Freud believed the mind is composed of three parts: the id, ego, and superego. The id operates based on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of urges. The ego balances the id's urges with reality, using secondary process thinking. The superego incorporates societal morals and can cause guilt when urges conflict with its standards. Defense mechanisms like repression, denial, and rationalization help resolve conflicts between parts of the mind. Anxiety results from threats to the ego's control from internal or external sources.
1. Mirrors Darwin’s theory of natural selection: selection by reproduction and
selection by survival.
Although he initially believed that the life and death instincts worked to oppose
one another, he later argued that they could combine in various ways. He
believed that from these instincts comes the energy that powers all human
2. According to Freud the mind is made up of 3 parts: the conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. The latter is the largest part of the mind and
manifests itself in the dreams, “slips of the tongue”, irrational feelings, physical
symptoms, or inexplicable anxiety.
3. Free Association: Speaking whatever comes into your mind without censoring
your thoughts. Psychoanalysts must be able to recognize the subtle signs that
something important has just been mentioned.
Dream Analysis: Uncovering unconscious material in a dream by interpreting
the content of a dream. Consists of manifest content (what the dream actually
contains) and latent content (what the elements of the dream actually represent)
4. Psychoanalytic theory concerns how people cope with their sexual and
aggressive instincts within the constraints of a civilized society. One part of the
mind creates urges, another has a sense of what civilized society expects, and
another part of the mind tries to satisfy the urges within the bounds of reality
and society. These parts of the mind are in constant interaction. They have
5. The pleasure principle is the desire for immediate gratification.
Primary process thinking is thinking without logical rules of conscious thought
or an anchor in reality.
6. The ego recognizes under the reality principle that the urges of the id are often
in conflict with social and physical reality.
The ego engages in secondary process thinking which refers to the
development and devising of strategies for problem solving and obtaining
satisfaction.
7. The superego determines what is right and what is wrong, and enforces this
through the emotion of guilt. It sets the moral goals and ideals of perfection.
8. Repression was the forerunner of all other forms of defense mechanisms. Freud
believed that people often tend to remember the pleasant circumstances
surrounding some event , and that unpleasant memories are often repressed.
9. Repression was the forerunner of all other forms of defense mechanisms. Freud
believed that people often tend to remember the pleasant circumstances
surrounding some event , and that unpleasant memories are often repressed.
10. Freud believed that the presence of anxiety is evidence that repression is
starting to fail, so other defense mechanisms may be brought into play.
Denial: insisting that things are not what they seem.
Displacement: a threatening impulse is channeled to a non-threatening target.
Rationalization: generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might
otherwise appear socially unacceptable.
Reaction Formation: in an attempt to stifle an unacceptable urge, displaying a
flurry of behavior that indicates the opposite impulse.
11. Freud believed that the presence of anxiety is evidence that repression is
starting to fail, so other defense mechanisms may be brought into play.
Denial: insisting that things are not what they seem.
Displacement: a threatening impulse is channeled to a non-threatening target.
Rationalization: generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might
otherwise appear socially unacceptable.
Reaction Formation: in an attempt to stifle an unacceptable urge, displaying a
flurry of behavior that indicates the opposite impulse.
12. Freud believed that the presence of anxiety is evidence that repression is
starting to fail, so other defense mechanisms may be brought into play.
Denial: insisting that things are not what they seem.
Displacement: a threatening impulse is channeled to a non-threatening target.
Rationalization: generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might
otherwise appear socially unacceptable.
Reaction Formation: in an attempt to stifle an unacceptable urge, displaying a
flurry of behavior that indicates the opposite impulse.
13. Defense mechanisms can help us deal with stress; however, when a behavior
inhibits the ability to be productive or to maintain relationships, there may be
problems.
14. Anxiety is a signal that the control of the ego is being threatened by reality, by
impulses from the id, or by harsh controls exerted by the superego.
Objective: Fear. Occurs in response to some real, external threat to the person.
Neurotic: Occurs when there is a direct conflict between the id and the ego.
Moral: Caused by a conflict between the ego and the superego.
In all 3 types of anxiety, the function of the ego is to cope with threats and to