Psychology Essays (UOP)

Psy/310 Psychoanalytical Model Paper

Psychoanalytical Model Paper

Samantha Craig

PSY/310

3/7/2015

Linka Griswold

Psychoanalysis is "a method of analyzing psychic phenomena and treating emotional disorders that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely about personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams" (Merriam-webster,2015) Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis and based on his contributions, which he called foundations. This particular theory is made up of four parts that are the dynamic, the economic, the developmental, and the structural

First, of the foundations is the dynamic portion which consists of an individuals instinctual thoughts. Freud has outlined that every action can come back to one of two instincts. The first one is called the Eros that is also known as the libido or sexual instinct. The second one is called the destructive instinct or aggression. Each instinct plays a vital role in everyday actions that take place and they both work together and against each other in harmony.

Second is the economic side, and throughout this the instincts still continue to make a presences. This particular part was Freud's attempt to allude to the power of these two instincts and to the psychic energy concept. (Schultz & Schultz, 2011) This concept of psychic energy is described as a system where the energy is all invested into the cathexes, or what is known as the idea of getting the highest amount of pleasure for a person. However, there needs to be a balance for this instinct therefore, the anticatheses is where the energy is invested into the opposite instinct which is the deference in the ego.

Third, is Freud's developmental portion. This is where he came up with three ideas that did not go with societies common beliefs and cause him some controversy. In order the he believed that sexual nature starts at birth. He also believed that there was a huge distinction between sexual and genital due to the fact that sexual is a subject that is far broader the genital is. His final idea was the fact that he believed that physical pleasure could be used in more ways than just procreation. This all lead to the thought that development is realized at an early age because of these beliefs. Sense Freud primarily focused on the developments that are adapted to in the early life, he left space for other theorists to add on to his ideas to include adulthood.

While in the development part Sigmund Fred came up with the psychosexual stage which focuses on childhood and its centering on erogenous zones. The oral stage is one that last from birth to about two years old and is where the child is obsessed with stimulating the mouth. This may consist of biting and sucking, he believed that if there was not enough satisfaction met at this stage then a person could become an oral personality and produce mouth habits such as smoking and kissing. Then there is the anal stage, he chose to name it this because many children are learning to potty train and either enjoy releasing that pressure or hold it in. These adults end up become either extremely tidy or unclean. The phallic stage starts at around the age of four and usually begins to fondle and exhibiting the genitals. This then leads to the Oedipus complex. This stage can begin at four and is where boys start to desire their mother and shy from their father. Then it leads to them copying the same sex parent as they grow out of this stage and into the final one known as the genital stage which is the sign of puberty.

Fourth we have the Structural, which is the concept within the mind which Freud called the Id, Ego and Super-Ego. The Id is where all of an individual's instinctual sex drives that need to be satisfied. The Id can be considered as the platform of the unconscious mind. This is due to the fact that in includes all psychological functions and instincts that are inherited from birth. "The id contains our basic psychic energy, or libido, and is expressed through the reduction of tension." (Schultz & Schultz, 2011) An example of this would be say a person is thirsty, if they expect to find a release then they need to get a drink. The Ego is more of a safety zone between the Id and the everything else. Freud described the Ego as nonexistent without the Id and lives to make it satisfied, and is considered the rational aspect of personality. Finally the Super-ego, this is developed early in childhood and is called the moral aspect of an individual's personality.

Next Sigmund Freud gave us the Defense Mechanisms. He describes them as characteristics everyone uses when the "Ego" is threatened. A few of the most common mechanisms used by individuals are Denial, which is where they pretend a certain event never even happened. Displacement where they place violence or hostility on another object or person. Projection, such as saying your boss hates you when actually it's the other way around. Rationalization where a person plays the event off like it never was a huge thing anyways. Regression, this typically can be seen in abuse cases where the person goes back to a simpler time such as childhood where things where easier and finally repression where the person pretends that the one thing that causes the trauma does not exist.

Now with all of these foundations set into place there are the methods that now form because of them. Psychoanalysis is so diverse that there are a lot of models throughout time that can be used. A few of these models derive from the stages in fundamentals created by Sigmund Freud. The economic model is least likely to be used now days but is more or less like the fact that it is energy being sent from the mind and being distributed to different parts of the body for different activities that need energy. The next is the Structural model which is based off the Id, Ego and Super-ego and how all three work together to work our personality.

Then we have Freud's Topographical Model which was mainly intended to understand an individuals repressed thoughts, fantasies and perhaps their wishes. This particular model breaks the mind into three different stages known as the conscious, the preconscious and, the unconscious mind. The conscious mind holds all the information that the individual is aware of such as what you can see and rationalize. The precocious mind is the one where you can pull up memories no problem, like the first time you rode a bike without training wheels. The last one known as the unconscious mind is barely accessible and is where Freud believed the many of our urges, feelings and violent motives are dumped here and are "exerting influence on our actions and our conscious awareness." (Allpsych, 2013)

There are many contributions that have been made to psychoanalysis and most of them have been based off of some of the fundamentals that Sigmund Freud had developed. The mind is a curious thing and is locked in secrets that many don't even know. He opened the door to different models to be made to help unlock the mind and find scientific ways to help those who suffer from certain disorders to make a recovery. Most of these theories and psychoanalytic models are based on the fact that the mind has a conscious and an unconscious parts and that the unconscious mind holds most of the memories and event that take shots at coming through in random talk, or with help.

When a person hears the words psychoanalysis and psychodynamic theories and models they think of all of this along with the name Sigmund Freud. However, even with being the father of psychoanalysis he has faced many criticism with his work within the field of psychology. Freud's psychosexual stages had many in the field of psychology fuming because of how he related sex in individuals at such a young age and even proposed that boys found their mothers sexually attractive. Many of his theories also upset many women within the field because he believed that women secretly wanted sex and that even if they were assaulted that, it never happened and it was all a fantasy. There is also lack of work that was done while the patient was seeing Freud to support some of his theories due to him taking notes several hours after seeing his patients. According to (Schultz & Schultz, 2013) "Freud's research was based on a small and unrepresentative sample of people, limited to himself and those who chose to undergo psychoanalysis with him."

In conclusion Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. He made many contributions to this theory based off of many of his foundations. These foundations are the dynamic, the economic, the structural, and the developmental parts. Plus within these areas there is the Defense mechanism, the Id, Ego and the Sub-Ego. Freud's work that framed around women were criticized throughout his work because he tend to favor that women did not contain strong super-egos and therefor and a lack of strong morals. He also caught lots of outraged criticism on his psychosexual stages. Even with all these faults many people have built onto his work which is what he intended considering most of his work is based on the earlier life of individuals and not focused on the adult portions of the life.

References

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego/#.VP5JVeGrPf0

Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2012). A history of modern psychology (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage