1.2 Differences between People
Problem 1: Inner Drives
➔ Some psychologists believe that the cause of some psychological problems (like
traumatic childhood events) can lie in a person’s unconscious, which is outside a
person’s immediate awareness but can still cause problems even years later.
➔ They also claim that these memories can be retrieved from the unconscious into the
conscious, which is the start of recovery.
Freud:
➔ Vienna
➔ Medicine (neurology)
➔ Studied hypnosis in Paris
➔ Later devoted his career to discover the nature and logic of the unconscious mind
➔ Analysis of dreams
➔ Scientific and ideological criticism
➔ Sexual/aggressive urges were considered politically incorrect at the time
➔ Fled from Nazis to London
➔ Died of cancer
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:
➔ Psychic energy:
◆ source of energy within each person that motivates all human activity
◆ Law of conservation of energy: remains the same throughout the lifetime,
personality change is a redirection of psychic energy
◆ The source is strong innate forces (instincts)
◆ Because it exists in a fixed amount, the energy used to direct one behavior is
unavailable for other behaviors, so a person who directs his death instinct into
sports has less psychic energy to direct it into aggressive behavior
➔ Basic drives:
◆ Originally thought as self-preservation and sexual instincts, very similar to
Darwin’s work
, ◆ Then changed into 2 main categories: Life (libido/Eros) and Death (Thanatos)
instincts
◆ Life instinct: all pleasure oriented, need satisfying and life sustaining urges
◆ Death instinct: all urges to aggress, harm, destroy others or oneself and usually
held back by life instincts
◆ First suggested that they operate against each other, but then suggested that
they could combine in various ways (eating, rape)
◆ Catharsis: At some point, the buildup of energy may be so great, especially for
aggression, that it can't be restrained any longer and emotional tension is
released.
➔ Iceberg model/topographical model of the mind:
◆ Conscious mind: thought, feelings, perceptions that we are presently aware of,
only a small fraction of information
◆ Preconscious mind: information that we are presently not thinking about, but
can easily be retrieved to the conscious mind
◆ Unconscious mind: the largest part, unacceptable information like incest, hate,
sexual assault, childhood traumas, sexual and aggressive urges etc.
● One way to control socially unacceptable urges is to keep them out of the
conscious mind altogether
● Examples of the unconscious:
○ Blindsight: the ability of people with cortical blindness to make
judgements about some things that they can’t actually see
○ Deliberation without awareness: when a person puts a difficult
decision out of their conscious mind for a while, the answer, and
often the correct one, can come to them suddenly some time later
(sleeping on it, skipping questions on exams etc.)
◆ Works best with complex decisions involving many factors
● Motivated unconscious:
○ Dynamic in the sense that it can produce particular behaviors,
thoughts and feelings
○ Motivational determinism
○ urges can resurface in various forms like in dreams, Freudian slips,
unexplained anxiety, physical symptoms, seemingly irrational
feelings towards certain people etc.
◆ Material can pass easily back and forth between the conscious and preconscious
and also also move from the conscious and preconscious into the unconscious.
, But once material is in the unconscious, the person is prevented from having
conscious access to it because of a mental gate blocking.
➔ Psychic determinism/motivational determinism:
◆ Nothing happens by chance, not even little accidents (being late, breaking sth,
calling wrong name etc) (called parapraxes by Freud)
◆ Everything we do, say, think is an expression of our minds
◆ Reasons can be uncovered when unconscious is examined
◆ Suggested that most symptoms of mental illness is caused by unconscious
motivations
➔ Talking cure:
◆ Gives credit to Dr. Breuer
◆ To cure hysterical symptoms, the incident that led to the symptoms should be
recalled, then expressing feelings attached to the memory can lead to an
emotional catharsis and alleviate symptoms
, ➔ Freud’s structural model of personality:
◆ Id:
●
Present at birth
●
Entirely unconscious
●
Source of all urges and drives
●
Pleasure principle (instant gratification), can’t stand delays
●
Dominates in infancy
●
No logic, values or morals
●
Primary process thinking: thinking without logical thoughts or a basis in
reality (like in dreams or fantasies)
● Wish fulfillment: when one of the id’s urges cannot be satisfied, we
conjure up a mental image that temporarily satisfies the urge (like
fantasizing about revenge)
◆ Ego:
● Develops within the first 2-3 years of life
● Pragmatic and realistic, not moral
● Redirects the pressure created by the id’s drives into more acceptable
outlets
Problem 1: Inner Drives
➔ Some psychologists believe that the cause of some psychological problems (like
traumatic childhood events) can lie in a person’s unconscious, which is outside a
person’s immediate awareness but can still cause problems even years later.
➔ They also claim that these memories can be retrieved from the unconscious into the
conscious, which is the start of recovery.
Freud:
➔ Vienna
➔ Medicine (neurology)
➔ Studied hypnosis in Paris
➔ Later devoted his career to discover the nature and logic of the unconscious mind
➔ Analysis of dreams
➔ Scientific and ideological criticism
➔ Sexual/aggressive urges were considered politically incorrect at the time
➔ Fled from Nazis to London
➔ Died of cancer
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:
➔ Psychic energy:
◆ source of energy within each person that motivates all human activity
◆ Law of conservation of energy: remains the same throughout the lifetime,
personality change is a redirection of psychic energy
◆ The source is strong innate forces (instincts)
◆ Because it exists in a fixed amount, the energy used to direct one behavior is
unavailable for other behaviors, so a person who directs his death instinct into
sports has less psychic energy to direct it into aggressive behavior
➔ Basic drives:
◆ Originally thought as self-preservation and sexual instincts, very similar to
Darwin’s work
, ◆ Then changed into 2 main categories: Life (libido/Eros) and Death (Thanatos)
instincts
◆ Life instinct: all pleasure oriented, need satisfying and life sustaining urges
◆ Death instinct: all urges to aggress, harm, destroy others or oneself and usually
held back by life instincts
◆ First suggested that they operate against each other, but then suggested that
they could combine in various ways (eating, rape)
◆ Catharsis: At some point, the buildup of energy may be so great, especially for
aggression, that it can't be restrained any longer and emotional tension is
released.
➔ Iceberg model/topographical model of the mind:
◆ Conscious mind: thought, feelings, perceptions that we are presently aware of,
only a small fraction of information
◆ Preconscious mind: information that we are presently not thinking about, but
can easily be retrieved to the conscious mind
◆ Unconscious mind: the largest part, unacceptable information like incest, hate,
sexual assault, childhood traumas, sexual and aggressive urges etc.
● One way to control socially unacceptable urges is to keep them out of the
conscious mind altogether
● Examples of the unconscious:
○ Blindsight: the ability of people with cortical blindness to make
judgements about some things that they can’t actually see
○ Deliberation without awareness: when a person puts a difficult
decision out of their conscious mind for a while, the answer, and
often the correct one, can come to them suddenly some time later
(sleeping on it, skipping questions on exams etc.)
◆ Works best with complex decisions involving many factors
● Motivated unconscious:
○ Dynamic in the sense that it can produce particular behaviors,
thoughts and feelings
○ Motivational determinism
○ urges can resurface in various forms like in dreams, Freudian slips,
unexplained anxiety, physical symptoms, seemingly irrational
feelings towards certain people etc.
◆ Material can pass easily back and forth between the conscious and preconscious
and also also move from the conscious and preconscious into the unconscious.
, But once material is in the unconscious, the person is prevented from having
conscious access to it because of a mental gate blocking.
➔ Psychic determinism/motivational determinism:
◆ Nothing happens by chance, not even little accidents (being late, breaking sth,
calling wrong name etc) (called parapraxes by Freud)
◆ Everything we do, say, think is an expression of our minds
◆ Reasons can be uncovered when unconscious is examined
◆ Suggested that most symptoms of mental illness is caused by unconscious
motivations
➔ Talking cure:
◆ Gives credit to Dr. Breuer
◆ To cure hysterical symptoms, the incident that led to the symptoms should be
recalled, then expressing feelings attached to the memory can lead to an
emotional catharsis and alleviate symptoms
, ➔ Freud’s structural model of personality:
◆ Id:
●
Present at birth
●
Entirely unconscious
●
Source of all urges and drives
●
Pleasure principle (instant gratification), can’t stand delays
●
Dominates in infancy
●
No logic, values or morals
●
Primary process thinking: thinking without logical thoughts or a basis in
reality (like in dreams or fantasies)
● Wish fulfillment: when one of the id’s urges cannot be satisfied, we
conjure up a mental image that temporarily satisfies the urge (like
fantasizing about revenge)
◆ Ego:
● Develops within the first 2-3 years of life
● Pragmatic and realistic, not moral
● Redirects the pressure created by the id’s drives into more acceptable
outlets
