Unconscious
Motivation
What did Freud get right?
100 years of Freud





1856-1939
Interpretation of Dreams
published in 1900.
Freud started gaining
recognition in 1908 at the first
International Psychoanalytical
Congress.
Psychology heavily influenced
by Freud.
What do we still hold true?
Development of theories




Psychotherapy
Current problems
rooted in childhood
experiences.
Psychodynamic
workings of personality.
Humans driven by
animalistic passions.
Negative view of
human nature.
Deterministic





Deterministic: ultimate cause of behavior
comes from biology and acquired impulses.
These control our desires, thoughts and
feelings whether we like it or not.
By puberty, the personality is formed and
will change very little later in life.
Motivational impulses of adult can be
traced in childhood events.
Motivation happens to us, we don’t choose.
Pessimistic






Spotlight on sexual and aggressive urges.
Life is full of conflict, anxiety, repression
Carry heavy emotional burdens.
Personality on the verge of collapse.
Freud viewed these as the reality of life.
But must we accept this pessimistic view
as reality?
Psychoanalytic Therapy






Uncover hidden thoughts.
Allow them to come to the
surface.
Understand real conflicts.
Childhood experiences.
Psychosexual stages of
development.
Some therapist still follow
Freud’s model.
Psychodynamic theory




While psychoanalytic
refers to the therapy,
Psychodynamic refers to
Freud’s theory about
unconscious mental
processes.
Unconscious motivation
the topic of this
presentation.
Why an iceberg?
Dual instinct theory







Motivated by two forces.
Eros, life instincts.
Maintains life of self and
species (biological drives).
Primary emphasis to sex.
Thanatos, death instincts.
Rest, energy conversation,
total rest is death.
Primary emphasis on
aggression.
Role of Aggression




If focused on self, lead to
self-criticism, depression,
addiction.
Depression is aggression
turned inward.
If focused outward, lead to
anger, prejudice, hate,
revenge and war.
Hostile ethnic joke is an
expression of Thanatos.
Modern Psychodynamic Theory





Most psychologists still hold four of
Freud’s principles to be worthwhile:
1) Much of mental life is unconscious.
2) Mental processes can be in conflict.
3) The ego matures during development.
4) Childhood understanding of self and
others affect later social relationships.
Relationships with childhood caregivers
affect adult relationships.
Principle 1: Freudian Unconscious



Conscious: all the
thoughts, feelings,
memories you are
aware of at any given
time (this slide).
Preconscious: absent
but can be quickly
retrieved (your name).
Unconscious:
storehouse of repressed
memories and wishes
(who knows?).
Road to the unconscious




Dreams are the royal road to the
unconscious.
Unconscious wishes come out in
dream content.
Manifest content: Dream’s story
line (I live in an unfinished house).
Latent content: underlying
meaning, hidden desire that is
symbolized in dream (incomplete
aspects of my life or personality).
Functions of dreams





Dreaming occurs during REM sleep.
REM important for brain stimulation,
particularly in infants.
REM important for memory consolidation.
Dreams may be brain’s attempt to make
sense of random activity of REM.
Also reveal the workings of the
unconscious mind.
Principle 2: Psychodynamics






Mental processes can be in conflict.
OCD: people repeat behaviors that they
would rather not (hand washing).
Freud reasoned that motivation is complex.
Conscious fighting with unconscious.
Will   Counterwill
Ego   Id
Role of repression






Freud viewed unconscious as
crowded apartment.
Thoughts and feelings want to
get out.
Conscious guards the door.
May not want to let certain
“people” out in public.
Repression keeps unwanted
thoughts out of the conscious.
Selective forgetting.
Freud and phobias





Unconscious motivation.
Dangerous thoughts just under the
surface (hate/love parent).
Strong motivation to block thought.
Keep it from public view.
Cover dangerous thoughts by obsessing
about safer thought (germs).
Suppression






All thoughts cannot be stopped.
Some will get by the door keeper into the
conscious and need to be removed.
Suppression not very successful.
Difficult not to think of something once it
registers in your conscious.
Keep a secret about a friend (or enemy).
Can lead to obsession.
Principle 3: Ego development







The EGO: Freud’s greatest idea.
Ego means “I” in Latin.
My Ego is who I am.
My concept of self.
Freud thought Ego developed out of
interplay between the ID and Superego.
ID wants pleasure.
Superego wants the idea.
EGO






Develops out the battle.
Balance ID and Superego.
Impulse versus rules.
EGO works through reality
principle.
EGO wages an endless
struggle.
Life is not easy for the EGO
Superego
Ego
ID
Defense mechanisms





EGO needs to be protected in daily
struggles.
EGO develops defense mechanisms
to buffer consciousness from anxiety.
Demands of the ID and superego.
Impulses and conflicts of conscience.
To name a few: projection, denial,
displacement, identification, humor,
rationalization, and sublimation.
Principle 4: Relations theory.





Development of mental representations of
self through your relationships with others.
Who you are as an adult depends a great
deal on your relationships with childhood
caregivers.
Your adult self based on your interactions
with the parents and other family members.
Can you trust other people?
Do you have feelings of self worth?
Relatedness






Early positive models of
self predicts
Self-reliance
Social confidence
Self-esteem
Early abuse or neglect
has negative impact on
the emerging self.
Many problems rooted
in childhood.
Resilience





Do we have to accept Freud’s
pessimistic view?
Studies on resilience show that
many people overcome early
problems.
May need assistance and
encouragement.
Role model (friend, teacher) during
difficult times.
Mentoring programs.
Humanistic Psychology






Abraham Maslow
Positive instincts to fulfill human
potential.
Strong motivating force to do
good.
Human growth potential.
Be the best that they could be.
Self-actualization.
Positive Psychology




Martin Seligman
Learned Optimism
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi
Flow
Humanistic Psychology
with empirical methods.