What is Psychoanalytic Theory?
Psychoanalytic theory is a framework for understanding the impact of the unconscious on one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It describes both normal and abnormal human experience and emphasizes the lasting impact of early childhood events on adult personality and psychological development.
Psychoanalytic theory was founded by the Austrian physician and neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). For Freud, most of what motivates individuals lies outside of their immediate awareness.
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| Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian physician and neurologist |
Psychoanalytic theory is often confused with psychoanalysis. While the former is a theoretical framework, the latter is the clinical application of such theory, a tool that explores the unconscious mind in order to relieve painful emotional symptoms and increase self-awareness.
In this post, we will talk about the main ideas of psychoanalytic theory according to its founder, Sigmund Freud.
The surface details of dreams (what we remember) are referred to as the manifest content, while their unconscious hidden meaning is their latent content. According to Freud, the latent content of dreams can be discovered only through the process of interpretation.
In addition to dreams, Freud described other ways in which the unconscious is revealed in everyday life. One example is what he called a parapraxis, better known today as a "Freudian slip" or "slip of the tongue". A parapraxis is an unconscious wish accidentally revealed in an individual’s speech or writing. A man who calls his wife “mom”, for instance, may unconsciously reveal suppressed thoughts or feelings about either woman. Freud also argued that jokes can be expressions of unconscious sexual or aggressive feelings disguised as humor.
Freud’s explanations about dreams and the unconscious led him to develop a more comprehensive theory of the mind. His topographical model identified conscious, unconscious, and preconscious parts of the mind. The unconscious contains everything that is outside of our immediate awareness, while the conscious contains those parts which we are immediately aware of. The preconscious, on the other hand, contains information that is not in immediate awareness but is easily retrievable.
The Structure of the Mind
At the heart of Freud’s ideas was his seminal work entitled The Interpretation of Dreams (1899). In it, he argued that every human being has core sexual and aggressive wishes that the conscious mind finds unacceptable and thus represses. Such repressed wishes are then symbolically expressed in dreams. As such, for Freud, dreams are unconscious wish fulfillments.The surface details of dreams (what we remember) are referred to as the manifest content, while their unconscious hidden meaning is their latent content. According to Freud, the latent content of dreams can be discovered only through the process of interpretation.
In addition to dreams, Freud described other ways in which the unconscious is revealed in everyday life. One example is what he called a parapraxis, better known today as a "Freudian slip" or "slip of the tongue". A parapraxis is an unconscious wish accidentally revealed in an individual’s speech or writing. A man who calls his wife “mom”, for instance, may unconsciously reveal suppressed thoughts or feelings about either woman. Freud also argued that jokes can be expressions of unconscious sexual or aggressive feelings disguised as humor.
Freud’s explanations about dreams and the unconscious led him to develop a more comprehensive theory of the mind. His topographical model identified conscious, unconscious, and preconscious parts of the mind. The unconscious contains everything that is outside of our immediate awareness, while the conscious contains those parts which we are immediately aware of. The preconscious, on the other hand, contains information that is not in immediate awareness but is easily retrievable.
To describe his model, Freud used the analogy of an iceberg. Just as only a small tip of a much larger iceberg is visible above water, so only a small fraction of the mind is conscious. Most of the mind lies below the level of awareness in the unconscious.
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| Just as only a small part of a much larger iceberg is visible above water, so only a small fraction of the mind is conscious |
Complementing the topographical model, Freud also proposed a structural model of the mind that includes three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is unconscious, active at birth, and encompasses all of the instinctual and bodily wishes. It operates according to the pleasure principle, which has as its sole goal the immediate gratification of all urges.
The ego, on the other hand, operates mostly out of the reality principle, which considers factors in reality and social norms that prohibit instinctual urges from being immediately gratified. The ego helps regulate the frustration from ungratified id drives.
Lastly, the superego is the moral part of the mind that represents an individual’s internalized sense of parental and societal values.
Freud compared the conflict between the id and the ego to that between an unruly horse and its rider. The rider (ego)has to direct the unbridled energy of the horse (id) in a way that is neither too permitting nor too restrictive.
Some examples of defense mechanisms are projection, displacement, reaction formation, and sublimation. Projection happens when an individual’s own unacceptable impulses are attributed to another person. A boy who, before dinner, asks his mother if she wants a cookie projects his own desire onto her because he may feel ashamed for wanting something that has been prohibited in the past.
Displacement is the transferring of unacceptable thoughts or feelings one might have toward an object onto a more acceptable target object. For example, a man who is mad at his wife displaces his angry feelings when he comes home and kicks their dog.
Reaction formation involves the blocking of an unacceptable impulse by acting in an exaggerated and opposite way. For instance, a woman whose friend just had a baby may shower the latter with gifts and praises in order to conceal her own feelings of jealousy at not having her own baby.
Lastly, sublimation involves the redirection of unacceptable impulses into constructive, healthier endeavors. It is considered one of the more mature defense mechanisms. A successful surgeon sublimates unconscious aggressive impulses through the helpful act of surgery.
Defense mechanisms are a natural part of living. They help us manage overwhelming thoughts and feelings. However, rigid and pervasive adherence to particular defense mechanisms may become maladaptive, often causing more psychological and emotional harm than resolving them.
In the oral stage, the pleasure area is the mouth, and actions such as sucking, teething, and biting are prominent. During the anal stage, children must reconcile the pleasures of retaining and eliminating feces and urine with the socially imposed responsibility of toilet training.
During the phallic stage, bodily pleasures are obtained from self-stimulation of the genitals. It is during this stage that the challenge of the Oedipal complex is encountered. Fond of antiquity and the classics, Freud named this complex after the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, a tragedy in which the character Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Freud argued that in this complex, children feel repressed sexual attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex and aggressive hatred toward the parent of the same sex.
In the latency stage, libidinal instincts are suppressed, only to reemerge at the start of puberty and the genital stage. Lastly, in the genital stage, the focus is on genital pleasures with another person, leading toward the development of adult sexuality.
Freud compared the conflict between the id and the ego to that between an unruly horse and its rider. The rider (ego)has to direct the unbridled energy of the horse (id) in a way that is neither too permitting nor too restrictive.
Defense Mechanisms
When the unconscious and unacceptable drives of the id surface in conscious awareness, a sense of danger and anxiety develops in an individual. The ego then uses defense mechanisms to defend itself against this anxiety. In a compromise formation, the ego attempts to express these id impulses in socially appropriate ways while accounting for the moral and societal values of the superego. In other words, there is a compromise between the original wish and the anxiety against it.Some examples of defense mechanisms are projection, displacement, reaction formation, and sublimation. Projection happens when an individual’s own unacceptable impulses are attributed to another person. A boy who, before dinner, asks his mother if she wants a cookie projects his own desire onto her because he may feel ashamed for wanting something that has been prohibited in the past.
Displacement is the transferring of unacceptable thoughts or feelings one might have toward an object onto a more acceptable target object. For example, a man who is mad at his wife displaces his angry feelings when he comes home and kicks their dog.
Reaction formation involves the blocking of an unacceptable impulse by acting in an exaggerated and opposite way. For instance, a woman whose friend just had a baby may shower the latter with gifts and praises in order to conceal her own feelings of jealousy at not having her own baby.
Lastly, sublimation involves the redirection of unacceptable impulses into constructive, healthier endeavors. It is considered one of the more mature defense mechanisms. A successful surgeon sublimates unconscious aggressive impulses through the helpful act of surgery.
Defense mechanisms are a natural part of living. They help us manage overwhelming thoughts and feelings. However, rigid and pervasive adherence to particular defense mechanisms may become maladaptive, often causing more psychological and emotional harm than resolving them.
The Stages of Psychosexual Development
Psychoanalytic theory also includes views on human development and personality. According to Freud’s theory, there are five stages of psychosexual development in children: the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages. At each stage, energies called libido are focused on various parts of the body called erogenous zones. During each stage, a child must negotiate fulfilling those pleasures in the context of growing social rules and norms.In the oral stage, the pleasure area is the mouth, and actions such as sucking, teething, and biting are prominent. During the anal stage, children must reconcile the pleasures of retaining and eliminating feces and urine with the socially imposed responsibility of toilet training.
During the phallic stage, bodily pleasures are obtained from self-stimulation of the genitals. It is during this stage that the challenge of the Oedipal complex is encountered. Fond of antiquity and the classics, Freud named this complex after the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, a tragedy in which the character Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Freud argued that in this complex, children feel repressed sexual attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex and aggressive hatred toward the parent of the same sex.
In the latency stage, libidinal instincts are suppressed, only to reemerge at the start of puberty and the genital stage. Lastly, in the genital stage, the focus is on genital pleasures with another person, leading toward the development of adult sexuality.
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| In the genital stage, the focus is on genital pleasures with another person |
When an individual has difficulty resolving the conflicts of a particular stage, he may become fixated, which later affects his adult personality. It is important to note, however, that these stages are not distinct and precise developmental events. Rather, they are theoretical conceptualizations of some of the important challenges of psychological maturation.
They help us understand why people behave in certain ways. Someone who is orally fixated, for example, may have been overly indulged during the oral phase of his development and later, as an adult, develop an oral symptom such as excessive drinking or cigarette smoking. An adult described as anal, on the other hand, may be excessively concerned with orderliness, timeliness, and control, much as a toddler in the anal phase must negotiate the pleasures and challenges of bowel control.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic theory in general—not merely Freud’s—also includes ideas of cure and personal growth. The clinical application of psychoanalytic theory to issues of psychopathology, neurosis, psychosis, and dysfunctional patterns of living is referred to as psychoanalysis.Psychoanalysis is an intense form of psychological treatment. It involves four to five sessions per week with a trained psychoanalyst and lasts several years. Patients lie on a couch and are asked to speak as freely as they can about whatever comes to their minds, a process called free association.
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| Psychoanalysis involves four to five sessions per week with a trained psychoanalyst and lasts several years |
As with dream interpretation, psychoanalytic theory holds that free associations, no matter how irrelevant, obscure, or trivial they may seem, exhibit an internal logic that, through the process of interpretation, reveals conflicts of the unconscious that can be worked through in order to bring about relief.
During psychoanalysis, the process of transference also develops. That is when a patient unconsciously transfers onto the psychoanalyst the thoughts, feelings, and conflicts they have toward early caregivers. Working through the patient’s transferred conflict in his unique interpersonal relationship with the psychoanalyst is a key component of the psychoanalytic theory of cure.
As a prolific theorist, writer, and practitioner, Freud had many followers, some of whom developed their own psychoanalytic theories. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), for example, was the apparent heir to the psychoanalytic movement until theoretical differences ended his professional relationship with Freud. Jung emphasized religion, archetypes, and what he called the collective unconscious—a culturally shared set of unconscious symbols.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), on the other hand, emphasized the individual striving for superiority, while Karen Horney (1885-1952) introduced feminist views into the theory of psychological development.
During psychoanalysis, the process of transference also develops. That is when a patient unconsciously transfers onto the psychoanalyst the thoughts, feelings, and conflicts they have toward early caregivers. Working through the patient’s transferred conflict in his unique interpersonal relationship with the psychoanalyst is a key component of the psychoanalytic theory of cure.
As a prolific theorist, writer, and practitioner, Freud had many followers, some of whom developed their own psychoanalytic theories. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), for example, was the apparent heir to the psychoanalytic movement until theoretical differences ended his professional relationship with Freud. Jung emphasized religion, archetypes, and what he called the collective unconscious—a culturally shared set of unconscious symbols.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), on the other hand, emphasized the individual striving for superiority, while Karen Horney (1885-1952) introduced feminist views into the theory of psychological development.
