A broader idea than turning against the self, this Freudian defense mechanism occurs when the ego converts an instinctual impulse into its opposite behavior. For instance, the miser becomes a philanthropist and the pervert a prude.
December 4, 2009
November 30, 2009
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Freud, explícame tú esto: tnarik / Eduardo
Sigmund Freud’s theory outlines four early stages of psycho-sexual development in which the ego and libido are developed:
- The oral stage of 0-1 years where infant gratification is achieved through sucking the primary object¹ of the mother’s breast (or substitute objects)
- The anal stage of 1-3, in which sexual gratification is achieved through the child’s control over and actual production of feces. From his or her toilet training the child first learns the reality of restrictions from the external world
- The latency period – occurring between the phallic stage and adolescence – in which the child pays less attention to the body and more to the acquisition of essential life skills
- The genital stage at which time the adolescent’s attention is oriented to developing mature, loving human relationships with others
According to Freud’s theory, so-called normal individuals proceed through these stages without major difficulties while some become fixated at a given stage. Fixation in this sense refers to an unconscious attachment to a particular object of libidinal gratification.
For instance, the alcoholic fixated at the oral phase substitutes liquor and the bottle for the mother’s nipple. Whereas those disregarding or, conversely, obsessed with cleanliness, order and regularity would be fixated at the anal stage.
In general, fixation manifests in excessive behavior such as excessive housecleaning and/or extreme emotional states such as depression, fear, anxiety and forced elation.
For Freud, normal human development pretty much ends at the genital phase. Behaviors such as celibacy, fasting and prolonged solitude may be viewed as pathological by Freudians. Other more holistic thinkers, however, see this as a reductive and potentially dangerous approach, one suggesting spiritual ignorance, immaturity and perhaps sin.
The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health sums up Freud’s theory as follows:
Although Freud’s theory of psychosexual development was extremely influential and continues to be taught in professional psychology programs today, empirical research has failed to generate significant support for these ideas and it is generally not an accepted model among practicing psychologists. Additionally, this theory has drawn criticism for being constructed on sexist ideas. Regardless, terminology associated with the stages of psychosexual development has found wide popular usage in a variety of registers and fields of activity.²
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¹ Freud’s usage of ‘object’ includes other people.
² http://www.psychotherapy.ro/resources/constructs/psychosexual-development/
November 23, 2009
Reality Principle
In Sigmund Freud’s theory, this is a learned psychological function that seeks to gratify instinctual desires through adaptation to the external world.
The reality principle exists in a state of tension with the innate pleasure principle.
November 12, 2009
Regression
coloring time: foreverdigital / Jenn Vargas
In Freudian theory regression is a defense mechanism where the ego partially or fully regresses to an earlier phase of libidinal development due to unresolved anxiety that threatens everyday functioning.
Obviously, this is usually maladaptive as the individual re-experiences anxiety associated with an infantile stage of psychological development to which he or she is to some degree fixated.
Accordingly, aspects of the world are interpreted from the perspective of an anxious child. And this can lead to all sorts of unpleasant personality qualities–from paranoia, grandiosity, manipulation, pathological lying or some disturbing combination of these.
But controlled or therapeutic regression, as in creative play, reading old childhood books or listening to old records need not be maladaptive. In fact, it can be a necessary stage in integrating the total personality and moving on to new types of awareness and experience. It can also just be plain fun.
The difference between healthy and unhealthy regression is whether one does this consciously and progressively or is simply unconsciously playing out old neuroses, over and over like a broken record.
The one is childlike, the other childish.
At Earthpages.org:
On the Web:
Reductio ad Absurdum
356/365... Absurd room #3 Balance and serenity: Desirée Delgado
[Latin: "reduce to the absurd"]
A method of philosophical argumentation said to prove a conclusion to be true by demonstrating the contradiction, absurdity and therefore impossibility that would result if it were false.
Consider Descartes‘: “I think, therefore I am.” And its falsification: “I think, therefore I am not.” Here the question arises: If one thinks that one does not exist, then who is doing the thinking?
By falsifying the original statement, the resultant absurdity apparently proves the original statement to be true.
C. G. Jung used a form of reductio ad absurdum to try to refute the Buddhist notion of no-self. Basically, Jung asked: Who experiences the bliss of Nirvana if no self is present to experience it?
Buddhists, however, could reply that the locus of consciousness merely changes from an illusory individualism to an actual totality, a stance which theists, in turn, would question.
November 9, 2009
Reaction Formation
Freud Quiere Bailar + OU: Wookie Sidecar
In Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism in which the subject exaggerates the opposite of a repressed, socially unacceptable impulse.
The original impulse remains unresolved in its infantile form within the unconscious, thus feeding the fires of a neuroses.
But reaction formation can lead to a successful sublimation of the original impulse.
An example of the negative, neurotic type of reaction formation would be the gay basher who has repressed his or her own homosexual fantasies.
The positive, adaptive type would be the father who sublimates inappropriate sexual desire for his daughter into buying her fine, attractive articles of clothing.
Some would say, however, that the best solution to the above scenario would be to become conscious of and entirely resolve the unacceptable impulse through analysis, prayer and/or purification techniques.
Critics of this approach believe it’s impossible to eradicate sexual desires, appropriate or not. This view is at loggerheads with personal accounts from saints like Faustina Kowalska who claim to have received celibacy as a divine gift. » Reversal
References:
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Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1977, pp. 136-137.
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October 30, 2009
Szasz, Thomas
Anti-Psychiatry Demonstration in Washington, D.C.: Jettero Heller
Szasz, Thomas (1920 – )
Hungarian psychiatrist and author of many books, including his best known work, The Myth of Mental Illness (1960).
Almost a decade before collaborating with The Church of Scientology, Szasz argued that the science behind psychiatry provides an example of scientism.
For Szasz, the term mental illness is a socially constructed myth rather than an actual fact. He believes that the concept of mental illness is generated within, not above, other historically positioned truth claims.
Written before Henri Ellenberger’s The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) and Michel Foucault’s poststructural analysis, Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique (1961), Szasz’s work is often on the reading list for undergraduate courses in the Humanities at liberal-democratic universities.
Critics of Szasz’s perspective point out that psychiatry like any other science is in a constant state of development. Depending on factors like the patient’s actual condition, the competency of the psychiatrist and the political climate of the country in which assessments are made, it may be used for good or ill.
Szasz continues to be prolific, however. His latest publications contain some sociological and philosophical insights but seem to represent the unrealistically polarized views of a somewhat isolated but well-meaning humanitarian (e.g Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry, 1988; Psychiatry: The Science of Lies, 2008).
Most recognized psychiatric associations have rejected his ideas, a situation which some say resembles an orthodox Church marginalizing heresies.
The polarization of anti-psychiatry vs. psychiatry is a sad state of affairs because it probably makes otherwise intelligent figures like Szasz more uncompromising and extreme, lessening their ability to see other perspectives.
When someone is convinced they’re right and the other is entirely wrong, constructive dialogue usually disappears.
» DSM-IV-TR, Madness, Postmodernism, Unconscious
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October 29, 2009
Syntonic Counter-Transference
Watch Over me: stonethestone
Syntonic Counter-Transference
In depth psychology this is a type of transference suggested by Michael Fordham in 1957 where the analyst enters into a kind of “primitive identidy” with the patient.
Apparently the analyst senses the patient’s unconscious feelings, usually at the same time as the patient but sometimes before the patient becomes conscious of them.
Clearly a mysterious and extremely difficult hypthothesis to verify, SC-T nonetheless raises questions that figures like Stanislav Grof and C. G. Jung have examined within their respective schools of transpersonal psychiatry and analytical psychology.
Another problem with the theory is that in some instances it might assume a sort of grandiose expertise on the part of the analyst, as if he or she comes to the correct realization about the supposed truth of the dynamic before the client does.
The potential for psychological abuse relating to a dysfunctional relationship and misplaced trust in the analyst and his or her ideas is arguably no small matter here.
To counteract this problem, responsible therapists speak of a “therapeutic relationship” where both doctor and client learn something from one another while maintaining emotional objectivity.
This is the ideal, of course. It’s a well known fact that Jung himself had an affair with Sabina Spielrein, one of his clients.
On the Web:
- Some thoughts on Transference: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mstaples/thoughts_on_transference.html
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October 23, 2009
Symbol
THE POWER OF LOVE: Material Boy / Aart van Bezooyen
Symbol
M. H. Abrams says that at the most fundamental level a symbol is anything that signifies something else.
Abrams also notes that a distinction is often made between the public and private symbol. The public symbol, such as the cross, is apparently understood by everyone in a given culture whereas the private symbol, such as an obscure poetic allusion, isn’t.
This distinction, however, seems open to debate: Surely not everyone in a given culture interprets the cross in the same way.
In literature a symbol is
a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in turn signifies something, or suggests a range of reference, beyond itself (A Glossary of Literary Terms, 2005, p. 320).
In depth psychology, Carl Jung says the symbol is a meaningful image that mediates healing or destructive forces from the collective unconscious to ego consciousness–for example, the symbol of the Cross or Serpent.
Jung says symbols arise from the unknowable archetypes but are recognized as archetypal images. Archetypes interpenetrate among themselves; likewise, archetypal images are discrete but exhibit similarities. For Jung the flow of psychic energy between the collective unconscious and the symbol is a two-way process.
Jungian Erich Neumann says that the symbol acts as both as an “energy transformer” and as a “moulder of consciousness.” As an energy transformer the symbol facilitates the ego’s experience of the numinous, arising from the collective unconscious. As a moulder of consciousness, the symbol operates on the level of collective consciousness by contributing to the ideology of a given culture.
Jung says the interconnected conscious and unconscious aspects of humanity cannot be severed. He’s widely quoted as saying in The Undiscovered Self (1958):
You can take away a man’s gods, but only to give him others in return.
Likewise, political leaders of the mass state cannot avoid being glorified or demonized. This occurs through brute force, clever calculation and also through public fascination and projection.
Jung believes, for example, that a mass-produced placard image of Joseph Stalin expresses an archetypal force articulated on the conscious level that both sways and oppresses individuals.
Skyscrapers: swisscan / Reto Fetz
A more contemporary example would be the disempowering psychological effect that massive bank towers (symbolizing ‘Big Business’) have on the poor and disenfranchised. And in ancient cultures such as Greece, Rome and Egypt, impressive architecture apparently had a similar effect on slaves, the exploited, the underprivileged and on less powerful visitors from foreign cultures.
» Abyss, Agape, Alchemy, Anima, Animus, Atlantis, Censor, Cirlot (J. E.), Cylons, Dean (James), Death and Resurrection , Denotation, Dreams, Eden, Ego, Eleusinian Mysteries, Eucharist, Felix culpa, Geertz (Clifford James), Goddess vs. goddess, Hero, Individuation Process, Jonah, Kraken, Kundalini, Labyrinth, Language, Mandala, Mead (George Herbert), Miracles, Object, Psychoid, Pyramids, Square Cross, Sublimation, Theosophy, Totem, Transubstantiation, Tree of Life, World Tree
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October 22, 2009
Superego
superego: Ana Carolina Machion
Superego
In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the superego is the conscious or unconscious element of the ego that is formed from the child’s internalization of parental values, beliefs and prohibitions.
Because the superego is internalized in childhood, its moral injunctions are partially based on imagined rather than actual parental demands.
A common mistake among popular psychologists is to equate the superego with the conscience.
Although influencing moral attitudes, the superego differs from the conscience. Internal conflicts can arise between the superego and the conscience or between the superego and more recently acquired attitudes and beliefs.
» Censor, Conscience, Defense Mechanism, Dreams, Ego, Electra Complex, Introjection, Psychopath, Repression, Totem
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