UNIT 7

Freud and Psychoanalysis

History of Psychology

Lucila Pascua Suárez

Bachelor’s degree in Psychology
INDEX
CONTENTS
1. Background of Psychoanalysis
2. Social context
3. Sigmund Freud
4. Carl Jung
5. Alfred Adler
6. Jacques Lacan

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis

“Much of Freud's credited concepts were part of mere

folk knowledge. His achievement was to crystallise all
these ideas and give them a form of their own.”
(Ellenbrag, 1970)

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 1. Background of Psychoanalysis

Leibniz: depending on the number of

monads involved, levels of consciousness
could range from clear perception to
experiences we do not know (petit
perceptions).

Goethe: constant struggle between leib

conflicting emotions and tendencies.

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis

Herbart

Existence of a threshold above which an

idea was conscious and below which an
idea was unconscious. Existence of a
conflict model of the mind that made it
possible for ideas compaAble with each
individual to follow one another in
consciousness. If two incompaAble ideas
occurred in consciousness, one of them,
through repression, would be forced below
the threshold.
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1. Background of Psychoanalysis
Schopenhauer: humans are governed more by irrational
desires than by reason, therefore, they continually fluctuate
between being in a state of need and in a state of satisfaction.
We can achieve relief or escape the irrational force within us
by immersing ourselves in music, poetry or art (sublimation).

Nietzsche: it is up to each individual to create a unique blend

of irrational (Dionysian) and rational (Apollonian) tendencies in
his or her own personality, even if doing so violates
conventional morality.

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• Thus Spoke Zarathustra

• Twilight of the Idols

1. Background of Psychoanalysis

Fechner: compares the mind to an iceberg, considering

consciousness as the tip or smallest part (1/10), and the
unconscious as the rest of the iceberg (9/10).

Darwin: humans, like animals, are motivated more by

instincts (sexuality and aggression) than by reason.

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis
Brentano: motivating factors are of great importance in
determining the flow of thought. There are huge differences
between subjective reality and objective reality.

Von Hartmann: there are 3 types of unconscious:

• The processes that govern all natural phenomena in the
universe.
• The physiological unconscious which governs bodily
processes.
• The psychological unconscious which is the original
source of behaviour.

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis

Breuer:

Freud said about him: "Being aware that it is an honour to

have created psychoanalysis, I must affirm that the merit is
not mine. I was sGll a student concerned only with passing
my exams when another Viennese physician, Dr.Joseph
Breuer, first applied his method (hypnosis) to the case of the
hysterical girl’ (Freud 1880).

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis
Case Anna O
An a%rac(ve and bright 21-year-old girl who manifested various
symptoms related to hysteria: paralysis of the arms, visual and speech
disturbances, nausea, memory loss and general brain disorienta(on.

He hypno(sed the pa(ent and asked her to try to recall the

circumstances in which she had first experienced these par(cular
symptoms, which included a constant squin(ng of her eyes.

Breuer discovered that the young woman kept vigil at her father's
bedside while he was on his deathbed, causing him to experience so
much dismay at her condi(on that his eyes filled with tears. At that
moment, the father asked the (me and the girl squinted her eyes so that
she could see the hands of the clock.

She discovered that every (me she clarified the origin of a symptom,
usually stemming from a trauma(c experience, it disappeared
temporarily or permanently.
1. Background of Psychoanalysis - Case Anna O

Anna O.'s symptoms disappeared one by one.

It is as if the pathogenic ideas (emotionally charged ideas) could not be expressed

directly but through physical symptoms and emotional release could be produced
by this cathartic method: the speech cure.

Shortly after the start of treatment, the patient began to behave as if Breuer were
her father, a process he later called transference. The latter, in turn, began to
develop emotional feelings towards Anna, which he called countertransference (so
much so that the doctor had to leave therapy after having marital problems
generated by the case).

In 1895, Breuer and Freud published Studies on Hysteria, which is considered the
official foundation of the school of psychoanalysis.

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis

Charcot: Freud studied with Charcot from October

1885 to 1886.
Charcot assumed that hysteria was a real disease
triggered by the dissociaAon of ideas and that it
occurred in both men and women (hysteria = uterus):
existence of a relaAonship between sexual factors
and hysteria.

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1. Background of Psychoanalysis

• Liébault and Bernheim (Nancy School):

• 1889, aRer visit, Freud learns:
• Post-hypnoAc suggesAon: an idea
planted during hypnosis can influence
behaviour even when the person was
not aware of it.
• Post-hypnoAc amnesia: although
paAents tend to forget what they have
experienced during hypnosis, such
memories can return if the paAent was
moAvated enough to recall them.

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 Video – Psychoanalysis concepts

• CONCEPTS PSYCHOANALYSIS

• FREUD

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 2. Social Context
• Anti-Semitism in Vienna.
• Therapeutic nihilism.
(a medical trend in the late 19th century that advocated abstaining
from any therapeutic intervention, leaving the body to recover on
its own or through appropriate diets, as the treatment of choice for
many diseases.)

• Victorian mentality:
- Not accepting the animal dimension of human
nature.
- Severe conscience.
- Double standards.
- Conception of woman as an innocent being.
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 3. Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)

• Born in Freiberg (Moravia). At the age of 4 his family

moved to Vienna.
• Interested in human affairs and Goethe's Nature.
• Between 1876 and 1882 was in the physiological
laboratory of Ernest Bruecke. He devoted himself to
the study of nervous diseases.
• In 1884 he made experiments on the anaesthetic
power of cocaine.
• In 1885 he obtained a teaching post in
neuropathology and shortly afterwards went to Paris
to study hysteria with Charcot.
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 3. Sigmund Freud

• In 1886 he returned to Vienna, married and established

himself as a neurologist.
• His theories were not well received by the medical society.
• In 1889 he went to Nancy to perfect the hypnoGc technique
and met Bernheim, who postulated the existence of psychic
processes hidden from consciousness.
• In 1893, together with Breuer, he published "On the psychic
mechanism of hysterical phenomena" and in 1895 "Studies
on hysteria".
• From 1902 onwards and aaer "a vacuum around him" he
began to receive support.

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 3. Sigmund Freud – The Cocaine Episode
• In spring of 1884, Freud experimented with cocaine aaer
learning that it had been used successfully in the military to
increase the energy and endurance of soldiers.
• Aaer taking the drug himself, he found that it relieved his
feelings of depression and cured his indigesGon, helped him
work, and appeared to have no negaGve side effects.
• Besides taking cocaine regularly himself, Freud gave it to his
sisters, friends, colleagues, and paGents and sent some to his
fiancée Martha Bernays “to make her strong and give her
cheeks a red color”.
• He administered cocaine to his colleague and friend Ernst von
Fleischl-Marxow who was addicted to morfine. He died
addicted to cocaine.
• It was the cocaine episode that, to a large extent, made the
medical community skepGcal of Freud’s later ideas.
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Freud and Academic Psychology
• The relationship between Freud's
psychoanalysis and academic psychology
has been marked by hostility.

• For Wundt and the mentalistic

psychologists, psychology is the science of
consciousness. In Psychoanalysis the
unconscious is the cornerstone.

• Psychoanalysis received more support

from clinical psychology and psychiatry
than from academic psychology.

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 Psychoanalysis and its development

• Establishment of the principles (1895-1899)

• Studies on Hysteria (1895):

- Hysteria was a common disorder in Freud's time.
- In 1885 Freud went to study hysteria with Charcot
using the hypnotic method.
- In Vienna, together with Breuer, he develops a
hypnotic-cathartic treatment.
- 1895. Publication of the book.

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• Discrepancies between Freud and Breuer:

1. Freud displaces hypnosis by FREE ASSOCIATION.

2. The success of the therapy lies in the doctor-paGent
relaGonship (TRANSFERENCE).
3. The problem of hysteria is of sexual origin.
4. Hysterics resist healing.

Pre-psychoanaly>cal aspects of "Studies on Hysteria":

1. Existence of unconscious moGves which are repressed.

2. The origin of these moGves is of a sexual nature.
3. Basis of psychoanalysis as therapy.
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Project of a Scientific Psychology

• Freud accepts reductionist materialism: behaviour is to be

explained scientifically by referring to brain processes.

• In 1895 he drew up the "Project for a scientific psychology" as

a materialistic science, but did not want to publish it.

• This project contains some of the foundations of

psychoanalysis:
1. The aim of mental functions is to discharge nervous tension
experienced as displeasure.
2. The division of the mind into separate compartments.

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 Defini8on of Psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalysis was elaborated in a long series of publications
based on self-analysis and analysis of his patients.

THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS (1900)

• The dream is "the royal road to the unconscious". It is the

symbolic expression of a reality not accessible to
consciousness.
• Process of dream elaboration (endopsychic censorship):
latent content - dream elaboration - manifest content.
• The repressed desires that we discover in dreams have their
origin in childhood.

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Introduces the concept of OEDIPUS COMPLEX.

• The roots of the personality are to be found

in the development of the sexual instinct
during childhood.

• In the revision of the work and motivated by

Stekel he elaborated a set of symbols to
interpret dreams. This symbolism was used
to interpret myths, works of art, and human
culture as a whole.

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 Three essays on Sexual Theory (1905)
• The text consists of three parts: sexual aberraGons, infanGle
sexuality, pubertal transformaGons.

• InfanGle sexuality is egocentric and narcissisGc. Latency

period ending with puberty.

• In 1915 he develops the concept of libido. It is the mental

energy derived from the sexual insGnct. Behaviour is
explained by the sexual or life insGnct (EROS).

• In the conclusion of the work he introduced the concept of

SUBLIMATION: the most important form of displacement.

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Gene8c model
• Stages of psychosexual development:
o oral (first year of life)
o anal (second year of life)
o phallic (third year and end of fifth year): Oedipus
Complex
o dormant (6 years to puberty)
o genital (puberty to the rest of life).

Each stage is characterised by the predominance of one

erogenous zone.
The first three phases are autoerotic.
Psychopathology is described in terms of excessive deprivation
or overgratification.
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Systema8sa8on review and Cultural analysis (1920- 1939)

Beyond the pleasure principle

• Freud differentiated between the life and death instincts.

• Eros theory: this is the mental energy derived from the sexual instinct. Behaviour is explained by
the sexual or life instinct (EROS).
Life instincts: EROS (Greek God) and the energy associated with them is called libido.
Death instincts: THÁNATOS (Greek God) "The aim of all life is death" Schopenhauer.
• The life instincts try to perpetuate life, while the death instincts try to end it.
• Thanatos is the cause of aggression, towards oneself or towards the outside.
• Formulation of the existence of the death instinct (THANATOS). Instincts are conservative, aiming
to restore a previous state of affairs, a state free of tension which is embodied in inorganic
matter.
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• EGO and ID (1923)
Reformulation of the meanings of the unconscious:
DESCRIPTIVE and DYNAMIC

In reflecting on them he differentiated the preconscious:

ideas that are unconscious at the present moment but can
easily access consciousness.

ACTIVE MENTAL SYSTEM as opposed to the system of

consciousness.
The new system constructed will be:
EGO – ID - SUPEREGO

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 Structural Model of the Personality

ID: original system, unconscious, irrational, home of the pleasure principle and Thanatos. When
faced with a need, it expects immediate gratification.

EGO: Its nucleus is formed during the first months of life from the energy that the child directs
towards the objects around it. It is rational, governed by the principle of reality, and regulates
instincts. It is called the GRAND EXECUTIVE OF THE PSYCHE. It is responsible for reducing tension
and develops defensive mechanisms to adapt to the environment.

SUPEREGO: moral dimension of the personality. It incorporates into the self the norms coming
from the person's society and culture.

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Structural Model of the Personality

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Structural Model of the Personality

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 Anxiety and Defence Mechanism of ID
Freud defined three types of anxiety:

OBJECTIVE: real threat to the organism

NEUROTIC: The EGO feels pressured by the ID and shows its difficulty in controlling its irrational
tendencies.
MORAL: sense of guilt and self-punishment that we experience when we act contrary to the
values of SUPEREGO.

Defence mechanisms are the processes that the Ego uses to deal with neurotic and moral anxiety.

These processes share two aspects:

- they are unconscious

- they distort reality

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Defence Mechanism

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Questions about Freud Cases
1. ¿What concepts of his most famous theories,
worked Freud in the case of Dora?
2. What kind of basic psychological skill did
Freud lack with this paGent?
3. What disorder ’Liple Hans’ was suffering
from?
4. With which of Freud's characterisGc terms did
he explain the origin of the problem of ‘Liple
Hans’? Explain it briefly.
5. What disorder was suffering ‘Rat Man’?
6. Why did he earn the nickname?

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The conception of human nature and the
contributions of Freud

Conception of human nature

• Anthropological pessimism.
• Psychic determinism.
• Commitment to a more rational life that requires an
understanding of the deepest layers of the mind.

Contributions
• Elaborated the first complete theory of personality.
• Psychoanalysis and application to neuroses.
• Understanding of normal behaviour.
• Generalisation of psychology to other fields.

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Reviews

• Method of data collecAon: their paAents and self-analysis. Not representaAve of

the general populaAon. No controlled experimentaAon. Results influenced by
expectaAons.
• TheoreAcal concepts not measurable.
• DogmaAsm (Freud was intolerant of ideas that disagreed with his own).
• Pansexualism (extremist and unnecessary stance about the importance of sex.
DiscriminaAon based on sexuality)
• Self-fulfilling prophecy (Freud found what he was looking for simply because he
was looking for it).
• DuraAon, cost and limited effecAveness of psychoanalysis.

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3. Alfred Adler (1870- 1937)

• Born in Vienna.
• He was a physician and
psychologist.
• Founder of individual psychology.
• He is considered the first child
psychologist.
• He was a disciple of Freud, although he disagreed early on with Freud's
psychoanalytic approaches.
• The main disagreement was over Freud's sexual theory of mental life.
• For Adler, sexuality appears to serve the elementary intentions of
personal power, which overrides impulse.
• The defence of his theories led to his expulsion from the Vienna School,
and to the creation of his own "Individual Psychology".
• He coined the term "compensation". For Adler compensation is an organic
inferiority, which provokes an auxiliary construction, consisting in the
establishment of a fiction that counterbalances the inferiority. The fiction,
or fictitious line, is a psychological system that tries to transform
inferiority into superiority.
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• Emphasises the conscious dimension and social
life.
• He focuses on the analysis of the feeling of
inferiority that affects all people during childhood
and the mechanisms to overcome it, or, on the
contrary, to develop an inferiority complex.
• The main moAve in existence is the search for
meaning, which leads him to emphasise the
theory of "as if" inspired by Vaihinger.
• CreaAve self: man is free to create meaning.

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4. Carl Jung (1875- 1961)

• Carl Gustav Jung was born and

died in Switzerland.

• He came from a family of German

descent and ecclesiastical
tradition.

• His parents belonged to two

important Basel families of the
time.
4. Carl Jung (1875- 1961)
• He was Freud's favourite disciple.
• He is considered the heir son of psychoanalysis.
• Breaks professional relaGonship with Freud due to theoreGcal
differences. In 1914 he published "Psychological Types", in
honour and appreciaGon of the relaGonship between the two.
This situaGon of disagreement also implies the loss of friendship.
• Jung establishes two personality types, which have clashed and
confronted each other throughout history:
INTROVERSION - EXTROVERSION
• To these personality types he associates four psychological
funcGons:
Thought-Feeling-IntuiGon-SensaGon

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4. Carl Jung (1875- 1961)

• The theories he defends he accepts but not as generaliGes.

• He defends psychoanalysis as a scienGfic method.
• Clinical pracGce.
• Each epoch is characterised by a series of approaches and
predominant psychic states: "We are children of our epoch and
the epoch in a certain way determines us".
• Jung claimed that about a third of his cases did not suffer from
any clinically definable neurosis, but from meaninglessness and
aimlessness in their lives.

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4. Carl Jung (1875- 1961)
The EGO is for Jung the ”Self".
Self: understood as the consciousness of each individual.
Archetypes are predispositions of perceptual and emotional
dimension to respond to certain experiences.

Archetypes:
• "Self" or "self": is that which transcends the SELF. It is the union
of opposites, psychic integration, a vital growth process of union
of unconscious and conscious elements. It is the archetype that
corresponds to the human being's need for transcendence.
• Person: tendency to show to others only a part of the
personality.

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4. Carl Jung (1875- 1961)
• Anima: feminine dimension of the
masculine personality.
• Animus: masculine dimension of the
feminine personality.
• Shadow: repressed evil, which we do not
accept in ourselves and project onto
others. Inheritance from pre-human
ancestors that marks a tendency to
aggressiveness and immortality.

Influence on past-present and future behaviour.

Importance of synchronicity: fortuitous events that

change our lives.
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 4. Carl Jung – Critiques of his work
• Advocate of occultism, spiritualism, mysticism and religion.

• Unscientific person as he applied symbols characteristic of art,

religion and human fantasy to develop and verify his doctrine.

• Concept of archetype: metaphysical and unverifiable.

• Theory unclear, incomplete, inconsistent and, in some cases,

contradictory

• Application of Lamarckian notion of inheritance of acquired

characters.

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“The more perfect a person is on
the outside, the more demons
they have on the inside.”

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC
REFERENCES
Hergenhahn, B.R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Belmont:
Wadsworth.

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 Lucila Pascua Suárez
mlpascua@ucam.edu

UCAM Universidad Católica de Murcia

© UCAM