Freud's psychosexual theory

Freud’s Psychosexual
Theory
PRESENTED BY-
NISHA YADAV
M.SC. NURSING 1ST YEAR
NINE, PGIMER
CHANDIGARH

OUTLINE
 Sigmund Freud- Biography
 Humanistic Approach
 Instincts- Life instincts and Death Instincts
 Personality- Five Factor Model
 Freud’s Structural Model
 Dynamic Theory of Freud
 Anxiety
 Ego Defense Mechanism
 Psychosexual stages
 Psychoanalytic Therapy

Sigmund Freud
 Born on May 6, 1856, Moravia, which is
now a part of Czech Republic.
 His family moved to and settled in Vienna
in 1860 when he was at 4 years old where
Freud remained until 1938.
 Attended University of Vienna at the age of
17, In 1881 he graduated in Medicine
Faculty.
 After medical school, specialized in
neurology and then studied for a year in
Paris with Jean Martin Charcoat.
 Hysteria was common among women in
the Victorian Era.

Cont….
 Freud was very interested in hypnotherapy.
 In 1885, Freud began to distance away from a
medical approach to psychiatry.
 Then he returned to Vienna and started working on
hysterical patients from 1887-1897.
 He discovered that being in a relaxed state of mind,
patients are open about traumatic past events.
 This made Freud a pioneer of catharsis or “talking
cure”
 Added use of dream analysis.

Cont….
 In 1896, Psychoanalysis was officially recognized
(Theory of personality & Method of Psychotherapy).
 He released fundamental work for the whole
psychoanalytic theory titled Interpretation of
Dreams (1900).
 He died in London on September 23, 1939.

Humanistic approach
 According to Freud, human nature is basically
deterministic. Our behavior is determined by irrational
forces, unconscious motivations, and biological and
instinctual drives as these evolve through key
psychosexual stages in the first 6 years of life.
 The clearest examples of determinism include
misplacing personal possessions, forgetting familiar
names and addresses. Such occurrences as revealing
something of the person’s unconscious motives.

Cont…
 Instincts are central to the Freudian approach.
Although he originally used the term libido to refer
to sexual energy, he later broadened it to include
the energy of all the life instincts.
 These instincts serve the purpose of the survival of
the individual and the human race; they are
oriented toward growth, development, and
creativity.

Instinct
 Instincts is the natural tendency to behave in a
particular way. It is an inborn fixed pattern of
behaviour in response to certain stimuli.
 In Freud’s view, an instinct has 4 principal
characteristics-
o Source- The part of the body from which the
instinct arises.
o Impetus- Amount of force or intensity
associated with the instinct.
o Aim- Any action directed toward tension
discharge or satisfaction.
o Object- The target (person) for this action.

Cont…
 Sigmund Freud’s theory of drives evolved
throughout the course of his life and work.
 He initially described a class of drives known as the
life instincts and believed that these drives were
responsible for much of our behaviour.
 Eventually, he came to believe that life instincts alone
could not explain all human behaviour.
 With the publication of his book Beyond the Pleasure
Principal in 1920, Freud concluded that all instincts
fall into one of two major classes: life instincts or
death instincts.

Life instincts/ Eros
• Sometimes referred to as sexual instincts, the life
instincts are those which deal with basic survival,
pleasure, and reproduction.
• These instincts are essential for sustaining the life of
the individual as well as the continuation of the
species.
 While we tend to think of life instincts in terms of
sexual procreation, these drives also includes thirst,
hunger and pain avoidance. The energy created by
the life instincts is known as libido.
 Behaviours commonly associated with life instincts
include love, cooperation and other prosocial
actions

 The life instincts are focused on the preservation of
life, both of the individual and of the species.
 This drive compels people to engage in actions that
sustain their own lives, such as looking after their
health and safety.
 It also exerts itself through sexual drives, motivating
people to create and nurture new life.
 Positive emotions such as love, affection, prosocial
actions, and social cooperation are also associated
with the life instincts.

Death instincts/ Thanatos
• The concept of the death instincts was described in
Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
 Freud proposed that the goal of all life is death.
 Freud believed that people typically channel their
death instincts outwards. Aggression, for example,
arises from death instincts.
 Sometimes these instincts towards destruction can
be directed towards, however, which can result in
self- harm or suicide.

• In support of his theory, Freud noted that
people who experience a traumatic event
would often re-enact that experience.
• From this, he concluded that people hold an
unconscious desire to die but that the life
instincts largely temper this wish.

Personality
 Personality has been derived from the Latin word
‘persona’ which means mask.
 Personality is the total quality of an individual
behaviour as it is shown in the habits, thinking,
attitudes, interests, the manner of acting and the
personal philosophy of life.
 It includes the cognitive, affective and psychomotor
behaviors and covers all the conscious, subconscious
and unconscious also.

 It is specific and unique for each and every
individual.
 Personality of an individual keeps adjusting itself
to the environment on a continuous basis.

Personality theories
 Personality has been studied in a different
ways. Theories have been developed to
explain the origins and makeup of
personality.
 So, personality theories are categorized into
4 categories-
 Type and trait theories
 Dynamic approach
 Learning and behavioral approach
 Humanistic approach

 Type and trait theories- focuses on people’s
characteristics and how these characteristics are
organized into systems.
 Dynamic approach- focuses on on-going
interactions among motives, impulses and
psychological processes.
 Learning and behavioral approach- emphasize
the ways habits are acquired through basic
conditioning or learning processes.
 Humanistic approach- emphasize on the self and
the importance of the individuals subjective of
world.

Big Five Personality Traits/ Five
Factor Model-
 The Big five personality dimensions provide a very broad
overview of someone’s personality.
 It was originally derived in 1970.
 Personality is usually broken into components called the
Big Five which are
o Openness to experience
o Conscientiousness
o Agreeableness
o Extroversion
o Neuroticism

 Openness to experience-
It means being creative and open to new ideas. This
factor indicates how open mind a person is. They
creative thinking and flexible attitude.
 Conscientiousness-
Conscientiousness is used to describe the degree to
which person is organized, how discipline he or she is
and can also describe how careful a person is in
certain situation.

 Agreeableness-
A personality dimension that describe the individual’s
propensity. Someone with agreeableness factor is
good natured cooperative and trusting.
They have an optimistic view of human nature and
they are having difficulty in delivering bad news.
 Extroversion-
Extraversion is defined as a behaviour where
enjoys being around people more than being alone.

 Neuroticism-
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience
emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression.
It is sometimes called as emotional instability.

Dynamic approach
 Dynamic approach involves a search for the
processes by which needs, motives and
impulses- often hidden from view- interact to
produce the individual’s behaviour.
 According to Freud, human personality is
complex and has more than single component.

Psychoanalytic approach by
Sigmund Freud
 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality was
presented as an example of a psychodynamic
approach to the study of human behavior.
 The psychodynamic orientation holds that
unconscious mental conflicts control the person’s
behavior.
 Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis,
based his psychodynamic concepts almost entirely
on extensive clinical observation of neurotic
patients as well as self-analysis.

Cont…
Three crucial aspects of psychoanalysis today are,
1. A therapeutic technique
2. A body of scientific and theoretical knowledge
3. A method of investigation

Beginnings
 In the decade from 1887-1897 Freud immersed himself
in the serious study of the disturbances in his hysterical
patients, resulting in discoveries that contributed to the
beginnings of psychoanalysis.
 Early researches were in collaboration with Joseph
Breuer and then from his own independent
investigations.
 Knowing Freud’s interest in hysterical pathology, Breuer
told him about the unusual case of a woman (Case of
ANNA O) he had treated for approximately 1.5 years.
 Study of her difficulties proved to be one of the
important stimuli in development of psychoanalysis.

Cont….
 During these periods, he favored hypnosis early in his
career, but he moved gradually toward free
association.
 Instead of concentration method in which urging,
pressing, questioning and trying to defeat patient’s
resistance, actually interfere with free flow of
thoughts he replaced it with free association, which
forms basic rule of psychoanalysis.
 Applying such techniques to a steady stream of
patients, Freud pieced together a picture of
personality that shaped much of the field of
psychology.

Freuds psychoanalytic
theory
 Freud’s psychoanalysis became both a theory
of personality and a method of
psychotherapy.
 Psychoanalytic theory has three major parts-
1. Theory of structure of personality
2. Theory of personality dynamics
3. Theory of psychosexual stages

Topographic model-
According to this model, human personality functions at three levels
of awareness: conscious, subconscious and unconscious
 Conscious: conscious is the part of our mind, about which we are
aware at present. Conscious refers to the perception, thoughts
and feelings existing in a person’s immediate awareness, it
includes our current thinking process.
 Subconscious: subconscious content on the other hand, is not
immediately accessible to awareness but we can become aware
of it if we think about them. The subconscious contains materials
just beneath the surface of awareness that can be easily retrieved.
For e.g. Telephone no., childhood memories, the name of best
childhood friend, etc.

Unconscious:
unconscious content
remains inaccessible,
where content is out of
direct reach of conscious
mind.
It is reservoir of
unacceptable or
unpleasant feelings of
pain, anxiety or conflict.

Structure of personality
 Freud organized the structure or model of personality
with three interlocking parts: the id, ego and superego.
• The id contains all our biologically based drives it
operates according to the pleasure principle. Id
driven behaviors are impulsive and may be irrational.
• The ego functions on the basis of reality principle. It
maintains harmony between the external world, the
id and the superego.

 The superego is referred
as the perfection
principle.
 The superego is
important in the
socialization of the
individual as it assist the
ego in control of id
impulses.

 Conflict arises from within our own mind,
while anxiety from realistic sources in the
outside world.
 Conflict happens when the id has some
desires which ego and/or superego do not
agree with.
 The ego works as defence mechanisms. We
deal with anxiety through psychological
defenses.

Anxiety
 According to Freud, anxiety is
an unpleasant inner state that
people seek to avoid anxiety
acts as a signal to the ego that
things are not going right.

Freud identified three types of anxiety:
• Neurotic anxiety is the unconscious worry that we
will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in
punishment for inappropriate behavior.
• Reality anxiety is fear of real-world events and is
based on ego. The cause of this anxiety is usually
easily identified. For example, a person might fear
receiving a dog bite when they are near a menacing
dog. The most common way of reducing this anxiety
is to avoid the threatening object.

 Moral anxiety involves a fear of violating our
own moral principles. Moral anxiety comes
from the superego. It appears in the form of
fear of violating values or moral codes and
feelings like guilt or shame.

 When anxiety occurs, the mind’s first response is to
seek rational ways of escaping the situation by
increasing problem- solving efforts and a range of
defense mechanisms may be triggered.
 There are ways that the ego develops to deal with
the id and superego.
 In order to deal with this anxiety, Freud believed
that defense mechanisms helped shield the ego
from the conflicts created by the id, superego and
reality.

Ego defense mechanism
 Defense mechanisms often appear
unconsciously and tend to distort or
falsify reality.
 When the distortion of reality occurs,
there is a change in perception which
allows for a lessening in anxiety
resulting in a reduction of tension
one experiences.
 Sigmund Freud noted a number of
ego defenses that were noted
throughout his work but his daughter,
Anna Freud, developed and
elaborated on them.

Why do we need
defenses?
• Defense mechanisms are invented by the Ego in an
attempt to resolve the conflict between Id and Superego –
so that personality can operate in a healthy manner.
• Unwanted Memories banished to the unconscious, do not
disappear. They continue to exert a powerful influence on
behavior.
• Defense mechanisms help keep urges, thoughts, and
memories that cause anxiety in the unconscious.
• If it is used once in a while, the purpose of using it is to
reduce stress.
• But if it is used frequently, it means the individual are
trying to avoid facing reality

Freud suggested that the ego reacts to the
threatened breakthrough of id impulses in either of
two ways:
• by blocking the impulse from expression in
conscious behavior
• by distorting it to such a degree that the original
intensity is markedly reduced or deflected.

All defense mechanisms share two common
characteristics:
• They operate at an unconscious level and are
therefore self-deceptive and
• They distort, deny, or falsify perception of reality,
so as to make anxiety less threatening to the
individual.

The defense mechanism are as follows:
Defence
mechanism
Example Overuse can lead to
Denial
The mother of a child who is fatally ill refuse to
admit that there is anything wrong, even
she is fully informed of the diagnosis and
expected outcome.
Repression, dissociative
disorders
Displacement
A husband comes home after a bad day at
and yells at his wife.
Loss of friends and
relationship, confusion
in communication
Intellectualizati
on
Person shows no emotional expression when
discussing a car accident.
Excessively using
intellectual processes to
avoid affective
expression on
experience.
Rationalization
A student who fails in the examination may
complain that the hostel atmosphere is not
favourable and has resulted in his failure.
Self- deception.

Defence
mechanism
Example Overuse can lead to
Reaction
formation
A jealous boy who hates his elder brother
show him exaggerated respect and affection
towards him.
Failure to resolve
conflicts.
Regression An adult throws a temper tantrum when he
does not get his own way.
May interfere with
progression and
development of
personality.
Repression Forgetting a loved one’s birthday after a fight.
Conscious perception of
instincts and feelings is
blocked
Sublimation Aggressiveness might be transformed into
competitiveness in business or sports.
Sublimation allows
instincts to be
channelled, rather than
blocked or diverted.
Projection A person who blames another for his own
mistakes is using the projection mechanism.
Fails to learn to take
personal responsibility.
May develop into
delusional tendencies.

The Psychosexual stages
 The psychoanalytic theory of development is based on two
premises.
 The first, the genetic approach, emphasizes that early
childhood experiences play a critical role in shaping adult
personality.
 The second premise is that a certain amount of sexual energy
(libido) is present at birth and a series stages of psychosexual
stages that are rooted in the instinctual processes of the
organism.
 Freud put heavy emphasis on biological development in
general and on sexual development in particular.

 In his theory of child development, Freud described a
succession of stages revolving around body zones.
 Freuds idea was that from birth on, we have an tendency
to seek pleasure, especially through physical stimulation
of parts of the body that sensitive to touch: the mouth,
anus and the genitals.
 Freud referred to these parts of the body as erogenous
zones.
 He saw the pleasure derived from touching and rubbing
these sensitive zones as erotic or sexual for infants as well
as adults.
 Freud believed that if a child’s needs at one of the
psychosexual stages were either unsatisfied or
oversatisfied, fixation would take place.

Oral stage- Birth to age 1
 According to Freud, the infant obtains
sensual pleasure first by sucking and
later by biting.
 Feeding and contact with the mother,
mouthing new objects, and even
relief of teething pain by biting- all
help to make the mouth the focus of
pleasure during the first year.
 A baby given too little opportunity to
suck, or made anxious about it, may
acquire an oral fixation which, in
adulthood, may foster excessive oral
behavior.

Anal stage- age 1 to 3
 This stages occurs when parents are toilet
training their children and teaching them to
avoid prohibited behavior connected with
excretion.
 At this time the region around the anus
becomes highly sensitive to the stimulation of
“holding on” and “letting go”.
 The first part of the anal stage involves pleasure
from expulsion of feces, the latter part involves
pleasure from retention.
 Freud maintained that fixation at the first
substage results in adult characteristics of
messiness and disorder; fixation at latter stage
results in excessive compulsiveness,
overconfirmity and exaggerated self- control.

Phallic stage- age 3 to 5
 At this time, child develops sensual
feelings towards the parent of the
opposite sex.
 Freud called these thoughts and feelings
in boys the Oedipus complex after the
mythical story of Oedipus, who
unknowingly killed his father and married
his mother.
 In girls, he called these thoughts and
feelings as Electra complex after
Agamemnon’s daughter, who arranged for
her mother to be married.

 In the phallic stage, the boy’s desire for
stimulation of his penis is associated with his
attachment to his mother and he comes to
desire her in a sexual or at least in a sensual
way.
 He fears retaliation by his father, retaliation
aimed at the source of the problem- the boy’s
penis and boy fears castration.
 To cope with this anxiety the boy begins to
construct psychic defenses i.e. identification-
the boy tries to be like his father.

 For girl, the sequence begins with an erotic
focus on the father. The girl also notices the
she does not have the sexual organs of her
father or brother and she experiences
“penis envy”.
 She suspects that she may actually have
been castrated by her mother, this makes
her angry, and she comes to resent and
devalue her mother.
 She also suspects that if she takes on her
mother’s characteristics she will stand better
chance in her own romantic relationship
with her father.

Latency stage- age 6 to 11
 Latency period was not considered by
Freud to be very important in
development of personality.
 As the child learns more about the
world, sexuality is largely repressed and
the ego expands.

Genital stage- age 11 to
adulthood
 Puberty marks the beginning of the
genital stage, when mature
heterosexual interest appears.
 There are 3 major sources of sexual
arousal during this period: memories
and sensations from earlier
childhood periods, physical
manipulation of genitals and other
erogenous zones and hormonal
secretions.
 Tis stage is set for enjoyment of
adult sexuality- which for Freud the
epitome of healthy development.

Stage of
developmen
t
Main characteristics Successful
task
completion
Examples of
unsuccessful task
completion
Oral
Birth- 2
years
Use mouth and tongue to deal with
anxiety (e.g. sucking, feeding)
Oral
gratification
Smoking,
obesity, nail biting,
drug addiction,
difficulty in trusting
others.
Anal
2-3 years
Muscle control in bladder, rectum, anus,
provides sensual pleasure, toilet training
can be a crisis.
Bowel and
bladder
control
Constipation,
perfectionism, OCD
Phallic
3-7 years
Learn sexual identity and awareness of
genital area as a source of pleasure;
conflict ends as child represses urge and
identifies with same sex parent.
The development of Electra complex and
Oedipus complex occurs during this
of development.
Freud described this as the child’s
unconscious desire to eliminate the
of the same sex and to possess the
of the opposite sex.
Becomes
aware of
sexuality
Homosexuality,
transsexuality, sexual
identity problems in
general, difficulty in
accepting authority.

Stage of
development
Main characteristics Successful task
completion
Examples of
unsuccessful task
completion
Latency
7- 11 years
Quite stage in sexual
development
Learns to
socialize
Inability to
lack of motivation in
school or job
Genital
11 years-
adulthood
Sexual maturity and
satisfactory relationships with
the opposite sex
Sexual maturity Frigidity, impotence,
premature ejaculation,
unsatisfactory
relationships.

Therapeutic methods of
psychoanalysis
 Freud was the founding father of
psychoanalysis a theory which
explains human behavior and a
method for treating mental illness.
 Psychoanalysis is often known as
the talking cure. Typically, Freud
would encourage his patients to
talk freely regarding their
symptoms, and to describe exactly
what was on their mind.

Aim of Psychoanalysis
Therapy
• The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release
repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make
the unconscious conscious. “Gaining insight”
• Psychoanalysis is commonly used to treat
depression and anxiety disorders.
• Treatment focuses on bringing the repressed
conflicts to conscious, where the client can
deal with it realistically and maturely.

Psychoanalytic Therapy Basic
Techniques:
 Catharsis: The release of pent-up emotion. The
therapist helps clients alter their self- perceptions and
behavior.
 Freud, along with Breuer, first discovered the benefits
of catharsis through hypnosis where hysterical patients
were able to verbalize an early precipitating causal
event. Unfortunately, many of his patients could not
remember the origin of their symptoms even on
command. So, he developed free association and
interpretation to bring everyone to the emotional state
of catharsis that was necessary for their cure.

 Free Association: The client lies on a couch and the
analyst sits at the head of the couch beyond the client’s
line of vision. The analyst then orders the client to say
whatever comes to mind. Through this method the
unconscious thoughts and conflicts are given freedom to
reach the conscious mind.
 The fundamental rule of psychoanalysis counselling
requires clients to tell the counsellor whatever thoughts
and feelings into their minds, regardless of how personal,
painful or seemingly irrelevant.
 The counsellor must remain patient and non-judgmental
and insists the client to continue.
 The counsellor must look for continuity of thoughts and
feelings, rational patterns of speech.

 The counsellor must pay attention to the affect or
feelings behind the client’s verbalization, noting the
client’s gestures, tone of voice and general body
language during free association.
 At this point the counsellor offers some
interpretations of the client’s statements to try open
another door for free association.

 Interpretation: Three major areas of interpretations are
dreams, Parapraxia, and Humor.
 Dreams: Freud believed dreams expressed wish fulfilment.
As the individual matures, the wish, as exposed the
becomes distorted and disguised. The ego fights the
conscious wish, which thus is pushed back to the
unconscious mind. When sleeping, repressive are weaker,
and forbidden desires and feelings can find an outlet in
dreams. The counsellors role is to listen to the client’s
dream and help the client interpret the dream’s
in free association technique.

 Certain objects in dreams were universal symbols for Freud: e.g.
car symbolizes analysis or direction of life/ jewel cases.
 The key for understanding one’s dream is identifying the basic
theme by stripping away details as names, places, and things;
leaving only the action.
 Freud believed every dream to be a confession and a by-product
of repressed anxiety producing thoughts or unfulfilled sexual
desires which expressed the superego’s guilt and self-
punishment. Nightmares result from the desire for self-
punishment.

Parapraxia: Freudian slips of a tongue/ Parapraxia are
consciously excused as harmless mistakes but through them the
ID pushes the unconscious material through to the conscious.
ex: forgetting a person’s name, cutting a finger while peeling
potatoes- has unconscious motivation. The analyst must take all
these unconscious mistakes and arrange them into a conscious
pattern.
Humor: Jokes, puns, and satire are all acceptable means for
unconscious urges to gain access to the conscious; they
simultaneously disguise and reveal repressed thoughts which are
generally generated from the ID and Superego e.g. sexual
thoughts are usually repressed forming aggressive thoughts
expressed in humor, satire, and witticisms.

Analysis of Transference: Transference generally is a
product of unfinished business with a significant person
from the client’s childhood.
 Clients commonly transfer their feelings, thought,
expectations about the significant other to the
counsellor. Counselling provides a stage for re-
enacting unresolved conflicts with the counsellor,
can help client’s deal with them in more effective and
functional ways.

 Transference relationships can become a real
battle ground when love feelings directed
toward the counsellor are rejected and the
client in turn rejects the counsellor by
resisting his every effort to be helpful.
 Counter transference occurs when the
counsellor begins to view a client as
other than a client. In such case referral to
another professional is recommended.

Analysis of Incomplete Sentences:
This procedure maybe especially useful in
acquainting counsellors with children and in
establishing better rapport with those who are
anxious, fearful or reluctant to talk.

E.g.:
• The things I like to do the most is –
• The person in my family who helps me the most is
–
• My friends are –
• I feel saddest (or happiest) when –
• When I grow up, I want –
• My teacher is –
• I wish my parents would –
• Mom is-

Psychoanalytic Therapy
Process Limitations
 Doesn’t take all the client’s needs into
consideration. (e.g. sometimes clients have a need
to be alone or regress.)
 Psychoanalysis isn’t for everyone and it is still long
in duration compared to more brief theories.
 The writings of some psychoanalytic theorists
(Freud and Jung in particular) are technical and
hard to read.

References
1. Sreevani R. Psychology for Nurses. Jaypee brothers
medical publishers pvt. Ltd. 2nd ed. 2013; 126-145.
2. Morgan CT. King RA. Weisz JR. et.al. Introduction to
Psychology. McGraw Hill Education (India) Pvt. Ltd.
7th ed. 2020; 575-582.
3. Basavanna M. Psychology for Nurses. Jaypee medical
publishers. 1st ed. 2015; 296-346.
4. Gowda K. Psychology for nurses. CBS Publishers &
distributors. 2nd ed. 2017
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557526/

Freud's psychosexual theory

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