Freud's Psychodynamic Theory

Freud determined that hidden, inappropriate and uncomfortable thoughts in a person's mind caused physical symptoms in many people. It's time to talk more about Freud. You may remember him from the development unit, where we studied his Psychosexual Stages of Human Development. Freud also had some interesting ideas about personality.

After working with several patients who had physical symptoms of pain or numbness that did not seem to have any direct physical cause, Freud determined that hidden, inappropriate and uncomfortable thoughts in a person's mind caused physical symptoms in many people. He called the part of a person's mind that holds these hidden thoughts the unconscious.

Based on his studies of patients, Freud came up with the iceberg model of personality. You may know that only about ten percent of an iceberg is visible above the ocean water, while the other ninety percent is hidden below the surface. Freud proposed that human personalities are like icebergs, with most thoughts hidden from conscious awareness, but still affecting the visible part of the personality unconsciously.

According to Freud, personality is the result of a person's efforts to resolve life's basic conflicts and to express impulses in ways that bring satisfaction without guilt and punishment. Freud also believed that our personality is made up of three separate drives: id, ego, and the superego.

Complete the iceberg model of personality activity below:

The ego has a very difficult task: moderating between the id, the superego, and what's realistic based on the situation. The ego must be both strong and flexible as it is pulled various ways in a daily ongoing battle. Sometimes the ego experiences anxiety when the demands of the id or superego overpower it. This could cause a person to act impulsively or destructively. If the ego cannot find a plausible solution to the problem, it may temporarily reduce anxiety by distorting the perceptions of reality in a process called a defense mechanism.

The major defense mechanisms are summarized below. It is important to remember that the ego creates the defense mechanism below the level of consciousness, so the person is not consciously aware that this is going on. The conscious mind really believes in the altered reality that is described in the defense mechanism.

Learn more in the defense mechanisms example activity below:

Freud did not use respected research procedures while creating his theories, so most psychologists today don't use many of Freud's theories. Some ideas have kept their place in culture though. If you've ever thought that a little boy was only mean to a girl on the playground because he has a crush on her, your idea was based on Freud's reaction formation. If you've ever assumed your parents were being too harsh with you because they had a bad day at work, you were thinking about Freud's displacement.

Thus, according to Freud, the personality that others see in us and the one that we are aware of is only a very small part of our real personality. A Freudian psychoanalyst uses special tools to gain access to the unconscious mind in order to help a person achieve a healthy personality.

A projective personality test is a type of test that is intended to provide insight into the unconscious through the use of ambiguous stimuli that should trigger one's inner dynamics. The person's response is a projection of unconscious conflicts, motives, psychological defenses, and personality traits that must be interpreted by a trained psychoanalyst who can understand the latent meaning. The two most popular projective personality tests are the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is used to evaluate patterns of thought, attitudes, emotional responses, and achievement.

Developed by Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray in the 1930's, the TAT is used to evaluate patterns of thought, attitudes, emotional responses, and achievement. The subject is given a set of ambiguous pictures portraying human figures in a variety of settings. The psychoanalyst then asks what is going on in the picture and how the person in the picture feels. The subject's answers to the questions are the manifest content, the interpretation by the psychologist is the latent content. The analysis reveals what is happening in the unconscious mind: the hidden expectations about relationships, career path, peers, other authority figures, subordinates, romantic partners, etc.

Ink blot Test: The person whose personality is being assessed should describe what they see in each inkblot. What do you see?

In each of these methods, the psychoanalyst listens to the manifest content, or obvious storyline, of what the person says. Then the psychoanalyst can interpret the latent content, or hidden meaning, that is representative of what is happening in the unconscious mind.

Developed by Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s, the Inkblot test consists of ten inkblot images. The person whose personality is being assessed should describe what they see in each inkblot. Like the TAT, the obvious answers are the manifest content and the psychoanalyst offers an analysis of the latent content.

Complete the Freudian analysis tools activity below:

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