Chapter 2 | FREUD: PSYCHOANALYSIS
Overview
• Cornerstones: sex and aggression
• Spread beyond its Viennese origins
• Based on his experiences with patients, analysis of his own
dreams, vast readings in sciences and humanities
• Psychoanalysis could not be subjected to eclecticism
• Used deductive reasoning
• Subjective observations
• Small sample of patients
• Did not quantify data
• Observations not in controlled situations
Biography
• Born: March 6/May 6, 1856; Freiberg, Moravia
• Parents: Jacob and Amalie Nathanson Freud
• His mother’s favorite
o Mother/son relationship was the most perfect, most free
from ambivalence
• Moved to Leipzig then Vienna
• Migrated to London after Nazi invasion (1938)
• Died September 23, 1939
• 1 ½ years old: brother Julius was born
o Hostility towards his brother; wished for his death
o Julius died at 6 months; Freud was guilty
• Middle age: understood that he did not cause his brother’s
death and it was common to have a death wish for siblings
• Drawn into medicine; curious about human nature
• University of Vienna Medicine School
o Teaching and doing research in physiology
• Stopped work at physiology because:
o He was a Jew; opportunities for academic advancement
would be limited
o Father became less able to provide monetary aid
• Worked 3 years at General Hospital of Vienna
o Psychiatry and nervous diseases
• 1885: received travelling grant from University of Vienna
o Studied in Paris with French neurologist Jean-Martin
Charcot
§ Learned hypnotic technique to treat hysteria
§ Freud became convinces of psychogenic and sexual
origin of hysteria
• Josef Breuer: taught Freud about catharsis
o Removing hysterical symptoms through “talking them
out”
o Freud discovered “free association technique” – replaced
hypnosis as his therapeutic technique
• 1884-1885: experiments with cocaine
• 1886: presented a paper about male hysteria to the Imperial
Society of Physicians of Vienna
o Before: hysteria as a female disorder
§ Name: some origin of uterus
§ Result of “wandering womb” that causes body parts
to malfunction
o Most physicians already know about male hysteria so
Freud’s study was disregarded
o In his autobiography, we said that the society could not
fathom the concept of male hysteria
• Studied case of Anna O about hysteria with Breuer
o Breuer could not accept Freud’s notion that childhood
sexual experiences cause hysteria
o Published “Studies on Hysteria”
§ Freud introduced “psychical analysis” à
“psychoanalysis”
• Wilhelm Fliess
o Whom Freud told about the beginnings of psychoanalysis
and start of Freudian theory
• 1890s: professional isolation and personal crises; father died
in 1896
o Began analyzing his own dreams and self
o Middle aged and not yet achieved fame
o Discovery: neuroses are caused by child’s seduction by a
patient
§ Abandoned this theory because:
• Theory did not enable him to treat his patients
• Fathers would have to be accused of sexual
perversion (even his own father; siblings have
hysteria)
• Unconscious mind cannot distinguish reality from
fiction (à Oedipus complex)
• Unconscious memories of patients never revealed
early childhood sexual experiences
• Ernest Jones; Freud suffered from psychoneurosis in late
1890s
• Max Schur: Freud’s personal physician; his illness was
caused by cardiac lesion, addiction to nicotine
• Peter Gay: after Freud’s father’s death, Freud relived his
Oedipal conflicts
• Henn Ellenberger: Freud’s “creative illness” – characterized
by depression, neurosis, psychosomatic ailments,
preoccupation with creative activity
• Suffered from self-doubts, depression, and obsession with
his own death
• Interpretation of Dreams (1899): outgrowth of self-analysis;
contained his dreams
• Lost friends because of animosity, jealousy, or revenge
• On Dreams (1901/1953): written because “Interpretation of
Dreams” failed to capture much interest
• Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901/1960): Freudian
slips
• Three Essays on Theory of Sexuality (1905/1953): sex as
cornerstone of psychoanalysis
• Jokes and their Relations to the Unconscious (1905/1960):
jokes have unconscious meaning
• 1902: Wednesday Psychological Society/Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society was formed
o Freud, Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Stekel, Max Kahane, Rudolf
Reitler
• 1910: founded International Psychoanalytic Association
o President: Carl Jung
• 1909: Jung and Freud travelled to US; interpreted each
other’s dreams which ended their friendship. Jung left
Psychoanalytic Movement
• World War I
o Cut off from communication with his followers
o Psychoanalytic practice dwindled
• Has 33 operations for cancer of the mouth
• Important revisions in his theory
o Elevation of aggression = sexual drive
o Repression: one of the defense mechanisms of the ego
o Clarify female Oedipus complex
• Freud was sensitive, passionate, and has a capacity for
intimate, secretive friendships
• Very infrequent sex life
o Believed that condom, coitus interruptus, and
masturbation were unhealthy practices
• Master of German tongue
• Won Goethe Prize for Literature (1930)
• Had intense intellectual curiosity, moral courage, ambivalent
feelings toward fathers; held grudges; burning ambition;
feelings of isolation; irrational dislike of America (due to
chronic indigestion, no public restrooms, etc.)
Levels of mental life
Unconscious
• Drives, urges, instincts beyond awareness
• Can only be proven indirectly
• Explanation for dreams, slips of the tongue, forgetting
(repression)
• Unconscious processes enter consciousness after being
disguised to elude censorship
o Guardian/censor to prevent undesirable anxiety-
producing memories
o Primary and final censor
o Enters unconscious as pleasurable and nonthreatening
experiences
o Punishment and suppression: create anxiety
o Anxiety stimulates repression
• Portion of unconscious originates from experiences of early
ancestors
• Phylogenetic endowment
o Inherited dispositions
§ Collective inherited experiences
• Unconscious mind of one person can communicate with
unconscious of another without hem being aware of the
process
Preconscious
• Not conscious but can become conscious quite readily
• 2 sources:
o Conscious perception: conscious for a transitory time;
quickly passes to unconscious when attention shifts; free
from anxiety
o Unconscious: slip past vigilant censor and enter into
preconscious in disguised form; if recognized, it will
cause anxiety and final censor will repress it
Conscious
• In awareness at any time; directly available
• Can reach consciousness from:
o Perceptual conscious system: from sense organs; acts as
medium for perception of external stimuli
o Within mental structure: nonthreatening ideas from
preconscious; well-disguised images from unconscious
Provinces of the mind
• 1920s; to explain mental images according to their
functions/purposes
Id: das Es; “It”
• Primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness,
unchangeable (not affected by time), amoral, illogical,
unorganized
• Pleasure principle
o Seek pleasure without regard for what is pleasure of just
Ego: das Ich; “I”
• In contact with reality
• Reality principle; decision-making/executive
• Reconciles blind, irrational claims of id and superego with
realistic demands of external world
• Anxious; uses defense mechanisms to fight anxiety
• Becomes differentiated from id when infants learn to
distinguish themselves from the outer world
• Develops strategies to handle id
• Borrows energy from id
• Children: pleasure and pain-ego functions; rewards and
punishments teach them what to do to gain pleasure and
avoid pain
Superego: das Uber-Ichl “over I”
• Idealistic principle; moral and ideal aspects
• No energy of its own; no contact with outside world
• Demands perfection
• 2 subsystems
o Conscience: tells us what we should not do; from
punishments
o Ego-ideal: tells us what we should do; from rewards
• Controls sexual and aggressive impulses through repression
• Guilt: ego acts contrary to moral standards of superego;
function of conscience
• Inferiority; ego is unable to meet superego’s standards;
stem from ego-ideal
Dynamics of personality
• Motivational principle to explain driving forces behind
people’s actions
Drives
• Trieb
• Motivational force
• Sex/eros and aggression
• Distraction/Thanatos
• Originate from id; controlled by ego
• Libido: sex drive
• Impetus: amount of force is exerts
• Source: body in state of excitation/tension
• Aim: seek pleasure by removing excitation/reducing tension
• Object: means through which aim is satistied
Sex
• Entire body is interested in libido
• All pleasurable activities are traceable to the sexual desire
• Can be withdrawn from one person and places in free- Displacement
floating tension or reinvested in another person • Redirect unacceptable urges unto a variety of
• Forms: people/objects
o Narcissism • Not exaggerated
§ Primary: in infantsl self-centered as ego develops Fixation
§ Secondary: adolescence; personal appearance and • Remain at the present
self-interests • Permanent
o Love • Oral fixation: eating, smoking, talking
§ Investing libido on something/one other than • Anal fixation: neatness and orderliness
themselves Regression
§ Aim: inhibited; repressed sexual tension; towards • Reverting back to earlier stage
family etc. • Rigid and infantile
o Sadism • Temporary
§ Inflicting pain and humiliation on another person Projection
§ Extreme: sexual perversion; destructive aim • Seeing in others unacceptable feelings that actually reside in
o Masochism one’s own unconscious
§ Suffering pain and humiliation caused by self/others • Extreme: paranoia
§ Extreme: subservient is sexual drive o Powerful delusions of jealousy and persecution
Aggression o Repressed homosexual feelings
• Destructive drive Introjection
• Return organism to inorganic state (death) • Incorporating positive qualities of another person into their
• Aim: self-destruction own ego
• Teasing, gossip, sarcasm, enjoyment of other people’s • Qualities that are valuable and will permit them to feel
suffering better about themselves
• Explanation for wars, atrocities, and religious persecution • Oedipal period: child introjects authority of parents; relieved
• Need reaction formation to check aggression from choosing their own beliefs
Anxiety Sublimation
• Felt, affective, unpleasant • Substituting a cultural/social aim
• Warns person against impending danger • Art, music, and literature
Neurotic anxiety
• Dependence on id Stages of development
• About an unknown danger Infantile
• Originates from id impulses • First 4-5 years
• Childhood: fear of punishment • Autoerotic
Moral anxiety • Mouth and anus: erogenous stimulation
• Conflict between ego and superego Oral phase
Realistic anxiety • Mouth; sucking
• Dependence on outer world • Aim: nipple
• Possible fear but without specific fearful object • Oral-receptive: no ambivalence
• Anxiety: ego-preserving mechanism • Oral-sadistic: teeth
• Self-regulating: precipitates repression which reduces pain o Thumbsucking: satisfies sexual but not nutritional need
of anxiety Anal phase (sadistic-anal)
• Anus emerges as a sexually pleasurable zone
Defense mechanisms • Satisfaction through aggressive behavior and excretory
• More defensive = less energy to satisfy id’s impulses function
• To avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive • Early: destroying/losing objects; toilet training
implosives and defend itself against anxiety • Late: erotic pleasure of defecating; friendly interest towards
Repression feces
• Back to the unconscious • Anal character: excessively treat and orderly; resistant to
• Unchanged in the unconscious toilet training; holding back feces
• Forces its way to consciousness; disguised form • Anal triad: orderliness, stinginess, obstinacy
• Dreams, slips of the tongue • Penis, baby, feces: some symbols in dreams
Reaction Formation • No basic distinction between male and female
• Opposite to its true form; to one person • Active attitude: masculine, dominance, and sadism
• Exaggerated • Passive: feminine, voyeurism, and masochism
• Obsessive and compulsive form Phallic phase
• 3-4 years
• Genital area • Freudian slip
• Dichotomy between male and female o Unconscious intentions
• Physical differences à psychological differences o Felleistung; paraplaxes
• Male Oedipus complex
o Identification with father
o Sexual desire for mother
o Simple vs complete OC
o Castration anxiety: phylogenetic endowment
o Primitive superego
o Mature superego
• Female Oedipus complex
o Penis envy
o Identification with mother
o Rebel in 3 ways:
§ Give up sexuality; hostility towards mother
§ Cling defiantly to masculinity
§ Develop normally
o Influenced by: inherent bisexuality, degree of masculinity
o Superego: weaker, more flexible, less sever
Latency
• 4-5 until puberty
• Punish or discourage sexual activity
Genital
• Puberty: reawakening of sexual aim
• Gives up autoeroticism
• Reproduction
• Vagina à sought-after
• Genitals: supremacy as erogenous zones
• Direct libido outward
Maturity
• Balance of structures of the mind

Applications
• Early therapeutic technique
o Extracting repressed memories
o Dream interpretation, hypnosis
• Later therapeutic technique
o Free association (verbalize every thought) and dream
analysis
o Transference; strong sexual/aggressive feelings towards
analyst; from early experiences
o Limitations
§ Not all memories can be brought into consciousness
§ Not effective with psychoses
§ May later develop other psychic problems
• Dream analysis
o Manifest: surface meaning; conscious description
o Latent: unconscious description
o All dreams are wish fulfillments
o Repetition compulsion: PTSD; dreams of frightening
experience
o Disguise:
§ Condensation: manifest not as extensive as latent
§ Displacement: replaced
o 3 major kinds
§ Embarrassment: dream of nakedness
§ Death
§ Failing an exam