Psychoanalysis: what is Freud's theory and do his methods work

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Everything worth knowing about the controversial but highly influential concepts of the Austrian psychologist.

Everyone has probably heard about the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. But few people understand what it really is.

What is psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory and a method of psychiatric treatment based on it. The basic concepts of the concept and the term "psychoanalysis" itself were created by Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

Psychoanalysis founded by McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. on the belief in the existence of unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories. As a therapy, it is often used to treat depression, phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive and post-traumatic stress disorders. Psychoanalysis is closely related to Brenner G. H. What Is Psychoanalysis? Psychology Today. with psychodynamic therapy.

Also under psychoanalysis can be Psychoanalysis. Cambridge Dictionary. understand any of a number of theories about the human personality, which, based on the analysis of the unconscious in the human mind, try to find the deep causes of mental problems. The simplest way to describe it is Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. this method is known as "depth psychology".

There is no general psychoanalytic theory of treatment Safran J. D. Psychoanalysis Today. Psychology Today. …

More psychoanalysis can be Brenner G. H. What Is Psychoanalysis? Psychology Today. consider it a form of self-knowledge, a source of new spiritual experiences. If a person for years shares the most intimate with those who help him to interpret this information, then he can look at himself from a completely different side.

Finally, psychoanalysis is often viewed as a scientific and philosophical concept. Freud himself believed that psychoanalysis is neither psychology nor philosophy. He called his theory metapsychological That is, abstracted, generalizing, describing psychology itself. - Approx. the author. and believed that one day it would become a science. But this was not destined to come true.

In many ways, psychoanalysis was an attempt to reconcile the divergent trends in psychology of that time: philosophical and scientific. In the end, it turned into a complex set of ideas and perceptions seeking an alternative answer to the question "What is a person?"

How psychoanalysis appeared

The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Austria and spent most of his life in Vienna. He entered medical school and was trained as a neurologist in 1881. Soon he opened a private practice and began to treat people with psychological disorders.

Freud's attention was drawn to a case described by his colleague, the Austrian physician and physiologist Josef Breuer. Breuer's patient named Bertha Pappenheim, known in the literature as "Anna O.", suffered from physical ailments for no apparent reason. But she felt better when Breuer helped her remember the traumatic experiences she had experienced. This case will then be described more than once by Freud Z. Famous cases from practice. M. 2007. Freud and other authors.

Freud became interested in the unconscious and in the 1890s, together with Breuer, began to study the state of neurotic patients under hypnosis. Colleagues found that patients improved when they learned about the real sources of their problems through hypnosis.

Freud also noticed Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. that many patients feel the effect of such therapy even without hypnosis. Then he developed the technique of free association: the patient told the psychoanalyst everything that first comes to his mind when he hears words such as "mother", "childhood."

Freud also saw a pattern: most often the most painful experiences of his patients were associated with sex. He suggested that these anxious sensations are a consequence of repressed sexual energy (libido) manifested in various symptoms. And those, according to Freud, are psychological defense mechanisms.

Using the technique of free association, Freud began to study the meanings of dreams, reservations, forgetfulness. He considered Psychoanalysis. Psychology Today.that childhood traumas and conflicts give rise to sexual desires and aggression in adults.

The goal of Freud's psychoanalytic therapy was McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. the release of these repressed emotions and experiences, that is, an attempt to make the unconscious conscious. This cure is called "catharsis".

Freud insisted that reducing symptoms was not enough; the problem would not be solved until the cause was removed.

During sessions of psychoanalytic therapy, the patient lay down McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. on a special couch, while Freud himself sat behind, taking notes. This helped both to free themselves from social constraints. To achieve a positive result, sometimes it was necessary to carry out from two to five sessions a week for several years. Sometimes patients, according to Freud Z. Famous cases from practice. M. 2007. Freud himself, experienced memories and associations so vividly, as if they were actually returning to the past. Although, in essence, psychoanalytic therapy is just a frank conversation.

How psychoanalysis influenced the development of psychology

During the 20th century, psychologists borrowed many of Freud's ideas and observations. This is especially true of the concept of levels of consciousness, defense mechanisms and stages of psychological development.

So, before Freud, dreams were considered a phenomenon not worthy of the attention of science. However, his book "The Interpretation of Dreams" and the concept outlined in it aroused a keen interest in this area of human life, which continues to this day.

Later on, Freud's developments were used by Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica., for example, to create a theory of child psychoanalysis. The pioneers in this area were Melanie Klein and Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud.

In a slightly different form, Freud's work was continued by his student Carl Jung, the creator of analytical psychology. He parted ways with his teacher in matters of the nature of libido (the energy underlying human aspirations and actions) and the unconscious, as well as the causes of human behavior.

Freud viewed libido only as a source of sexual energy, while Jung argued that it is much broader and includes motives from sex to creativity.

Jung also did not share Freud's idea that human behavior is dictated only by past experience. He believed that future aspirations also play a significant role.

Jung's work forms the basis of most modern psychological theories and concepts. For example, he introduced Brenner G. H. What Is Psychoanalysis? Psychology Today. into circulation such commonly known today terms as "personality archetypes" and "collective unconscious".

In the middle of the last century, psychoanalysis entered into close interaction with art, the humanities and philosophy. For example, he had a great influence on German Expressionism, which, in turn, largely determined the emergence of the horror film genre. Freud's concept strongly influenced the work of such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Paolo Pasolini. Freudianism also plays a significant role in the films Basic Instinct, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Antichrist, Island of the Damned.

What are the principles of psychoanalysis?

Consciousness and unconsciousness

Freud proposed a three-layer model of the human mind:

1. Consciousness- our current thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
2. Subconscious(or preconsciousness) - everything that we remember or are able to remember.
3. Unconscious- a repository of what drives our behavior, including primitive and instinctive desires.

Freud considered the unconscious as a special area of the psyche, completely different from reality. According to him, the unconscious is cut off from moral attitudes and prejudices, it is a repository of secret desires and hidden experiences. Freud later refined, supplemented and structured this three-part model. This is how the concept of "it", "I" and "super-I" appeared.

"It", "I" and "Super-I"

The study and interpretation of free association led Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Freud to a new concept of the personality structure of three components: "it", "I" and "super-I".

• "It" (id) - these are motives and impulses associated with instinctive aspirations to continue life and destruction. The id exists only at the level of the unconscious.
• "I" (ego) - this is the part of the personality that is most closely connected with reality and helps a person perceive the world around him, learn new things and satisfy needs. It works on the conscious and preconscious levels and is formed during infancy.
• "Super-me" (superego) - these are the ideals and values of a person that he has learned from the family, the environment and the outside world. The superego acts as a censor of ego functions, indicating how to act morally. For the most part, it acts at the level of consciousness.

Within the framework of the Freudian concept, the conflicts between these components of the personality are cited by Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. to an alarm. To defend against it, a person has special mechanisms learned from a family or culture.

Defense mechanisms

Freud believed that the components of the mind are in constant conflict, because each has its own purpose. When the conflict goes beyond certain limits, the person's ego triggers defense mechanisms, among which are the following:

• Suppression - the ego drives out disturbing or dangerous thoughts from consciousness. A person may simply “forget” about the real cause of their anxiety - for example, a traumatic event in childhood.
• Negation - the ego makes a person not believe in what is happening or refuse to admit it. So, parents who have lost a child often do not want to believe in the reality of what happened.
• Projection - the ego attributes the thoughts and feelings of a person to someone else. For example, it transfers latent fantasies and socially unacceptable desires to other people.
• Bias - a person redirects his reaction and changes the object that causes tension to another, safer one. The simplest example is an employee who is yelled at by the boss, takes out his anger on a weaker one - a subordinate, a child or a dog.
• Regression - a person rolls back in development in response to negative emotions. For example, a shocked adult behaves like a child.
• Sublimation - like displacement, replaces the unconscious aspirations of a person with work or hobbies. The most famous example is the redirection of sexual energy to creative pursuits.

When these mechanisms interfere with the normal life of a person in society, they, according to psychoanalysis, become pathological.

Interpretation

Psychoanalysis avoids Psychoanalysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica. assessment, its essence is in explanation, and not in condemnation or approval. The psychoanalyst is not a mentor, he is a blank screen. This is necessary so that the client can work on his unconscious without someone else's interference.

The analyst can use various McLeod S. Psychoanalysis tools to obtain data on latent experiences and interpret them. Simply Psychology.:

• Rorschach test ("Ink stains"). By themselves, the blots on the images are abstract and mean nothing. It is important what each individual person sees in them, having projected his unconscious.
• "Freudian slips" (parapraxes). In psychoanalysis, it is believed that our hidden unconscious desires appear in slips. For example, a mistake in the name of a sexual partner gives out the real object of the person's fantasies.
• Free association of ideas … Freud used this method to analyze the first (unconscious) human reaction to words.
• Dream analysis … Freud recognized this method as very important, as he believed that consciousness was less alert in sleep and let suppressed experiences “outward”. Dreams, according to Freudianism, have explicit (what we remember or think) and hidden (what it really says about) meanings.

After receiving the data, the client and the analyst jointly formulate hypotheses about the symbols and the conflicts and experiences hidden behind them. Usually, the therapist's task is to point out to the patient the defense mechanisms in his mind and the reasons for which they have arisen.

Psychosexual development

Freud suggested that the development of the child is associated with a change in the sources of pleasure. Based on this, he identified five stages of psychosexual development.

1. Oral: baby seeks mouth pleasure (e.g. sucking).
2. Anal: the child enjoys the anus (for example, enduring need or emptying).
3. Phallic: the child gets pleasure from the penis or clitoris (for example, during masturbation).
4. Latent (latent): the child's sexual motivation for pleasure is poorly expressed or completely absent.
5. Genital: development is coming to a logical conclusion; boys and girls enjoy the penis or vagina (for example, sex).

According to Freud, to become a psychologically healthy person with fully formed ego and superego, one must go through all these stages. Otherwise, you can "get stuck" on one of them, and this will lead to emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood.

Complexes

Childhood problems, which, according to Freud, became the causes of difficulties in adult life, the Austrian psychologist structured in the concept of complexes. The most famous among those described by Freud was the Oedipus complex, when a son unconsciously wants to take the place of his father. The analogue of the Oedipus complex in girls is the Electra complex.

What areas of psychoanalysis exist today

There are significant differences between Freud's theories and modern psychoanalysis. Safran J. D. Psychoanalysis Today. Psychology Today. … For example, psychology today does not place such a strong emphasis on sex and related behavior. But there is still a lot of emphasis on early childhood experiences.

In the second half of the 20th century, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan urged to return to the concept of psychoanalysis, proposing a new reading of it. He took a different look at the unconscious and, unlike the founder of psychoanalysis, paid more attention to language.

Lacan came to the conclusion that it is the real, and not the unconscious, that must be recognized as the main level of the human mind. Anxiety, according to Lacan, arises from the fact that a person cannot control the surrounding reality.

Since psychoanalysis has had a huge impact on popular culture, some of the leading representatives of neo-Freudianism (Jacques Lacan, Slavoy Zizek) conduct psychoanalytic research on her works. For example, one of ižek's books is called “What You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock)”.

Another example of a neo-Freudian concept is Brenner G. H. What Is Psychoanalysis? Psychology Today. lead interpersonal psychoanalysis. It is associated with the names of researchers such as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. They give a special place in the formation of personality to the environment of the child: parents and other people, especially peers.

Another modern trend in Freudian theory is the neuropsychoanalysis Psychoanalysis. Psychology Today. … He seeks to combine the psychoanalytic concept with the advances made by neuroscientists in the study of the human brain. Thus, researchers are trying to find the foundations of emotions, fantasies and the unconscious.

Why psychoanalysis is criticized

Initially, Freud's development was received with hostility, and his concept was accompanied by scandalous fame. In particular, Grünbaum A. spoke against it. One Hundred Years of Psychoanalysis: Results and Prospects. Independent Psychiatric Journal. Karl Jaspers, Arthur Kronfeld, Karl Popper and Kurt Schneider.

Although today the concept of psychoanalysis has many supporters, it is subject to serious criticism. Opponents of psychoanalysis doubt its effectiveness, and some researchers even declare Tallis R. C. Burying Freud. The Lancet. Freudian concept by pseudoscience.

The focus of psychoanalysis on sexual motives has become an acute topic of criticism. For example, a number of researchers consider Krepelin E. Introduction to a psychiatric clinic. M. 2004. that "rough digging into the sexual life" of patients can lead to adverse consequences for the psyche.

The concept of Freud's Oedipus complex is also disputed.

There are also doubts about the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy. In 1994, a group of German scientists conducted a study of 897 works on psychoanalysis. The researchers concluded that long-term psychoanalyst visits are ineffective for the patient and that psychoanalytic therapy increases the risk of worsening the patient's condition. Only a few mild disorders, according to the article, partially recede after psychoanalysis sessions. At the same time, behavioral therapy was twice as effective.

It is also noted that the hypotheses and positions of psychoanalysis are difficult to test empirically, since this approach pays too little attention to the conscious in human behavior.

Psychoanalytic theory is also criticized for its roots in Freud's sexist views, inapplicability in cultures other than Western, and excessive passion for reducing everything to pathologies.

Opponents also criticize the methods of psychoanalysis. For example, psychologist Berres Frederick Skinner considered McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. the inkblot method is subjective and unscientific.

In addition, Freud himself is reproached by AM Rutkevich. How Freud adjusted the facts to fit his theory. Psychoanalysis. Origins and first stages of development: Course of lectures. M. 1997. in the falsification of facts. In 1972, Canadian psychiatrist and medical historian Henry Ellenberger found that "Anna O." Did not happen. That is, the very first case of healing with the help of psychoanalysis actually turned out to be a fake. Subsequent research established Rutkevich A. M. How Freud fitted the facts to fit his theory. Psychoanalysis. Origins and first stages of development: Course of lectures. M. 1997. that Breuer stuffed the patient with morphine and chloral hydrate, making her eventually a drug addict. Because of this, for another three years, she was retreating from the consequences of "catharsis".

Today it is known that "Anna O." suffered Borsch-Jakobsen M. Souvenirs d'Anna O. Une mystification, centenaire. Paris. 1995. from dental disease. Freud's own patient, "Cecilia M.", had the same ailment. (Anna von Lieben), whom he persistently diagnosed with hysterical neurosis. It is also worth mentioning here the illustrative case of "Dora" (Ida Bauer). Freud believed that her pains were associated with nervous experiences, although in fact Ida was tormented by rectal cancer.

There are also subjective factors McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology., because of which it is difficult to determine whether psychoanalytic therapy is effective or not.

• It takes a lot of time, money and motivation and does not guarantee a quick "recovery".
• During the sessions, a person can reveal repressed painful memories, which will cause him even more suffering.
• Psychoanalysis is not suitable for all people and not for all ailments.

However, there is Safran J. D. Psychoanalysis Today. Psychology Today. and the opposite point of view. For example, the Canadian-American psychologist Jeremy Safran believes that some psychoanalytic methods in conjunction with modern research have proven to be effective. And the American Psychological Association includes psychoanalysis among its recognized practices and areas of training.

What are the alternatives to psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysts, unlike psychologists, are not guided by the model of the natural sciences in assessing human behavior. In psychoanalysis, a person is not an object, but a subject of study, that is, he studies himself. Therefore, according to the supporters of the psychoanalytic theory, already accumulated knowledge is not applicable to the study of each individual case.

In fact, psychotherapy has become an alternative to psychoanalysis. It relies on evidence-based methods and is less specific to each individual case. And if the therapist can use several types of treatment, then the psychoanalyst usually adheres only to psychoanalysis.

Methods of alternative therapy to psychoanalysis (cognitive, cognitive-behavioral, problematic) are focused by McLeod S. Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. on the reduction of negative effects. Psychoanalysis, on the other hand, seeks to help a person completely overcome the destructive influence of the unconscious, having discovered the original source of the problem.

Psychoanalysis had a huge impact on psychology and psychiatry, but you need to understand that it was a product of its time. Freud's concept was sorely lacking in evidence of effectiveness - the students of the Austrian psychologist had to look for them. And although Freudianism is actively criticized, it was he who served as the foundation for evidence-based psychology, which is so popular now.