You may have heard of the most influential yet controversial founder of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud.

Freud was born in Austria and spent most of his life in Vienna. He entered medical school and trained under Dr. Ernst Wilhelm Von Brucke. He earned his medical degree in 1881 and soon set up a private practice and began treating patients with psychological disorders. He was fascinated by patients suffering from “hysteria”. Hysteria was an ancient diagnosis for disorders, primarily of women with a wide variety of symptoms, including physical symptoms and emotional disturbances, none of which had an apparent physical cause. Freud theorized that many of his patients’ problems arose from the unconscious mind.

In Freud’s view, the unconscious mind was a repository of feelings and urges of which we have no awareness. Gaining access to the unconscious, then, was crucial to the successful resolution of the patient’s problems. According to Freud, the unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis, by examinations of the first words that came to a person’s mind, and through seemingly innocent slip of the tongue. Psychoanalytic theory focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences, and this perspective dominated clinical psychology for several decades.

The Goal of Psychoanalysis is to make an individual conscious of their unconscious Défense mechanisms.

The most impactful idea put forth by Freud was his model of the human mind. His model divides the mind into three regions:

1. Conscious: This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and focus live.
2. Preconscious (the subconscious): This is the home of everything we can recall or retrieve from our memory.
3. Unconscious: At the deepest level of our minds resides a repository of the processes that drive our behaviour, including primitive and instinctual desires.

Later, Freud posited a more structured model of the mind, one that can coexist with his original ideas about consciousness and unconsciousness.

The ID, EGO and SUPEREGO.

The Id

The id is concerned with instant gratification of basic physical needs and urges. It operates entirely unconsciously. For example, if your id walked past a stranger eating ice cream, it would most likely take the ice cream for itself. It doesn’t know, or care, that it is rude to take something belonging to someone else; it would care only that you wanted the ice cream

The Superego

The superego is concerned with social rules and morals—similar to what many people call their” conscience” or their “moral compass.” It develops as a child learns what their culture considers right and wrong. If your superego walked past the same stranger, it would not take their ice cream because it would know that that would be rude. However, if both your id and your superego were involved, and your id was strong enough to override your superego’s concern, you would still take the ice cream, but afterward you would most likely feel guilt and shame over your actions.

The Ego

In contrast to the instinctual id and the moral superego, the ego is the rational, pragmatic part of our personality. It is less primitive than the id and is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It’s what Freud considered to be the “self,” and its job is to balance the demands of the id and superego in the practical context of reality. So, if you walked past the stranger with ice cream one more time, your ego would mediate the conflict between your id (“I want that ice cream right now”) and superego (“It’s wrong to take someone else’s ice cream”) and decide to go buy your own ice cream. While this may mean you have to wait 10 more minutes, which would frustrate your id, your ego decides to make that sacrifice as part of the compromise– satisfying your desire for ice cream while also avoiding an unpleasant social situation and potential feelings of shame.

Freud believed that the id, ego, and superego are in constant conflict and that adult personality and behavior are rooted in the results of these internal struggles throughout childhood. He believed that a person who has a strong ego has a healthy personality and that imbalances in this system can lead to neurosis.

Défense Mechanisms

Freud believed the three parts of the mind are in constant conflict because each part has a different goal. Sometimes, when the conflict is too much for a person to handle, his or her ego may engage in one or many Défense mechanisms to protect the individual.

Défense mechanism is simply a learned behavior to survive and fit into this world. These Défense mechanisms include:

• Compensation
• Denial
• Displacement
• Identification
• Introjection
• Projection
• Rationalization
• Intellectualization
• Reaction Formation
• Regression
• Repression
• Suppression
• Ritual and Undoing
• Sublimation

• Compensation: Is a process of trying to overcome a weakness by excelling in some other ability. Basically, emphasizing your strengths over your weaknesses.

• Denial: Refusal to accept reality. You know the truth, you know what is happening in each situation, but you make excuses and rationalize the excuse in order to escape from admitting or accepting reality.

• Displacement: Venting out your frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening. Example: Your Boss yells at you, and instead of yelling back you hold on to that frustration until you can place it somewhere else like yelling at your subordinate’s. Displacement is basically suppressing your frustrations until you express them elsewhere.

• Identification: Identification involves identifying with someone else like a mentor, or a film star / a cause like Save the Rivers / Tsunami Relief Funds (NGO’s) taking on their personality characteristics or feel-good factor in order to solve your own emotional difficulty and avoid anxiety. In totality I personally don’t think it’s a bad Défense mechanism at all. If you’re a part of something bigger and making a difference to humanity keep at it. The problem arises when you lose sense of self or doing a certain thing only in order to escape a certain negative emotion.

• Introjection: Introjection is a form of identification where you imitate attributes of another person or an organization. Basically, internalizing other people’s ideas and beliefs and making them your own. Examples: Religion: One associate’s themselves to a particular religion and follow the principles or values laid down with no questions asked, in fear of retaliation from the community. But importantly fear accepting that something is wrong there, because religion is mainly a part of who you are. It’s your identity and if that is challenged one starts to question their very existence. Another example is Parents: We Love and admire our parents and somewhere aspire to be like them. We internally know sometimes they are wrong, but fear saying it out loud, because somewhere we feel shame in questioning our own parents, even if all this is an internal dialogue with ourselves. It still is painful. My question is if a family is loving and supports growth of every individual involved, shouldn’t one be open to self-improvement as well then?

• Projection: Projection is blaming another for your bad behaviour or action. Basically, blame shifting. Example: If you don’t like someone, you will think that person doesn’t like you and hence you not liking them in return is somehow justifiable. Another Example: You are mad at your spouse / partner and subconsciously damning them, but you instead think or claim that they are mad at you and damning you in their mind. Alternatively, you may believe that you are inferior and therefore attack another race, ethnicity, or belief system, claiming it is inferior.

• Rationalization: Rationalizing one’s thoughts to justify the action, making excuses for one’s mistakes, and by doing so avoiding self-condemnation or condemnation by others. Basically, it’s at attempt at making excuses using logical reasoning. Example: You don’t get through Law College. You May say something like ” It’s for the good, I don’t think I wouldn’t have liked it anyway ” Or ” I didn’t get through Law College, maybe this is an opportunity to explore what I truly desire”. Let me give you another example you can relate to easily: When in a relationship, if you’re love is not reciprocated, you rationalize your partners behaviors thinking there’s a logical explanation to it. Example: He / She is Busy and doesn’t return calls / texts. You make excuses for this, rationalizing that he/she is busy, but the truth is, it’s all about priorities. Simply put he / she is simply not invested in the relationship as you are. And clearly are not interested in you.

• Intellectualization: It involves acknowledging only the facts and ignoring the emotions. In this situation, when faced with adversity, an individual will objectively / Intellectually look at the facts and come to conclusions without feeling guilt or remorse. Example: A Breakup: One uses logical reasoning to ascertain why it didn’t work. Or A Cop working at a crime scene only focuses on solving the case. Or a doctor performing a surgery will detach emotions while doing so.

• Reaction Formation: Very Similar to Compensation, however here you’re making conscious efforts to replace a negative feeling for another person. Example: You don’t like an individual, maybe your boss, maybe a parent or a colleague at work. However, you mask your dislike for this individual by going out of your way to prove that you do like them. In my opinion this particularly isn’t bad, because you’re channelling your hate to a positive feeling. It is bad however if you deny the real underlining feelings. I believe in this situation; you can make yourself aware of the reasons for dislike. If there’s a fundamental disagreement for dislike, then you must be upfront about it, there is no other way to it, not even channelling it for the positive. Because the pursuit of Positive is a negative experience and the acceptance of the negative is a positive experience.

• Regression: Regression is returning to an earlier time in your life. Returning to a former level of development or a childlike state. Example: In moments of pain, one coils in bed with a teddy bear they held dear as a child. Or assuming a foetal position to cry your heart out like you did as a child. Basically, using a particular habit or material thing as a safety blanket, to soothe away your pain. But again, this Défense mechanism in my opinion is highly debatable. Can an individual return to a childlike state or is it just a temporary behavior and not actually returning to being the child you once were! The reason I say highly debatable, because there are examples of people assuming childlike states in extreme traumatic situations, but as a whole 95% of the population use such behavior only as a way to soothe away the pain and not actually return to being a child.

• Repression: Repression occurs when a thought, memory, or a feeling too painful for an individual to bear, unconsciously pushes the information out of consciousness and becomes unaware of its existence. The repressed thought may still affect behavior, but the individual who repressed the thought is completely unaware of its existence or effect. Repression is a central concept in psychoanalytic theory, and many of Freud’s ideas centre around the concept of repression. Freud did not classify repression as a Défense mechanism; he argued that it occurs before the ego develops. Freud found that the people he worked with in therapy were more likely to recall things under hypnosis than consciously recall things without hypnosis. This led to his development of the concept of repression.

• Suppression: Consciously numbing unpleasant events or memories. Unlike Repression where you’re not aware of how it happens. In suppression you know exactly what you’re doing. You consciously make a choice of not wanting to talk about a certain something, because of the emotions it triggers. Example: Not wanting to talk about a recent death in the family, divorce / separation, recent breakup, a recent failure. In my experience: Anything you resist persists more. But in case of suppression, with enough time, the pain is more bearable or healed completely.

• Ritual and Undoing: Is an attempt of trying to compensate for a bad behaviour or action. Example: Parent’s buying many gifts for their children, in attempts to make up for not spending enough time with them. Or a millionaire might give to charities for the poor to make up for profiting from them.
• Sublimation: Is a process of diverting your feelings / impulses to socially acceptable activities. Sublimation can be thought of as defending yourself from unacceptable behaviour by doing something else instead. Example: The criminally minded often become police to think well of their meanness and attitudes of being entitled to take advantage of and abuse others. 

The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development

Finally, one of the most enduring concepts associated with Freud is his psychosexual stages. Freud proposed that children develop in five distinct stages, each focused on a different source of pleasure:

1. First Stage: Oral—the child seeks pleasure from the mouth (e.g., sucking).
2. Second Stage: Anal—the child seeks pleasure from the anus (e.g., withholding and expelling feces).
3. Third Stage: Phallic—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or clitoris (e.g., masturbation).
4. Fourth Stage: Latent—the child has little or no sexual motivation.
5. Fifth Stage: Genital—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or vagina (e.g., sexual intercourse; McLeod, 2013).

Freud hypothesized that an individual must successfully complete each stage to become a psychologically healthy adult with a fully formed ego and superego. Otherwise, individuals may become stuck or “fixated” in a particular stage, causing emotional and behavioural problems in adulthood (McLeod, 2013).

The Interpretation of Dreams

Freud said that “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.” He meant that because dreams are such an unconscious activity, they give an almost direct insight into the workings of the unconscious mind.

In 1900, Freud published the book The Interpretation of Dreams in which he outlined his hypothesis that the primary purpose of dreams was to provide individuals with wish fulfillment, allowing them to work through some of their repressed issues in a situation free from consciousness and the constraints of reality (Sigmund Freud Biography, n.d.).

In this book, he also distinguished between the manifest content (the actual dream) and the latent content (the true or hidden meaning behind the dream).

The purpose of dreams is to translate forbidden wishes and taboo desires into a non-threatening form through condensation (the joining of two or more ideas), displacement (transformation of the person or object we are concerned about into something or someone else), and secondary elaboration (the unconscious process of turning the fulfillment images or events into a logical narrative) (McLeod, 2013).

Freud’s ideas about dreams were game-changing. Before Freud, dreams were considered insignificant and insensible ramblings of the mind at rest. His book provoked a new level of interest in dreams, an interest that continues to this day.

Jungian Psychology: Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology and religious studies.

Carl Jung was an early supporter of Freud because of their shared interest in the unconscious. He was an active member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (formerly known as the Wednesday Psychological Society).

When the International Psychoanalytical Association formed in 1910 Jung became president at the request of Freud.

However, in 1912 while on a lecture tour of America Jung publicly criticized Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex and his emphasis on infantile sexuality. The following year this led to an irrevocable split between them, and Jung went on to develop his own version of psychoanalytic theory.

Most of Jung’s assumptions of his analytical psychology reflect his theoretical differences with Freud. For example, while Jung agreed with Freud that a person’s past and childhood experiences determined future behaviour, he also believed that we are shaped by our future (aspirations) too.

The three main differences between Freudian psychology and Jungian (or analytical) psychology are related to:

1. Nature and Purpose of the Libido: Jung saw libido as a general source of psychic energy that motivated a wide range of human behaviours—from sex to spirituality to creativity—while Freud saw it as psychic energy that drives only sexual gratification.
2. Nature of the Unconscious: While Freud viewed the unconscious as a storehouse for an individual’s socially unacceptable repressed desires, Jung believed it was more of a storehouse for the individual’s repressed memories and what he called the collective or transpersonal unconscious (a level of unconscious shared with other humans that is made up of latent memories from our ancestors).
3. Causes of Behaviour: Freud saw our behaviour as being caused solely by past experiences, most notably those from childhood, while Jung believed our future aspirations have a significant impact on our behaviour as well (McLeod, 2014).

Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Jacques Marie Émile Lacan

Was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who has been called “the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud”.

In the mid to late 1900s, the French psychoanalyst called for a return to Freud’s work, but with a renewed focus on the unconscious and greater attention paid to language.

Lacan drew heavily from his knowledge of linguistics and believed that language was a much more important piece of the developmental puzzle than Freud assumed.

There are three key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis that set it apart from Freud’s original talk therapy:

1. The Real.
2. Symbolic Order.
3. Mirror Stage. 

• The Real

While Freud saw the symbolic as being indicative of a person’s unconscious mind, particularly in dreams, Lacan theorized that “the real” is actually the most foundational level of the human mind. According to Lacan, we exist in “the real” and experience anxiety because we cannot control it.

Unlike the symbolic, which Freud proposed could be accessed through psychoanalysis, the real cannot be accessed. Once we learn and understand language, we are severed completely from the real. He describes it as the state of nature, in which there exists nothing but a need for food, sex, safety, etc. (The Real, 2002).

Symbolic Order

Lacan’s symbolic order is one of three orders that concepts, ideas, thoughts, and feelings can be placed into. Our desires and emotions live in the symbolic order, and this is where they are interpreted, if possible. Concepts like death and absence may be integrated into the symbolic order because we have at least some senses of understanding of them, but they may not be interpreted fully.

Once we learn a language, we move from the real to the symbolic order and are unable to move back to the real. The real and the symbolic are two of the three orders that live in tension with one another, the third being the imaginary order (Symbolic Order, 2002).

 Mirror Stage

Lacan proposed that there is an important stage of development not covered by Freud called the “mirror stage.” This aptly named stage is initiated when infants look into a mirror at their own image. Most infants become fascinated with the image they see in the mirror and may even try to interact with it.

But eventually, they realize that the image they are seeing is of themselves.

Once they realize this key fact, they incorporate what they see into their sense of “I,” or sense of self. At this young stage, the image they see may not correspond to their inner understanding of their physical self, in which case the image becomes an ideal that they strive for as they develop (Hewitson, 2010).

The Approach: Psychoanalytic Perspective

In the psychoanalytic approach, the focus is on the unconscious mind rather than the conscious mind. It is built on the foundational idea that our behavior is determined by experiences from our past that are lodged in our unconscious mind.

While the focus on sex has lessened over the decades since psychoanalysis was founded, psychology and talk therapy still place a big emphasis on one’s early childhood experiences.

Methods and Techniques

Basic components of psychoanalysis are:

Free Association

Transference

Counter transference

Neo-Freudian Approaches to Personality

Although Sigmund Freud contributed a great deal to the field of psychology through his psychoanalytic theory of personality, his work did not go without scrutiny. Many criticized his theories for being overly focused on sexuality; over the years since his work, many other theorists have adapted and built on his ideas to form new theories of personality. These theorists, referred to as Neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences are important, but they lessened his emphasis on sex and sexuality. Instead of taking a strictly biological approach to the development of personality they focused more holistically on how the social environment and culture influence personality development.

Notable Neo-Freudians

Many psychologists, scientists, and philosophers have made meaningful additions to the psychoanalytic study of personality. Particularly notable Neo-Freudians are Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, and Karen Horney.

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler was the first to explore and develop a comprehensive social theory of the psychodynamic person. He founded a school of psychology called individual psychology, which focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority. Adler proposed the concept of the inferiority complex, which describes a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to the standards of others or of society. He also believed in the importance of social connections, seeing childhood development as emerging through social development rather than via the sexual stages outlined by Freud. From these ideas, Adler identified three fundamental social tasks that all of us must experience: occupational tasks (careers), societal tasks (friendship), and love tasks (finding an intimate partner for a long-term relationship).

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson is influential for having proposed the psychosocial theory of development, which suggests that an individual’s personality develops throughout the lifespan based on a series of social relationships—a departure from Freud’s more biology-oriented view. In his psychosocial theory, Erikson emphasized the social relationships that are important at each stage of personality development, in contrast to Freud’s emphasis on sex. Erikson identified eight stages, each of which represents a conflict or developmental task. The development of a healthy personality and a sense of competence depend on the successful completion of each task.

Carl Jung

Carl Jung followed in Adler’s footsteps by developing a theory of personality called analytical psychology. One of Jung’s major contributions was his idea of the collective unconscious, which he deemed a “universal” version of Freud’s personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, that are common to all of us (Jung, 1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung called archetypes, are represented by universal themes as expressed through various cultures’ literature and art, as well as people’s dreams. Jung also proposed the concept of the persona, referring to a kind of “mask” that we adopt based on both our conscious experiences and our collective unconscious. Jung believed this persona served as a compromise between who we really are (our true self) and what society expects us to be; we hide those parts of ourselves that are not aligned with society’s expectations behind this mask.

Karen Horney

Karen Horney was one of the first women trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst. Horney’s theories focused on “unconscious anxiety,” which she believed stemmed from early childhood experiences of unmet needs, loneliness, and/or isolation. She theorized three styles of coping that a child adopts in relation to anxiety: moving toward people, moving away from people, and moving against people.

Horney was also influential in the advancement of feminism within the field of psychodynamics. Freud has been widely critiqued for his almost exclusive focus on men and for what some perceive as a condescension toward women; for example, Horney disagreed with the Freudian idea that girls have “penis envy” and are jealous of male biological features. According to Horney, any jealousy is most likely due to the greater privileges that males are often given, meaning that the differences between men’s and women’s personalities are due to the dynamics of culture rather than biology. She further suggested that men have “womb envy” because they cannot give birth.

Key Points to take away:

• Sigmund Freud ‘s psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behaviour is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego.
• This “structural theory” of personality places great importance on how conflicts among the parts of the mind shape behaviour and personality. These conflicts are mostly unconscious.
• According to Freud, personality develops during childhood and is critically shaped through a series of five psychosexual stages, which he called his psychosexual theory of development.
• During each stage, a child is presented with a conflict between biological drives and social expectations; successful navigation of these internal conflicts will lead to mastery of each developmental stage, and ultimately to a fully mature personality.
• Freud’s ideas have since been met with criticism, in part because of his singular focus on sexuality as the main driver of human personality development.
• Over the years, Freud attracted many followers who adapted and modified his psychoanalytic theories to create new theories of personality. These other theorists became known as Neo-Freudians.
• Neo-Freudians, such as Adler, Horney, Jung, and Erikson, agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter; however, they expanded on Freud’s ideas by focusing on the importance of sociological and cultural influences in addition to biological influences.
• Alfred Adler was the first to explore and develop a comprehensive social theory of the psychodynamic person and coined the idea of the “inferiority complex.”
• Erik Erikson proposed the psychosocial theory of development, which suggested that an individual’s personality develops throughout their lifespan based on a changing emphasis on different social relationships.
• Two of Carl Jung’s major contributions were his ideas of the collective unconscious and the persona.
• Karen Horney’s theories focused on “unconscious anxiety,” which she believed stemmed from early childhood experiences of unmet needs, loneliness, and/or isolation.

Key Terms

• neurosis: A mental disorder marked by anxiety or fear; less severe than psychosis because it does not involve detachment from reality (e.g., hallucination).
• psychosexual: Of or relating to both psychological and sexual aspects.
• pathology: Any deviation from a healthy or normal condition; abnormality.
• psychodynamic: Relating to the approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behaviour, feelings, and emotions and how these might be related to early experiences.

References:

• lumen
• Neuro transmission
• britanica.com
• psychiatrictimes.com
• Standford.edu
• literariness.org
• Wikipedia
• psycho-tests.com
• positive psychology
• sciencedirect.com
• frontiersin.org
• scroll.in
• nobaproject.com
• verywellmind.com

Psychoanalysis Test: The Freudian Personality Test:

https://psycho-tests.com/test/freud-personality-test