Josef Breuer, a well-known Viennese
physician 14 years older than Freud and a
man of considerable scientific reputation.
Breuer taught Freud about catharsis- the
process of removing hysterical symptoms
through “talking them out.”
Free association- technique, which soon
replaced hypnosis as his principal
therapeutic technique.
Behavior and personality derives from
the constant and unique interaction of
conflicting psychological forces that operate
at three different levels of awareness:
the preconscious, the conscious, and the
unconscious.
The psychoanalytic view holds that there
are inner forces outside of your awareness
that are directing your behavior.
Freud's Three Levels of Mind
The conscious mind includes everything
that we are aware of.
The preconscious mind is the part of the
mind
that represents ordinary memory. While we
are not consciously aware of this
information at any given time, we can
retrieve it and pull it into consciousness
when needed.
The unconscious mind is a reservoir of
feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that
outside of our conscious awareness. Most of
the contents of the unconscious are
unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings
of pain, anxiety, or conflict.
Structures of Personality
The Id - only component of personality
that is present from birth entirely
unconscious and includes of the instinctive
and impulsive behaviors the primary
component of personality driven by the
pleasure principle, which strives for
immediate gratification of all desires, wants,
and needs.
-If these needs are not satisfied immediately,
the result is a state anxiety or tension.
If everyone acted on the pleasure
principle, the world would be pretty
scary.
The Superego - last component of
personality to develop the aspect of
personality that holds all of our internalized
moral standards, our sense of right and
wrong.
- provides guidelines for making judgments.
-acts to perfect and civilize our behavior
- It works to suppress all unacceptable urges
of the id and
struggles to act upon idealistic
