hiding and also something
that we don’t want to admit to ourselves
 the therapist must keep and accept the secret

Jung’s approach, tho, doesn’t work with everyone it doesn’t work for people with infantile hedonism,
with the need for immediate gratification or for those
with the need of power

Jung’s therapy is very different from Freud’s

- his psychotherapy is focused on the future it is aimed to finalize the journey toward individuation
 Freud’s therapy was focused on the past, in order to
discover the origins of neurosis
- one session per week, for an average of 5 years Freud’s sessions were 4 times a week
- the patient is sat on a chair, facing the therapist not on the couch like Freud’s patients
- the patient is asked to carry out a specific task outside the session, like reading a book Freud focused
only on the session
- the patient must confront and collaborate with the therapist in Freud’s session, the analyst and the
therapist were almost always in opposition
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

Psychotherapy has a Transcendent function= progressive synthesis of conscious and unconscious

data leading to an individuation

The therapist must make a synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious he has to unify what a person
conscious experienced and
what he unconsciously did

In order to stimulate the unconscious, Jung stimulated dreams, spontaneous fantasies, free drawing…

He didn’t believe that the unconscious content/dreams is always an expression of a latent motivation or
desire. He believed that dreams can manifest both latent and manifest content
After the stimulation and reception of the unconscious content, he used symbols to make an interpretation

Therapists must know mythology and history of religions very well

When a patient does a Jungian therapy that stimulates dreams, his mind starts producing dreams that are
in line with the therapist’s idea

The stages of Jungian psychotherapy sign a progressive knowledge of one’s archetypes

1. First stage meeting and acceptance of the persona and of the shadow
 when the patient is aware of his persona and shadow, he has to assimilate it
 being aware of your own shadow makes it harmless ex. knowing to have suicidal instincts
makes them less harmful
2. Second stage meeting of the anima or animus
 they become psychological functions (= we are aware of how we look at the other sex)

That’s why Jungian therapists must go into therapy with 2 different therapists*

3. Third stage the archetype of the spirit is manifested

 it’s important that the patient doesn’t identify himself with the archetype

4. Final stage meeting with the archetype of the self

 the process of individuation comes to an end, because we have met the archetype of
the self, which represents who we really are

Jung belied that no one is able to lead someone further than he has gone himself that’s why training is
fundamental for therapists

When trying to become a Jungian therapist, people must go into therapy with 2 different therapists. One
who is a woman and one who is a man because we interact differently, depending on the sex
of the person that we are talking to*

Psychotherapists have the role to facilitate and support the individuation process, through the stimulation
of the archetypes
When the patient tells a dreams or an idea, the therapist must magnify it in order to interpret it
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

Collaboration is key therapists must be able to feel empathy for the patients, but they also must be
aware of how and why the patients create strong emotions within them
SYNCHRONICITY
One day, during a therapy, a woman who wasn’t progressing because of her hyperrational animus, was
talking about a dream she had about a golden beetle. While she was talking, a beetle hit the window of the
room, and the rationality of the woman was thrown over,

Jung believed that there is a Synchronicity between the physical world and the archetypical elements
He believed that, both in the unconscious and in the physical world, there is more than what we can see

HOW HIS LIFE INFLUENCED HIS THEORIES:

Childhood
- he was an only child, and his parents didn’t get along
- his father was struggling with faith he became dogmatic God was seen as a vindicative figure
- his mother was depressed and got hospitalized for one year, when Jung was 1 year old

- when the mother was hospitalized, the father got depressed too Jung didn’t have any love around him

At one year old, children start to acquire their identity Jung had a trauma during this period

- in the daytime, Jung used to see his mother as a loving figure. While at nighttime, he used to dream his
mother as a figure suspended in the air, whose head fell off
- Jung’s personal story influenced the relationships with others he felt different from other kids

- 3 years old he used to tell a pray every day, because he belied that Jesus was benevolent, but he started
thinking that, through the pray, he was praying to get swallowed by Jesus

This ideas was reinforced by 2 main events:

 he was used to participate to funerals he believed that Jesus took the death people
and kept them with him
 he used to see a black Jesuit coming toward his house, and his father used to tell him not to open the
door he got so scared by the Jesuit that he got hunted by
a dream in which there was God in the underground

his inner world split between a Jesus, seen as benevolent, to a Jesus in the underground

- 7-10 years old his social alienation got stronger he felt like he was different from others
 when he was with others, he always felt like his
splitting was about to happen, and he felt terror

 In order to reduce the splitting and terror, that would have led to psychosis, he started
using the secret in order to promote his own cohesion and avoid the inner splitting
 3 sources of secrets:
- small black soldier hidden in a box this was a way to externalize his fear on an object,
and, at the same time, remaining attached to the
object, which represented himself
- the fire he used to feed the fire in order to establish a connection with him
- sacred stone he used to sit on a stone and star thinking on it
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

- his psychological problems were in conflict  wish to be seen by others

 fear that sharing his inner world would have led to rejection

as a solution, he hid objects that were sacred, scary and that allowed to master the fear

Adolescence
- He had 2 personalities Personality 1: - it is his “persona”, the public self
- the outside world is the most important one. He wishd to
do great things
- it is the extroverted personality
 Personality 2: - it was his secret self
- it compensates the external frustration
- it is the introverted personality
- Risk: the self collapses into the collective unconscious

- these 2 personalities were at the basis of the Model of personality types (extroverted and introverted)

- he developed the idea of the collective unconscious

- it includes images and driving forces which are universal

- it can be good, because contacting the archetypes compensates the harshness of
daily experiences
- it can be dangerous, because contacting the archetypes may lead to being swallowed
by the unconscious
- it threatens cohesiveness, stability, and self-esteem regulation

- he developed the concept of Individuation we can reach it through psychoanalysis, thanks to the
interpretation of archetypes, which allows to bring the
unconscious images to the consciousness

In order to study the archetypes, we need to look at the self as a stance between two opposite forces
(ex. 2 personality, persona vs Shadow…)

Concepts in Jung’ s life that helped develop his theories:

- Enantiodromia = principle that postulates a balance between introversive and extroversive tendencies,
opposing the risks to be torn into pieces by pairs of opposites
 thanks to it, we find a balance between the forces in out unconscious

- Transcendent function it allows to reach a balance between unconscious and conscious

Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

ANNA FREUD
- she is a Post Freudian scholar
- she was Freud’s and Martha’s daughter her and Fraud had a good relationship
- she wanted to keep Freud’s legacy alive
- at first, she was a teacher, then she abandoned her career started studying child psychology and
started practicing psychoanalysis
- when she was 14, Fraud started analyzing her dreams

- she gave the basis to the Ego Psychology, even tho she remained loyal to Fraud’s ideas she improved
Fraud’s theories
- she mainly focused on child’s psychoanalysis she focused on children traumatized by the war

She developed techniques in order to treat them, and she noticed that the children’s
symptoms were very different from the adult’s ones. She believed that it’s because
the symptoms were related to some developmental stages

Differences with Freud:

 she didn’t provide a theoretical approach she was more interest in practical approaches
 she studied how to establish relationship of trust
with traumatized children
 she used play materials and she also conducted an observation in the home setting when kids play,
they express something

One day, she was observing a kid and she noticed that he was trying to separate all his toys.
After a while of child analysis, she discovered that the child saw his parents having sex. Tho, he
didn’t have enough info to understand what was going on. So, in order to cope with it, the kid tried
to divide the toys, which represents the desire to separate the two parents

 For children, she was just a caring adult. She didn’t want to be seen as a substitute parent
 Children’s problems are more immediate, so it’s easier for them to recover

Problems with her psychotherapy:

- Transference = phenomena in which the patient projects his feeling toward the therapist
 she couldn’t be a substitute parent, therefore she just had to be a caring adult
- Children express and deal with symbols in a different way compared to adults they have a different
emotional approach to things

EGO PSYCHOLOGY
- it is a movement within psychoanalysis it is coherent with Freud’s idea
- it is based on the idea of reinforcing the ego it tries to make a person stronger at a psychological level
- she studied the Defense Mechanisms = ways the ego defenses itself from threats
 they operate at an unconscious level
 they protect our unconscious from unpleasant feelings (ex. guilt)
 they are natural and normal
 if they are used too much, we develop neuroses
- nowadays, psychological disorders are mainly due to an excess of defense mechanisms
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

Freud also previously tried to describe defense mechanisms:

- Defense= ego’s struggle against painful or unendurable ideas defense mechanisms are considered
responsible for neuroses
- a defense is developed by the ego in order to protect itself being overcome by unconscious demands
- he stated that, when a person is able to use defense mechanisms properly, the ego wins the battle
between Id and Superego
- when a person loses the battle between Id and the Superego, the ego keeps trying to create a harmony,
but it doesn’t always lead to perfect mental health

DEFENSE MECHANISMS
 Denial = not accepting reality because it is too painful
 it occurs when we know something, but we don’t wanna accept it
 it’s pretty common for physical characteristics and terminal illnesses
 ex. “I don’t have drinking problems. Everyone drinks ten beers a day”

 Displacement = channeling a feeling or thought from its actual source to something or someone else
 it occurs when we relieve our anxieties by taking them out on someone/something else
 ex. if I’m mad at my mom, I go to the kitchen and break a glass

 Projection = attributing your own unacceptable thoughts or feeling to someone else

 ex. I get mad at my mom, and I tell her that she is the one mad at me

 Rationalization = justifying one’s behaviors and motivations by substituting actual reasons with
good and acceptable ones
 it occurs when we take a ridiculous situation, and we force it to make sense
 ex. I get a bad grade and I say that I didn’t study enough

 Regression = reverting to an older and less mature way of handling stresses and feelings
 we deal with anxieties by acting like a child
 some people adopt a “Regress position” = fetus’ position in the belly
 ex. I fail an exam, and I start crying

 Reaction formation = adopting beliefs, attitudes, and feelings contrary to what you really believe
 it occurs when we have the opposite reaction to the one that we should have
 ex. Laughing at a funeral; Being nice to a person we hate…

 Suppression = effort to hide and control acceptable thoughts or feelings

 despite the hiding of feelings, our mind can still recall some very painful memories
 ex. I see my father dying, and I totally forget about the episode; not reacting to
something that makes us angry…

 Splitting = everything in the world is seen either totally good or totally bad. Nothing in between
 it’s way to simplify reality
 it’s a defense mechanism because, after seeing something as bad, we can decide to deny it
 ex. I think that my mom is extremely good. She doesn’t have flaws
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

 Undoing = trying to reverse a thought or feeling, by performing an action that signifies an opposite
feeling than the original through
 ex. I fail the exam because I forgot the list of defense mechanisms, and, for the next two
weeks, I keep repeating the entire list of defense mechanism

 Sublimation = redirecting unacceptable instincts into personally and socially acceptable channels
 it occurs when we find a positive outlet for a negative feeling
 ex. a person that wants to kill people becomes a boxer or a surgeon

 Identification with the aggressor = internalization of the behavior of the aggressor, hoping to create
feelings of empathy in him, that would avoid an abuse
 ex. Stockholm syndrome hostages established a bond with their
kidnappers, and took their role

 Isolation of the affect = attempting to separate feelings and emotions from ideas and events
 ex. I describe the scene when someone shot me without any emotions

 Humor = focusing on funny aspects of a painful situation

 ex. a person with cancer makes jokes about the fact that he is losing hair

Humor and sublimation are the most advanced defense mechanisms they allow to manage and elaborate
the feelings
The other defense mechanisms tend to hurt the person in the long run

Defense mechanisms can take place simultaneously ex. If I am mad at someone and I start punching the
wall, it is a displacement, but also a regression
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

M. KLEIN
Premises:
- Group= individuals in relationship to one another

she believed that prior to social life, individuals have their own personality, that shape their social actions.
Therefore, in order to understand the social life, we first need to study the personality

- she was interested in the early development of children before her, psychoanalyst didn’t work with
children, because the Superego wasn’t yet
developed, since the Oedipus complex wasn’t
finished yet

- she supported the idea of Primary and Secondary narcissism theorized by Freud

- she made kids play with toys she studied kids through the interpretation of how they played with toys

Anna Freud was against Klein’s approach

- she focused more on Psychic life than the context  because the external world is subjectively
interpreted by children, depending on how
strong their impulses are

- She developed the Object-Relation model

OBJECT- RELATION MODEL

- introjection and projection start from the birth they are part of the ego
 therefore, since birth, the outer environment becomes
part of the inner life. Together with it, the inner
environment is projected to the outer world

Innate aggressiveness is increased by unfavorable external circumstance and is decreased

by love and understanding. These factors continue to operate throughout the life

- Projective identification = defense mechanism through which individuals project qualities that are
unacceptable to the self onto another individual, and that person internalizes
the projected qualities and beliefs himself to be characterized by them,
appropriately and justifiably
 ex. If I have crazy sexual fantasies, I find a boyfriend who accepts them, and
then I convince myself that he is the one who has sexual fantasies, not me

- she believed that children and adults switch between two approaches to life

Paranoid-schizoid position and Depressive position

Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

1. Paranoid-schizoid position
- typical of children before 6 months of age but it can be seen in adulthood too
- during this period, kids perceive the world in terms of part-objects ex. the breast represents the mother
- kids develop a form of persecutory anxiety, as a result of their destructive instincts

- anxiety is caused by the fact that kids unconsciously feel every discomfort as if it is inflicted on
them by hostile and external forces ex. If they are hungry, they believe that their mother is keeping
their milk for herself

this gives the basis to envy & jealousy

- in order to release the anxiety, kids need to do a Splitting

 kids divide the part-objects into good (idealization) and bad (devaluation). The idealization is
fundamental for the kids, in order to identify themselves with the good part of the object, which
protects them from being destroyed by the bad side
 the first think that kids split is breast. They split “good breast”, which is the one that feeds them,
and the “bad breast”, that is the one that makes them feel hungry ( breast=mother

kids introject the good part-object in this case, the breast/mother becomes part of them
 this enables the kid to maintain a good relationship with an object
kids project the bad part-object into other people

this is what M. Klein believes narcissism is

- The internalization of an object is essential for the kid to feel protected by the external world, and to have
a good relationship with the world.
Whether the good object is internalized depends on the power of the anxiety, and on how much the
mother contributes to a good relationship with the kid

- Paranoid-schizoid position can be present in adults too, in some psychological disorders, like psychosis

it manifests in the inability to accept the fact that people can be both good and bad at the same time

In summary, kids use 3 defense mechanisms in order to protect themselves from anxiety:
- Splitting they divide part objects into good and bad
- Projection they project the death instincts onto an external object, attributing the bad objects to
other people
- Introjection they introject the external world, identifying themselves with the good object
 the good object is introjected
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

2. Depressive position
- with time, splitting diminish
- the kid realizes that the good part-object and the bad part-object are actually the same object
- part-objects start disappearing, that the kids realize the objects have both good and bad sides

Love and hatred start coexisting

- kids start feeling guilty for having projected their own death impulses to an object

they fear to have hurt the object, when they attributed it the death impulses

- the recurring experience of the mother going away and coming back makes the kid less scared of the
mother abandoning him the kid starts trusting the mother

- death impulses are transformed into guilt persecutory anxiety becomes depressive anxiety
- kids want to make a reparation for the earlier hostility

- a lack of this position leads to depression

M. Klein believed that Reparation is essential in therapy

the patient is required to go through his emotions and fears over and over, in relation to the therapist and
to different people and situations in his past and present life. In this way, the patient gradually works
through his early fears and emotions. Depressive anxiety lessens and depressive anxiety arises
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

BION
- He worked on Group processes and Interpersonal systems his studies are fundamental nowadays too

FREUD:
- group dynamics are repetition of the Oedipus Complex in the group, each group member
experiences the actualization of their
own Oedipus complex

Members love each other, and the Group Leader creates in others a
feeling of anger and jealousy, just like kids feel hatred for the father

BION:
- conflicts among group members take place when the group is well developed, and members know each
other well
- when we feel to belong to a group, our mind changes its functioning, by losing the personal identity and
regressing to an earlier way of functioning

- members develop fear of annihilation, envy, anger, and fear

- use of primary defense mechanism splitting, projection, denial, introjection…

just like in the Paranoid-Schizoid position theorized by M. Klein

- In group psychotherapy, people need to reflect on their identity within their group
- In group tho, the members don’t accept that the other members adopt a personal identity, which doesn’t
correspond to the other members’ identity

- Groups are characterized by 2 aspects: - work group

- Basic assumptions group

Work group:
- groups are characterized by a collaboration it allows the members to focus on one specific task
- cooperation is sign of intelligence
- Work group functions like the Ego of Freud we are able to elaborate the world, to focus on one thing,
to use our memory, to use reasoning to evaluate our plans…

- Work Group is fundamental for the group’s development

- it is often obstructed by the basic assumptions of the group

Basic assumptions group:

= underlying assumptions on which a group is based, that guide every group’s belief and behaviors
- they are fundamental for the survival of groups they allow the group to focus on its
relations, rather than on the tasks

- they are compromised by wishes, defense mechanisms, fantasies, impulses, and projections
- Basic assumptions don’t change, because they are unconscious processes
Choose a topic of choice it could get asked

- People have a Valence = predisposition of people to join a group that is organized around one basic
assumptions, that attracts them
 the valance determines the group to which we are attracted to, and that we join

- Groups can be based on 3 Basic assumptions:

 Dependency the aim of this group is to provide security and protection to the members, that have a
feeling of dependency to the group
 the leader of the group is considered the one who will take care of the group
 the members behave passively, waiting for the leader to act for them
 denial, envy, idealization, and other paranoid-schizoid position defenses are the main
defense mechanisms the leader is idealized and envied for his knowledge

 Pairing the group is characterized by an unconscious agreement and purpose among members
 members have a feeling of hope and optimism
 there are usually 2 members that decide for the group, and the other members have a
feeling of hope, but they behave passively
 the problem will never be resolved, but people still have hope that it will be
 if the groups arrives to a solution for the problem, the members lose hope and get to a sense
of destruction they start wishing for a new leader

 Fight-or-flight the group aims to protect itself at all costs, from something that threatens it
 the group can decide to either “Fight” (aggression and physical attacks) or
“Flight” (withdrawal and avoidance)
 all members actively do something to sav the group
 the leader is the one that embodies the most the feeling of aggression and withdrawal
 splitting the projective identification are the main defense mechanisms
 deviants are seen as a threat
 members have a feeling of anger and hate

THERAPY FOR GROUPS:

The therapist must do a counter-transference = redirection of the therapist’s feeling toward the
patient and what the patient says and does

Bion believed that therapists needed to do an interpretation of their counter-transference

How to interpret it 1. Regaining the individuality, by detaching himself from the group
2. Sense of being a particular kind of person in a particular emotional situation