2. The Constancy Principle
States that the aim of the psychic apparatus (i.e., mind)
is to keep stimulation to near zero if at all possible
Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1895)
Generated from an now outdated neurological
conception
Quiescence = pleasant
Excitement = unpleasant
Classical Psychoanalysis 2Mark W. Matthews, PhD
3. The psychic quantity that the constancy principle
regulated (required to discharge) were the affects
1. An event (e.g., interpersonal exchange)
2. Reaction
Sexually excited, angry, frightened, pleased
3. Affect determined by
Individual personality
Event itself
Culture determines which affects are acceptable
Classical Psychoanalysis 3Mark W. Matthews, PhD
4. 4. This interplay (individual & culture) determine
which affects are “embroiled in conflict” (G & M, p. 27)
5. The memory associated with these affects become
subject to repression
Note: in this form, there are no irreducible forces or
fundamental passions (i.e., drive)
Classical Psychoanalysis 4Mark W. Matthews, PhD
5. Drive is an energy source
Activates the psychic apparatus [structure]
Determines humanity’s essential nature
Quotes:
“a demand made upon the mind for work”
“the ultimate cause of all activity”
“every psychical act begins as an unconscious one”
Classical Psychoanalysis 5Mark W. Matthews, PhD
7. Psychosexual Stages
Oral
Incorporative(0 - 8 months): focus on the mouth, lips,
tongue, swallowing, and sucking
Incorporative character: smoker, eater
Sadistic (8 - 12 months): biting and devouring
Sadistic character: sarcastic
Classical Psychoanalysis 7Mark W. Matthews, PhD
8. Anal (2 - 3 years)
Child is learning how to control physiological functions
Expulsive: releasing feces
Expulsive character: messy, untidy
Retentive: holding feces
Retentive character: neat, tidy, obsessive
Classical Psychoanalysis 8Mark W. Matthews, PhD
9. Phallic (4 - 5 years)
Oedipus Complex
Reverse Oedipus Complex
Latency (6 - 12 years)
Sexual instincts are sublimated until genital stage
Genital (12 years +)
Sexual instincts are not primarily autoerotic
Health defied as the establishment of appropriate
relationships with whole objects
Classical Psychoanalysis 9Mark W. Matthews, PhD
10. 1. Sexual drive not yet organized
2. Composed of component/partial drives
3. Partial drives through their dependent relationship
to the self-preserving drives are carried outside of the
infant’s own body
4. Set of experiences develops
Frustrating
Satisfying
Classical Psychoanalysis 10Mark W. Matthews, PhD
11. 5. These experiences, especially the satisfying
experiences create an image or representation of what
satisfaction is like
6. “The association of these satisfactions with the
conditions under which they were experienced leads
to object formation”
(G & M, p. 41)
Classical Psychoanalysis 11Mark W. Matthews, PhD
12. “Because within the drive model the object is the
creation of drive, object relations remain a function of
drive”
(G & M, p. 42, italics in original)
Objects are passive receptacles or recipients of
cathexis
Classical Psychoanalysis 12Mark W. Matthews, PhD
14. One of the biggest areas changed as he
accommodated his theory and created the structural
model
Addition of Narcissism, identification, and the ego ideal
were too much for the system
Classical Psychoanalysis 14Mark W. Matthews, PhD
15. Structural
Finally gives structures to functions and the psychic
apparatus written about
id
all unconscious
ego
mostly unconscious
navigates reality
superego
mostly unconscious
generated from resolution of Oedipus Complex
Classical Psychoanalysis 15Mark W. Matthews, PhD
16. Actual Neuroses
Anxiety neuroses
Neurasthenia
A psychological disorder characterized by chronic fatigue
and weakness, loss of memory, and generalized aches and
pains, formerly thought to result from exhaustion of the
nervous system.
Dysfunction of current sexual life
Related to hypothesized chemical sexual substances
(i.e., physiological)
Classical Psychoanalysis 16Mark W. Matthews, PhD
17. Psychoneuroses
Not neurological or physiological
Available for psychoanalytic treatment
Result of a conflict brought about the incongruity of
ideas and the ensuing failure to release affect
Seduction Theory
“Early seduction provides a traumatic experience precisely
because the immature sexual apparatus is poorly equipped
to handle the excitations that are stimulated, nor is the
immature personality equipped to deal with their emotional
concomitants”
(G & M, p. 28).
Classical Psychoanalysis 17Mark W. Matthews, PhD
18. Phase 1: Defense Model
Repression of unacceptable affects exercise a
“pathogenic force”
Sexuality was considered the most likely area resulting
in unacceptable affects, but still only one of a myriad of
possible areas
Incompatibility and conflict are pathogenic (regardless
of source)
“Dominant mass of ideas”
Classical Psychoanalysis 18Mark W. Matthews, PhD
19. Phase 2: Resistance and Repression
Dominant mass of ideas = social structure
The tension between one’s impulses and the social structure
into which one must fit is what determines repression
Wants to make repression deriving from humanity’s
biological nature
Postulates “organic repression”
Ontogeny reiterating phylogeny
Morality without society
Purest form of drive/structure model
Classical Psychoanalysis 19Mark W. Matthews, PhD
20. Phase 3: Anxiety and Late Affect Theory
Anxiety near universal
Affect relegated to secondary position
No longer affect that is defended against
Affect (specifically anxiety) is an indication that
repression was partially failing
With drive being primary, specific aspects of affects
were disregarded, except as the affects indicated or
revealed the nature of the repressed drive impulse
Classical Psychoanalysis 20Mark W. Matthews, PhD
21. “In Freud’s early view of the actual neuroses he saw
anxiety as the product of dammed-up libido which had
become ‘toxic’; because there were no opportunities for
discharge, the libido had become (physiologically)
transformed. The theory of anxiety in psychoneuroses,
and the theory of affect generally, was imported from
this approach to the actual neuroses. Anxiety was seen
as the result of a damming-up, not in the case because
of inadequate sexual opportunity, but because of
repression”
(G & M, p. 65)
Classical Psychoanalysis 21Mark W. Matthews, PhD
22. “All neurotic psychopathology represents a
compromise between a repressed unacceptable wish
and an unconscious fear. Where as all behavior
represents a compromise between the demands of
inner drives and external reality, neurotic behavior is
a second-best solution, reflecting the individual’s
effort to accommodate not only to the real world but
also to the restrictions imposed by his unconscious
fear”
(MacKinnon & Michels, 1971, p. 74)
Classical Psychoanalysis 22Mark W. Matthews, PhD
24. Character
More generalized behaviors
Part of a persons personality
Ego-syntonic
Generally Axis II
Mistrust
Irresponsibility
Impulsiveness
Narcissism
Classical Psychoanalysis 24Mark W. Matthews, PhD
25. Symptoms are uncovered through what the patient
talks about
Character is uncovered and revealed in the way and
manner the patient talks and how the patient relates
to others
Symptoms not only defend against forbidden wishes,
symptoms also partially gratify the wish.
Classical Psychoanalysis 25Mark W. Matthews, PhD
26. Neurosis
The ego responds to intolerable id demands by
renouncing the id’s demands (i.e., repression)
Psychosis
The ego responds by renouncing the reality that makes
the id’s demands intolerable (i.e., disavowal)
This defense is against perceptions
This defense is directed outwards
Classical Psychoanalysis 26Mark W. Matthews, PhD
27. Early Phases
Hypnosis moving toward free association
Abreaction/Catharsis
Pathology happens when affect cannot be discharged
(constancy principle)
Pent up affects result in neurotic symptoms
Recovery of the repressed memories result in
abreaction
Classical Psychoanalysis 27Mark W. Matthews, PhD
28. Later Phases
Treatment requires the uncovering of the libidinal force
which has led to the appearance of a given affect
Described like chess
Classical Psychoanalysis 28Mark W. Matthews, PhD
29. Transference
Distortion based on history
Acting in vs. Acting out
Patient is unconsciously reenacting a latter-day version of
forgotten childhood memories, repressed fantasies, and
other material with the therapist
Classical Psychoanalysis 29Mark W. Matthews, PhD
30. Interpretation
Helps patient distinguish
reality and fantasy
past and present
self and others
Provides broader perspective on how childhood impacts
present
Enlightens how the patient responds automatically and in
stereotyped ways
Classical Psychoanalysis 30Mark W. Matthews, PhD
32. First personality theorist
Ideas have permeated all of society
Art & Literature
Popular Culture
Freudian Slip
Dream Analysis
Id, Ego, Superego
Classical Psychoanalysis 32Mark W. Matthews, PhD
33. Acknowledged presence and power of a dynamic
unconscious
Developed a cohesive theory of personality structure
Pioneered a developmental model of diagnosis and
treatment
Different ages and stages with different needs and
struggles
Classical Psychoanalysis 33Mark W. Matthews, PhD
34. Concerned with psychopathology
Wrested with the “Seduction Theory”
First theorist to talk about “object relations”
Treatment Concepts
Transference/Countertransference
Resistance
Dream Work
Free Association
Classical Psychoanalysis 34Mark W. Matthews, PhD
36. Development of Drive/Structure Model
Drive
Fundamental human urges
Elemental passions
Id expresses true purpose
Structure
Mental topography is a fiction
Stresses metaphorical nature by assigning common names
Classical Psychoanalysis 36Mark W. Matthews, PhD
37. Greenberg, J. R., & Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Object
relations in psychoanalytic theory. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
MacKinnon, R. A., & Michels, R. (1971). The
psychiatric interview in clinical practice. Philadelphia:
W. B. Saunders.
Classical Psychoanalysis 37Mark W. Matthews, PhD
Editor's Notes
Psychic energy and psychic structures
Constancy principal developed as homeostasis and quintessence are the goals of the organism. Tension reduction and tension relief
Pleasure principal. Humans motivated by pleasure and pleasure is at least initially defined as constancy
Reality Principal
Psychosexual Stages