Psychodynamic approach in psychology. Main directions of psychotherapy Psychodynamic approach in social psychology

Dynamic (psychodynamic) psychotherapy is known as psychoanalytic psychotherapy, insight-oriented therapy, and exploratory psychotherapy.

The basis of the psychodynamic direction in psychotherapy is the achievement of an understanding of the dynamics of an individual’s mental life, based on the concept of the unconscious. Any approach in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the client’s gradual awareness of previously unconscious problems and conflicts. Painful symptoms, in turn, are viewed as an unconscious expression of the client’s hidden conflicts. The process of understanding the hidden mechanisms of disease development leads to profound personal changes and gradually smoothes out painful symptoms. Most hechodynamic approaches are long-term.

The psychodynamic approach originates from classical psychoanalysis (3. Freud). The most famous:

• 1) analytical psychology (Jung - S. G. Jung);
• 2) individual psychology (Adler - A. Adler);
• 3) volitional therapy of Rank (O. Rank);
• 4) active analytical therapy Stekel (W. Stekel);
• 5) Sullivan’s interpersonal psychotherapy (N. S. Sullivan);
• 6) intensive psychotherapy from F. FrommReichmann;
• 7) characterological analysis of Horney (K. Homey);
• 8) humanistic psychoanalysis (Fromm - E. Fromm);
• 9) egoanalysis Klein (M. Klein);
• 10) Chicago school (Alexander - F. G. Alexander, French - T. M. French);
• 11) sector therapy by Deutsch (F. Deutsch), objective psychotherapy according to Karpman (B. Karpman);
• 12) short-term psychotherapy (Sifneos - R. E. Sifneos, Malan - D. N. Malan, Bellak - A. S. Beliak);
• 13) psychobiological therapy by Mayer (A. Meyer);
• 14) biodynamic concept of Masserman (J. N. Masserman);
• 15) adaptation psychodynamics of Rado (S. Rado);
• 16) Hypnoanalysis (Wolberg - L. R. Wolberg).

According to the psychodynamic approach, the determining factor in understanding the nature of man and his illnesses is that all mental phenomena are the result of the interaction and struggle of intrapsychic forces. In accordance with the theory of conflict of instincts, Freud described the main forces in this struggle that are involved in the origin of neuroses: “A person becomes ill as a result of an intrapsychic conflict between the demands of instinctive life and resistance to them.” He considered the etiology of neuroses to be sexual in nature. The psychoanalytic approach includes five fundamental principles: dynamic, economic, structural, developmental, adaptive.

The psychoanalytic heritage is based on these principles, for which the following provisions are the most significant.

• 1. Of primary importance are human instinctual impulses, their expression and transformation and, most importantly, their suppression, through which painful feelings or experiences of unpleasant thoughts, desires and the influence of consciousness are avoided.
• 2. The belief that such repression is essentially sexual, that the disorder is caused by abnormal libidinal or psychosexual development.
• 3. The idea that the roots of abnormal psychosexual development are in the distant past, in childhood conflicts or traumas, especially with regard to the parental Oedipus complex, expressed in the classic desire for the opposite parent.
• 4. Confidence in resistance to the identification of the Oedipus complex and its rapid restoration.
• 5. The idea that, essentially, we are dealing with a struggle between biological internal impulses (or instincts - Id) and the Ego, which acts as a defense in relation to external reality - in the general context of moral rules or standards (SuperEgo).
• 6. Commitment to the concept of mental determinism, or causality, according to which mental phenomena, like behavior, undoubtedly do not change by chance, but are associated with events that precede them, and, if not made conscious, are involuntarily the basis for repetition.

Therapeutic changes and the healing process in psychodynamic psychotherapy have as their ultimate goal the awareness of the unconscious (to formulate this task in the shortest possible form), and the use of this approach can be possible and useful for any person, not necessarily with any diseases.

The psychotherapist is looking for a way to reveal predominantly sexual repressed content in the patient and resist it. He achieves this by slowly, meticulously explaining and unraveling the historical (past experience) meaning of psychic phenomena and the indirect forms in which the camouflaged conflicts underlying them are expressed. It is clear that therefore the dynamic target is sometimes significantly removed.

The dynamic approach is implemented primarily by means of verbalization, including the patient’s free associations and the psychotherapist’s analysis of transference and resistance reactions. Analysis as a psychotherapist's task is facilitated by four specific procedures: confrontation, clarification, interpretation and elaboration. From the very beginning, the technique of free association is the main way the psychotherapist interacts with the “uncensored” content of the patient’s psyche. It serves as the main procedure for identifying the “raw” material on which the analysis is based.

The analysis also includes coverage of dreams, which 3. Freud considered “the royal road to the unconscious.” Confrontation is addressed to the patient’s recognition of specific mental phenomena to be examined; clarification involves bringing phenomena into sharp focus to separate important from unimportant aspects; interpretation follows the received material, determining (in interrogative form) the main meaning or reason for the event; elaboration turns to repetition, a gradual and elaborate exploration of interpretations and resistances until the material presented is integrated into the patient's understanding.

Interpretation is the most important procedure, and elaboration is the most time-consuming part of psychotherapy. Processing necessarily includes the patient’s independent work outside of psychotherapeutic hours. However, short-term psychodynamic therapies are also possible.

Within this approach, we consider the following areas of psychotherapy:

• psychoanalysis (general basics);
• psychoanalysis 3. Freud;
• analytical psychotherapy by K. Jung;
• individual psychology of A. Adler;
• introspection by K. Horney;
• child psychoanalysis;
• structural psychoanalysis by J. Lacan;
• transactional analysis;
• short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy;
• symboldrama.

The history of psychoanalysis begins in 1880, when J. Breuer, a Viennese doctor, reported to Freud that one patient, talking about herself, apparently recovered from the symptoms of hysteria. Under hypnosis, she was able to reveal a deeply traumatic event in her life while experiencing an extremely strong emotional reaction (catharsis), and this led to a relief of symptoms. Coming out of the hypnotic state, the patient did not remember what she said under hypnosis. Freud used the same technique with other patients and confirmed Breuer's results.

• 3. Freud considered this complex to be key for neuroses, meaning that the desires and fears of the Oedipus situation are the same as during the development of neurosis. The process of symptom formation begins when unconscious childhood drives threaten to break through the barrier set by repression and enter consciousness for implementation, which turns out to be unacceptable for other parts of the psyche, both for moral reasons and out of fear of punishment. The release of forbidden impulses is perceived as dangerous, and the psyche reacts to them with unpleasant symptoms of anxiety. The psyche can protect itself from this danger by again and again expelling unwanted impulses from consciousness, i.e. as if renewing the act of repression.
• 3. Freud discovered that the principles that allow the interpretation of neurotic symptoms apply equally to other mental phenomena, both moral and psychological. Dreams, for example, represent a continuation of daytime life in such an altered state of consciousness as sleep. By applying the psychoanalytic research method, as well as the principle of conflict and the formation of a compromise, the visual impressions of a dream can be interpreted and translated into everyday language.

• See: Introduction to psychoanalysis. Sociocultural aspect. 3rd ed., erased. St. Petersburg: Lan, 2002.

humanistic psychosocial client

The psychodynamic approach is based on Freud's psychoanalysis. The relationship that develops between the client and the therapist is the same as that between the doctor and the patient, which is why in psychoanalytic approaches the client asking for help is defined as the patient. Initially, this method strictly defined the patient’s attitudes and the necessary procedures, thereby building, as in medical practice, directive principles of relationships. Later 3. Freud comes to the conclusion that the relationship between analyst and patient is part of the therapeutic contact, and it can interfere with or help solve the patient's problems.

The basis of 3. Freud's concept of personality is the assumption of conflicts as the driving force of development. He later expanded these conflicts between the sexual instincts and the instincts of hunger and pain, highlighting such important conflicts in the development of individuality as the conflict between the instinct of life and destruction or death.

The concept is based on the following provisions:

• 1. Behavior has a psychological conditionality (mental determinism).
• 2. Unconscious mental processes determine a person’s thoughts and behavior more than conscious processes, so most of the true reasons for our behavior are unknown to us. From this we conclude:
• 1. People act in ways to avoid pain and unpleasantness, which leads to suppression of feelings and emotions.
• 2. When feelings and emotions are suppressed for a long enough time, either they burst out, or they are disguised in a certain symbolic way.
• 3. Freud introduces a special concept - libido; initially it meant the specific sexual energy underlying all sexual manifestations, which can be quantitatively measured, but at the moment it is not measurable. 3. Freud believed that human individuality could be understood based on knowledge of the amount of libido and its direction towards a particular object, because a person searches for objects in the environment to remove tension or restore self-balance.

According to 3. Freud's concept of personality structure, human behavior is organized around three main structures: Id, Ego and Superego (It, I, Super-I)

The id is the main part of the personality, the most archaic. From the point of view of 3. Freud, this part of the structure is determined from birth, genetically. The id serves as a source of energy for the entire personality, in which primary irrational processes are characterized by the inability to suppress impulses. The id is entirely related to the unconscious and instinctive biological needs (sleep, food, etc.). 3. Freud believed that the Id is a conductor between somatic and mental processes in the body.

The ego develops from the id. 3. Freud wrote about this “I” - it is a modified part of “It”. The change occurred due to the direct influence of the external world through the medium of the conscious. It also strives to apply in practice the influence of the external world and its intentions and tries to replace the principle of pleasure, which reigns unlimitedly in “IT,” with the principle of reality. Perception for the “I” plays the role that instinct plays.”

The ego feeds on the energy of the Id, it strives in the process of gaining experience to avoid dangerous stimuli, developing gradually, it takes control over the demands of the Id. The ego is under constant influence of external (environment) and internal (Id) impulses. An increase or decrease in these impulses leads, respectively, to either “tension” or “relaxation.”

The superego is the next component in the personality. The superego develops in the process of socialization and it reflects social norms and values. 3. Freud believed that the superego has three functions: conscience, introspection and the formation of ideals.

Acting as conscience, the Superego limits or permits conscious activity; formed through parental instructions, this subsystem is closely related to self-observation. Self-observation arises from the superego's ability to evaluate activities aimed at satisfying needs. The formation of ideals is associated with the development of the Superego itself. In the process of development, the Ego learns to cope with sources of anxiety, while developing defense mechanisms: suppression, sublimation, reaction formation, denial, fixation, regression, projection.

Psychoanalysts believe that the patient must recognize that the source of the problems lies within himself and that his difficulties come from a conflict between desires and fears, a conflict between incompatible desires. Hence, according to K. Horney, the patient faces three tasks:

¦ “express yourself as fully and frankly as possible;

¦ realize your own unconscious driving forces and their influence on your Life;

¦ develop the ability to change those relationships that violate relationships with oneself and the world around us.”

The client's free associations help to clarify the nature of conflicts and discover the original problem situations. The ability or inability to “generate” free associations allowed K. Horney to identify the main types of patients:

• * patients whose spontaneous associations cause fears or internal prohibitions;
• * patients who wear “masks” and do not allow free associations to be “invaded”;
• * a patient who is unable to generate free associations without the active intervention of the analyst.

Knowledge of the nature of the client’s problems is carried out not only on the understanding of the symptoms by the analyst, but also by the client himself. This important principle, as well as the strategy of positive relationships and the early experiences that shaped the client's life, are reflected in the nature of client cognition in social work.

Psychotherapy is a system of therapeutic effects on the psyche. It should be noted that this is not necessarily the treatment of a mentally ill person; it can also be an absolutely healthy person who is trying to solve a problem.

At least about 450 types of psychotherapy are known, more than half of which are used in working with children and adolescents, but one way or another, most types of psychotherapy are correlated with three main approaches: behavioral (behavioral), psychodynamic and humanistic (phenomenological).

We can say that these are three stages of psychotherapy, respectively affecting three levels of personality development:

1) Level of personality development “CHILD”. Personality is not independent, it is located within the social individual. We are not even talking about personality in the precise sense yet; this is a person completely dependent on the social environment. This is how behavioral psychotherapy or behavior therapy perceives the patient. The therapist is a teacher, the patient is a student. The therapist performs behavior correction.

2) Level of personality development “TEENAGER”. A teenager in a personal sense is a person who is ready to independently solve personal problems, but does not yet know how to solve them. This is how dynamic psychotherapy or cause therapy perceives the patient. The therapist helps the patient understand the causes of the problem. The therapist cannot give advice, he must only tell the patient the cause of the symptom and create conditions for the patient’s personal development. The patient himself must solve the problem.

3) Level of personality development “ADULT”. A fully realized personality. A person who is ready and able to solve his personal problems. This is how the patient is perceived by humanistic psychotherapy or process therapy. The therapist is a consultant, the patient is a client, there is communication between two equal people. A consultant helps a person notice some existing problems, identify them, and then the opportunity for personal growth arises.

Behavioral (behavioral) approach

The theoretical source of behavioral therapy was the concept of behaviorism of the American zoopsychologist D. Watson (1913) and his followers, who understood the enormous scientific significance of Pavlov’s doctrine of conditioned reflexes, but interpreted and used them mechanistically. According to the views of behaviorists, human mental activity should be studied, as in animals, only by recording external behavior, regardless of the influence of the individual.

Behavioral and emotional problems are understood as perpetuated by rewarding and reinforcing maladaptive responses to environmental stimuli.

D. Wolpe (1969) defined behavior therapy as “the application of experimentally established learning principles to change maladaptive behavior. Maladaptive habits weaken and are eliminated, adaptive habits arise and strengthen.”

If a psychotherapist works in this way not with a person’s behavior, but with his thinking, this is called a cognitive-behavioral approach. The beginning of cognitive therapy is associated with the activities of D. Kelly (1987). Kelly was one of the first psychotherapists to try to directly change the thinking of patients.

How psychotherapy is carried out:

1) The psychotherapist conducts a detailed analysis of the patient’s behavior, but does not delve into his personality, does not seek to penetrate into the origins of the conflict (symptom, problem). The goal of the analysis is to obtain as detailed a scenario as possible for the occurrence of a symptom, described in observable and measurable concepts of what, when, where, under what circumstances, in response to what, how often, how strongly, etc.

The behavior therapist answers 4 questions:
1. What behavior is the target for change and what in the observed behavior can be strengthened, weakened, or supported?
2. What events supported and support this behavior?
3. What environmental changes and systematic interventions might change this behavior?
4. How can once established behavior be maintained and/or extended to new situations in a limited time?

2) Next comes the learning process. Behavioral therapists teach new ways of behaving, and cognitive therapists teach new ways of thinking. A plan is drawn up for the patient to work together and independently, and tasks are assigned so that he can practice outside the therapeutic environment what he received during therapy sessions. Healing occurs.

A wide range of methods are associated with this approach: rational-emotive therapy by A. Ellis, cognitive therapy by A. Beck, etc.

Psychodynamic approach

The basis of this approach is the psychoanalysis of S. Freud.

The goal of psychotherapy is to understand and resolve internal emotional conflicts that arose in the earliest relationships, determine the subjective meaning of subsequent experiences and are reproduced in later life.

The therapeutic relationship is used to identify, explain and change these subjective meanings. The therapist-patient relationship is viewed as a reflection of subjective meanings and emotional conflicts going back to early experience. During the therapeutic relationship, the patient unconsciously transfers to the therapist the meanings and feelings developed in early experience, which thus become accessible to awareness. In turn, the therapist may also unconsciously transfer his own subjective meanings and feelings onto the patient. Awareness of the system of transferences and countertransferences, the resistances that arise, forms the main fabric of the psychodynamic approach.

Ultimately, the “Ego” must understand what the “Id” wants and defeat it.

How psychotherapy is carried out:

1) The psychotherapist analyzes the patient’s unconscious conflict through a detailed analysis of the patient’s past relationships.

Classic psychoanalysis includes 5 basic psychotechniques:
1. The method of free associations involves the generation of involuntary statements, those that accidentally come to mind, the content of which can reflect any of the client’s experiences.
2. Interpretation of dreams. It is taken into account that during sleep, ego-protective mechanisms are weakened and experiences hidden from consciousness appear, as well as the fact that dreams are a process of transforming experiences into a more acceptable form for perception and mastery;
3. Interpretation, i.e. interpretations, explanations, including three procedures: identification (designation, explanation) own interpretation and translation into the language of the client’s everyday life;
4. Analysis of resistance ensures that the client is aware of his Ego-defense mechanisms and accepts the need for confrontation regarding them;
5. Transfer analysis. Transference is a psychological phenomenon that consists of the unconscious transfer of previously experienced feelings and relationships that manifested themselves to one person to a completely different person.

2) The psychotherapist makes the patient think about this conflict and achieves awareness of it.

3) Having identified the conflict, the patient traces how the unconscious conflict and associated defense mechanisms create interpersonal problems.

A wide range of methods are associated with this approach: classical psychoanalysis 3. Freud, individual psychotherapy by A. Adler, analytical psychotherapy by K.G. Jung, interpersonal psychotherapy by S. Sullivan, characterological analysis by K. Horney, etc., and in child psychotherapy - by the schools of A. Freud, ego analysis by M. Klein, G. Hack-Helmuth, etc. Within the framework of this approach, transactional analysis by E. Bern, psychodrama by J. Moreno and other methods.

Humanistic (phenomenological) approach

It originates in humanistic psychology and the works of its founders - C. Rogers, A. Maslow and others.

According to this approach, each person has a unique ability to perceive and interpret the world in his own way. In the language of philosophy, the mental experience of the environment is called a phenomenon, and the study of how a person experiences reality is called phenomenology.

Proponents of this approach are convinced that it is not instincts, internal conflicts or environmental stimuli that determine a person’s behavior, but his personal perception of reality at any given moment. As Sartre said: “Man is his choices.” People control themselves, their behavior is determined by the ability to make their own choices - to choose how to think and how to act. These choices are dictated by a person's unique perception of the world. For example, if you perceive the world as friendly and accepting, then you are more likely to feel happy and safe. If you perceive the world as hostile and dangerous, then you are likely to be anxious and defensive (prone to defensive reactions).

In fact, the phenomenological approach leaves out of its consideration the instincts and learning processes that are common to both humans and animals. Instead, the phenomenological approach focuses on those specific mental qualities that distinguish humans from the animal world: consciousness, self-awareness, creativity, the ability to make plans, make decisions and responsibility for them. For this reason, the phenomenological approach is also called humanistic.

K. Rogers placed the client’s personality at the center of his psychotherapeutic practice, who feels helpless, closed to true communication, etc. The main hypothesis of K. Rogers was that the relationship between the client and the psychotherapist is a catalyst, a condition for positive personal changes. Rogers defines the main goal of psychological assistance as providing conditions through which a person solves his problems himself.

How psychotherapy is carried out:

1) Establishing a favorable relationship between the psychotherapist and the client, in which the client feels unconditional acceptance and support.

2) The client decides what to talk about and when, without direction, evaluation or interpretation from the therapist. The therapist only creates the right conditions.

The stages of the Rogerian approach are as follows:
1. self-expression, when the client, in an atmosphere of acceptance, begins to gradually open up his problems and feelings;
2. self-disclosure and self-acceptance by the client develops in all its complexity and inconsistency, limitations and incompleteness;
3. the process of relating to one’s own phenomenological world as one’s own develops, i.e. alienation from one’s own “I” is overcome and, as a result, the need to be oneself increases;
4. development of congruence, self-acceptance and responsibility, establishment of internal communication, behavior and self-awareness of “I” become organic, spontaneous. There is an integration of personal experience into a single whole;
5. personal changes, openness to oneself and the world, the client becomes congruent with the world and himself, open to his own experience.

3) These conditions promote awareness, self-acceptance and expression of feelings by patients. Especially those that they have suppressed and that are blocking their growth, thereby causing the problem. This is the cure.

A wide range of methods are associated with this approach: non-directive client-centered psychotherapy by C. Rogers, Gestalt therapy by F. Perls, psychological counseling by R. May, bioenergetics by W. Reich, sensory awareness by S. Silver and C. Brooks, structural integration by I. Rolf , psychosynthesis by R. Assagioli, logotherapy by W. Frankl, existential analysis by J. Bugenthal, etc. This also includes art therapy, poetry therapy, creative expression therapy (M. E. Burno), music therapy (P. Nordoff and K. Robbins) and etc.

When psychology separated from philosophy and became a scientific discipline in the second half of the 19th century, its main goal was to reveal the basic elements of the mental life of an adult using the method of introspection in laboratory conditions. This direction, called structural school, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, who opened the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in 1879 (discussed in Chapter 1). As the main task of psychology, Wundt put forward the decomposition of the processes of consciousness into fundamental elements and the study of natural connections between them. Therefore, psychologists of that time were simply stunned by the emergence of a radically different approach to the study of people, developed almost single-handedly by Sigmund Freud, then a young Viennese doctor. Instead of placing consciousness at the center of human mental life, Freud compared it to an iceberg, an insignificant part of which protrudes above the surface of the water. In contrast to the prevailing view of man in the last century as a rational being and conscious of his behavior, he put forward a different theory: people are in a state of constant conflict, the origins of which lie in another, more extensive sphere of mental life - in unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses.

Freud was the first to characterize the psyche as a battlefield between the irreconcilable forces of instinct, reason and consciousness. The term "psychodynamic" refers specifically to this ongoing struggle between different aspects of the personality. Psychoanalytic theory as such serves as an example of a psychodynamic approach - it assigns a leading role to the complex interaction between instincts, motives and drives that compete or fight with each other for primacy in the regulation of human behavior. The idea that personality is a dynamic configuration of processes in endless conflict expresses the essence of the psychodynamic direction, especially in Freud's interpretation. The concept of dynamics in relation to personality implies that human behavior is deterministic rather than arbitrary or random. The determinism assumed by the psychodynamic school extends to everything we do, feel, or think, even including events that many people regard as pure chance, as well as slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, and the like. This presentation brings us to the main and decisive theme developed by the psychodynamic direction. Namely, it emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in the regulation of human behavior. According to Freud, not only are our actions often irrational, but also the very meaning and reasons for our behavior are rarely accessible to awareness.

It is difficult to evaluate modern theories of personality without giving due recognition to Freud's theory. Regardless of whether we accept or reject some (or all) of his ideas, it is impossible to dispute the fact that Freud's influence on Western civilization in the 20th century was deep and lasting. It can be argued that in all of human history, very few ideas have had such a widespread and powerful impact. This is, of course, a strong statement, but it is difficult to imagine that Freud will have many competitors. His view of human nature dealt a tangible blow to the prevailing ideas of Victorian society at that time; he offered a difficult but compelling path to understanding aspects of human mental life that were considered dark, hidden and seemingly inaccessible.

Over almost 45 years of active scientific work and clinical practice, Freud created: 1) the first detailed theory of personality; 2) an extensive system of clinical observations based on his therapeutic experience and self-analysis; 3) an original method of treating neurotic disorders; 4) a method for studying those mental processes that are almost impossible to study in any other way. In this chapter we will look at Freud's theory and its underlying premises. Next, we will discuss some of the research that was inspired by Freud's theory, and we will also look at how the theory is illustrated by everyday human behavior.

Sigmund Freud: psychodynamic theory of personality

Biographical sketch

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the small Austrian town of Freiberg, Moravia (in what is now the Czech Republic). He was the eldest of seven children in his family, although his father, a wool merchant, had two sons from a previous marriage and was already a grandfather by the time of Sigmund's birth. When Freud was four years old, his family moved to Vienna due to financial difficulties. Freud lived permanently in Vienna, and in 1938, a year before his death, he emigrated to England.

<Зигмунд Фрейд (1856-1939).>

From the very first classes, Freud studied brilliantly. Despite limited financial resources, which forced the whole family to huddle in a cramped apartment, Freud had his own room and even a lamp with an oil wick, which he used during classes. The rest of the family were content with candles. Like other young men of that time, he received a classical education: he studied Greek and Latin, read the great classical poets, playwrights and philosophers - Shakespeare, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His love of reading was so strong that the bookshop's debts mounted rapidly, and this did not arouse sympathy from his father, who was strapped for money (Puner, 1947, p. 47). Freud had an excellent command of the German language and at one time received prizes for his literary victories. He also spoke fluent French, English, Spanish and Italian.

Freud recalled that as a child he often dreamed of becoming a general or minister. However, since he was a Jew, almost any professional career was closed to him, with the exception of medicine and law - so strong were the anti-Semitic sentiments then. Freud chose medicine without much desire. He entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna in 1873. During his studies, he was influenced by the famous psychologist Ernst Brücke. Brücke advanced the idea that living organisms are dynamic energy systems subject to the laws of the physical universe. Freud took these ideas seriously, and they were later developed into his views on the dynamics of mental functioning (Sulloway, 1979).

Ambition pushed Freud to make some discovery that would bring him fame already in his student years. He contributed to science by describing new properties of nerve cells in goldfish, as well as confirming the existence of testicles in male eels. However, his most important discovery was that cocaine could be used to treat many diseases. He himself used cocaine without any negative consequences and prophesied the role of this substance as almost a panacea, not to mention its effectiveness as an analgesic (Byck, 1974). Later, as cocaine addiction became known, Freud's enthusiasm waned (Ellenberger, 1970).

After receiving his medical degree in 1881, Freud took a position at the Institute of Brain Anatomy and conducted comparative studies of the adult and fetal brain. He was never attracted to practical medicine, but he soon left his position and began to practice privately as a neurologist, mainly because scientific work was poorly paid, and the atmosphere of anti-Semitism did not provide opportunities for promotion. On top of that, Freud fell in love and was forced to realize that if he ever got married, he would need a well-paid job.

The year 1885 marked a critical turn in Freud's career. He received a research fellowship, which gave him the opportunity to travel to Paris and train for four months with Jean Charcot, one of the most prominent neurologists of the time. Charcot studied the causes and treatment of hysteria, a mental disorder that manifested itself in a wide variety of somatic problems. Patients suffering from hysteria experienced symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, blindness and deafness. Charcot, using suggestion in a hypnotic state, could both induce and eliminate many of these hysterical symptoms. Although Freud later rejected the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic method, Charcot's lectures and clinical demonstrations made a strong impression on him. During a short stay at the famous Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, Freud changed from a neurologist to a psychopathologist (Steele, 1982).

In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays, with whom they lived together for more than half a century. They had three daughters and three sons. The youngest daughter, Anna, followed in her father's footsteps and eventually took a leading position in the psychoanalytic field as a child psychoanalyst. In the 1980s, Freud began collaborating with Joseph Breuer, one of the most famous Viennese doctors. Breuer had by that time achieved some success in treating patients with hysteria through the use of the method of freely telling patients about their symptoms. Breuer and Freud undertook a joint study of the psychological causes of hysteria and methods of treating this disease. Their work culminated in the publication of Inquiries into Hysteria (1895), in which they concluded that hysterical symptoms were caused by repressed memories of traumatic events. The date of this significant publication is sometimes associated with the founding of psychoanalysis, but the most creative period in Freud's life was yet to come.

The personal and professional relationship between Freud and Breuer came to an abrupt end around the same time that Studies in Hysteria was published. The reasons why colleagues suddenly became irreconcilable enemies are still not entirely clear. Freud biographer Ernest Jones argues that Breuer strongly disagreed with Freud on the role of sexuality in the etiology of hysteria, and this predetermined the break (Jones, 1953). Another researcher (Steele, 1982) suggests that Breuer acted as a “father figure” for the younger Freud and his elimination was simply destined by the very course of development of the relationship due to Freud’s Oedipus complex. Whatever the reasons, the two men never met again as friends.

Freud's claims that hysteria and other mental disorders were rooted in problems related to sexuality led to his expulsion from the Vienna Medical Society in 1896. By this time, Freud had very little, if any, development of what would later become known as the theory of psychoanalysis. Moreover, his assessment of his own personality and work, based on Jones's observations, was as follows: “I have fairly limited abilities or talents - I am not good at science, mathematics, or numeracy. But what I possess, although in a limited form, is probably very intensely developed” (Jones, 1953, p. 119).

The period between 1896 and 1900 was a period of loneliness for Freud, but a very productive loneliness. At this time, he begins to analyze his dreams, and after the death of his father in 1896, he practices introspection for half an hour before bed every day. His most outstanding work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), is based on the analysis of his own dreams. However, fame and recognition were still far away. To begin with, this masterpiece was ignored by the psychiatric community, and Freud received only a royalty of $209 for his work. It may seem incredible, but over the next eight years he managed to sell only 600 copies of this publication.

In the five years following the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's prestige had grown so much that he became one of the world's most renowned physicians. In 1902, The Psychological Wednesday Society was founded, attended only by a select circle of Freud's intellectual followers. In 1908, this organization was renamed the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Many of Freud's colleagues who were members of this society became famous psychoanalysts, each in his own direction: Ernest Jones, Sándor Ferenczi, Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler, Hans Sachs and Otto Rank. Later, Adler, Jung and Rank left the ranks of Freud's followers and headed competing scientific schools.

The period from 1901 to 1905 became especially creative. Freud published several works, including The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Three Essays on Sexuality (1905a), and Humor and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1905b). In "Three Essays..." Freud proposed that children are born with sexual urges, and their parents appear as the first sexual objects. Public outrage followed immediately and had a wide resonance. Freud was branded as a sexual pervert, obscene and immoral. Many medical institutions were boycotted because of their tolerance of Freud's ideas about the sex lives of children.

In 1909, an event occurred that moved the psychoanalytic movement from its dead point of relative isolation and opened the way for it to international recognition. G. Stanley Hall invited Freud to Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts to give a series of lectures. The lectures were very well received and Freud was awarded an honorary doctorate. At the time, his future looked very promising. He achieved considerable fame; patients from all over the world signed up for consultations with him. But there were also problems. First of all, he lost almost all his savings in 1919 due to the war. In 1920, his 26-year-old daughter died. But perhaps the most difficult test for him was the fear for the fate of his two sons who fought at the front. Partly influenced by the atmosphere of the First World War and the new wave of anti-Semitism, at the age of 64 Freud created a theory about the universal human instinct - the desire for death. However, despite his pessimism about the future of humanity, he continued to clearly formulate his ideas in new books. The most important are “Lectures on an Introduction to Psychoanalysis” (1920a), “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920b), “The Ego and the It” (1923), “The Future of an Illusion” (1927), “Civilization and Its Discontents” ( 1930), New Lectures on an Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1933), and An Outline of Psychoanalysis, published posthumously in 1940. Freud was an exceptionally gifted writer, as evidenced by his being awarded the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930.

The First World War had a huge impact on Freud's life and ideas. Clinical work with hospitalized soldiers expanded his understanding of the variety and subtlety of psychopathological manifestations. The rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s also had a strong influence on his views about the social nature of man. In 1932, he was a constant target of attacks by the Nazis (in Berlin, the Nazis staged several public burnings of his books). Freud commented on these events: “What progress! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me, but now they are content with burning my books” (Jones, 1957, p. 182). It was only through the diplomatic efforts of Vienna's influential citizens that he was allowed to leave the city shortly after the Nazi invasion in 1938.

The last years of Freud's life were difficult. Since 1923, he suffered from a spreading cancer of the pharynx and jaw (Freud smoked 20 Cuban cigars daily), but stubbornly refused drug therapy, with the exception of small doses of aspirin. He worked persistently despite undergoing 33 major surgeries to stop the tumor from spreading (which forced him to wear an uncomfortable prosthesis to fill the empty space between his nasal and oral cavities, leaving him unable to speak at times). Another test of his endurance awaited him: during Hitler's occupation of Austria in 1938, his daughter Anna was arrested by the Gestapo. It was only by chance that she was able to free herself and reunite with her family in England.

Freud died on September 23, 1939 in London, where he found himself as a displaced Jewish emigrant. For those interested in learning more about his life, we recommend the three-volume biography written by his friend and colleague Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (1953, 1955, 1957). Published in England, an edition of Freud's collected works in twenty-four volumes was distributed throughout the world. Readers can obtain additional information about Freud's personal life from the following works: Clark, 1980; Isbister, 1985 and Vitz, 1988.

Psychoanalysis: Basic Concepts and Principles

The term "psychoanalysis" has three meanings: 1) a theory of personality and psychopathology, 2) a method of treating personality disorders, and 3) a method of studying an individual's unconscious thoughts and feelings. This connection of theory with therapy and with personality assessment permeates all aspects of Freud's ideas about human behavior. However, underneath all these intricacies and complexities lie a relatively small number of original concepts and principles that reflect Freud's psychoanalytic approach to personality. Let us first consider his views on the organization of the psyche, which is often called Freud's “topographic model”.

Levels of Consciousness: Topographical Model

During the long period of development of psychoanalysis, Freud used topographic model personal organization. According to this model, three levels can be distinguished in mental life: consciousness, preconscious and unconscious. Considering them together, Freud used this “psychic map” to show the degree of awareness of such mental phenomena as thoughts and fantasies.

Level consciousness consists of sensations and experiences that you are aware of at a given moment in time. For example, right now your consciousness may contain the thoughts of the authors who wrote this text, as well as a vague feeling of impending hunger. Freud insisted that only a small part of mental life (thoughts, perceptions, feelings, memory) enters the sphere of consciousness. Whatever is being experienced in the human mind at a given moment in time should be considered as the result of a process of selective sorting, largely regulated by external signals. Moreover, certain content is only consciously aware for a short period of time and then quickly relegated to the preconscious or unconscious level as the person's attention moves to other cues. Consciousness captures only a small percentage of all information stored in the brain.

Region preconscious, sometimes called "accessible memory", includes all experiences that are not currently conscious, but can easily be brought back into consciousness either spontaneously or with minimal effort. For example, you can remember everything you did last Saturday night; all the cities in which you happen to live; your favorite books or the argument you made to your friend yesterday. From Freud's point of view, the preconscious builds bridges between conscious and unconscious areas of the psyche.

The deepest and most significant area of ​​the human mind is unconscious. The unconscious is the repository of primitive instinctual urges plus emotions and memories that are so threatening to consciousness that they have been suppressed or repressed into the unconscious. Examples of what can be found in the unconscious include forgotten childhood traumas, hidden hostile feelings toward a parent, and repressed sexual desires that you are unaware of. According to Freud, such unconscious material largely determines our daily functioning.

Freud was not the first to draw attention to the importance of unconscious processes in human behavior. Some philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries suggested that the basic content of the inner world is not accessible to awareness (Ellenberger, 1970). However, unlike his ideological predecessors, Freud gave the concept of unconscious life an empirical status. In particular, he emphasized that the unconscious should not be viewed as a hypothetical abstraction, but rather as a reality that can be demonstrated and verified. Freud firmly believed that the truly significant aspects of human behavior are shaped and directed by impulses and drives that are entirely outside the sphere of consciousness. These influences are not only not realized, but, moreover, if they begin to be realized or openly expressed in behavior, this encounters strong internal resistance of the individual. Unconscious experiences, unlike preconscious ones, are completely inaccessible to awareness, but they largely determine people's actions. However, unconscious material may be expressed in disguised or symbolic form, just as unconscious instinctual urges find indirect satisfaction in dreams, fantasies, play and work. Freud used this insight in his work with patients.

Personality structure

The concept of unconscious mental processes was central to early descriptions of personality organization. However, in the early 1920s, Freud revised his conceptual model of mental life and introduced three basic structures into the anatomy of personality: eid,ego And superego. This tripartite division of personality is known as structural model mental life, although Freud believed that these components should be considered more as certain processes than as special “structures” of the personality. Freud understood that the constructs he proposed were hypothetical, since the level of development of neuroanatomy at that time was not sufficient to determine their localization in the central nervous system. The relationship between these personality structures and levels of consciousness (i.e., the topographic model) is diagrammed in Fig. 3-1. The figure shows that the id sphere is completely unconscious, while the ego and superego operate on all three levels of consciousness. Consciousness covers all three personal structures, although the main part of it is formed by impulses emanating from the id.

Rice. 3-1. Relationship between the structural model and levels of consciousness.

ID. The word "id" comes from the Latin "it" and, according to Freud, refers exclusively to the primitive, instinctual and innate aspects of personality. The id functions entirely in the unconscious and is closely related to instinctive biological drives (eating, sleeping, defecation, copulation) that energize our behavior. According to Freud, the id is something dark, biological, chaotic, not aware of laws, not subject to rules. The id remains central to the individual throughout his life. Being primitive in its core, it is free from any restrictions. Being the oldest original structure of the psyche, the id expresses the primary principle of all human life - the immediate discharge of psychic energy produced by biologically determined impulses (especially sexual and aggressive). The latter, when they are held back and do not find release, create tension in personal functioning. The immediate release of tension is called pleasure principle. The id obeys this principle by expressing itself in an impulsive, irrational and narcissistic (exaggeratedly selfish) manner, regardless of the consequences to others or contrary to self-preservation. Because the id knows no fear or anxiety, it takes no precautions in expressing its goal - a fact that Freud believed could pose a danger to the individual and to society. In other words, the id can be compared to a blind king, whose brutal power and authority forces one to obey, but in order to exercise power, he is forced to rely on his subjects.

Freud viewed the id as an intermediary between somatic and mental processes in the body. He wrote that it is “directly related to somatic processes, stems from instinctive needs and gives them psychic expression, but we cannot say in what substrate this connection is made” (Freud, 1915-1917, p. 104). The id acts as a reservoir for all primitive instinctual drives and draws its energy directly from bodily processes.

Freud described two mechanisms by which the id relieves the personality of tension: reflex actions And primary processes. In the first case, the id responds automatically to excitation signals and, thus, immediately relieves the tension caused by the stimulus. Examples of such innate reflex mechanisms are coughing in response to irritation of the upper respiratory tract and tears when a speck gets into the eye. However, it must be recognized that reflex actions do not always reduce the level of irritation or tension. Thus, not a single reflex movement will enable a hungry child to get food. When reflex action fails to reduce tension, another function of the id, called the primary representational process, comes into play. The id forms a mental image of an object initially associated with the satisfaction of a basic need. In the example of a hungry child, this process may evoke an image of a mother's breast or a bottle of milk. Other examples of the primary process of representation are found in dreams, hallucinations or psychoses, and in the mental activity of newborn infants.

Primary processes are an illogical, irrational and fantasy form of human ideas, characterized by an inability to suppress impulses and distinguish between the real and the unreal, “self” and “not-self”. The tragedy of behavior in accordance with the primary process is that the individual cannot distinguish between an actual object capable of satisfying a need and its image (for example, between water and the mirage of water for a person wandering through the desert). This kind of confusion can lead to death if some external sources of need satisfaction do not appear. Therefore, Freud argued, it is an impossible task for an infant to learn to postpone gratification of primary needs. The capacity for delayed gratification first emerges when young children learn that there is an outside world beyond their own needs and desires. With the advent of this knowledge, a second personality structure, the ego, arises.

Ego(from the Latin “ego” - “I”) is a component of the mental apparatus responsible for decision making. The ego seeks to express and satisfy the desires of the id in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the external world. The ego receives its structure and function from the id, evolves from it, and borrows part of the energy of the id for its needs to meet the demands of social reality. Thus, the ego helps ensure the safety and self-preservation of the organism. In the struggle for survival against both the external social world and the instinctual needs of the id, the ego must constantly differentiate between events on the psychic plane and real events in the external world. For example, a hungry person in search of food must distinguish between the image of food that appears in the imagination and the image of food in reality if he wants to relieve stress. That is, he or she must learn to obtain and consume food before the tension subsides. This goal is achieved through certain actions that enable the id to express its instinctual needs in accordance with the norms and ethics of the social world - an art not always achievable. This goal causes a person to learn, think, reason, perceive, decide, remember, etc. Accordingly, the ego uses cognitive and perceptual strategies in its effort to satisfy the desires and needs of the id.

Unlike the id, whose nature is expressed in the search for pleasure, the ego obeys reality principle, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism by delaying the gratification of instincts until the moment when the opportunity to achieve discharge in a suitable way is found and/or appropriate conditions are found in the external environment. The reality principle enables the individual to inhibit, redirect or gradually release the raw energy of the id within the framework of social restrictions and the individual's conscience. For example, the expression of sexual need is delayed until the appropriate object and circumstances arise. So, when the object and conditions are ideal, the pleasure principle governs behavior. The reality principle introduces a measure of rationality into our behavior. The ego, in contrast to the id, differentiates between reality and fantasy, tolerates moderate stress, changes with new experiences, and engages in rational cognitive activity. Relying on the power of logical thinking, which Freud called secondary process, the ego is able to direct behavior in the right direction so that instinctual needs are satisfied in a way that is safe for the individual and for other people. Thus, the ego is the “executive organ” of the personality and the area of ​​intellectual processes and problem solving. As will be shown later, one of the main goals of psychoanalytic therapy is to release some ego energy so that problems can be solved at higher levels of mental functioning.

Superego. In order for a person to function effectively in society, he must have a system of values, norms and ethics that are reasonably compatible with those accepted in his environment. All this is acquired through the process of “socialization”; in the language of the structural model of psychoanalysis - through the formation of the superego (from the Latin “super” - “super” and “ego” - “I”).

The superego is the final component of the developing personality, representing the internalized version of social norms and standards of behavior. From Freud's point of view, the human body is not born with a superego. Rather, children must acquire it through interactions with parents, teachers, and other “formative” figures. Being the moral and ethical force of the individual, the superego is a consequence of the child’s prolonged dependence on his parents. Formally, it appears when the child begins to distinguish between “right” and “wrong”; learns what is good and bad, moral and immoral (from about three to five years of age). Initially, the superego reflects only parental expectations of what constitutes good and bad behavior. The child learns to bring every action into line with these restrictions in order to avoid conflict and punishment. However, as the child's social world begins to expand (through school, religion, and peer groups), the scope of the superego expands to the extent of behavior that these new groups consider acceptable. The superego can be viewed as an individualized reflection of the “collective conscience” of society, although the child’s perception of the real values ​​of society may be distorted.

Freud divided the superego into two subsystems: conscience And ego ideal. Conscience is acquired through parental discipline. It involves behavior that parents call “disobedient behavior” and for which the child is reprimanded. Conscience includes the ability for critical self-evaluation, the presence of moral prohibitions and the emergence of a feeling of guilt in a child when he did not do what he should have done. The rewarding aspect of the superego is the ego ideal. It is formed from what parents approve of or value highly; it leads the individual to set high standards for himself. And, if the goal is achieved, it gives rise to a feeling of self-respect and pride. For example, a child who is rewarded for doing well in school will always be proud of his or her academic achievements.

The superego is considered fully formed when parental control is replaced by self-control. However, this principle of self-control does not serve the purposes of the reality principle. The superego, trying to completely inhibit any socially condemned impulses from the id, tries to direct a person to absolute perfection in thoughts, words and actions. In short, it tries to convince the ego of the superiority of idealistic goals over realistic ones.

Instincts are the driving force of behavior

Psychoanalytic theory is based on the idea that people are complex energy systems. In accordance with the achievements of physics and physiology of the 19th century, Freud believed that human behavior is activated by a single energy, according to the law of conservation of energy (that is, it can move from one state to another, but its quantity remains the same). Freud took this general principle of nature, translated it into psychological terms, and concluded that the source of psychic energy is a neurophysiological state of excitation. He further postulated: each person has a certain limited amount of energy that fuels mental activity; the goal of any form of individual behavior is to reduce the tension caused by unpleasant him with the accumulation of this energy. For example, if a significant part of your energy is spent on comprehending the meaning of what is written on this page, then it will not be enough for other types of mental activity - daydreaming or watching a television program. Likewise, your reason for reading this may be to relieve the stress of taking an exam next week.

Thus, according to Freud's theory, human motivation is based entirely on the energy of excitement produced by bodily needs. In his opinion, the main amount of mental energy generated by the body is directed to mental activity, which allows one to reduce the level of excitement caused by need. According to Freud, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires, are called instincts. Instincts manifest innate states of excitation at the level of the body, requiring release and discharge. Freud argued that all human activity (thinking, perception, memory and imagination) is determined by instincts. The influence of the latter on behavior can be either direct or indirect, disguised. People behave in one way or another because they are driven by unconscious tension - their actions serve the purpose of reducing this tension. Instincts as such are “the final cause of all activity” (Freud, 1940, p. 5).

The essence of life and death

Although the number of instincts may be unlimited, Freud recognized the existence of two main groups: instincts life And of death. The first group (under the general name Eros) includes all the forces that serve the purpose of maintaining vital processes and ensuring the reproduction of the species. Recognizing the great importance of life instincts in the physical organization of individuals, Freud considered sexual instincts to be the most essential for the development of personality. The energy of sexual instincts is called libido(from Latin "to want" or "desire"), or libido energy- a term used to mean the energy of life instincts in general. Libido is a certain amount of mental energy that finds release exclusively in sexual behavior.

Freud believed that there is not one sexual instinct, but several. Each of them is associated with a specific area of ​​the body called erogenous zone. In a sense, the whole body is one large erogenous zone, but psychoanalytic theory particularly emphasizes the mouth, anus and genitals. Freud was convinced that erogenous zones were potential sources of tension and that manipulation of these zones would reduce tension and produce pleasurable sensations. Thus, biting or sucking produces oral pleasure, bowel movement leads to anal pleasure, and masturbation gives genital pleasure.

The second group is the death instincts, called Thanatos, - underlies all manifestations of cruelty, aggression, suicide and murder. Unlike the energy of libido, as the energy of the life instincts, the energy of the death instincts has not received a special name. However, Freud considered them biologically determined and as important in the regulation of human behavior as the life instincts. He believed that the death instincts obey the principle entropy(that is, the law of thermodynamics, according to which any energy system strives to maintain dynamic equilibrium). Referring to Schopenhauer, Freud stated: “The goal of life is death” (Freud, 1920b, p. 38). Thus, he wanted to say that all living organisms have a compulsive desire to return to the uncertain state from which they came. That is, Freud believed that people have an inherent desire for death. The severity of this statement, however, is somewhat mitigated by the fact that modern psychoanalysts do not pay such attention to the death instinct. This is probably the most controversial and least shared aspect of Freud's theory.

What are instincts really?

Any instinct has four characteristics: source, goal, object and stimulus. Source instinct - a state of the body or a need that causes this state. The sources of life instincts are described by neurophysiology (for example, hunger or thirst). Freud did not give a clear definition of the death instincts. Target instinct always consists in eliminating or reducing the excitation caused by the need. If the goal is achieved, the person experiences a short-term state of bliss. Although there are many ways to achieve an instinctive goal, there is a tendency to maintain the state of arousal at some minimum level (according to the pleasure principle).

An object means any person, object in the environment, or anything in an individual's own body that provides the satisfaction (i.e., purpose) of an instinct. The actions that lead to instinctive pleasure are not necessarily always the same. In fact, an object can change throughout life. In addition to flexibility in the choice of objects, individuals are able to postpone the discharge of instinctual energy for long periods of time.

Almost any behavioral process in psychoanalytic theory can be described in terms of: 1) binding, or directing energy to an object ( cathexis); 2) obstacles preventing the satisfaction of instinct ( anticathexis). An example of cathexis is emotional attachment to other people (that is, the transfer of energy to them), passion for someone’s thoughts or ideals. Anticathexis manifests itself in external or internal barriers that prevent the immediate weakening of instinctual needs. Thus, the interaction between the expression of instinct and its inhibition, between cathexis and anti-cathexis constitutes the main bastion of the psychoanalytic construction of a motivation system.

Finally, stimulus represents the amount of energy, force or pressure required to satisfy an instinct. It can be assessed indirectly by observing the number and types of obstacles that a person must overcome in pursuit of a particular goal.

The key to understanding the dynamics of the energy of instincts and its expression in the choice of objects is the concept displaced activity. According to this concept, the release of energy and the release of tension occurs through a change in behavioral activity. Displaced activity occurs when, for some reason, the choice of the desired object to satisfy the instinct is impossible. In such cases the instinct may shift and thus focus its energy on some other object. Consider the following not-so-rare situation. Your boss has intimidated you with measures that will follow if you don't do your job. You come home, slam the door, kick the dog, and yell at your spouse. What happened? You took out your anger on objects that are not directly related to your condition; it was an indirect expression of emotion.

Freud believed that many socio-psychological phenomena can be understood in the context of the displacement of two primary instincts: sexual and aggressive. For example, the socialization of a child can be partly explained as the result of a successive shift of sexual needs from one object to another, as required by parents and society. In a similar way, racial prejudice and war can be explained by the displacement of aggressive impulses. According to Freud, the entire structure of modern civilization (art, music, literature) is a product of the displacement of sexual and aggressive energy. Unable to receive pleasure directly and immediately, people learned to shift their instinctual energy to other people, other objects and other activities, instead of those intended for direct release of tension. Thus, complex religious, political, economic and other institutions emerge.

Personality development: psychosexual stages

Psychoanalytic developmental theory is based on two premises. First, or genetic premise, emphasizes that early childhood experiences play a critical role in the formation of adult personality. Freud was convinced that the basic foundation of an individual's personality is laid at a very early age, before the age of five. The second premise is that a person is born with a certain amount of sexual energy (libido), which then goes through several stages of development. psychosexual stages, rooted in the instinctive processes of the body.

Freud has a hypothesis about four successive stages of personality development: oral, anal, phallic And genital. In the general scheme of development, Freud included latent period normally occurring between the 6-7th year of a child’s life and the onset of puberty. But, strictly speaking, the latent period is not a stage. The first three stages of development span ages from birth to five years and are called pregenital stages, since the genital area has not yet acquired a dominant role in the development of personality. The fourth stage coincides with the beginning of puberty. The names of the stages are based on the names of the areas of the body whose stimulation leads to a discharge of libidinal energy. In table 3-1 describes the stages of psychosexual development according to Freud.

Table 3-1. Stages of psychosexual development according to Freud

Stage	Age period	Libido concentration zone	Tasks and experience appropriate for this level of development
Oral	0-18 months	Mouth (sucking, biting, chewing)	Weaning (from breast or bottle). Separating oneself from the mother's body
Anal		Anus (holding or pushing out feces)	Toilet training (self-control)
Phallic		Genitals (masturbation)	Identification with same-sex adults who act as role models
Latent		Absent (sexual inactivity)	Expanding social contacts with peers
Genital	Puberty (puberty)	Genital organs (capacity for heterosexual relations)	Establishing intimate relationships or falling in love; making your labor contribution to society

Since Freud's emphasis was on biological factors, all stages are closely related to erogenous zones, that is, sensitive areas of the body that function as loci of expression of libidinal impulses. Erogenous zones include the ears, eyes, mouth (lips), breasts, anus and genitals.

The term “psychosexual” emphasizes that the main factor determining human development is sexual instinct, progressing from one erogenous zone to another during a person’s life. According to Freud's theory, at each stage of development, a certain area of ​​the body strives for a certain object or action in order to produce pleasant tension. Psychosexual development is a biologically determined sequence that unfolds in an invariable order and is inherent in all people, regardless of their cultural level. The social experience of an individual, as a rule, brings to each stage a certain long-term contribution in the form of acquired attitudes, traits and values.

The logic of Freud's theoretical constructions is based on two factors: frustration And overprotectiveness. When frustrated, the child's psychosexual needs (such as sucking, biting, or chewing) are suppressed by parents or caregivers and are therefore not optimally satisfied. If the parents are overprotective, the child is given few opportunities (or none at all) to manage his own internal functions (for example, to exercise control over excretory functions). For this reason, the child develops a feeling of dependence and incompetence. In any case, as Freud believed, the result is an excessive accumulation of libido, which subsequently, in adulthood, can be expressed in the form of “residual” behavior (character traits, values, attitudes) associated with the psychosexual stage at which frustration or overprotectiveness occurred .

An important concept in psychoanalytic theory is the concept regression, that is, a return to an earlier stage of psychosexual development and the manifestation of childish behavior characteristic of this earlier period. For example, an adult in a situation of severe stress may regress, and this will be accompanied by tears, thumb sucking, and the desire to drink something “stronger.” Regression is a special case of what Freud called fixation(delay or arrest of development at a certain psychosexual stage). Followers of Freud view regression and fixation as complementary phenomena; the probability of regression depends mainly on the strength of fixation (Fenichel, 1945). Fixation represents the inability to progress from one psychosexual stage to another; it leads to excessive expression of needs characteristic of the stage where fixation occurred. For example, persistent thumb sucking in a ten-year-old boy is a sign of oral fixation. In this case, libidinal energy manifests itself in activity characteristic of an earlier stage of development. The worse a person copes with mastering the demands and tasks put forward by a particular age period, the more susceptible he is to regression under conditions of emotional or physical stress in the future. Thus, the personality structure of each individual is characterized in terms of the corresponding stage of psychosexual development that he has reached or at which he has become fixated. Associated with each of the psychosexual stages of development are different character types, which we will look at shortly. Now let us turn to the characteristics that Freud brought to the fore in personality development.

Oral stage

The oral stage lasts from birth until approximately 18 months of age. The survival of an infant depends entirely on those who care for it. Dependence for him is the only way to obtain instinctive satisfaction. During this period, the mouth area is most closely associated with both the satisfaction of biological needs and pleasant sensations. Infants receive nutrition by sucking at the breast or from a bottle; at the same time, sucking movements give pleasure. Therefore, the oral cavity—including the lips, tongue, and associated structures—becomes the infant's primary focus of activity and interest. Freud was convinced that the mouth remains an important erogenous zone throughout a person's life. Even in adulthood, there are residual manifestations of oral behavior in the form of chewing gum, nail biting, smoking, kissing and overeating - all that Freudians consider as attachment of the libido to the oral zone.

In Freud's concept of development, pleasure and sexuality are closely intertwined. In this context, sexuality is understood as a state of arousal that accompanies the process of satiation in an infant. Accordingly, the first objects - sources of pleasure for him are the mother's breast or horn, and the first part of the body where the pleasure caused by the reduction of tension is localized is the mouth. Sucking and swallowing act as prototypes for every act of sexual gratification in the future. The main task facing the baby during this oral-dependent period is to lay the basic attitudes (of course, in the form of their rudimentary manifestations) of dependence, independence, trust and support in relation to other people. Since the baby is initially unable to distinguish his own body from the mother's breast, during the sucking process he experiences a mixed sensation of satiety and tenderness. This confusion is explained by the infant's egocentrism. Over time, the mother's breast will lose its significance as a love object and will be replaced by a part of his own body. He will suck his finger or tongue to relieve stress caused by lack of constant maternal care.

<На оральной стадии психосексуального развития главным источником удовольствия является сосание, кусание и глотание. Эти действия (связанные с кормлением грудью) снижают напряжение у младенца.>

The oral stage ends when breastfeeding stops. According to the central premise of psychoanalytic theory, all infants experience some difficulty in being weaned from the mother's breast or having their horn removed because it deprives them of corresponding pleasure. The greater these difficulties, that is, the stronger the concentration of libido at the oral stage, the more difficult it will be to cope with conflicts at subsequent stages.

Freud postulated that a child who was overstimulated or understimulated in infancy is likely to develop oral-passive personality type. A person with an oral-passive personality type is cheerful and optimistic, expects a “motherly” attitude from the world around him and constantly seeks approval at any cost. His psychological adaptation consists of gullibility, passivity, immaturity and excessive dependence.

During the second half of the first year of life, the second phase of the oral stage begins - oral-aggressive, or oral-sadistic phase. The baby now has teeth, making biting and chewing important means of expressing frustration caused by mother's absence or delay of gratification. Fixation at the oral-sadistic stage is expressed in adults in such personality traits as a love of argument, pessimism, sarcastic “biting,” and also often in a cynical attitude towards everything around them. People with this type of character also tend to exploit and dominate other people in order to satisfy their own needs.

Anal stage

The anal stage begins around 18 months of age and continues until the third year of life. During this period, young children derive considerable pleasure from holding and pushing out feces. They gradually learn to enhance pleasure by delaying bowel movements (that is, allowing a slight amount of pressure to tighten the rectum and anal sphincter). Although bowel and bladder control is primarily a consequence of neuromuscular maturity, Freud was convinced that the way in which parents or parental figures toilet train a child has an impact on later personal development. From the very beginning of toilet training, the child must learn to distinguish between the demands of the id (the pleasure of immediate defecation) and the social restrictions emanating from the parents (independent control of excretory needs). Freud argued that all future forms of self-control and self-regulation originate in the anal stage.

<На анальной стадии психосексуального развития главным источником удовольствия является процесс дефекации. Согласно Фрейду, приучение к туалету представляет собой первую попытку ребенка контролировать инстинктивные импульсы.>

Freud identified two main parental tactics observed in the process of overcoming the inevitable frustration associated with toilet training. Some parents behave inflexibly and demandingly in these situations, insisting that their child “go to the potty now.” In response to this, the child may refuse to follow the orders of “mommy” and “daddy”, and he will begin to become constipated. If this tendency to “hold on” becomes excessive and extends to other behaviors, the child may develop anal-retentive personality type. The anal-retentive adult is unusually stubborn, stingy, methodical and punctual. This person also lacks the ability to tolerate disorder, confusion, and uncertainty. The second long-term result of anal fixation caused by parental strictness regarding the toilet is anal-thrust type. Traits of this personality type include destructiveness, anxiety, impulsiveness, and even sadistic cruelty. In love relationships in adulthood, such individuals most often perceive partners primarily as objects of possession.

Some parents, on the contrary, encourage their children to have regular bowel movements and lavishly praise them for it. From Freud's point of view, such an approach, which supports the child's efforts to control himself, fosters positive self-esteem and can even contribute to the development of creativity.

Phallic stage

Between three and six years of age, the child's libido-driven interests shift to a new erogenous zone, the genital area. For phallic stage psychosexual development, children may look at and explore their genitals, masturbate, and become interested in issues related to birth and sexual relations. Although their ideas about adult sexuality are usually vague, erroneous and very imprecisely formulated, Freud believed that most children understand the essence of sexual relations more clearly than their parents assume. Children may witness their parents' sexual intercourse, or perhaps they imagine the "primary" scene in their fantasies, based on some remarks from the parents or on the explanations of other children. Most children, according to Freud, understand sexual intercourse as aggressive actions of the father towards the mother. It should be emphasized that his description of this stage has been the subject of considerable controversy and misunderstanding. In addition, many parents cannot accept the idea that their four-year-old children may have sexual urges.

The dominant conflict in the phallic stage is what Freud called Oedipus complex(a similar conflict among girls is called Electra complex). Freud borrowed his description of this complex from Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus, the king of Thebes, unintentionally killed his father and entered into an incestuous relationship with his mother. When Oedipus realized what a terrible sin he had committed, he blinded himself. Although Freud knew that the story of Oedipus originated in Greek mythology, he at the same time viewed the tragedy as a symbolic description of one of the greatest human psychological conflicts. In essence, this myth symbolizes the unconscious desire of every child to possess a parent of the opposite sex and at the same time eliminate the parent of the same sex. Of course, the average child does not kill his father or have sexual intercourse with his mother, but Freudians are convinced that he has an unconscious desire to do both. Moreover, Freud saw confirmation of the idea of ​​the complex in the kinship and clan relationships that take place in various primitive communities.

Normally, the Oedipus complex develops somewhat differently in boys and girls. Let's first consider how it manifests itself in boys. Initially, the boy's object of love is his mother or a figure replacing her. From the moment of birth, she is his main source of satisfaction. He wants to possess his mother, wants to express his erotically colored feelings towards her in the same way as, according to his observations, older people do. So, he can try to seduce his mother by proudly showing her his penis. This fact suggests that the boy strives to play the role of his father. At the same time, he perceives his father as a competitor who interferes with his desire to receive genital pleasure. It follows that the father becomes his main rival or enemy. At the same time, the boy realizes his inferior position compared to his father (whose penis is larger); he understands that his father does not intend to tolerate his romantic feelings for his mother. Rivalry entails the boy's fear that his father will deprive him of his penis. The fear of imaginary retribution from the father, which Freud called fear of castration, forces the boy to give up his desire for incest with his mother.

Between the ages of approximately five and seven years, the Oedipus complex resolves: boy suppresses(represses from consciousness) his sexual desires in relation to his mother and begins to identify himself with his father (adopts his features). The process of identification with the father, called identification with the aggressor, performs several functions. Firstly, the boy acquires a conglomerate of values, moral norms, attitudes, and models of gender-role behavior that outline for him what it means to be a man. Second, by identifying with his father, the boy can retain his mother as a love object in a vicarious way, since he now possesses the same attributes that the mother values ​​in his father. An even more important aspect of the resolution of the Oedipus complex is that the boy internalizes parental prohibitions and basic moral norms. This is a specific property of identification, which, as Freud believed, prepares the ground for the development of the superego or conscience of the child. That is, the superego is a consequence of the resolution of the Oedipus complex.

The girls' version of the Oedipus complex is called the Electra complex. The prototype in this case is the character of Greek mythology Electra, who persuades her brother Orestes to kill their mother and her lover and thus avenge the death of their father. Like boys, girls' first love object is their mother. However, when a girl enters the phallic stage, she realizes that she does not have a penis like her father or brother (which may symbolize a lack of strength). As soon as the girl makes this analytical discovery, she begins to wish she had a penis. According to Freud, a girl develops penis envy, which, in a certain sense, is a psychological analogue of a boy’s fear of castration. (It is not surprising that Freud is anathematized by feminists!) As a result, the girl begins to show open hostility towards her mother, reproaching her for giving birth to her without a penis, or holding her mother responsible for the fact that she took away her penis as punishment for some offense. Freud believed that in some cases a girl may have a low assessment of her own femininity, considering her appearance “defective.” At the same time, the girl strives to possess her father because he has such an enviable organ. Knowing that she is unable to obtain a penis, the girl seeks other sources of sexual gratification as substitutes for the penis. Sexual gratification focuses on the clitoris, and in girls aged five to seven years, clitoral masturbation is sometimes accompanied by masculine fantasies in which the clitoris becomes the penis.

Many experts agree that Freud's explanation for the resolution of the Electra complex is unconvincing (Lerman, 1986). One objection is that mothers do not have the same power in the family as fathers and therefore cannot act as such a threatening figure. Another is that since a girl does not have a penis to begin with, she cannot develop such intense fear as a boy who fears mutilation as retribution for an incestuous desire.

In response to the second objection, Freud put forward the thesis that girls develop a less compulsive, rigid sense of morality in adulthood. Regardless of interpretation, Freud argued that the girl eventually gets rid of the Electra complex by suppressing her attraction to her father and identifying with her mother. In other words, by becoming more like her mother, a girl gains symbolic access to her father, thereby increasing her chances of someday marrying a man like her father. Later, some women dream that their firstborns will be boys, a phenomenon that orthodox Freudians interpret as an expression of penile substitution (Hammer, 1970). Needless to say, feminists consider Freud's view of women not only demeaning but also absurd (Gilligan, 1982).

Adult men with a fixation in the phallic stage behave brashly, they are boastful and reckless. Phallic types strive to achieve success (success for them symbolizes victory over a parent of the opposite sex) and constantly try to prove their masculinity and sexual maturity. They convince others that they are “real men.” One of the ways to achieve this goal is the ruthless conquest of women, that is, Don Juan-type behavior. In women, phallic fixation, as Freud noted, leads to a tendency to flirt, seduce, and be promiscuous, although they may appear naive and sexually innocent. Some women, on the contrary, may fight for dominance over men, that is, be overly persistent, assertive and self-confident. Such women are called “castrating”. Unresolved problems of the Oedipus complex were regarded by Freud as the main source of subsequent neurotic behavior patterns, especially those related to impotence and frigidity.

Latent period

In the interval from six to seven years to the onset of adolescence there is a phase of sexual lull, called latent period. The child's libido is now channeled through sublimation into non-sexual activities such as intellectual pursuits, sports, and peer relationships. The latent period can be considered as a time of preparation for adulthood, which will come in the last psychosexual stage. Freud attributed the decrease in sexual need in this case partly to physiological changes in the child’s body, and partly to the appearance of ego and superego structures in his personality. Consequently, the latent period should not be considered as a stage of psychosexual development, because at this time new erogenous zones do not appear, and the sexual instinct presumably lies dormant.

Freud paid little attention to developmental processes in the latent period. This is quite strange, since it occupies almost the same time period in a child’s life as all the previous stages combined. Perhaps this was a respite not only for the child, but also for the theorist.

Genital stage

With the onset of puberty, sexual and aggressive impulses are restored, and with them interest in the opposite sex and a growing awareness of this interest. Initial phase genital stage(the period lasting from maturity to death) is characterized by biochemical and physiological changes in the body. The reproductive organs reach maturity, and the release of hormones by the endocrine system leads to the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics (for example, facial hair in men, formation of mammary glands in women). The result of these changes is the increased excitability and increased sexual activity characteristic of adolescents. In other words, entry into the genital stage is marked by the most complete satisfaction of the sexual instinct.

According to Freud's theory, all individuals go through a "homosexual" period in early adolescence. A new explosion of sexual energy of a teenager is directed towards a person of the same sex (for example, a teacher, a neighbor, a peer) - basically in the same way as it happens when the Oedipus complex is resolved. Although overt homosexual behavior is not a universal experience of this period, according to Freud, adolescents prefer the company of peers of the same sex. However, gradually the partner of the opposite sex becomes the object of libidinal energy, and courtship begins. The hobbies of youth normally lead to the choice of a marriage partner and the creation of a family.

Genital character is the ideal personality type in psychoanalytic theory. This is a mature and responsible person in social and sexual relationships. He experiences satisfaction in heterosexual love. Although Freud was opposed to sexual promiscuity, he was more tolerant of sexual freedom than bourgeois society in Vienna. Discharge of libido during sexual intercourse provides the possibility of physiological control over impulses coming from the genitals; control restrains the energy of instinct, and therefore it culminates in genuine interest in the partner without any trace of guilt or conflict experiences.

Freud was convinced that in order to develop an ideal genital character, a person must abandon the passivity characteristic of early childhood, when love, security, physical comfort - in fact, all forms of satisfaction were easily given, and nothing was required in return. People must learn to work hard, to delay gratification, to be warm and caring toward others, and above all, to take a more active role in solving life's problems. Conversely, if in early childhood there were various kinds of traumatic experiences with a corresponding fixation of libido, adequate entry into the genital stage becomes difficult, if not impossible. Freud defended the view that serious conflicts in later life are echoes of sexual conflicts that occurred in childhood.

The Nature of Anxiety

Freud's earliest results in the treatment of disorders that were psychic in origin rather than physiological sparked his interest in the origins of anxiety. This interest first led him (in the 1890s) to propose that the anxiety experienced by many of his neurotic patients was a consequence of inadequate discharge of libidinal energy. He subsequently concluded that the state of increasing tension is the result of libidinal energy that cannot find an outlet. Excitation that does not end in discharge is transformed and manifests itself in fear neuroses. However, as he gained experience in the treatment of neuroses, Freud came to understand that such an interpretation of anxiety and fear was incorrect. After 30 years, he revised his theory and came to the following conclusion: anxiety is a function of the ego and its purpose is to warn a person about an impending threat that must be met or avoided. Anxiety as such enables the individual to react in threatening situations in an adaptive way (Freud, 1926).

Where does anxiety come from?

According to this thesis, the primary source of anxiety experienced by a person is rooted in the inability of the newborn to cope with internal and external arousal. Because infants are unable to control their new world, they are overwhelmed by a diffuse sense of impending danger. This situation causes a traumatic condition known as primary alarm, an example of which is the birth process itself. From Freud's point of view, the experience of biological separation from the mother is traumatic, and therefore subsequent situations of separation (for example, the child is left alone, he is abandoned in the dark, or he finds a stranger where he expected to find the mother) causes a reaction of severe anxiety. A similar feeling of intense stress and helplessness is experienced at birth, weaning, and later manifests itself in fear of castration. All such experiences lead to increased tension and gloomy forebodings.

Types of Anxiety: How do people experience anxiety?

Depending on where the threat to the ego comes from (from the external environment, from the id or superego), psychoanalytic theory distinguishes three types of anxiety.

Realistic anxiety. The emotional response to a threat and/or awareness of real dangers in the outside world (for example, dangerous animals or a final exam) is called realistic anxiety. It is basically synonymous with fear and can impair a person's ability to deal effectively with a source of danger. Realistic anxiety subsides as soon as the threat itself disappears. In general, realistic anxiety helps ensure self-preservation.

Neurotic anxiety. The emotional response to the danger that unacceptable impulses from the id will become conscious is called neurotic anxiety. It is caused by the fear that the ego will be unable to control instinctive impulses, especially sexual or aggressive ones. Anxiety in this case stems from the fear that when you do something terrible, it will have severe negative consequences. Thus, for example, a young child quickly learns that actively discharging his libidinal impulses or destructive tendencies will be fraught with the threat of punishment from parents or other social figures. Neurotic anxiety is initially experienced as realistic because the punishment usually comes from an external source. Therefore, ego defense mechanisms are deployed to contain the child's instinctual impulses - as a result, the latter surface only in the form of general fear. It is only when the instinctive impulses of the id threaten to break through ego control that neurotic anxiety arises.

Moral anxiety. When the ego experiences the threat of punishment from the superego, the resulting emotional response is called moral anxiety. Moral anxiety occurs whenever the id seeks to actively express immoral thoughts or actions, and the superego responds with feelings of guilt, shame, or self-blame. Moral anxiety stems from an objective fear of parental punishment for some actions or actions (for example, for obscene swearing or shoplifting) that violate the perfectionistic demands of the superego. The superego directs behavior towards actions that fit into the individual's moral code. Subsequent development of the superego leads to social anxiety, which arises from the threat of exclusion from a peer group due to unacceptable attitudes or actions. Freud later became convinced that anxiety, originating in the superego, ultimately develops into fear of death and the expectation of future retribution for past or present sins.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

The main psychodynamic function of anxiety is to help a person avoid consciously identifying unacceptable instinctual impulses and to encourage the satisfaction of these impulses in appropriate ways at appropriate times. The ego's defense mechanisms help to carry out these functions and also protect the person from the anxiety that overwhelms him. Freud defined ego defenses as a conscious strategy that an individual uses to protect against the overt expression of id impulses and counter pressure from the superego. Freud believed that the ego reacts to the threat of a breakthrough of id impulses in two ways: 1) by blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior or 2) by distorting them to such an extent that their original intensity is noticeably reduced or deviated to the side.

All defense mechanisms have two common characteristics: 1) they operate on an unconscious level and are therefore means of self-deception and 2) they distort, deny or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening to the individual. It should also be noted that people rarely use any single defense mechanism; they typically use a variety of defense mechanisms to resolve conflict or reduce anxiety (Cramer, 1987). We will discuss some basic defense strategies below.

Crowding out. Freud viewed repression as the primary defense of the ego, not only because it is the basis for the formation of more complex defense mechanisms, but also because it provides the most direct route of escape from anxiety. Sometimes described as “motivated forgetting,” repression is the process of removing painful thoughts and feelings from awareness. As a result of repression, individuals are unaware of their anxiety-producing conflicts and have no memory of traumatic past events. For example, a person suffering from horrific personal failures may, through repression, become unable to talk about these difficult experiences.

Liberation from anxiety through repression does not pass without a trace. Freud believed that repressed thoughts and impulses do not lose their activity in the unconscious, and to prevent their breakthrough into consciousness requires a constant expenditure of mental energy. This constant draining of ego resources can seriously limit the use of energy for more adaptive, self-developmental, creative behavior. However, the constant desire of repressed material for open expression can receive short-term satisfaction in dreams, jokes, slips of the tongue and other manifestations of what Freud called “the psychopathology of everyday life.” Moreover, according to his theory, repression plays a role in all forms of neurotic behavior, in psychosomatic diseases (such as peptic ulcers), and psychosexual disorders (such as impotence and frigidity). This is the main and most common defense mechanism.

Projection. As a defense mechanism, projection follows repression in its theoretical significance. It is the process by which an individual attributes his or her own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and behavior to other people or the environment. Thus, projection allows a person to place blame on someone or something for his shortcomings or failures. A golfer criticizing his club after a bad shot is demonstrating primitive projection. On another level, we can see projection in a young woman who is not aware that she is struggling with her strong sexual desire, but suspects everyone who meets her of intending to seduce her. Finally, a classic example of projection is when a student who did not prepare well for an exam attributes his low grade to unfair testing, cheating by other students, or blames the professor for not explaining the topic in lecture. Projection also explains social prejudice and scapegoating because ethnic and racial stereotypes provide convenient targets for attributing negative personality characteristics to someone else (Adorno et al., 1950).

Substitution. In a defense mechanism called substitution, the manifestation of an instinctive impulse is redirected from a more threatening object or person to a less threatening one. A common example is a child who, after being punished by his parents, pushes his little sister, kicks her dog, or breaks her toys. Substitution also manifests itself in the increased sensitivity of adults to the slightest irritating moments. For example, an overly demanding employer criticizes an employee, and she reacts with outbursts of rage to minor provocations from her husband and children. She does not realize that, having become objects of her irritation, they are simply replacing the boss. In each of these examples, the true object of hostility is replaced by something much less threatening to the subject. This form of substitution is less common when it is directed against oneself: hostile impulses addressed to others are redirected to oneself, which causes a feeling of depression or condemnation of oneself.

Rationalization. Another way for the ego to cope with frustration and anxiety is to distort reality and thus protect self-esteem. Rationalization refers to fallacious reasoning that makes irrational behavior appear reasonable and therefore justifiable in the eyes of others. Stupid mistakes, poor judgments and blunders can be justified through the magic of rationalization. One of the most commonly used types of such defense is the “green grapes” rationalization. This name comes from Aesop's fable about the fox, who could not reach the bunch of grapes and therefore decided that the berries were not yet ripe. People rationalize in the same way. For example, a man who receives a humiliating refusal from a woman when he asks her out on a date consoles himself with the fact that she is completely unattractive. Similarly, a student who fails to get into dental school may convince herself that she doesn't really want to be a dentist.

Reactive education. Sometimes the ego can defend itself against forbidden impulses by expressing contrary impulses in behavior and thoughts. Here we are dealing with reactive formation, or the opposite effect. This protective process is implemented in two stages: first, the unacceptable impulse is suppressed; then at the level of consciousness the completely opposite appears. Resistance is especially noticeable in socially approved behavior, which at the same time appears exaggerated and inflexible. For example, a woman who experiences anxiety about her own expressed sexual desire may become an adamant fighter in her circle against pornographic films. She may even actively picket film studios or write letters of protest to film companies, expressing strong concern about the degradation of modern film art. Freud wrote that many men who ridicule homosexuals are actually defending themselves against their own homosexual urges.

Regression. Another well-known defense mechanism used to protect against anxiety is regression. Regression is characterized by a return to childish, childish behavior patterns. It is a way of alleviating anxiety by returning to an earlier, safer and more enjoyable time in life. Easily recognizable manifestations of regression in adults include intemperance, dissatisfaction, and characteristics such as “sulking and not talking” to others, baby talk, resisting authority, or driving at a reckless speed.

Sublimation. According to Freud, sublimation is a defense mechanism that allows a person, for the purpose of adaptation, to change his impulses so that they can be expressed through socially acceptable thoughts or actions. Sublimation is seen as the only healthy, constructive strategy for curbing unwanted impulses because it allows the ego to change the purpose and/or object of impulses without inhibiting their manifestation. The energy of instincts is diverted through other channels of expression - those that society considers acceptable (Golden, 1987). For example, if a young man becomes increasingly anxious about masturbation over time, he may sublimate his impulses into socially approved activities such as football, hockey, or other sports. Likewise, a woman with strong unconscious sadistic tendencies may become a surgeon or a first-class novelist. In these activities she can demonstrate her superiority over others, but in a way that will produce a socially useful result.

Freud argued that the sublimation of sexual instincts was the main impetus for great achievements in Western science and culture. He said that the sublimation of sexual desire is a particularly noticeable feature of the evolution of culture - thanks to it alone, the extraordinary rise in science, art and ideology that plays such an important role in our civilized life has become possible (Cohen, 1969, p. 34).

Negation. When a person refuses to admit that an unpleasant event has occurred, this means that he turns on a defense mechanism such as negation. Imagine a father who refuses to believe that his daughter was raped and brutally murdered; he acts as if nothing of the sort happened. Or imagine a child who denies the death of her beloved cat and stubbornly continues to believe that she is still alive. Denial of reality also occurs when people say or insist, “This simply cannot happen to me,” despite clear evidence to the contrary (as happens when a doctor tells a patient that he has a terminal illness). According to Freud, denial is most common in young children and older individuals with reduced intelligence (although mature and normally developed people may also sometimes use denial in highly traumatic situations).

Denial and other defense mechanisms described are pathways used by the psyche in the face of internal and external threats. In each case, psychological energy is expended to create a defense, as a result of which the flexibility and strength of the ego are limited. Moreover, the more effective defense mechanisms are, the more distorted the picture they create of our needs, fears and aspirations. Freud noted that we all use defense mechanisms to some extent, and this only becomes undesirable if we rely on them excessively. The seeds of serious psychological problems fall on fertile soil only when our methods of defense, with the exception of sublimation, lead to a distortion of reality (Vaillant, 1986).

Having completed our discussion of Freud's key psychoanalytic concepts, let us turn to the premises underlying his profound theory of human nature.

Freud's basic principles regarding human nature

The unifying idea of ​​this book is that all personality theorists adhere to certain basic assumptions about human nature. In addition, these provisions, which cannot be confirmed or refuted, help to establish the main differences and similarities between existing theoretical directions. Now that we have reviewed the key concepts of psychoanalytic theory, let us examine Freud's position on the nine points listed in Chapter 1. His position on the relevant points is as follows (Figure 3-2).

	Strong	Moderate	Weak	Average	Weak	Moderate	Strong
Liberty								Determinism
Rationality								Irrationality
Holism								Elementalism
Constitutionalism								Environmentalism
Changeability								Immutability
Subjectivity								Objectivity
Proactivity								Reactivity
Homeostasis								Heterostasis
Cognizability								Unknowability

Rice. 3-2. Freud's position on nine fundamental principles regarding human nature. (The labeled areas indicate the degree of preference for one of the two polar positions.)

Freedom-determinism. Freud was a committed biological determinist (Kline, 1984). He believed that all manifestations of human activity (actions, thoughts, feelings, aspirations) obey certain laws and are determined by powerful instinctive forces, especially sexual and aggressive instincts. This means that Freud viewed people primarily mechanistically, in his opinion, they are governed by the same laws of nature that apply to the behavior of other organisms. If this were not so, psychology as a strict science could not exist.

In such a theoretical system there is no place for such concepts as freedom of choice, personal responsibility, will, spontaneity and self-determination. Freud clearly understood that the illusion of freedom dominates everything in man, but he still insisted that people are not really able to “choose” between alternative directions in behavior and action and that their behavior is determined by unconscious forces, the essence of which they can never fully understand. to know. Freud believed that the simplest manifestations of determinism are cases when a person forgets where he put this or that thing, forgets a well-known name or address, as well as slips and slips of the tongue (the so-called “parapraxis”). He interpreted such phenomena as signs of the presence of unconscious motives.

Rationality-irrationality. From Freud's point of view, people are driven by irrational, almost uncontrollable instincts that are largely outside the realm of conscious awareness.

Being to a certain extent rational, the ego, as a component of the personality structure, ultimately serves as a means for realizing the demands of the id. The only real glimmer of rationality is found in Freud's concept of psychoanalytic therapy as a means of achieving lasting personal change. Access to the realm of unconscious motivation through psychoanalysis prepares the ground for self-control and self-regulation. Freud's credo—where there was an id, there will be an ego—expressed his optimism that the powers of the mind could tame primitive and irrational drives. Despite the thesis that through psychoanalysis it is possible to achieve a high degree of rationality, Freud's theory of personality is firmly cemented by ideas about the importance of irrational elements in human behavior. From the perspective of this theory, the idea that a reasonable person has control over the course of events in his life is nothing more than a myth.

Holism-elementalism. Freud relied on a holistic view of man. He was convinced that understanding a person is possible on the basis of studying him as a whole. Central to his theory is the description of the individual in terms of the relationship between the id, ego and superego. Human behavior cannot be fully understood outside the context of the dynamic interaction of these three structures of mental life. Although Freud believed that these structures should eventually be reduced to a more elementary level of analysis (perhaps biological or neurological), he himself never attempted to solve this problem. Finally, in constructing his theory, he relied almost exclusively on the clinical method, which emphasizes the integrity of the individual.

Constitutionalism-environmentalism. Many of Freud's early concepts (eg, psychic energy, instincts, pleasure principle) are taken from the fields of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and developed further (Weinstein, 1968). Psychoanalytic theory never changed its basic direction, and in general Freud should be considered to adhere to the position of constitutionalism. As mentioned earlier, the all-powerful id in his theory constitutes the innate constitutional basis of personal structure and development. In addition, Freud viewed psychosexual development as a biologically determined process, characteristic of any person, regardless of cultural influences. In light of these ideas, what people are is largely the result of innate, genetically inherited factors.

In matters of understanding behavior, Freud, on the contrary, emphasized the importance of the influence of the environment on the characteristics of human development at an early age. He emphasized the absolute, immutable influence of parents in early childhood on subsequent personality development. Moreover, the ego develops and comes into action only when the id is unable to cope with the demands of the environment or environment, and the superego is purely a product of the social environment. Nevertheless, the connecting significance of environmental factors is still secondary in comparison with the primacy of biologically determined instincts.

Changeability-immutability. Perhaps more than the other personologists presented in this book, Freud was committed to the position of immutability. His entire theory of human development is based on the premise that adult personality is shaped by early childhood experiences. As you will recall, Freud described the individual as progressing through a series of distinct psychosexual stages in development. The personality structure of an adult can be described in terms of the psychosexual stage that the person has reached or at which fixation has occurred. Thus, the character structure of each individual is formed at an early age and remains unchanged in adulthood.

Although Freud was convinced that a person's character type is formed in early childhood, he considered psychoanalytic therapy useful for those people who seek to understand the origins of their real problems. By “getting in touch” with their past experiences and learning something new about them, these people learn to cope more adequately with present and future problems. At the same time, Freud recognized that analytic therapists deal with personality and behavioral patterns that are repeated and reinforced throughout the lives of patients. Patients who choose psychoanalysis must not only abandon their dysfunctional behavioral styles, but also develop new ones, which in itself is similar to learning a new skill, such as playing tennis or learning a foreign language. Achieving these goals, if not impossible at all, is extremely difficult and painful, especially if patients, for reasons they themselves hardly understand, resist at every step of the way. In doing so, they use the same weapons that they used in childhood when they resisted parents who tried to socialize them (for example, negativism, dominance, helplessness, hostility and despair). Therefore, even in analytic therapy there is very little optimism about achieving real and lasting personality changes in adulthood. For Freud, observed changes in behavior are more often and almost always shallow modifications that do not affect the deep structure of the personality.

Subjectivity-objectivity. According to Freud, people live in a subjective world of feelings, emotions, sensations and meanings. Considering the "inner world" of the individual as an important part of the personality, he also considered it the cause of other phenomena - objective states such as mental trauma, cases of suppression or repression, as well as universal human impulses. Thus, psychoanalytic theory posits that an individual's uniqueness is partly determined by external realities (eg, parental attitudes and behavior, relationships with siblings, social norms). Having appeared once, these objective conditions stubbornly continue to form the unique inner world of a person, which has an exclusively subjective meaning for him. In conclusion, it must be said that although Freud is inclined towards subjectivity, this position is not core to his theory.

Proactivity-reactivity. In exploring the question of causality in explaining human behavior, B. F. Skinner (1954) noted that Freud followed the traditional model of studying the causes of behavior inner world person. Therefore, it is only in this sense that Freud can be understood as a personality theorist who takes a proactive view of human nature. As will be seen in the following chapters, Freud's proactivity is completely different from the proactivity of the proponents of the humanistic or phenomenological schools. The essence of Freud's proactive position is clearly reflected in his concept of motivation: causation in relation to all forms of behavior lies in the flow of energy coming from the id and its instincts. People do not structure their behavior consciously; rather, psychic energy is generated by sexual and aggressive instincts, which determines the variety of human actions. However, individuals are not proactive in the full sense of the word. They are reactive to the extent that their instincts are directed to external objects - the latter act as environmental stimuli that cause this or that behavior. For example, sexual "objects" in a person's environment initiate the manifestation of the sexual instinct, and this suggests a touch of reactivity in Freud's theory. Having weighed all the arguments, it can be said that Freud's position regarding this starting point can best be characterized as a moderate bias towards proactivity.

Homeostasis-heterostasis. Freud was convinced that all human behavior is regulated by the desire to reduce the excitement caused by unpleasant tensions at the level of the organism. Id instincts constantly require external expression, and people organize their behavior in such a way as to reduce the level of this tension formed by the energy of instincts. Thus, individuals, instead of seeking tension or excitement, feel the desire to find a state free from all tension. Freud's view of motivation clearly expresses a homeostatic position. From the point of view of psychodynamic theory, man is fundamentally seen as an id-driven “instinct satisfier” who never seeks out conditions that could upset the homeostatic balance.

Knowability-unknowability. There are many indications that Freud held the belief that the human essence is scientifically knowable. For example, he insisted that humans are subject to the same laws of nature as any living organism. He also viewed people as biologically determined organisms whose underlying motivations could be revealed through scientifically based methods of psychoanalysis. Of course, he never considered psychoanalysis as a comprehensive theory of personality (Nuttin, 1956): Freud treated it as part of the science of psychology and as a system of concepts that can shed much light on human nature. Probably, thanks to the study of natural sciences, he endured, along with the education he received, the denial of the validity of mysticism, religion and other non-scientific views and beliefs, along with the conviction that the solution to human nature is accessible only to scientific knowledge.

So, we have completed the assessment of Freud's position on nine initial provisions regarding the essence of man. Now let's look at some empirical studies inspired by Freud's theory.

Empirical Validation of Psychodynamic Concepts

When studying Freud, students inevitably ask the question, “What is the scientific evidence for psychodynamic concepts?” Once the propositions of a theory are regarded as empirically valid conceptualizations of the phenomena they are intended to explain, it is natural to expect scientific testing of the hypotheses derived from these propositions. Since Freud's death, personologists have almost completely ignored objective and systematic verification of Freud's central theoretical positions. A quick look at the history of psychoanalysis as a treatment method explains the reason for this quite well. In Freud's time, analysts were generally not interested in using scientific research methods to substantiate theories. Freud himself also did not focus on the problem of empirical validation based on controlled, systematic study of phenomena in the laboratory, as most psychologists do today. When Rosenzweig (1941), an American psychologist, wrote to Freud about his laboratory studies of repression, the latter replied that psychoanalytic concepts were based on a very large number of clinical observations and therefore there was no need for independent experimental verification. This completely anti-research attitude was further favored by the fact that experimental psychology, then still a very young science, yielded little. Even today, despite formal training in the biological sciences, some practicing analysts remain opposed to the use of experimental research methods (Kernberg, 1986). Many are convinced that the only method suitable for verifying psychodynamic hypotheses is the clinical interview, that is, the stories of patients undergoing intensive long-term therapy. Until recently, the main source of evidence for the “truth” of Freudian concepts was the accumulation of reconstructed life histories of patients. Most analysts consider clinical assessment of the history to be clearly relevant to confirm the theory.

Although the main method in creating and testing psychodynamic formulations was the anamnesis method, its use has a number of disadvantages. The most important is that, despite every effort to remain objective in the therapy process, the analyst is not a truly impartial observer. Moreover, clinical observations in treatment settings cannot be replicated and verified in controlled experiments. Freud's and other analysts' own studies can hardly be repeated because they were conducted in private and under conditions of complete confidentiality.

Another methodological drawback arises from the peculiarities of the professional training of most analysts. It necessarily includes undergoing psychoanalysis, plus intensive guidance and supervision from an experienced analyst in the early stages of practice. The result, as a rule, is an unusually strong philosophical and personal fascination with the tenets of Freud's theory. Such an attitude predisposes the analyst to a biased interpretation of the patient's disturbances and determination of their causes. Moreover, difficulties in achieving a certain level of validity of clinical observations arise due to the patient’s own biases. Patients often know what they should and should not say during therapy sessions—hence, they may inadvertently seek approval by providing the analyst with exactly the description of experience that matches his expectations (Erdelyi, 1985). Taken together, these shortcomings are potential sources of "self-sufficient prophecies" regarding the validity of Freud's observations. Given these limitations, it is understandable why most psychologists refuse to consider individual cases of effective therapy as sufficient evidence of the validity of Freud's concepts of personality (Shevrin, 1986).

A major pitfall for personologists interested in testing Freud's theory is the impossibility of replicating clinical data in a controlled experiment. The second problem in establishing the validity of psychoanalysis is related to the fact that its provisions cannot be given operational definitions (that is, theoretical concepts are often formulated in such a way that it is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions and testable hypotheses from them). When the results obtained are based on such vague and uncertain conclusions, it is simply impossible to know whether they are consistent with the theory. This does not mean that psychoanalytic theory is unreliable. Rather, it means that at the moment there are no generally accepted methods and procedures with which to evaluate the provisions of the theory. Finally, the theory of psychoanalysis has the character of an “afterword.” In other words, it more adequately explains past behavior than it predicts subsequent behavior.

Where can one find valid evidence for various aspects of Freud's theory? Most animal studies have been criticized by human scientists for being artificial and oversimplifying conceptually complex processes. The search for adequate evidence goes in the direction of developing experimental analogues of psychoanalytic constructs (that is, modeling theoretical concepts in laboratory conditions). We will not attempt to provide an exhaustive analysis of the many hundreds of studies testing Freud's theory (see Fisher and Greenberg, 1985; Masling, 1983, 1986 for reviews of psychoanalytic work). Instead, we will focus on the most illustrative and representative examples. The following pages will examine in detail the research on two of the most important constructs of psychoanalysis: 1) repression and 2) unconscious conflict.

Experimental study of repression

Repression is a key concept among most psychoanalysts (Cramer, 1988; Erdelyi, 1985; Grunbaum, 1984). More experimental research has been conducted on this issue than on any other Freudian concept (Westen, 1990). Early studies of repression examined the reproduction of various material that evoked neutral, positive or threatening, unpleasant associations (Jersild, 1931; Meltzer, 1930; Rosenzweig, 1933). Overall, the results showed that unpleasant, negative experiences were recalled less frequently than positive or neutral ones. However, it soon became clear that Freud's concept of repression did not imply the elimination of all experiences with affectively unpleasant significance (Sears, 1936). Rather, repression depends on the presence of an “ego threat” (a major threat to self-esteem) rather than on mere unpleasantness or threat. Later research showed that when the cause of repression (the ego threat) disappears, the repressed content returns to consciousness. This phenomenon has been explained as the “return of the repressed” (Flavell, 1955; Zeller, 1950). In other words, if the threat is removed, it becomes safe for the repressed material to return to the level of awareness. Freud would undoubtedly have regarded such a study as an inappropriate demonstration of what was already known from clinical observation.

The results of most experimental studies of repression are clear, but their interpretation is controversial.

Let us turn to the often mentioned study of D"Zurilla (1965). College students were presented with 20 words, which they then reproduced. No group differences were found in memory. All students were then presented with a series of ten slides. Each slide featured an inkblot and two words from the set shown earlier. Subjects were asked to indicate on each two-word slide the one word that best described the inkblot. After this basic procedure, D'Zarilla divided the subjects into two groups and began the experimental manipulations. The experimental group was told that the inkblot test was designed to identify latent homosexuality. It was reported that one of the two words on each slide was usually chosen by latent homosexuals , and the other word is usually chosen by heterosexual subjects. Students in the control group were told only that they were taking part in the development of a new version of the inkblot test. After all the slides had been answered, subjects from both groups were given another memory test ; again no differences were found.

Each subject in the experimental group then had to experience a threat to his ego: the experimenter reported that he had chosen nine out of ten “homosexual” words. In contrast, subjects in the control group were told that they performed “very well” on the test. Five minutes later, both groups were given another memory test. As expected, ego-threatened subjects performed worse than previous memory tests; the control group improved their performance. After this, D'Zarilla tried to eliminate the influence of repression by explaining to the students that the inkblot test does not actually measure homosexual tendencies. Following the disclosure of the secret, a memorization test was again conducted. In full accordance with the experimental hypothesis, the reproduction of the test material was at the same level in both groups, which meant the disappearance of the threat.

Although these results seemed to support the concept of repression, some doubts arose after the interviews that followed the experiment. D'Zarilla asked students to describe what they thought about during a five-minute interval after receiving an instruction containing an ego threat. According to repression theory, they would have to avoid thinking about anything related to the threatening task. Contrary to this assumption, most ego-threats Threatened subjects reported that they thought a lot about inkblots and their own “homosexual tendencies.” Conversely, few of the control group said they thought about the task.

According to another interpretation of D'Zarilla's data, ego-threatened subjects may have needed some time to worry about their performance after the threat appeared, and these competing thoughts may have interfered with word recall. In a similar study, Holmes and Schallow , 1969) attempted to obtain evidence that this interpretation was at least as plausible as the one indicating repression. In addition to the ego-threatened and control groups, these experimenters included a third group in the study. It was not ego-threatened. threatened, but subjects were irritated by being presented with irrelevant movie clips every 30 seconds during the five-minute stimulus retention interval.Again, the results clearly showed that after the threat appeared, the ego-threatened group performed worse memory than the control group, indicating the repression effect previously reported by D'Zarilla. However, the reproduction of stimulus material in the “irritated” group was significantly worse than in the control group, and almost the same as in the ego-threatened group. During the last, third memory test (after the threat was removed), no significant differences in recall were obtained between the three groups. From this Holmes and Shallow concluded that most likely interference, rather than repression, mediates the effect of threat on memory. Indeed, after reviewing a very large body of literature, Holmes (1974) concluded that there is no evidence for the existence of repression. He explained that “in the light of the large amount of data already available on this problem and until new evidence is available that can support the concept of repression, the continued use of the latter to explain behavior does not seem justified” (Ibid, p. 651).

Despite the difficulties in obtaining clear experimental evidence of repression, attempts to study this basic psychodynamic concept continue (Geisler, 1985; Lewicki and Hill, 1987). Interest in repression, judging by recent experiments by Davis and Schwartz (1987), continues unabated. These researchers view repression as a defensive strategy that may be associated with a decreased ability to remember unpleasant or negative events. In their study, they asked female college students to recall their own childhood (before age 14) and write 1-2 sentences about any experience, situation, or event that came to mind. They were also asked to recall their childhood experiences with each of five emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and surprise) and to indicate their earliest experiences with each emotion, as well as the age at which these experiences occurred. Before reproducing their childhood experiences, all subjects filled out the Taylor Expression Anxiety Scale, designed to measure anxiety, and the Crone-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale, used to measure psychological defense. Based on test scores, the subjects were divided into two groups: a group using repression (low anxiety - high degree of defense) and a group not using repression (high and low anxiety). The results of this study are shown in Fig. 3-3.

Rice. 3-3. The amount of information reproduced in subjects with high and low anxiety, as well as in those using repression. (