EXTRA POINTS ON FREUD o Initially Freud worked with patients with anatomical and organic problems.

o Started working with Josef Breuer. o Began collaborating on patients with nervous disordersCase of Anna O who had severe diffuse hysterical symptoms.
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Breuer used hypnosis to treat her; noticed that specific experiences emerged under hypnosis that the patient could not recall while conscious; symptoms relieved after talking about these experiences under hypnosis.

o Was convinced that the talking cure or catharsis involving discussion of unpleasant and repulsive memories revealed under hypnosis was an effective method of alleviating symptoms.
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Freud then started working with Jean Charcot- observed his method of hypnosis and learned his views on the importance of unresolved sexual problems in the underlying causality of hysteria. Charcot was treating patients with conversion disorders. Freud got interested in them and looked at them both from a neurological as well as psychological perspective.

o Then Freud abandoned hypnosis for catharsis because ofa)

Not everyone can be hypnotized- its usefulness is limited to a select group.

b) Some patients refused to believe what they revealed under hypnosis, prompting Freud to conclude that the patient must be aware of the step by step process of discovering memories hidden from accessible consciousness.

c) When one set of symptoms were alleviated under hypnotic suggestibility new symptoms often emerged.
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Freud came to rely on catharsis as a form of treatment. It involved encouraging patients to speak of anything that comes to mind, regardless of how discomforting or embarrassing it might be.

o This free association would take place in a relaxed atmosphere, usually by having the patient recline on a couch.

o He believed that free association like hypnosis would allow hidden thoughts and memories to be manifested in consciousness. o However in contrast to hypnosis the patient would be aware of the emerging recollections.
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The process of transference would also take place during free association and he believed it was a powerful tool to assist the patient in resolving sources of anxiety.

o In 1897, Freud began self analysis of his dreams. o In analysis of dreams he differentiated between manifest content (actual depictions of dreams) and the latent content which represented the symbolic world. o Freud then argued that the psychology of all people not just those with neurotic symptoms could be understood in terms of unconscious forces in need of resolution. o Impressed by the devastation and tragedy of World War I , Freud came to view aggression along with sexuality as a primal instinctual motivation.

o During the 1920s Freud expanded psychoanalysis from a method of treatment for mentally ill or emotionally disturbed persons to a systematic framework for all human motivation and personality. o He described personality in terms of an energy system that seeks equilibrium of forces. o This homeostatic model of personality was determined by the constant attempt to identify appropriate ways to discharge instinctual energies, which originate in the depths of unconscious. o Freud posited three specific structures of the personality- the id, ego and superego- which he believed were essentially formed by age 7. These structures are represented in terms of their accessibility to a persons awareness or extent of consciousness. o The id is the most primitive and least accessible structure of personality. It is pure libido or psychic energy of an irrational nature and sexual character, which instinctually determines unconscious processes. It is not in contact with the environment, but rather relates to the other structures of personality that in turn must mediate between the ids instincts and the external world.
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Immune from reality and social conventions, the id is guided by the pleasure principle, seeking to gratify instinctual libidinal needs either directly, through a sexual experience or indirectly through dreaming and fantasizing. The latter, indirect gratification is called the primary process. The exact object of direct gratification in the pleasure principle is determined by the psychosexual stage of the individual development.

o The ego is called the executive of personality because its role is to channelize id energies into socially acceptable outlets. The development of ego generally occurs around the ages 1 and 2, when the child initially confronts the environment.
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The ego is governed by the reality principle; it is aware of environmental demands and adjusts behavior so that the instinctual pressures of the id are satisfied in acceptable ways. The attainment of specific objects to reduce libidinal energy in socially appropriate ways was called the secondary process.

o The superego appears by age 5. In contrast to ego and id which are internal developments of personality, the superego is an external imposition. It is the incorporation of moral standards perceived by ego from some agent of authority in the environment. Both positive and negative aspects of these standards of behavior are represented in the superego.
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Conduct that violates the dictate of the conscience produces guilt. The id and superego are in direct conflict leaving the ego to mediate. Thus the superego imposes a pattern of conduct that results in some degree of self control through an internalized system of rewards and punishments.

o Freud classed inborn instincts into life (Eros) and death (Thanatos) drives. Life instincts involve self preservation and include hunger, sex and thirst. The libido is that specific form of energy through which the life instincts arise in the id. o The death instincts may be directed inward, as in suicide or masochism, or outward, as in hate and aggression. o Freud described three general forms of anxiety-

Reality or objective anxiety- fear of a real life environmental danger with an obvious cause; such fear is appropriate and has survival value for the organism. Neurotic anxiety comes about from the fear of potential punishment inherent in the goal of instinctual gratification. It is the fear of punishment for expressing impulsive desires. Moral anxiety is the fear of the conscience through guilt and shame.

In order to cope with anxiety the ego develops defense mechanisms, which are elaborate, largely unconscious processes that allow a person to avoid unpleasantness and anxiety provoking events. Many defense mechanisms are described in the psychoanalytic literature, which generally argues that although defense mechanisms are typical ways of handling anxiety they must be recognized and controlled by the individual for psychological health.

o He placed a great emphasis on the development of the child because he was convinced that neurotic disturbances manifested by his adult patients had origins in childhood experiences. He described psychosexual stages that are characterized by different sources of primary gratification determined by the pleasure principle. o Freud wrote that a child is essentially autoerotic. The child derives sexual pleasure from the various erogenous zones of the body or by having the mother provide the stimulation.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 His data collection was unsystematic and uncontrolled, consisting primarily of what Freud remembered his patients telling him. He made no independent attempt to confirm the accuracy of his patients reports. He only offered conclusions he never discloses how his inferences and conclusions were derived. His variables and constructs are unclear. They are loosely defined and not quantifiable.

His theory emphasizes childhood to the point of asserting that personality till age 7. Yet the only record of Freuds having studied a