Classical Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud (1859-1939)
Sigmund Freud
Czechoslovakia (May 6, 1856),
moved to Vienna
Father-strict, developed a close
relationship with his mother
17, medical school-University
of Vienna
Published the “Studies on
Hysteria”
In 1896, his father died (anxiety
tendencies and psychosomatic
problems).
Sigmund Freud
Self-analysis of Oedipus
Complex and dreams
1900, “Interpretation of
Dreams”
Psychoanalytic society
(1902)
Relationship with Jung and
Adler
Died in 1939
We are in an era of theoretical
pluralism in psychoanalytic theory
today and can no longer speak of
the psychoanalytic theory of
treatment (Wolitzky, 2011b).
Psychodynamic vs Psychoanalysis
• The psychodynamic theory is a psychological theory
Sigmund Freud and his later followers applied to explain
the origins of human behavior.
• The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in
psychology that see human functioning based upon the
interaction of drives and forces within the person,
particularly unconscious, and between the different
structures of the personality.
• Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis was the original
psychodynamic theory, but the psychodynamic approach
as a whole includes all theories that were based on his
ideas, e.g., Carl Jung (1912), Melanie Klein (1921),
Alfred Adler (1927), Anna Freud (1936), and Erik Erikson
(1950).
Psychodynamic vs Psychoanalysis
• The words psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often
confused. Remember that Freud’s theories were
psychoanalytic, whereas the term ‘psychodynamic’
refers to both his theories and those of his followers.
• Freud’s psychoanalysis is both a theory and therapy.
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis vs Psychotherapy
Basic Assumptions of Psychodynamic Theory
• Our behavior and feelings are powerfully affected by
unconscious motives
• Our behavior and feelings as adults (including
psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood
experiences
• All behavior has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips
of the tongue. Therefore all behavior is determined
• Personality is made up of three parts (i.e., tripartite): the id,
ego, and super-ego
Freud’s Psychoanalysis
Classical Psychoanalysis = Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Although deviating from Freud’s CA, neo-Freudian
approaches retain emphasis on the unconscious, the
role of transference and countertransference, and the
importance of early life experiences.
Human Nature: Behavior
determined by…
Irrational forces
Unconscious
motivations
Drives and instincts
(libido)
Instincts
Life and Death Continuum
Eros Thanatos
Libido Nirvana
L, “I desire”
Instincts
Life and Death Continuum
Eros Thanatos
Libido Nirvana
L, “I desire”
Id – drives or impulses;
Structure of biological component
Ego – between Id and
Personality dangers posed by Id’s
impulses
Superego – internalized
social component;
imagined expectations
Neurotic Anxiety
Id
Pleasure Principle
Infancy
Anxiety
Ego Superego
Reality Principle Morality Principle
1 year old onwards Completed at 7 years
Realistic Anxiety Moral Anxiety
Stable Personality
Id Superego
EGO
Restricted Personality, OCD
EGO
Pleasure-seeking Personality,
Histrionic PD, Antisocial PD
EGO
Schizophrenic Personality
Id Superego
Levels of Personality
Levels of Personality
CONSCIOUS
sensations and experiences of which we are aware at
any given moment
Small portion of our thoughts, sensations and memories
Levels of Personality
PRECONSCIOUS
Storehouse of memories, perceptions and thoughts
Not consciously aware at the moment but can easily
summon into consciousness
Levels of Personality
UNCONSCIOUS
Instincts, wishes and desires that directs our behavior
Focus of psychoanalytic theory
Major driving power behind all behaviors
When egocannot control
anxiety through rational and
direct methods, it relies on
indirect ones– Defense
Mechanisms
Repression
Denial “I can’t remember if I tried to kill myself.
“That did not just happen” I must have blacked out”
Displacement
“Let’s play kick the cat”
Regression
“Where’s my teddy?”
Projection
“I hate you!”
Introjection
“I am you!”
Reaction Formation
“I’m gonna do otherwise”
Sublimation
“I’m a good boy”
Compensation
Rationalization
“Excuses, excuses, excuses”
The child is the
Father to the
Man.
Psychosexual stages
Develops from parent-child interactions
Adult personality was firmly shaped by the 5th
year of life
Defined by erogenous zone
Conflict must be resolved to move to the next
stage
Fixation- psychic energy remains invested on
one stage leaving less energy for the next stage
Oral Stage
0-18 months
Source of pleasure is the mouth and other senses
Consumption is not only eating but taking in every
stimulus in the environment
Sucking, biting and swallowing
Oral incorporative- oral passive personality
Oral aggressive or oral sadistic- oral aggressive
personality
Anal Stage
18 months to 3/4
Source of pleasure is the anus
Retention of feces and willful defecation
Toilet training- regulate the time and place of
defecation
Anal expulsion- anal aggressive personality
Anal retention- anal retentive personality
OCD and OCPD
Phallic Stage
3/4 – 6/7
Focus of pleasure: genitals
Exploring and manipulating the genitals
Oedipus complex (boys)
Penis envy (girls)
Development of an individual’s personality
Phallic Stage
Phallic personality:
A: rejected by mother + harsh father=poor sense of sexuality
Boys: sexually withdrawn; bookworm
macho; ladies’ man
Girls: the wallflower;
hyper-feminine; belle
B: not rejected by the mother + favored over the weak
father= homosexuality
Boys: no need to identify with father
Girl: mother as servant, daddy as buddy
Latency Stage
6/7 to puberty, somewhere around 12 years old
sexual impulse was suppressed in the service of
learning
Sublimated in school activities, sports and hobbies,
and in developing friendship with the same sex
Genital Stage
begins at puberty
Can be at least partially satisfied through socially
acceptable substitutes and committed adult
relationship
Genital personality
enjoys a satisfying adult sexuality
Narcissism is overcome
Love others
Psychological maturity
Freud and Therapy
Relaxed atmosphere: The client must feel free to
express anything. Physically relaxing couch, dim lights,
sound- proof walls, and the stage is set.
Free association. The client may talk about anything at
all. With relaxation, the unconscious conflicts will
inevitably drift to the fore.
Freud and Therapy
Resistance. When a client tries to change the topic,
draws a complete blank, falls asleep, comes in late, or
skips an appointment altogether, the therapist says
"aha!”
Dream analysis. In sleep, we are somewhat less
resistant to our unconscious and we will allow a few
things, in symbolic form, of course, to come to
awareness. Freudian interpretation is distinct in the
tendency to find sexual meanings.
Freud and Therapy
Parapraxes: slip of the tongue, often called a Freudian
slip; jokes clients told. Almost everything meant
something almost all the time. Freud himself noted, in
response to a student who asked what his cigar might be
a symbol for, that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Or is
it?
Projective tests: When the stimulus is vague, the client
fills it with his or her own unconscious themes.
Freud and Therapy
Transference: Client projects feelings toward the
therapist; necessary in therapy in order to bring the
repressed emotions to the surface.
Catharsis: is the sudden and dramatic outpouring of
emotion that occurs when the trauma is resurrected. The
box of tissues on the end table is not there for decoration.
Insight: being aware of the source of the emotion, of the
original traumatic event.
Freud and Therapy
To make the unconscious
conscious
To strengthen the ego
How many psychoanalysts does it take to
change a light bulb?
1
But the light bulb
must want to be
changed
Current Literature
LPTs
50 sessions, at least 1 year
Psychoanalysis is always long-term; psychotherapy can
be short-term or long-term.
Similarity: rooted in psychoanalytic theories
Differences:
- psychoanalysis: couch, 3 sessions/week, interpretation
- Psychotherapy: face-to-face, 2 sessions/week,
interpretation and support
Ultimate goals of LPT:
- Symptom reduction
- Prevention of recurrence
- Better social functioning
- Higher quality of life
- Higher life satisfaction
Results
Psychotherapy yielded large mean ESs(0.78 at termination; 0.94
at follow-up) and high mean overall successrates (64% at
termination; 55% at follow-up) in moderate/mixed pathology.
The mean ESwaslarger for symptom reduction (1.03) than for
personality change (0.54).
In severepathology, the results were similar.
Psychoanalysis achieved large mean ESs(0.87 at termination;
1.18 at follow-up) and high mean overall successrates (71% at
termination; 54% at follow-up) in moderate pathology. The
mean ESfor symptom reduction waslarger (1.38) than for
personality change (0.76).
Conclusion: Our data suggestthat LPT is effective treatment for
alarge range of pathologies, with moderate to largeeffects.
Results
The recovery rate of various mental disorders wasequal
after LTPP or various control treatments, including
treatments without aspecialized psychotherapy
component.
Similarly, no statistically significant differences were
found for the domains target problems, general
psychiatric problems, personality pathology, social
functioning, overall effectiveness or quality of life.
Limitation: 11 studies
