The main theories of Freud
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THE MAIN THEORIES OF FREUD / JUNG / ADLER

A discussion of their positive aspects in the theraputic context

FREUDIAN THEORY

Introduction

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was born in Freiberg (now PrĂ­bor Czech Republic) in 1856. When he was three years old his family, fleeing from the anti-Semitic riots in Freiberg, moved to Leipzig. Shortly thereafter, the family settled in Vienna, where Freud remained for most of his life. (Trupp, 2000, p. 10)

Although Freud's ambition from childhood had been a career in law, he decided to become a medical student and entered Vienna University in 1873. Freud was driven by an intense desire to study natural science and to solve some of the challenging problems confronting contemporary scientists. He subsequently became known as the founder of psychoanalysis. (Trupp, 2000, p. 10; Davenport, 1998, p3)

Freud's theory from Freud's perspective

(Freud did not invent the idea of the conscious versus unconscious mind, but was responsible for popularising the concept). The conscious mind is what we are aware of at any particular time and that the conscious mind works with the preconscious - which is essentially anything that can easily be made conscious. For example memories not being thought about at the present time, but which can be brought to mind easily. The conscious and preconscious are the smallest parts of consciousness overall. (Kline, 1995, p. 15)

The largest part by far is the unconscious. The unconscious includes all the things that are not easily available to awareness, including many things that have their origins there, such as our drives or instincts, and things that are put there because we cannot face them eg memories / emotions associated with trauma. (25p16, 24p19/23)

The unconscious is the source of our motivations eg desires for food or sex, neurotic compulsions, or the motives of an artist or scientist. We are driven to deny (or resist becoming conscious of) these motives, and that they are often available to us only in an encoded form. (Kline, 1995, p. 16)

The id, the ego, and the superego (Kline, 1995, p. 15)

We are organisams that act to survive and reproduce, and all other desires (hunger, sexual desire, pain avoidance) guide the organism to survive and reproduce.

An organism's nervous system translates the organism's needs into drives / instincts / (wishs). The translation from need to drive / instinct is the PRIMARY PROCESS.

The Id (Kline, 1995, p. 15)

The ID is a pure demand to satisfy needs immediately. If the need is not satisfied the need becomes stronger and the desire / (wish) increases such that the desire breaks into consciousness.

The ego (on a concious basis) senses seeks out stimuli (objects) to satisfy the desires / (wishes) that the ID creates. This activity is called the SECONDARY PROCESS.

The Ego (Kline, 1995, p. 16)

The ego is realistic and reasonable. It seeks to satisfy a desire only when a stimuli (object) is actually found.

The SuperEgo (Society) (Kline, 1995, p. 16)

As the ego assists the id it 'remembers' obstacles and aides. The mother and father objects define by reward / punishment what is ab obstacle to avoid and an aide to seek out. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. The super-ego comprises two parts:

  • [1] Conscience - an internalization of punishments and warnings
  • [2] Ego ideal - derives from rewards and positive models presented to the child

The 'conscience' and 'ego-ideal' communicate their requirements to the 'ego' with feelings such as pride, shame and guilt.

The super-ego represents society and the needs of society. The needs of society may conflict with the needs / wishes of the ID.

Life and death instincts (Trupp, 2000, p. 19)

[1] Life Instincts (Trupp, 2000, p. 19)

There are two motivating instincts:

  • To seek food / water to perpetuate life
  • To have sex to continue the life of the species

In combination they form the LIBIDO. (Freud placed great emphasis on sex {intercourse and other forms of behaviour} hence the current definition)

[2]Death instinct (Developed later in Freud's life!) (Trupp, 2000, p. 19)

The ultimate goal of life is to be still, at peace and to have no further needs ie the organism has a subconscious wish to die as a release from the struggle of life and to simply not exist. (The Nirvana principle). Evidence of the death instinct includes: (internally) alcohol / narcotic use, sleep / rest craving, escapism, suicide, extreme sport, death wishes and, (externally) aggression, murder, cruelty.

Anxiety (Kline, 1995, p. 22)

The ego balances a number of influences:

  • reality
  • society as represented by the superego
  • biology as represented by the id

When these make conflicting demands on the ego it can become 'threatened' and overwhelmed. This feeling is anxiety and serves as a signal to the ego that its survival (and the survival of the whole organism) is in jeopardy.

There are three types of anxiety:

[1] realistic anxiety (Kline, 1995, p. 22)

Fear that is a normal response to a stimuli.

[2] moral anxiety (Kline, 1995, p. 22)

This is what we feel when the threat comes from the internalized social world of the superego eg shame, guilt and the fear of being punished.

[3] neurotic anxiety (Kline, 1995, p. 22)

This is the fear of being overwhelmed by impulses from the id eg the fear of losing control. (Neurotic or nervous anxiety intrigued Freud most).

Ego defense mechanisms (Kline, 1995, p. 20; Trupp, 2000 p. 35)

When anxiety becomes ovewhelming the ego defends itself by blocking the implses or distorting them into a less threatening form. Methods include:

  • Denial (Kline, 1995, p. 23; Trupp, 2000 p. 36)

Unconcious blocking of external events from awareness such that reality is disregarded regardless of consequence.

  • Repression (Anna Freud's definition) (Kline, 1995, p. 21)

Unconcious refusal to recall a threatening situation / event / person / experience. Which may subsequently resurface in the presence of a trigger stimuli.

  • Asceticism (renunciation of needs) (Kline, 1995, p. 20)

Unconsciously attempting to protect by denial of desire eg not eating and anorexics.

  • Isolation (intellectualization)(Kline, 1995, p. 20; Trupp, 2000 p. 37)

Unconsciously removing the emotion from a situation / event.

  • Displacement (Kline, 1995, p. 20)

Unconscious redirection of an impulse onto a substitute target eg mother hatred to women hatred, abuse of self when the person becomes their own substitute target (depression).

  • Projection (outward displacement - Emma Freud) (Kline, 1995, p. 25; Trupp, 2000 p. 36)

Unconsciously seeing your own (possibly hidden) unacceptable desires in others eg lust becomes jealousy. Altruistic surrender is when the desires are fulfilled by having others act them out.

  • Reaction formation (Kline, 1995, p. 23)

Changing an unacceptable impulse into its opposite eg the abused child that runs to its abusing parent.

  • Undoing

    (act of self atonement) (Kline, 1995, p. 20)

Gestures or rituals designed to cancel out unpleasant thoughts / feelings after they have occurred eg excessive washing after sex.

  • Introjection (identification - the mechanism by which we develop our superegos) (Kline, 1995, p. 20)

Absorbing into your own personality characteristics of someone else - eg abused child nurturing itself in a mother like way to lessen the emotional trauma, or eg taking on the negative traits of an agressor - lessening fear by becoming more like that which is feared.

  • Regression

    (Kline, 1995, p. 20)

Moving back in psychological time when faced with a situation ie becoming more child like when stressed or to a time when we felt safe and secure.

  • Rationalization (Kline, 1995, p. 25)

Cognitive distortion of 'the facts' to make an event / impulse appear less threatening eg making excuses.

  • Sublimation (arguably the only positive defense) (Kline, 1995, p. 20; Trupp, 2000 p. 36)

Transformation of an unacceptable impulse / desire into a socially acceptable form eg hostility into a productive war hero, sexual desire into any creative activity.

Note: Defenses can be seen as a combination of denial or repression with any number of rationalisations. All defenses insulate the individual from reality and have a tendency to break down over time. In general they are not positive in excess but are essential in moderation.

Stages of Development (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

The sex drive is the most important motivating force and neurologically exists from birth when sex is defined as ranging from intercourse to deriving tactile pleasure from the skin.

At different times in our lives we derive differing levels of pleasure from our skin:

  • Oral stage (25p12)
    • 0-18 months - sucking, especially breasts / biting
  • Anal stage (25p13)
    • 18 months-3 - anal pleasure from holding in and letting go
  • Phallic stage (25p11)
    • 3-4+ - genitalia rubbing / touching - masturbation
  • Latent stage (25p11)
    • 5-7 to puberty (12) - sexual impulse is suppressed to enable learning
  • Genital stage (25p11)
    • puberty + - sexual intercourse

Note: (Freud felt that eg masturbation, oral sex acceptable to adults today, were immature. Freudians believe that we all go through each stage, in the stated order, and at the appropriate ages ranges which differs from the reality of today's society).

The Oedipal crisis (Kline, 1995, p. 10)

Each stage has a task associated with it:

  • oral stage - weaning
  • anal stage - potty training
  • phallic stage - Oedipal crisis (after the ancient Greek story-character King Oedipus who killed his father accidentally and married his mother)

Male version (Kline, 1995, p. 10)

  • The Oedipal crisis can be described as:
  • The first love-object for is our mother.
  • The young boy is threatened by the father's relationship with his mother.
  • The father is perceived as an enemy.
  • The young boy becomes aware the fact that boys have a penis and girls do not.
  • The boy questions why girls do not have penises.
  • The boy associates the lack of penis with castration and feels threatened.
  • Castration anxiety begins.
  • The boy recognises his father's superiority and fears for his penis assuming a link.
  • Ego defenses are engaged.
  • Sexual urges are displaced from the mother to girls.
  • The boy identifies with the aggressor (the father) and acts more like a man.
  • After a few years of latency, he enters adolescence and the world of mature heterosexuality.

Female version (Kline, 1995, p. 10)

  • The girl begins her life in love with her mother
  • She notices the difference between boys and girls and feels inadequate.
  • She wants a penis and the power associated with the penis or a penis substitute such as a baby.
  • In order to have a baby she becomes 'attracted' to her father.
  • Her father is clearly in a relationship with her mother.
  • The girl displaces from the father to men / boys.
  • The girl identifies with the mother because she was able to obtain the man she wanted.

(Note: The girl cannot have castration anxiety since she does not have a penis. Freud felt that this lack of fear accounted for what he perceived as women's lack of morality and increased homosexual potential).

Character (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

  • [1] Experiences as we grow up contribute to personality / character as an adult.
  • [2] Traumatic experiences therefore have a significant impact particularly when encountered during one of the 'standard' developmental stages.
  • [3] Extremes lead to extremes.

Fixation (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

Difficulties encountered completing one of the stage tasks leads to the retention of child-like habits and the fixation of development at that particular stage. Fixation at each stage results in different effects on character / personality.

0-8 months (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

Frustrated suckling - development of an oral / passive character ie increased dependence on others with an interest retained in oral gratification eg smoking, drinking, eating, seeking to compensate for missed pleasures.

5-8 months (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

Teething begins and nipple biting leads to early cessation of breast feeding. This leads to the development of an oral-aggressive personality as typified by gum chewing, pencil chewing and nail biting. There is potential for the person to be argumentative and verbally abusive.

Anal stage (Kline, 1995, p. 13)

Fascination with bodily functions. Change from uncontrolled excretion to parentally controlled excretion. Parental pleasure expressed on defecation. Either the child or the parent can be 'in control' of the process:

  • child dominant → anal aggressive personality (destructive / aggressive) associated with overly 'lax' / begging parental attitude
  • child submissive → anal retentive personality with probable constipation (perfectionist / stubborn / cleanliness focused / ungiving) - associated with early potty training / strict parental attitude

Phallic personality types (Kline, 1995, p. 12)

  • [1] Boy rejected by mother & threatened by very masculine father → poor self worth re sexuality, possibly withdrawn, possibly low heterosexual activity or the reverse but as an 'act'
  • [2] Girl rejected by father & threatened by very feminine mother → low self esteem, shy or hyper feminine and flirtatious as an 'act'
  • [3] Boy obsessed over by mother in preference to father → over-rated self worth, effeminate
  • [4] Girl obsessed over by father in preference to mother → vain, selfish, masculine

Freud's Therapeutic Approach (Kline, 1995, pp. 33, 128)

  • Relaxed atmosphere - dimmed lights, relaxing couch.
  • The client must feel free to express anything.
  • Open communication encouraged
  • Therapist almost out of sight but still a very close patient / therapist relationship
  • No judgment on the part of the therapist
  • Free association - patient can say anything (on the basis that when relaxed issues will come to the surface from the subconscious - analogous with dreaming)
  • Resistance is treated as highly symbolic that an issue is nearby (subconcious avoidance of issue confrontation)
  • Dream analysis - symbolic 'translation' of dreams with an amphasis on sexual meaning (Kline, 1995, p. 29)
  • Analysis of parapraxes (Freudian slips) / jokes / dialling wrong numbers
  • Meaning potentially assigned to almost anything - often sexual
  • Transference - the therapist 'becomes' the eg abusive parent during sessions (Trupp, 2000, p. 33)
  • Catharsis is encouraged (sudden outpourings of emotion - patient encouraged to express emotion)
  • Emphasis on gaining insight from catharsis at which point the therapy would be complete (gaining concious awareness of unconcious issues and gaining contextual understanding)
  • Objects were frequently symbolic of something sexual (Kline, 1995, p. 31)
  • Transference viewed as normal (Kline, 1995, p. 34)

Freud: Positive aspects

  • A lot of behaviour is based on biology
  • Extremes lead to extremes
  • Societal impact on behaviour
  • Male / female roles evolve from family dynamics
  • Id & super-ego as an analogy for biology & society
  • Some neurotic symptoms caused by trauma - resolve the trauma and the neurosis will imporve
  • Classification of ego defenses that have become part of natural language
  • Relaxed treatment atmosphere
  • Personal / confidential client / therapist relationship
  • The importance of close observation

Freud: Usage in hypnotherapy (Thomas, 1999, pp. 16, 18, 475)

Note: By quoting theory to the patient the therapist can benefit from the legitimisation of their theraputic approach, may be perceived as being more professional by the patient and can also use patient feedback to determine the patient's own exposure to psychology. This effect applies to all of the theories mentioned in this essay. However, the more extreme elements of them should not be communicaed to the patient unless repositioned to make more palatable for a modern audience.

If a lot of behaviour is based on biology then it is reasonable to assume that this makes biology a good subject for inclusion within scripts:

  • just as animals do
  • it's perfectly natural

If extremes lead to extremes simply drawing the patient's attention to the fact that X did take place and is a past event may serve a theraputic benefit. If their extreme childhood is to them perfectly normal on some levels their perceptions of what is reasonable / right - wrong may be distorted. This can be integrated into scripts:

  • and you can realise that X is in the past and no longer present in your life
  • and you can also allow all parts of you to accept that you did nothing to warrant X
  • you did nothing at all and have nothing to feel guilty about
  • you may want to tell all parts of yourself that you are ready to forgive Y for X

Given that societal rules impact on behaviour this fact can be used in the inverse as well as directly:

  • and when we are born we are alone
  • and being alone is fine, just fine
  • there are many that have been conditioned by society to believe that they have to be with other people at all times
  • but you are not a herding animal and truly understand that being alone is perfectly natual and normal
  • after all, when we are born we are alone, and that's fine
  • just like a bee in a bee-hive, we live in a community
  • a place where many individuals need to live together happily
  • and because we need to live together we need rules or conventions that help us to live together better
  • and when we follow these rules we live in harmony
  • (harmony, peace and tranquility)
  • I wonder if you would not like to live in peace and harmony?
  • peace and harmony, allowing you to live with others
  • to live with others and share their lives
  • to share their lives and share their rules, to live in harmony
  • peace and harmony, to live with others
  • just like a bee in a bee-hive, harmonious and happy

Given that male / female roles evolve from family dynamics this can be used in scripts this can be used in scripts to reduce the impact of perceived negative conditioning without simply reconditioning using reverse conditioning:

  • and you may remember,  you may recall, remember a time when your father devoted much of his time to you
  • a time when you spent more time with your father than your mother
  • and you can realise that even though you're mother was not around much, she still loved you very much
  • loves you very much, for are you not very dear to her?
  • and you can fondly remember those times, fondly remember those times, times when you were close to your your mother as well
  • times when she showed you that she does love you, love you very much
  • and you may remember,  you may recall, remember a time when your mother devoted much of her time to you, focus for a moment on that image.....
  • If we accept id & super-ego as an analogy for biology & society this can also be used in scripts:
  • and there may times when some part of you wants to do X
  • focus on the part of you that is responsible for wanting to do X and allow that part of you to float out of you and into the upturned palm of your left hand (obtain head nod/IMR)
  • and there may times when another part of you does want to do X because of the consequences, the effect on your family
  • focus on the part of you that is responsible for not wanting to do X and allow that part of you to float out of you and into the upturned palm of your right hand (obtain head nod/IMR)
  • and you can understand that the part of you responsible for not wanting to do X is becoming more and more powerful, powerful and in control, focus on that part and realise that it is helping you do the right thing for your family, the right thing for your family and friends

Given that some neurotic symptoms can be caused by trauma is is reasonable to assume that by resolving the trauma and the neurosis will improve:

  • regress back to the traumatic situation with adult, impartial senses / views / perceptions
  • remove all emotional content such that the patient is simply a viewer
  • gradually invoke the emotional content when the patient feels in control and diffuse by pairing with concepts of control / stability / lack of effect

Classification of ego defenses that have become part of natural language - denial being one of the most common. In hypnotherapy a slightly obtuse approach is required to obviate these defenses:

  • free floating regression
  • stepped age progression from birth to identify a 'problem year'
  • complete obviation of the mechanism by never actually mentioning the or requiring mention of the situation at all ie context free

Freud put great emphasis on a relaxed treatment atmosphere - this is something that all therapists could benefit from. The key question that the therapist should ask would be 'if I was a patient of mine would I feel comfortable?'

Although Freud was keen on developing a close personal client / therapist relationship (albeit with minimal input from the therapist) this extended approach is not necessarily suitable for the rapid process of hypnotherapy. However, the importance of close observation remains as valid now as it was then.


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Referencing method employed:


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