PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY love of self while love is accompanied by

narcissistic tendencies.
Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis)
divided personality into three structures, the Primary Narcissism - is the desire and
ID, EGO, and the SUPEREGO. energy that drives one’s instinct to survive.
The ID is the primitive and instinctual part of
the mind that contains sexual and Secondary or pathological narcissism is
aggressive drives and hidden memories a pattern of thinking and behaving in
(pleasure principle) adolescence and adulthood which involves
The SUPER EGO operates as a moral infatuation and obsession with one's self to
conscience (moral principle) the exclusion of others.
The EGO is the realistic part that mediates
between the desires of the id and the Love pertains to the sexual drives toward
super-ego. (Reality Principle) mother or other relatives or person who
cares for them and the aim of which either
Substems of Superego repressed or inhibited if found illogical.
1. Conscience – It tells us what we should
not do. Guilt is the result when the ego acts Sadism In psychoanalysis, one seeks
or intends to act contrary to the moral pleasure by inflicting harm or humiliating
standard of the superego. another person. This is dependent another
2. Ego ideals – It tells us what we should person.
do. This is the source of pride and ideal
self-image. Masochism It is the reception of sexual
pleasure from painful experience which can
Cathexis be satisfied by both sexual and aggressive
It is the investment of libido (emotional or drives.
mental energy) in an object, idea or person.
Destructive Instinct (thanatos)
Anti-cathexis or Counter change The opposite of eros. is the human
If the expression is unrealistic or not socially tendency to destructive, risky or otherwise
accepted, the energy is blocked by the ego negative behavior.
from being utilized while seeking for
appropriate timing of release. ANXIETY - It is something that is felt,
example of anticathexis is repression. It affective, unpleasant state accompanied by
blocks the immoral, unacceptable and a physical the which function of which is to
irrational action of the id. warn the person against impending danger.

Sexual Instinct (eros) - aim is to reduce Reality or objective anxiety – It refers to

the tension and increase the pleasure. the anxiety or fear of real threat or danger in
the external world.
Narcissism - Love and narcissism are
closely related because narcissism involves
Moral or normal anxiety – A possible guilt people. (overuse of projection leads to
may arise when there is a conflict between paranoia)
the ego and superego.
REGRESSION – It means to revert to
Neurotic anxiety – It is an apprehension of earlier stage of development in time of
unknown or non- danger. A worry about self, stress and anxiety.
others and future.
REACTION FORMATION – It reduces
DEFENSE MECHANISM anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling.
coping techniques or strategies that operate
unconsciously to distort reality in order to ACTING OUT – It means performing an
protect the ego or reduce the pain feeling of extreme behavior because one is to
anxiety. incapable of expressing negative emotion in
a more appropriate manner.
DENIAL - Ego refuses to acknowledge or
accept painful realities or events as if the DISSOCIATION – it is a disconnect from the
thought or feeling does not exist. real world by finding another representation
of themselves.
REPRESSION – It refers to unconscious
forgetting. It involves forcing to forget or FIXATION – It is developed when psychic
block of unwanted painful or anxiety loaded energy is blocked at one stage of
experiences into the unconscious. The ego development. It makes psychological
pushes the threatening thoughts back into change difficult.
the unconscious.
ISOLATION (of affect) – It means
SUPPRESSION – conscious forgetting. attempting to avoid a painful thought or
feeling by objectifying and emotionally
DISPLACEMENT – it is the redirecting of detaching oneself from the feeling
one’s anger or unwanted feelings, thoughts
or impulses to a person or, object who are INTROJECTION – It is when people
less threatening because the impulse incorporate positive qualities of another
cannot be expressed directly to the source person into their own ego. It helps them
of frustrations since they are in higher enhance their self- esteem.
authority.
UNDOING – It is an unconscious attempt to
SUBLIMATION – It is seen as the most take back (undo) a thought or action that
acceptable of the mechanisms. It’s an has resulted to guilt or anxiety.
expression of anxiety in socially acceptable
ways. (Ex. rechanneling sexual desires into RATIONALIZATION – It is providing
arts, music, sports or hobbies,) justification (alibis) or explanation for a not
so good behavior.
PROJECTION – It means denying the
existence of personal shortcomings or fault SOUR GRAPE– Being incompetent or
in themselves and attribute them to other failure is directed to other person or things.
SWEET LEMON – Unfortunate or negative information that are readily available when
experiences are projected as blessing in needed.
disguise.
CONSCIOUS The conscious contains
HUMOR – It means focusing on the funny information, thought and ideas that we are
aspects of a painful situation. aware of.

AFFILIATION – It means turning to other PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF

persons for support. DEVELOPMENT

ALTRUISM – It refers to satisfying internal Oral phase (age 1)- the sexual impulse of
needs or handling own pain by helping children is completely autoerotic (self-love).
others.
Orally aggressive / sadistic – aggressive,
AVOIDANCE – It means finding ways of dominating, argumentative and sarcastic
avoiding having to face uncomfortable person, associated with the act of biting.
situations, things, activities, persons or
avoiding talking about topics that bring Orally passive/ incorporative – very
unpleasant feeling. trusting, dependent on others and being
gullible, associated with the act of eating.
FANTASY – It means engaging in
daydreams about how things should be, Oral character (Cloninger, 2009) is the
rather than doing anything about how things personality of the person marked by fixation
are. in the first psychosexual stage of
development which can be observed as
IDENTIFICATION – It means merging or being optimistic, passive and dependent.
borrowing one’s identity with that of
someone else. anal character - It is the personality type
resulting from fixation at age 1-3
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE MIND
Phallic Phase (age 3-4) – It comes from
UNCONSCIOUS - It is composed of drives the word phallus which means penis. The
that are beyond awareness but motivate child’s interest is in the genitalia,
most human masturbating or expressing sexual interest
and curiosity. (Oedipus Complex)
phylogenetic endowment (inherited
unconscious experience), a portion of our Male Oedipus Complex
unconscious originates from experiences of Male Castration complex in the form of
our early ancestors that have been passed castration anxiety, a fear that the penis will
on through hundreds of generations of be cut off.
repetitions.
Female Oedipus Complex
PRECONSCIOUS is located between the Castration complex in the form of penis
conscious and unconscious. These are the envy.
Strong superego replaces the nearly develops toward the patient during the
completely dissolved Oedipus complex. course of treatment.

Repression of the Oedipus complex Dream Analysis

facilitates the development of superego. Freud defined dream as wish fulfillment
activity. He called the interpretation of
Weak superego replaces the partially dreams the “royal road to the unconscious”
dissolved Oedipus complex. or “guardian of sleep.”

Latency Period (4-5 until puberty) – This is a Manifest content – refers to the surface
period of dormant psychosexual meaning or the conscious description given
development or sexual calm. by the dreamer. What the dreamer see and
remember.
Genital Period – The mature person is able
to love in a sexually approved way Latent content – refers to its unconscious
(heterosexual relationship) and also to work material with the underlying hidden
productively in the society (to love and to meaning.
work).
Dreamwork or Dream Distortion
Methods of Determining the Contents of This is a process of a mental activity
the Unconscious Mind - Hypnosis wherein the latent content wish seeking
PSYCHOTHERAPY unconscious material is translated into
manifest imagery that disguises it.
Free association is administered through
the use of couch. Condensation – It is a process wherein a
part of something is symbolizing the whole
Transference- a process in which the thing.
patient projects onto the analyst emotional
attitude felt as a child toward important Displacement – It is the process of
person. replacing an acceptable idea with
something that is more acceptable in the
Positive transference – allows the patient dream.
to relieve the childhood experience toward
the therapist within the non-threatening Secondary elaboration – It is the
(friendly and affectionate feeling) analytic dreamer's tendency to fill in gaps in the
treatment. dream and explain its mysteries in order to
understand it better. This usually leads to
Negative transference – is an expression significant misunderstandings of the
of hostile, angry feeling toward the clinician. dream's true latent content.
(Resistance)

Countertransference – is a strong Dream-day is the day before the dream

undeserved feeling that the therapist from which it gathers its material.
Dream Series: a series of similar dreams; it Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - It
is to be interpreted as a whole consists of series of ambiguous pictures.
Test takers are also asked to tell a story
Freudian Slip about each picture – who the people are,
Freud believed that many everyday slips of what is going on, what has led up to the
the tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect scene and what the outcome is going to be.
hearing, misplacing objects and temporary
forgetting names or intentions are not Human Figure Drawing Test (DAP, HTP) -
chance accidents but reveal a person’s Although initially developed in 1920 as a
unconscious intentions. Freud refers this to measure of intelligence, psychologists soon
“faulty- functions” which later translated by recognized that the test also measures
James Stachey as parapraxes an invented personality construct. Most often it is used
term for what we call now the Freudian slip. as indicator of psychological problem. The
person drawn by the test taker is symbolic
Accident – In any accident, we may say, “I representation of the self (Burger, 2011).
did not mean to do it.” In Freud’s view, these
are intentional actions stemming from Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
unconscious impulses or desire. For
instance, reckless drivers are driven by an Individual Psychology” does not mean to
impulse for their unconscious desire for focus on Individual. The term “Individual” is
self-inflicted harm. used to mean the patient is an indivisible
whole. Adler believed that people are
Humor - According to psychoanalytic largely responsible for who they are.
theory, unconscious motives are often
expressed through jokes and the things that Many of the personality theorists like Harry
appear funny (Burger, 2011). Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Julian Rotter,
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis,
Symbolic behavior - a client who has the Rollo May have owed some of the concepts
unconscious hostility toward the mother introduced by Adler.
expressed it through dormant he purchased
for his home. According to Adler, life is not motivated
merely to reduce tension or in becoming in
Projective tests present test-taker with the state of equilibrium as Freud pointed
ambiguous stimuli and ask them to respond out. Rather, life is a challenge to move from
by identifying objects, telling story or below to above, from minus to plus, from
sometimes drawing a picture. inferior to superior.

Hermann Rorschach inkblot test consists FINALISM - Adler emphasized that human
of 10 cards; each contains inkblot which beings think, feel, behave as they do
sometimes contains more than one color. because they are governed by a goal or
Test takers are instructed to describe what perception of goals.
they see in the inkblot.
Organ Dialect / Organ Jargon aggression which he considered as a
This pertains to indirect expression of goals single drive to all motivation.
that can be observed or connected to some
physical deficiencies. These are opinions masculine protest which is associated to
that are expressed in somatic symptoms the initial belief that women are inferior as
(hidden goals). Action (law of movement) or compared to men, that inferiority is related
body language speaks louder than words. to femininity. ( will to power to striving for
superiority or success )
FICTION FINALISM
in the psychoanalytic theory of Alfred Adler , superiority doesn't automatically mean the
the belief that human beings are more rank or position, Our drive to superiority has
strongly motivated by the goals and something to do with our interest of
ideals—realizable or unattainable—that they becoming competent and effective at
create for themselves and more influenced anything that we are striving for.
by future possibilities than by past events
such as childhood experiences. Organ (Physical) Inferiority

Hans Vaihinger The Philosophy of As If, the sense of being deficient or somehow
Adler borrowed the term fictional finalism. It less than others as a result of negative
refers to the creation of fiction as a guiding feelings about any type of real or imagined
goal and then they behave “as if” their goals abnormality of organ function or structure.
were true.
Gemeinschaftsgefuhl is a social or
self-fulfilling prophecy - is a belief that community feeling of cooperation with
comes true because we are acting as if it is others to achieve social advancement rather
already true. than for personal gain.

Two types of self-fulfilling prophecy. Social interest deals with the ways people
interact with each other as they work toward
galatea effect - which is self-driven, a part individual gain or collective goals.
of motivation that depends on self-
expectation. Style of life is the term used by Adler to
refer to the flavor of the person’s life which
pygmalion effect - it is when people includes the person’s goal, self-concept,
behave based on the expectations of feeling for others and attitude toward the
others. world.

For Adler, a fiction should not be regarded Primary Types of the Style of Life
as false, should be viewed according to its According to Adler, among the four types,
usefulness three are mistaken style.
1. The Ruling Type - aggressive,
The effort is not shaped by reality but by dominating people who have little social
their subjective perceptions of reality that is interest or cultural perception.
by their fictions, or expectation of the future.
2. The Getting Type - dependent people TYPES OF SAFEGUARDING
who take rather than give. TENDENCIES
3. The Avoiding Type - people who try to - Excuses
escape life’s problems and engage in little - Aggression
socially constructive activity. - Depreciation
4. The Socially Useful Type - people with a - accusation
great deal of social interest and activities. - Self-Accusation
- Withdrawal
Creative power implies movement toward a
goal. It emphasizes direction. It makes a Four modes
person free to make his own lifestyle. 1. Moving backward – It means reverting
to a more secure period of life. It could
Why do people become maladjusted? equate with regression returning to earlier
All types of maladjustment are due to more comfortable phase.
underdeveloped social interest.
2. Standing still – It refers to a
People who lack social interest tend to: psychological distance when a person does
set goals too high. not move in any direction. By doing nothing,
live in their own private world. people may keep their self-esteem safe. For
ave a rigid dogmatic style of life. instance, a person will not join the contest
not to feel anxious if a person loses.
External Factors of Maladjustment
1. Exaggerated physical deficiencies 3. Hesitating – When faced with difficult
having defective body whether congenital problem one may use compulsive behavior.
or result of injury. Examples: compulsive handwashing,
2. Pampered style of life – treated as they obsessively behaving in orderly manner,
are incapable of solving their own problem. destroying work already begun, leaving
3. Neglected style of life – abused and work unfinished to give the excuse “it’s too
mistreated children, develop little social late now.”
interest.
4. Constructing obstacle – It may be
Adaptive lifestyle are characterized by overcoming self- created obstacle to
cooperation, social interest, courage and preserve and protect the self- esteem and
common sense whereas maladaptive prestige.
lifestyle are characterized by extreme
competition, lack of concern for others and Compensation – It entails making up for or
distorted reality. overcoming a weakness.

Safeguarding Tendencies Overcompensation – It refers to an

If the defense mechanism protects the ego exaggerated effect to give up a weakness
from the pain of anxiety, safeguarding that entails a denial than acceptance of the
tendencies protect the self-esteem from real situation. The person attempts to deny
public disgrace. rather than acknowledge a real situation.
Inferiority complex – When an individual Early recollections is a technique used by
feels exaggerated or has strong feeling of Adler to understand the pattern or theme
inferiority. A sense of inferiority is the basis that runs throughout a person’s style of life.
of all unhealthy lifestyle.
Dreams are indicators of the individual’s
Superiority complex – It means unique style of life and the key to
exaggerating the individual’s own understand it is the emotion it creates which
importance to mask the feeling of inferiority. are needed to solve the current problem.

Factors that Lead to Different Life Style / psychotherapy can contribute to physical
Entrance Gates to Mental Life and psychological wellness.

Birth order ( ordinal position of birth) / Adlerian therapy aims to change thinking,
family constellation emotion and behavior through the following
progressive stages to enhance self-esteem:
Family constellation – refers to one’s
position within the family in terms of both 1. Empathy and Relationship stage It
orders among siblings and the presence involves establishing a harmonious-peer
and absence of parents and other working relationship. “Unmasking....with
caregivers. love.” The atmosphere in a session is
supportive with minimal tension.
Family atmosphere is the quality of 2. Information stage It includes getting
emotional relationships among members of information about the issue and the client’s
the family. early recollection and current functioning.
3. Clarification stage It involves clarifying
Children are predisposed to faulty style of the client’s main belief about himself, others
life when they are pampered or neglected. and life.
4. Encouraging stage It includes
Pampered child are excessively spoiled encouraging the client for progress.
and overindulged. They are deprived of the 5. Interpretation and Recognition stage It
right of being independent and difficult to covers interpreting the client’s behavior and
learn requirements of living in social order guiding him to recognize his or her fictional
or to become useful member of society and goal.
culture. They develop hostile attitude toward 6. Knowing stage The client identifies his
other. own behavior and goals more than the
therapist’s interpretation).
Neglected child are the ones who feel 7. Emotional Breakthrough stage Aided
unwanted and rejected. Rejection arouses by imagery and role play, the old, unhealthy
resistance in the child, feeling of inferiority, patterns are replaced by new ones which
and a tendency to withdraw from the are expressed in emotional breakthrough.
implication of social life. 8. Doing Differently stage The client
gradually starts to behave differently in life.
9. Reinforcement stage The client starts to
recognize the need of others not only on his
own need.

10. Social Interest stage A feeling of

oneness with humankind or community is
strengthened.

11. Goal Redirection stage The client

starts to look into a new goal to strive
toward.

12. Support and Launching stage The

new goal is geared toward the spirit of
social interest.

This shows that the theory of Adler is to

promote POSITIVE psychology.