Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

The Psychoanalytic Perspective on Personality421At first, Freud embraced Breuer’s technique, but he found that not all of hispatients could be hypnotized. Eventually, Freud dropped the use of hypnosis anddeveloped his own technique of free association to help his patients uncover forgottenmemories. Freud’s patients would spontaneously report their uncensoredthoughts, mental images, and feelings as they came to mind. From these “free associations,”the thread that led to the crucial long-forgotten memories could beunraveled. Breuer and Freud described several of their case studies in their landmarkbook, Studies on Hysteria. Its publication in 1895 marked the beginning ofpsychoanalysis.In 1900, Freud published what many consider his most important work, TheInterpretation of Dreams. By the early 1900s, Freud had developed the basic tenetsof his psychoanalytic theory and was no longer the isolated scientist. He was gaininginternational recognition and developing a following.In 1904, Freud published what was to become one of his most popular books,The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. He described how unconscious thoughts, feelings,and wishes are often reflected in acts of forgetting, inadvertent slips of thetongue, accidents, and errors. By 1909, Freud’s influence was also felt in the UnitedStates, when he and other psychoanalysts were invited to lecture at Clark Universityin Massachusetts. For the next 30 years, Freud continued to refine his theory, publishingmany books, articles, and lectures.The last two decades of Freud’s life were filled with many personal tragedies. Theterrible devastation of World War I weighed heavily on his mind. In 1920, one of hisdaughters died. In the early 1920s, Freud developed cancer of the jaw, a conditionfor which he would ultimately undergo more than 30 operations. And during the late1920s and early 1930s, the Nazis were steadily gaining power in Germany.Given the climate of the times, it’s not surprising that Freud came to focus onhumanity’s destructive tendencies. For years he had asserted that sexuality was thefundamental human motive, but now he added aggression as a second powerfulhuman instinct. During this period, Freud wrote Civilization and Its Discontents(1930), in which he applied his psychoanalytic perspective to civilization as a whole.The central theme of the book is that human nature and civilization are in basicconflict—a conflict that cannot be resolved.Freud’s extreme pessimism was undoubtedly a reflection of the destruction he sawall around him. By 1933, Adolf Hitler had seized power in Germany. Freud’s bookswere banned and publicly burned in Berlin. Five years later, the Nazis marched intoAustria, seizing control of Freud’s homeland. Although Freud’s life was clearlythreatened, it was only after his youngest daughter, Anna, had been detained andquestioned by the Gestapo that Freud reluctantly agreed to leave Vienna. Undergreat duress, Freud moved his family to the safety of England. A year later, hiscancer returned. In 1939, Freud died in London at the age of 83 (Gay, 2006).This brief sketch cannot do justice to the richness of Freud’s life and the influenceof his culture on his ideas. Today, Freud’s legacy continues to influence psychology, philosophy,literature, art, and psychotherapy (Merlino & others, 2008; O’Roark, 2007).Freud the Leader In 1909, Freud visited theUnited States to lecture on his ideas atClark University in Massachusetts. A yearlater, Freud and his many followersfounded the International PsychoanalyticAssociation.free associationA psychoanalytic technique in which thepatient spontaneously reports all thoughts,feelings, and mental images as they cometo mind.unconsciousIn Freud’s theory, a term used to describethoughts, feelings, wishes, and drives thatare operating below the level of consciousawareness.Freud the Exile In the spring of 1938, Freudfled Nazi persecution for the safety ofLondon on the eve of World War II. Four ofFreud’s sisters who remained behind laterdied in the Nazi extermination camps. Heis shown arriving in England, his eldestdaughter, Mathilde, at his side. Freud diedin London on September 23, 1939.Freud’s Dynamic Theory of PersonalityFreud (1940) saw personality and behavior as the result of a constant interplayamong conflicting psychological forces. These psychological forces operate atthree different levels of awareness: the conscious, the preconscious, and theunconscious. All the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you’re aware of atthis particular moment represent the conscious level. The preconscious containsinformation that you’re not currently aware of but can easily bring to consciousawareness, such as memories of recent events or your street address.However, the conscious and preconscious are merely the visible tip of theiceberg of the mind. The bulk of this psychological iceberg is made up of theunconscious, which lies submerged below the waterline of the preconsciousand conscious (see Figure 10.1 on the next page). You’re not directly aware