Personality Theories

Freud: first systematic theory of personality

Personality: study of individuals, Definition: The underlying causes within the person of
individual behaviour and experience
 How can personality be descr,bed?
 How can we understand personality dynamics?
 What can be said about personality development?
Two different approaches for description of personality:
 1. Nomothetic approach:study of people as a total population, large groups in order to
generalise behaviour to the population, quantitative research (experiments): gives us trait or
factor scores. Tries to answer “what”
aim: to make comparison, correlation between groups of indivduals in terms of some certain
characteristics (depression, intelligence, gender,etc) meta-analyses
ex:big five (easier to use)

 2. Idiographic approach: study of the individual, aims to understand one person as a whole,
qualitative methods (case study, psychobiography), no generalization of the findings
Both approaches contribute something to personality psychology. Personality description
(nomothetic) vs. personality dynamics and development(idiographic)
Personality dynamics are the mechanisms by which personality is expressed, focusing on
motivations that direct behavior
 Freud: Motivational force is sexual drives
 Rogers: Striving for achieving self, actualizing motivation
METHODS OF STUDYING PERSONALITY
1- To study individuals:
case study: investigate a single individual (by collecting background information or by making
observation).
 It provides an in-depth insight into an individual which can be used toevaluate a theory.
 We obtain information that may be applied to other people.
 By observing only one person, we can develop theories, we can generatenew ideas.
Psychobiography: a field within the realms of psychology and biography that analyses the lives
of historically significant individuals through psychological theory
Shortcomings: Unbiased observations may be difficult. Due to one-by-one interaction, you
may lose your objectivity.
 Generalizability: We cannot generalize our results on others.
Advantages:
 Gives a detailed information about a single individual or a group.
 Ecological Validity: Are the findings consistent with real life?
 They provide rich data, capturing the complexity of real-life situations. This means they
often have high ecological validity and allow for real-world applications.
 It gives suggestions for theory development. Ex: In psychoanalytic theories (Freud, Jung,
Adler), they examined their patients, themselves, or their family members
2- Correlational Methods: r= Correlational coefficient
Any 2 variables are said to be correlated if variations in one correspond to some degree with
variations in the other. If 2 variables change together or not, it is correlational model.
Direction may be positive or negative.
Size: Represented by numbers. (Much personality research is correlational)
Shortcomings: no cause-effect, results can find no inferences, possibility of a confounding
factor
Advantages: conducted in a shorter time and cheaper, compared to experimental studies.
 Ex: There are 100 people applying for a job in your firm, you will recruit 10. Intelligence &
performance -> You choose those with a higher IQ.
 It is possible to know which factor is precursor or consequence: Smoking –> Cancer

3- Experimental method: cause and effect relationship is tested, IV->DV

Advantages: Testing cause-effect relationship is very important.
Shortcomings: We have to manipulate IV. Sometimes it is not possible (ex; gender).
 Ethical issues are important. (Ex: Children, even obtained permission from parents)
 Experimental studies are conducted in labs. It may not hold true in real life. They have a
lower ecological validity.

PERSONALITY AND CULTURE:

 Individualistic cultures -> Northern Europe and the United States. Individual needs and
achievements are important.
 Individuals see themselves as independent and unique. (concept of self-esteem, personal
goals, exaggerated selfishness)
 Collectivist cultures -> Many countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
 Desire to belong to a larger community such as family, tribe, nation. (sense of belonging,
excessive dependency)
 Collaboration is more valued than competition. Group success is more important than
individual achievements
 Sigmund Freud: (& Psychoanalysis)
 First personality theorist.
 Austrian neurologist.
 significant impact on the mindset of the 20th century, his influence continues today.
 “I think I did it unconsciously”, “What lies beneath this behaviour?”, “In my dream, my teeth
were falling out, what might this symbolize, I wonder?”
 He has a significant impact even on the works of people in the fields of cinema, literature,
philosophy, anthropology, and religion.
 Influenced (from J. Martin Charcot) by the technique of hypnosis: a treatment method for
patients with hysteria (Charcot highlighted that hysteria is a mental disorder)
Hysteria -> a psychological disorder characterized by various physical symptoms.
 It was commonly observed in women.
 Symptoms: blindness, deafness, inability to walk, inability to use a limb, fainting without a
physiological cause
When Freud returned to Vienna, he began working with Joseph Breuer, and the fundamentals
of psychoanalytic therapy have been set. (they published ̈Studies on Hysteria ̈)
 Case Anna O. – Her left arm was paralyzed, she had delusions, and despite her native
language being German, she spoke in English.
 Breuer – The Talking Cure and Chimney Sweeping: terms used for verbal therapy.
 He taught Freud about catharsis (the process of removing hysterical symptoms through
“talking them out”):
 intense re-emergence of suppressed original emotions stemming from traumatic
experiences
Freud later discontinued the use of hypnosis because it was not universally applicable and its
effects on symptom reduction were not enduring. Then Freud returned to free association:
encouraging patients to freely express their thoughts, speak about their situations, uncover
hidden reasons, and then the beginning of the disappearance of symptoms
In free associations, often, disturbing experiences from childhood years come to light.
 “Sexual experiences during childhood are responsible for the emergence of hysteria
symptoms in adulthood.” Deemed absurd, criticized, the academic psychologists of the time
resisted psychoanalysis. Childhood sexuality was not accepted, and he was also deemed as
sexist. However, despite more than 100 years having passed, his influence persists.
THE FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OFFREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS:
1- Basic Instincts:
 Sexual and aggressive instincts
 Everything about humans is a reflection of our unconscious conflicts related to these two
basic instincts.
 sexual impulse is not limited to penis or vagina sexuality alone.
 Aggressive impulse also does not solely involve physical violence or warfare.
 Later, Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct)
2- Unconscious motivation:
 An individual represses unacceptable impulses related to sexuality and aggression that
cause anxiety into the unconscious.
 However, it is these unconscious forces that determine the individual's behaviors, thoughts,
emotions, and personality.
3- Psychic Determinism:
 No behaviour or event occurs by coincidence or chance.
 Everything we do, say, think, and feel is a product of our mind and has meaning.
 The experiences in the early stages of life determine who we will be in adulthood, why we
do, say, think certain things, and whether we will have a psychopathology
A leads to B. (AB)
4- Energy Model
 Human beings are considered as a psychic energy system that provides strength to their
psychological functions at a high or low level.
 The principle of conservation of energy
 Energy does not disappear; it only changes its form.
 Any energy (desire, impulse, etc.) repressed into the unconscious undergoes a
transformation and sometimes re-emerges in a pathological structure.
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL MODEL OF MIND: Conscious-Preconscious-Unconscious
Unconscious:
 It includes all impulses and instincts that are unconscious and repressed, yet often
influence, motivate, and direct many of our expressions, emotions, and actions.
 While we may be aware of many of our behaviors, we are often unaware of the underlying
mental processes
 Ex, you may find someone attractive, but not know why you are drawn to them.
 If we are not aware, how do we recognize the existence of the unconscious if it operates
beyond our conscious reach? How does the unconscious manifest itself?
 Freud: Its existence can be indirectly demonstrated.
 The unconscious plays a role in dreams, slips of the tongue, jokes, certain forgettings
called as “repression”, and psychopathological symptoms.
 The unconscious materials that emerge into consciousness through these channels have
been altered, subjected to censorship—they do not emerge as they are but rather in a way
that is not anxiety-provoking and not too threatening
Preconscious
 It contains elements that are not at the level of consciousness but can easily or with some
effort be brought into consciousness. Ex: Our memories, stored information
Conscious
 Mental elements that are currently conscious. They are relatively less emphasized in
psychoanalysis.
 The only mental level that is readily available and fully accessible.
 They fade from our consciousness as we acquire new perceptions and thoughts
THE STRUCTURAL MODEL OF THE MIND:
For nearly 20 years, Freud had only the topographical model of the mind. In the 1920s, he
introduced the three-part structural model. He developed it not to replace the topographical
model but to better understand the structure and functioning of the mind.
 3 interacting systems: Id --- Ego--- Superego (Hypothetical constructs, they have no
physical spaces in the mind.) healthy individual: id and superego are integrated into a smooth
functioning ego, and operate in harmony, with a minimum of conflict
The Id: entirely unconscious psychic region that forms the core of our personality.
 The “Primitive Ego”: a primitive structure. All innate impulses and desires exist here.
 It transforms biological needs into psychological tensions (desires).
 It has no contact with reality; it tries to alleviate tension through the gratification of basic
impulses and desires.
 Operating according to the Pleasure Principle - it is independent of reality and seeks
immediate satisfaction of its desires.
Ex: The newborn's instinct to suck on the breast -> finger-sucking ( which does not serve a crucial
survival function in reality, but the id strives to satisfy the sucking drive independently of reality).
 In addition to being detached from reality and chasing pleasure, it can include contradictory
desires simultaneously. Ex., a woman consciously loving her mother very much may also have
an unconscious desire to eliminate her. id does not involve moral or value-based judgments,
sole purpose is to provide pleasure immediately and now. It does not care about what is right,
moral, or fair.
 It operates based on "primary processes" (basic drives) because it blindly seeks to satisfy
the pleasure principle.
The Ego: To satisfy the impulses of id, there needs to be a connection with the real world
(secondary processes), and the ego ensures this. only region of mind in contact with reality.
 After the 6th month, it develops by drawing energy from the id and becomes the
fundamental structure that facilitates an individual's communication with the external world.
 It operates according to the reality principle.
 The ego forms the decision-making, executive part of the personality. However, since it is
situated at the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels, it is capable of making
decisions at all three levels.
 A woman’s ego1 may consciously motivate her to choose neat clothes because she feels
comfortable when well dressed. She may be only dimly (preconsciously2) aware of previous
experiences of being rewarded for choosing nice clothes. She may be unconsciously3
motivated to be excessively neat and orderly due to early childhood experiences of toilet
training. Her decision to wear neat clothes can take place all three levels
 When making decisions, the ego attempts to balance the unrealistic desires of both id and
superego. It tries this by considering the realities of the external world and this task creates
"anxiety" in it. To protect itself against this anxiety, it develops defense mechanisms
 In a psychologically mature individual, the control is in the ego. However, since it draws its
energy from the id, and id is a powerful structure, the ego can sometimes lose control.
 Freud used the analogy of a person on horseback for the relationship between the id and
ego: “The rider checks and inhibits the greater strength of the horse, as a result, the fate of
that person is left to the mercy of the horse.”
 The ego must check and inhibit the id impulses, but it is constantly at the mercy of the
stronger but more poorly organized the id.
 Despite this dependence on id, the ego sometimes comes close to gain control during the
life of a healthy individual

The Superego: Children, at the age of 5-6, learn to receive rewards or praise from their
families and avoid punishment; thus, learning what to do and what not to do. -> This lays the
foundations for the superego.
 The superego is formed from a part of the ego and becomes independent of it. Unlike the
ego, it has no connection to reality and holds unrealistic expectations of "perfection."
 forms the ideal&moral components of personality - operates according to moral principles
 A well-developed superego acts to control sexual and aggressive impulses through the
process of “repression” by compelling the ego to do so.
 It constantly monitors the ego, judging the appropriateness of its actions and intentions. If
the ego deviates from the moral standards of the superego or intends to do so, it causes
feelings of guilt and shame. If the ego cannot reach the perfectionist standards of the
superego, it creates a sense of inferiority.
 The superego does not consider the happiness or comfort of the ego; it has only its own
moral and perfectionist standards.
 It does not take into consideration the difficulties or impossibilities faced by ego in carrying
out its orders.
DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY:
Sex (Eros, life)
 The aim of the sexual drive: Pleasure (it reduces sexual tension)
 This pleasure is not limited to genital satisfaction. The entire body is invested with
libido. The most important erogenous zones are the genitals, mouth, and anus.
 This aim cannot be changed, but the path by which the aim is reached can be varied, or
this aim can be temporarily or permanently inhibited. Ex: For a baby, the breast is a
sexual object, and thumb-sucking can serve as a substitute for it.
 Sex can take many forms – narcissism, love, sadism, masochism (the latter two
possesses high levels of aggressive drive.)
Aggression (Thanatos, death)
 During WWI, he witnessed so much violence around him, and his beloved daughter Sophie
died.
 Freud asserted that aggression is as powerful an instinct as sexuality.
 The aim of the destructive instinct is to return the organism to an inorganic state (lifeless)
– self-destruction, death.
 Life instincts (eros) oppose death instincts to protect the organism and redirect their
energies towards the external world, other people. They can take on different forms -> Ex:
teasing, gossip, mockery, humiliation, some jokes, deriving pleasure from others' suffering. It
is a universal instinct present in everyone. The emergence of so much warfare, cruelty, and
religious persecution is attributed to this instinct
 Eros and Thanatos are intertwined and work together.
 Murder -> aggression, death – yet it involves pleasure.
 Eating -> pleasure, satisfaction – yet biting, chewing involve aggressive behaviours
DEFENSE MECHANISMS:
They protect the individual from excessive anxiety;
 Prevent the perception of unacceptable drives at the consciousness level,
 and support the ego striving to be satisfied at appropriate times and places.
 We all use these mechanisms, they’re important for protecting ourselves, reducing anxiety,
resolving conflicts. When excessively used, they begin to disrupt the individual's functioning.
Basic features:
1.They’re unconscious processes; individual isn’t aware that they’re using defense mechanism
2.They can be deceptive; they distort the person's perception of reality to reduce anxiety.
3.They’re rarely used alone;2 or more mechanisms employed simultaneously by the individual
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Repression: To keep anxious thoughts & emotions out of consciousness. the most
fundamental defence mechanism. Forms basis for other defence mechanisms. most direct way
of avoiding anxiety.
Denial: ego refuses to confront, acknowledge, and perceive an unpleasant reality that would
cause anxiety (kanser olduğunu ya da birinin öldüğünü inkar etmek) the more this is
employed the more disconnected to reality, becomes difficult to function in real life
Projection: Projecting one's own unacceptable feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and impulses
onto others or objects.• Ex; Someone who frequently thinks that others can harm them at any
moment and trusts no one -> projecting his aggressive impulses onto others.• Ex; Someone
who blames their spouse of infidelity, constantly seeking evidence for it, is projecting his own
suppressed sexual impulses onto his partner. A mechanism that plays a significant role in
paranoid situations.
Displacement: Redirecting unacceptable, anxiety-inducing impulses onto a more acceptable
or less anxiety-provoking object or person so that the original impulse is concealed. • Ex: A
woman who is angry at her roommate may displace her anger onto her employees or her pet
cat. She remains friendly with her. • Ex; A child displaying aggressive behavior towards
animals - revealing the aggressive impulses he feels towards his parents but cannot express.
Ex: A compulsive urge to masturbate may be replaced by compulsive hand washing.
An important mechanism in phobias.• Ex; A child afraid of horses. During the phallic stage, he
had a fear that the father might castrate him. He displaces this fear onto horses.
Rationalization: Finding and believing in rational explanations to justify behaviors or
emotions that the self refuses to accept.– distorting the truth by cloaking it in logic.
 Ex: Aggressive behaving police officers -> "What can we do, we are just following
orders"(finding a way to cope with guilt arising from emergence of aggressive impulses) Ex: A
man cheating on his spouse -> "I did it because my spouse lost attractiveness“ Ex: Someone
who hasn’t been in a relationship for a long time -> "I enjoy being alone"
Reaction Formation: Expressing the opposite of an unacceptable impulse, thought, or
behaviour.
 It occurs in two processes:
1. first, the unacceptable impulse, emotion, or thought is suppressed,
2. then its complete opposite is expressed at the conscious level.
 The excess, exaggeration, and rigidity of the expressed emotion, thought, or behaviour are
noteworthy. Ex: a person who consistently attacks and insults homosexuals, wishing for
them not to exist in society, and using offensive language. -> Concealing unconscious
homosexual impulses of which he may not even be aware.
 Ex: someone who excessively talks in an exaggerated manner about how much they idolize
her mother, emphasizing how wonderful she is in every situation and everywhere. ->
expressing aggressive impulses towards their mother by completely reversing them
Regression: Turning to immature, childlike behaviours from an earlier time in response to
situations that cause anxiety. alleviate anxiety by returning to a previous safe and pleasant
period in life.• Ex: A child with a new sibling starting to wet the bed again.• Ex: Childish
speech, childish expressions of anger, sulking, pouting, inattentive and indifferent behaviours
Sublimation: Diverting primitive impulses from their original aims, to satisfy them with
socially accepted and approved behaviours. Repression of the genital aim of Eros by
substituting a cultural or social aim. A healthy and constructive defence mechanism - energy
discharge is partially possible and occurs in a positive manner for society.• Ex; subliming
aggressive impulses -> surgeon, boxer, soldier, police officer.• Ex: subliming sexual impulses -
> an artist creating nude paintings, a writer(e.g., Fifty Shades of Grey)
Undoing: Actions taken to alleviate the tension following the emergence of an irresistible,
anxiety-inducing impulse, thought, or emotion. Ex: In the day, a man who feels sexual
impulses towards another woman buys flowers for his wife on his way home. Ex: In OCD,
some religious obsessions may occur (blasphemes against God, saying 'Oh God, please forgive
me,' performing ablution, praying). This cycle continues constantly beyond one's control.
Important for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT-FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
Stages: oral – anal – phallic – latency – genital
Freud: The fundamental formation of personality takes place during the period up to the age
of 5. Early childhood experiences are crucial.
 Everyone is born with a certain amount of libido. This energy develops throughout a series
of psychosexual stages involved in one's biological processes.
 These stages emerge in a biologically predetermined sequence, independent of the
individual's culture and characteristic traits.
 Freud: Children have a sexual life, but it is not as productive as adult sexuality; it is
autoerotic. his view has been heavily criticized, but don't we observe this in practice?
Each stage (except the latency period) is represented by an erogenous zone sensitive to
sexual stimulation.
 Erogenous zone: The body part or organ that the libido focuses on during that stage, which
is overly sensitive to sexual arousal. Pleasure is sought and experienced through this zone.
 Inadequate or excessive pleasure experiences during a stage result in fixation.
 Parental attitudes are crucial. When they lead to either experiencing too much pleasure or
being prevented from it, they can prevent the healthy development of personality.

ORAL STAGE: (birth to 18 months) Erogenous zone: Mouth Difficult task: Weaning
 It divides into two within itself:
 Oral receptive period: The period until the emergence of teeth. Sucking and swallowing are
fundamental pleasure experiences.
 Oral aggressive period: Begins with the emergence of teeth. Biting and chewing are
fundamental pleasure experiences.
 The baby is entirely dependent on the caregiver.
 The first love object is the mother -> Through this relationship, general attitudes such as
dependency, independence, and trust towards others are formed.
 At the beginning of the oral stage, the infants feel no ambivalence toward the pleasurable
object, their needs are satisfied with almost no frustration and anxiety. As they grow older,
this changes. Feeding times are scheduled, time lapses between feedings are increased, and
eventually, the baby is weaned off the breast -> experiencing feelings of frustration and
anxiety. The infant tries to relieve tension caused by deprivation by sucking its own finger.
 Their first autoerotic experience is thumb-sucking, a defense against anxiety that satisfies
their sexual but not their nutritional needs.
 If oral pleasure is excessively sought and experienced, or if it is excessively inhibited and
inadequate during this stage, fixation occurs.
 In the oral receptive period: excessive dependency, passivity, naivety, optimism, and
expectations of approval and support from others.
 In oral aggressive period: contentiousness, pessimism, exploitativeness, destructiveness,
and demeaning behavior
ANAL STAGE: 1,5-3 years Erogenous zone: Anus. Satisfaction and pleasure are placed
around anal area. Difficult task: Toilet training
 They begin to gain control over the muscles of the anus.
 They derive pleasure from carrying out defecation and release movements as they wish.
 They increase pleasure by delaying bowel movements.
 The quality of toilet training is very important in the formation of personality.
 Parents' efforts to toilet training prevents the pleasure the child receives from with holding
or releasing feces.
 During this stage, the child is responsible for learning self-control.
 According to Freud, all forms of self-control in adulthood are rooted in the anal stage.
 The excessive strictness or laxity of toilet training can lead to two types ofreactions:
1. Anal retentive: They can respond by withholding their feces and maygeneralize this to
other behaviors. Personality traits such as stubbornness, excessive orderliness, excessive
cleanliness, stinginess, excessive control, and perfectionism can be observed (example
psychopathology: OCD, OCPD).
2. Anal expulsive: They may not withhold their feces and may release them at inappropriate
times. Personality traits such as messiness, disorderliness, extravagance, destructiveness,
and impulsiveness can be observed (example psychopathology: hoarders)

PHALLIC STAGE: 3-6 years. Erogenous zone: Genital organs (clitoris in females, penis in
males)
 The child is curious about his/her sexual organ, engages in masturbation, and shows
interest in sexual topics.
 They might imagine things based on witnessing or hearing about their parents' sexual
interactions.
 Freud: Children perceive sexual intercourse as aggressive behavior from the father toward
the mother.
 The Oedipus Complex occurs during this period
Oedipus Complex: Sexual desires for the parent of the opposite sex.
 Male children desire to have his mother by replacing his father;
 while female children desire to have her father by replacing her mother.
 These are not conscious desires but unconscious feelings.
 This complex develops differently for boys and girls
Male Oedipus Complex:
 The first love object, the source of satisfaction, is the mother.
 He wants to show this love in the way he observes from the adults.
 He seeks satisfaction for this desire by touching his mother, getting close to her, and
showing her his penis.
 The father is a rival who prevents the satisfaction of this desire, he wants to replace him.
 But the father is physically much stronger, has a bigger penis.
 So there is an anxiety that he will be prevented from achieving his desires or even
punished for these desires.
This anxiety is that the father will castrate him and cut off his penis -> castration anxiety
 False reasoning that girls do not have penises, so they were castrated for a crime they
committed, and same could happen to him.
 Due to castration anxiety, he suppresses his sexual desires for the mother and aggressive
impulses towards the father.
 He forms an identification with his father; he internalizes his characteristics, values,
attitudes and acquires his male sexual identity. In this way the superego develops
Female Oedipus Complex:
 The first love object is the mother. However, unlike the boys, when she realizes she
doesn’t have a penis, she holds her mother responsible for it.
 Either the mother has given birth to her lacking this organ, or she has cut it off as
punishment for a crime – leading to hostile feelings towards the mother.
 The desire of a girl to possess the penis, which she perceives as a symbol of power –penis
envy (can manifest in wanting to be a male or to have a male).
 Her libido is turned toward his father – the father possesses the symbol of power she
admires. He can give her a penis or a baby that can replace this organ
 When she understands that she cannot possess this organ, she seeks different ways to
satisfy this desire
 focusing on the clitoris, clitoral masturbation, or fantasizing about becoming a man and the
clitoris turning into a penis.
 When she understands that she cannot possess the father
 she suppresses her sexual desires towards the father and hostile feelings towards the
mother and forms an identification with the mother.
 She acquires an appropriate sexual identity and internalizes her parents' values – forming
the superego.
 Freud: Women's superegos have not developed as much as men's.
 The desire for sexual intercourse with the father and feelings of hostility for the mother are
known as the simple female oedipus complex.
  Incidentally, Freud objected to the term electra complex, sometimes used by others when
referring to the female oedipus complex, because it suggests a direct parallel between male
and female development during the phallic stage.
 Freud believed that no such parallel exists and that differences in anatomy determine
different courses in male and female sexual development after the phallic stage.
 In both girls and boys, attitudes towards the opposite sex and authority figures largely
develop based on the development and resolution of the phallic stage.
 Boys experiencing fixation in the phallic stage – narcissism, boast fulness, recklessness,
excessive emphasis on and proving of their masculinity.
 Girls experiencing fixation in the phallic stage – emphasizing feminine traits, seductiveness,
disregarding distinctions in sexual relations.
LATENCY STAGE: 6-12 years. There is no erotogenic zone with a focus on libido.
 Due to parental restrictions and the developing superego, sexual desires are suppressed,
and memories of the phallic stage are forgotten in order not to be remembered again.
 Energy is intensely directed towards activities such as play, friendships, learning & school.
 Children spend more time with peers of their own gender and are generally indifferent to
the opposite sex and sexual topics.
 The sexual identity and social roles acquired through identification with the same-sex
parent become stronger during this stage.
GENITAL STAGE: 12 years - A period that marks the ultimate goal of development - real
maturation.
 During puberty, reproductive organs mature, and hormones are secreted; sexual life of a
person enters a second stage (different from first three stages) The adolescent experiences
increased sexual excitement and activities.
 Erogenous zone: Genital organs (still the penis in males, but now the vagina instead of the
clitoris in females).
 If there hasn't been a fixation in previous stages, there will be sufficient libido to be
transferred to the opposite sex and mature sexuality
Mature and productive sexuality begins.
 Sexual impulses suppressed during the latency period awaken.
 Libido begins to be directed towards a suitable love object of the opposite sex.
 In the pregenital period, the individual's autoerotic libido directed towards oneself shifts
towards real love objects, other people, in the genital stage.
 It continues with the individual choosing a partner and aiming to establish a family in the
future.
 A person who experiences this period in a healthy manner – the ideal personality type:
 Socially and sexually mature and responsible, capable of appropriately controlling their
sexual impulses and achieving satisfaction.
 People should learn to work, delay gratification, share genuinely and warmly withothers,
and effectively cope with life problems. The passivity of childhood years should come to an
end.
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY:
Freud’s Early Therapeutic Technique:
 More active approach – suggestive
 Prior to his use of the rather passive technique of free association, he relied on much more
an active approach.
 Physical contact with patients and forcing declaration of memories at a command.
 Maybe too suggestive of childhood seductions or implying the emergence of certain sexual
experiences in childhood.
 Most patients ended up confessing a childhood seduction.
 Later discovered by Freud, all these memories were fantasies produced by the patients
themselves. They were revealing their fantasies or more interestingly, producing them
according to Freud’s suggestions.
 “I myself had perhaps forced upon them”
 The neurotic symptoms were not related directly to actual events but to phantasies ̈
 He gradually adopted a more passive psychotherapeutic technique
Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique
 Primary Goal: uncover repressed impulses and memories through free association and
dream analysis.
 Transforming what is unconscious into what is conscious.
 To strengthen the ego to make it more independent from the superego. It can deal more
effectively with the id, and to widen its field of perception and enlarge its organization.
 With free association, patients verbalize every thought that comes to their mind (no
matter how irrelevant or unpleasant those may be).
 The purpose: To arrive at the unconscious by starting with present conscious idea and
following it through a train of associations to wherever it leads.It’s not easy so some patients
never master it.
 Dream analysis would come into play (Freud's favourite therapy technique).
 For psychoanalysis to be successful, it is necessary for the libido to detach from the
neurotic symptom to work in the service of the ego. -Working with transference-
Transference: Strong sexual or aggressive feelings (positive or negative) that patients develop
toward their analyst during treatment.
 It's not about the therapist. In fact, it's about the patient conveying their early experiences,
usually related to their parents, to the therapist.
 Negative transference can adversely affect the therapy process.
 A transference should be recognized and explained, so that the patients can overcome any
resistance to treatment.
Resistance: The patient's blocking of progress in therapy through various unconscious
reactions. Resistance, can be a positive sign because it indicates that therapy has advanced
beyond superficial material.
Dream Analysis
 Freud used dream analysis to access the latent content (unconscious) of dreams rather
than their manifest content.
 Manifest content: The actual events in the dream
 Latent content: Hidden symbolic meaning of the dream
̈ ̈ Royal Road to the Unconscious ̈
 Basic assumption: Nearly all dreams are wish fulfilments.
 Dreams are formed in the unconscious but try to work their way into the conscious.
 To become conscious, dreams must slip past both the primary and the final censors
(condensation and displacement)
Condensation: Manifest dream is not as extensive as the latent level. The unconscious
material has been abbreviated or condensed before appearing on the manifest level.
 Displacement: The dream image is replaced by some other idea only remotely related to it.
 Condensation and displacement of content both take place using symbols. Certain images
are almost universally represented by harmless figures:
 Phallus -> stick, snake, knife, etc.
 Vagina -> small box, chest, oven, etc.
 Parents -> president, teacher, boss, etc.
 Castration anxiety -> baldness, hair loss, tooth loss, any act of cutting
 Dreams can deceive the dreamer by inhibiting or reversing the dreamer’s affect.
 Ex: A man with homicidal urges for his father may dream that his father has died, but in
the manifest dream content, he feels neither joy nor sorrow (his affect is inhibited).
 Ex: A woman who unconsciously hates her mother and would unconsciously welcome
her extinction may dream of her mother’s death, but the unconscious joy and hatred she feels
is expressed as sorrow and love during the manifest level of the dream. Thus, she is fooled
into believing that hate is love and that joy is sorrow
Anxiety Dreams -> Three Types
 The embarrassment dream caused by nudity
 people feel ashamed about being naked or inappropriately dressed in front of strangers.
 Usually, others remain indifferent to this situation, but the person experiencing the dream
feels a strong sense of embarrassment.
 The Origin -> Experience of being naked in front of adults. While children may be indifferent
in the original experience, adults do not approve of this situation
 Wish fulfilment -> There is no scolding from adults, nakedness fulfils the wish to exhibit
oneself.
 The dream of a loved one's death
 The death of a young person - the wish for the death of a sibling or an early rival is fulfilled.
 The death of an older person - fulfils the Oedipal wish with the death of a parent.
 We cannot say that just because someone had such wishes in childhood, they still carry
them now. At that time, this impulse was suppressed and pushed into the unconscious.
 The dream of a failure in an exam/assessment
 A person dreams herself failing in a school exam that she had previously passed
successfully.
 These dreams usually occur when the person is facing a challenging task ahead.
 The fulfilled wish -> the ego establishes such a logic: “I had passed that exam, I am
worried about this one as well, but I will pass this too, there's no need to worry”.
 When analysing dreams, interpretations should not be made without the dreamer's own
associations.
 Freudian Slips
 In everyday life, slips of the tongue or pen, misreadings, mishearings, mixing up the
placement of objects, and temporarily forgetting intentions or people's names;
 are not random accidents,but rather efforts to reveal the individual's unconscious
intentions.
 It is quite frequent. Yet we don't pay much attention, we don't dwell on it, and we even
deny that it has any significance.
o The denial of any significance to these slips was actually a factor supporting
Freud's hypothesis.
o The book “Psychopathology of Everyday Life” includes some of Freud's own
Freudian slips.
 Freud outlined 5 stages of development, but he devoted most attention to the infantile
stage (the first three stages).
 During the simple Oedipal stage, a child desires sexual union with one parent while
harbouring hostility for the other.
 Freud believed that dreams and Freudian slips are disguised means of expressing
unconscious impulses