Chapters 8:
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Theories of Personality
March 7, 2003
Class #7
THE ASSAULT ON FREUD

Watson commonly referred to as “The Father of
Behaviorism” spent much of his career attacking
Freudian views…


In 1930, he predicted “20 years from now Freudian
Theory will be placed on the same plane as a
phrenologist?”
Well, here it is the year 2003 and although bloodied
by his legion of critics, Freudian views are probably
still the most discussed in psychological circles
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939):
Background Information

1881: At age 25, earned MD and went into
private practice specializing in
neurological disorders

Became interested in hidden aspects of
personality when he found himself confronted
with patients whose apparent disorders made
no neurological sense
 Example: Anna O.
Classic Freudian Setting



What is the classic setting?
 Why this set-up?
Used hypnosis and then free association
Classic Freudian setting and Iceberg Theory of
the Mind
 Our access to what goes on in our mind is
very limited
 The majority is in our unawareness
 Freud felt nothing was accidental – dreams,
slips of tongue, slips of pen, etc.
Freud’s Life

1884: Began to experiment with cocaine



Felt that this “magical substance” relieved depression
Deeply scarred by this “cocaine episode”
1885: He bounces back and gets grant to study
hysteria and hypnosis under Jean Charcot in
Paris



Major break in his career
All of psychology might be different today
These five months changed his life and maybe ours
forever
Freud’s Life

1902: Vienna
Wednesday
Psychoanalytic Society
 Initially took place in
Freud’s apartment
 Founded officially in
1910 and Alfred Adler
became first president
 After a dispute with
Freud, Adler resigned
and Freud took over
as president of the
Society until 1938
Agree or be uninvited next week…

Freud saw
himself as the
leader, teacher,
and prophet of
this group of
intellectuals
Freud’s Life

1906




1913


Begins correspondence with Carl Jung
From “crown prince” to traitor
Freud couldn’t deal with Jung’s belief in mythology
and the collective unconscious and ghosts
Breaks all ties with Jung and his followers
1918

Loses entire fortune which was tied up in Austrian
State Bonds
Freud’s Life





1923
 The first signs of Freud’s
oral cancer are detected
1920’s
 Honors, honors, and more
honors
1930
 A heart attack forces him to
give up smoking (for awhile
anyway)
1930’s
 More honors
1939
 Freud dies
Freud’s Personality Structure

For Freud, personality was composed of
three interacting systems: id, ego, and
superego
Freud’s Personality Structure

Id



Ego



Operates on the “pleasure principle”
Immediate gratification
Operates on the “reality principle”
Seeks to gratify id’s impulses in realistic ways that will
bring long-term pleasure rather than pain and
destruction
Superego


Operates on the “ideal principle”
What is morally correct
Freud’s Personality Development:
The Psychosexual Stages

Freud’s analysis of his patient’s problems and
memories convinced him that personality is
decisively shaped in the first few year’s of life


He felt that his patient’s symptoms stemmed from
unresolved conflicts that originated in early childhood
He concluded that children pass through a series of
psychosexual stages of development – stages during
which the Id’s pleasure-seeking energies are focused
on pleasure-sensitive areas of the body called
erogenous zones
The Psychosexual Stages





Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
Freud’s Oral Stage

About first 12-18 months of life


Focus: sucking, biting, etc.
According to Freud, a fixation here
causes which problems as an adult?
Freud’s Anal Stage

Approx. 18 months to three years of age


Anal region is focus
 Toilet-training, etc.
Fixation causes???
Freud’s Phallic Stage (3-6yrs old)


Children realize anatomical difference – up to
this point Freud feels that children thought that
the other had the same “equipment” they did…
Boys:


Initially think girls are hiding penis; then think its been
cut off (ouch!)
According to Freud, at this point in the phallic stage
the boy has discovered masturbation and wants to
direct this phallic activity towards his mother
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Boys

At this point, boys enter Oedipus complex and
are in a “sexual love” with mother and want to
kill father and marry mother


They want sole sexual possession
“Castration anxiety” ends this…



Fear of their father creates the superego
Desires for mother goes deeply into unconscious and
creates strong superego
He identifies with dad and incorporates many of his
values
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Boys

Basically, he abandons the incestuous
desires of the Id (under the threat of
castration) and subdues the pleasure
principle…

He does however understand that his time will
come…he’ll get a woman someday hence he
just has to wait to fulfill his libidinal urges
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Boys


This ends the Oedipus complex for boys…
Their desires for mom go deeply into the
unconscious…later on in life other
unfulfillable and inexpressible wishes will
follow into this repressed area – like
prohibitions on behavior from parents,
teachers, police, religious authorities, etc.
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls



The path for girls is less clear:
First of all, Freud believes that all girls
suffer from “penis envy”…
She has seen it, and knows that she is
without it, and she wants to have it…
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls

Freud feels that girls try to deal with these
feelings in three possible ways:



Denial – she persists in her thinking (at least
for awhile) that she has a penis and this leads
to psychosis later in life
I’ll get one somehow – she may somehow
fixate on the idea that she will someday get a
penis by whatever means possible
The normal route – accept the fact that she
has been castrated
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls


According to Freud, many girls believe they
have been castrated, probably as a punishment
for masturbating…
Well, regardless of the route taken…




Inferiority complex develops which carries into
adulthood
Furious with mother
 Anger and hatred for not giving her a penis
Contempt for entire female sex
Also, she feels the clitoris is inferior to the penis…so
much so that she gives up masturbation
entirely…even the idea disgusts her
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls


Ok, so what happens next…
Her father becomes a love object…

Since I can’t get a penis – I’ll have dad’s baby
instead


At this point, Freud announces, “the girl has turned
into a little woman”
Mother is rival

The mother becomes solely the object of
jealousy and rivalry
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls

So then, how does the Oedipus (Electra)
complex end for girls???



Freud struggles with explanation…
Basically, somehow (???) its repressed
But not deeply into unconscious…



Girls don’t ever develop strong superego
Thus, they are not as moral as men
Aren’t suitable to be leaders, rulers (someone better
tell Hillary)
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls

Basically, girls never formed the strong
superego – its not anchored like the boys
and thus their unconscious wishes are
more likely to rise up into consciousness
during adulthood
Freud’s Phallic Stage:
Girls

Many girls stay in Oedipus complex
forever…


Nothing really ever ended it for them
Marry guys like dad
Latency Period
(Age 6 to puberty)

Now, with sexual feelings are repressed
we see sexually-dormant children playing
mostly with same-sex friends
Genital Stage
(Puberty)

Youths begin to experience sexual feelings
towards others
An early Freudian gaffe…

In 1896, Freud (who is 40 years old and just beginning to
make a name for himself) presented a paper titled
Etiology of Hysteria to a professional society in which
he theorized that hysteria in adults was caused by
infantile seduction


Freud proposed the Seduction Theory after listening to all
eighteen of his hysterical patients disclose childhood
experiences of unwanted sexual contact (Masson, 1984)
As a result of treating these patients, Freud was able to make
links between infantile sexual abuse, defense mechanisms (such
as amnesia), and hysteria
Seduction Theory


Freud hypothesized that infantile
seduction occurred more frequently than
most people believed
Freud hypothesized that many victims
developed obsessions and neuroses as a
result of the abuse they experienced
Meet with silence…

You can imagine the response from his
audience
Suppression of the Seduction Theory

Masson (1984)




Suggests that Freud gave up the seduction
theory because of a lack of courage
Nevertheless, it seems Freud was right
Present researchers confirm Freud's original
belief that most frequently an abuser was
someone the child knew and trusted
Freud gave up the seduction theory in favor of
the Oedipus complex theory
Suppression of the Seduction Theory

Interesting twist…




One of the reasons, he ignored the reality of his
seduction theory is the possibility that his close friend
and colleague, Wilhelm Fliess may have molested his
own son
Freud may have been aware of this
Adding to this is the fact that he had yet to achieve
his ultimately high status maybe Freud figured rather
than upset the whole psychological community, he
figured it best to abandon his theory
Maybe the world wasn’t ready to accept this reality
Suppression of the Seduction Theory

Masson (1984)


Felt that had Freud remained faithful to his
seduction theory the entire history of
psychoanalysis would have been different
Crewdson (1987)

Instead of exploring the imagined sexual lives
of children, real sexual abuses of children
would have been acknowledged
Freud’s Authoritarianism

Freud was authoritarian and
paternalistic…




Unable to tolerate disagreements
Examples: Fliess, Adler, and Jung
They were his children, his disciples, and they
were to accept what he said without question
Disagreements were an act of treason
Rigid Authoritarianism




This problem of Freud’s has been well
documented
He was intolerant of others opinions and refused
revision of his theories
He never accepted any significant suggestions
for change in his theoretical work
Either one had to be completely in favor of his
theory or it was taken as a personal attack on
him
A drastic example…



Sandor Ferenczi was a loyal
pupil of Freud who at the end
of his life mentioned to Freud
certain beliefs concerning
therapy
He felt the patient needed to
feel that the therapist really
cared about him
Freud became increasingly
impatient and warned that
Ferenczi was “on dangerous
ground” and was departing
from the fundamentals of
psychoanalysis
Discussion over!!!

Freud felt that all this will do is cause the
patient to become dependent on the
therapist – “your ideas are wrong”



The interview ended with Freud ready to blow
a gasket
Ferenczi was hurt by this reaction and held
out his hand in an affectionate adieu
Freud disgustedly turned his back and walked
out of the room
Freud’s Symbolism…

Does he take it too far?



Dreams
Humor
Phobias