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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Outline from Feist & Feist 8th Edition
A. PSYCHOANALYSIS

• PSYCHOANALYSIS
- focuses on childhood experiences, unconscious motives, and conflicts to
explain personality.
- the twin cornerstones of psychoanalysis, sex and aggression, are two
subjects of continuing popularity.
- was based on Freud’s experiences with patients, his analysis of his own
dreams, and his vast readings in the various sciences and humanities.
- Freud’s brilliant command of language enabled him to present his theories
in a stimulating and exciting manner.
- Freud insisted that psychoanalysis could not be subjected to eclecticism
(diverse/mixed).
-

• SIGMUND FREUD - Father of Psychoanalysis

- Discovered cocaine
- Physician; was drawn into medicine (i.e. human behavior)
- Worked with Jean-Martin Charcot (hypnosis for treating hysteria) and
Josef Breuer (catharsis/free association/”talking them out”)
- Mythological and lonely hero according to his followers
- Theories followed observations (subjectively and relatively small samples of
patients from upper-middle and upper classes).
➢ The Case of Anna O (female hysteria)
- Theories evolves; he relied on deductive reasoning
- Utilizes a case study approach almost exclusively, formulating hypotheses
after the facts of the case were known.

3 LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE / ICEBERG THEORY

1. Conscious
- Anything in awareness or anything perceived by our senses
- Consciousness from Different Directions:
(1) Perceptual Conscious System - turned toward the outer world and
acts as a medium for the perception of external stimuli; we perceive
through our sense organs, if not too threatening, enters into
consciousness.
(2) Mental Structure - includes nonthreatening ideas from the
preconscious as well as menacing but well-disguised images from the
unconscious.
→ Final Censor
2. Preconscious
- Not presently conscious but can be readily made conscious (memories,
goals, etc that requires environmental trigger)
- Sources of Preconscious:
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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Outline from Feist & Feist 8th Edition
(1) Conscious perception - What a person perceives is conscious for
only a transitory period; it quickly passes into the preconscious when the
focus of attention shifts to another idea. (e.g. mga moment na biglang
naalala moyung kajejehan mo noon but you quickly change what you’re
thinking about).
(2) Unconscious - ideas can slip past the vigilant censor and enter into
the preconscious in a disguised form. (parang minor na nakalusot sa City
Lights hehe)
→ Primary Censor
3. Unconscious
- Beyond awareness, but still motivate behavior (desires, urges or instincts)
- Sources of unconscious processes are:
(1) Repression - The explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of
the tongue, and certain kinds of forgetting. It is the forcing of unwanted,
anxiety-ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defense against the
pain of that anxiety.

(2) Phylogenetic Endowment - inherited unconscious images; the idea of

collectively inherited experiences to fill in the gaps left by individual
experiences.
- These unconscious images first must be sufficiently disguised to slip past the
primary censor, and then they must elude a final censor that watches the
passageway between the preconscious and the conscious.
- Freud’s Phylogenetic Endowment (inherited dispositions as last resort) is similar
to Jung’s Collective Unconscious.

**Note: Final censor and Primary censor alarm your psyche.**\

** Censor never weakens, it disguises itself into something more acceptable.

DRIVES - Motivational Drive

2 Kinds of Drives - The Cornerstones of Psychoanalysis

Drive (German Word: Tieb - to refer to a drive or a stimulus within the person. ) - Innate
● Sex/Life Instinct/Eros - Energy is Libido
● Aggression/Death Instinct/Thanatos
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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Outline from Feist & Feist 8th Edition
COMPONENTS OF DRIVE: ISAO
● Impetus - a force we feel from sex or aggressive drive
● Source - where do you feel it? Body part
● Aim - maximize pleasure or satisfy self- seek for pleasure
● Object - what will achieve the aim? Person or thing

Types of Sex Drive:

- Pleasure is not limited to genital pleasure.
- (AIM) is not always genital stimulation or satisfaction

1. Narcissism
- Primary Narcissism (libido is invested in the self; focus is self) Ex. Infants
are exclusively on their ego (I am the center of the universe)
- Secondary Narcissism - not universal; redirect libido back to the ego
(they don’t get me, no one understands me is a temporary phase happens
often during puberty)
2. Love - invests libido in an object or another person out of the self.
3. Sadism - pleasure from inflicting pain or humiliation.
4. Masochism - Pleasure from experiencing pain or humiliation from one's own self
or others.

**Additional information: Erogenous zones are our body parts that are sensitive to
pleasant and sensual feelings that give rise to the sexual feeling when stimulated.

AGGRESSIVE DRIVE - several manifestations are:

Final aim: Self destruction/ bring the organism towards an inorganic state.
Teasing, Gossip, Sarcasm, Humiliation, Humor, and Enjoyment of other people’s
suffering.

3 PROVINCES OF THE MIND

● Id - PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
- the core of personality - completely unconscious, primary thought process,
unaffected by experiences, and the passage of time.
- strives to reduce tension by seeking out to fulfill
desires; amoral (no concern, selfish)
- Operates through the Primary Process
● Ego - REALITY PRINCIPLE
- contact with reality, secondary thought process,
executive branch, considers id, superego, and the
external reality, Defense mechanisms (without defense
mechanisms, you will be super anxious)
- The decision-making or executive branch of
personality; determines how to behave.
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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Outline from Feist & Feist 8th Edition
- Must serve a 3rd master (apart from Id and Superego) = the external world
● Superego - MORALITY PRINCIPLE
- no contact with reality, unrealistic demands for perfection, conscience
(shouldn’t do) ego-ideal (should

Id dominant - (Neurotic anxiety) - the apprehension about the unknown danger

Superego dominant - (Moral anxiety) - inability to do what is morally right
Ego dominant - (Realistic anxiety) - related to fear; there is a specific source of
anxiety

To defend self from Anxiety - DEFENSE MECHANISMS

“It is our ego’s responses to anxiety”

● REPRESSION - force threatening feelings into the unconscious

● REACTION FORMATION - adopting a disguise opposite to the true form/
behaving in an opposite way (does not want to feel negative feelings) Ex. They
bully their crushes
● DISPLACEMENT - redirect unacceptable urges into people or objects that are
less threatening or available.
● FIXATION - returning back to a specific stage of development
● REGRESSION - temporarily reverting to an earlier developmental stage/safer
stage Ex. Fetal Position
● PROJECTION - attributing unwanted impulses to external objects
● INTROJECTION - incorporate positive qualities of others into ego even though
they don’t actually possess them
● SUBLIMATION- substituting a productive/ beneficial activity that has a cultural or
social aim

** ACCORDING TO FREUD, WE DO DEFENSE MECHANISMS SIMULTANEOUSLY. **

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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Outline from Feist & Feist 8th Edition

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

• Oral Phase - 0-1 year (mouth)

- 1st phase - Oral receptive - feel anxiety and ambivalence towards weaning
- 2nd phase - Oral sadistic - biting, crying, thumb sucking
- Fixated: eating, smoking, and being sarcastic

• Anal Phase - 1-3 years (anus)

- 1st phase - Early Anal - Aggressive, frustration over toilet training

- 2nd phase - Late Anal - fascination with feces; develop an anal character
- Fixated: Anal Triad - orderliness, stinginess, stubbornness, OCPD

• Phallic stage - 3-6 years (genitalia - anatomy is destiny)

- Suppression of masturbation

➢ Male Oedipus complex

- wants to be a father (hostile feelings towards father); want to have my
mom (sexual desire towards mother)
- simple and complete oedipal complex
- Castration Complex - shatters Oedipus complex (dissolution or
repression)

➢ Female Oedipus complex

- I want to be my mom (hostility towards mom); I want to have my dad
(sexual interest to dad)
- Penis Envy (castration complex) “I do not have a penis”, “I want to
acquire penis”, believes that it is achieved by having sex with the father
- Simple Female Oedipus Complex
Identification with mother

• Latency Phase - 6-12 years (no erogenous zone)

- Direct energy to playing, studying
- Sexual urges to non-sexual

• Genital Phase - 12+ years genitalia

- Mouth and anus became auxiliary erogenous zones
- Puberty reawakens
- Directs energy to other people.
- Direct your libido to someone else

**Additional information: Fixation/ fixated means unmet stages of development.