School and systems of psychology

Schools And System of Psychology

1.Psycho-Analysis:

The psychoanalytic movement's place in twentieth-century psychology is both unique and paradoxical. On the other hand psychoanalysis probably the most. Widely known of the systems of psychology.

Sigmund Freud:

Its founder, Sigmund Freud, is certainly one of the most famous person's of this century.

Psychoanalysis is most clearly aligned with the German tradition of the mind as an active, dynamic and self-generating entity. Freud was trained in science. As a physician, Freud used his keen powers of observation to build his system within the medical frame work, basing his theory on individual case studies.

Freud's views on personality were consistent not only with activities of mental processing suggested by Leibniz and Kant, but also with the nineteenth century belief in conscious and unconscious levels of mental activity.

Psychoanalysis carried the implication of mental activity further than any other system of psychology. In addition, psychoanalysis did not emerge from academic research as did the other systems; rather, it was a product of the applied consequences of clinical practice.

In 1881 Freud received his doctorate in medicine. During his hospital training , Freud had worked with patients suffering from anatomical and organic problems of the nervous system.

Freud rejected hypnosis as a treatment with general applicability for three reasons:

1. Not everyone can be hypnotized; hence, it usefulness is limited to a select group.
2. Some patients refused to believe what they revealed under hypnosis. Freud concluded that the patient must be aware during the step-by-step process of discovering memories hidden from accessible memories hidden from accessible consciousness.
3. When one set of symptoms was alleviated under hypnotic suggestibility, new symptoms often emerged.

In 1895, Breuer and Freud published studies on hysteria, the first work of the psychoanalytic movement

Techniques in Psycho-Analysis:

1.Free Association:

Freud came to rely on catharsis as a form of treatment. Catharsis involved encouraging patients to speak of anything that comes to mind, this free association took place in a relaxed atmosphere, usually achieved by having the patient recline on a coach.

2.Transference:

Also ongoing during the course of free associations is the process of transference, involving personality laden experiences that allow the patient to relieve earlier, repressed episodes.Freud recognized transference process as a powerful tool to assist the patient in resolving sources of anxiety. 

3.Dream Interpretation:

In 1897, Freud introduced an other important technique for psychoanalysis, the interpretation of dreams. In 1900, he published his first major work, The interpretation of dreams. In analysis of dream, Freud distinguished between the manifest content and the latent content which represented the symbolic world of the patient.

Dreams are the reaction of the mind to external or internal stimuli that act upon the organism in sleep. A dream is a psychosis with all absurdities, delusions and illusions of a psychosis. Dreams represent the demands or wishes stemming from the unconscious; these wishes are usually repressed demands for instinctual gratification. 

The motivational Constructs: 

Freud postulated the existence of two basic motivational constructs; a life instinct (Eros) and death instinct (Thanatos).

1.Eros:

The life instinct is associated with a specific form of energy, i.e Libido. In Freud's theory instincts represent the bridge between the physical and the mental worlds, while rooted in the human body, they are the forces that release mental energy.

2. Thanatos:

The death instinct (thanatos) is associated with a specific form of energy, whose basic denotation is aggressive in nature. Aggression and self destruction derive from the death instinct. We may suppose that the final aim of the destructive instinct is to reduce living things to an inorganic state.

The Components of Personality :

Freud analyzed the structure of an organism's personality in terms of three systems: id, ego, super ego.

1.ID:

The id is the original system of personality. It is the matrix within which the ego and the super ego become differentiated. It is the reservoir of psychic energy. The Id follows the pleasure principle and its goal is the immediate gratification of the organism's need. The content of the Id is wholly unconscious.

2.Ego:

The ego is acquired and functions as a reality principle. The content of ego can exist at all three levels of awareness; however, very little of the ego's content is unconscious. The ego operates logically and serves to arbitrate between the desires of the id and the prohibitions of the superego.

3.The Super-Ego:

It is the internal representative of the traditional values and ideas of society as interpreted to the child by its parents. The superego is the moral arm of personality.

Typography of Mind:

Freud postulated the three states of mental activity, conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

1.Consciousness:

It consists of those mental events and activities of which the organism is immediately aware. Conscious mental thoughts are governed by the law of logic.

2. Preconsciousness:

It is an intermediate state, separating the contents of the conscious and the unconscious. The content of the preconscious is not as directly accessible as that of conscious, but it is more easily retrievable than that of unconscious.

3.Unconsciousness:

The unconscious is the repository of all sorts of activity repressed material, such as unpleasant or socially tabooed childhood experiences, socially unacceptable libidinal striving, and conflicts.

The Psycho-Sexual stages of development:

Freud assumed a succession of five fixed stages of development, (i) oral (ii) Anal (iii) phallic (iv) latency (v) genital

1.Oral:

The oral phase subsumes the individual's first two years of life. During this phase, libidinal satisfaction is obtained through mouth-eating, drinking, sucking, chewing and general. 

2.Anal:

The anal phase encompasses the third and fourth years of life. Libidinal satisfaction is concentrated on the toilet activities.

3.Phallic Stage:

The phallic phase begins in the third or fourth year of life  and extends through the fifth year; thus it overlaps the anal stage.

4.Latency period:

During the latency period, usually between six and eleven, boys plays with boys and girls plays with girls. The children tend to associate and identify with the parents, adults and peers of the same sex.

5.Genital Period:

In this period, the adolescent beings to love others for altruistic motives and not simply for selfish or narcissistic reasons. Socialization, group activities, vocational planning and preparations for marrying and raising a family begin to manifest themselves.

Defense mechanism:

This is the name for techniques by which the ego wards off the instinctual demands of the ID or the pressure of the superego. With the exception of sublimation.

1.Rationalization: 

It is used to cover up mistakes, maladjustment and failure.

2.Undoing:

A more serious distortion of reality is the mechanisms of undoing. The individual seems to believe that he can undo his former actions that make him guilty.

3.Denial:

One step further away from reality is the mechanism of denial. When reality becomes too painful or too dangerous to cope with, the infantile ego withdraws from any contact with it and refuses to acknowledge its existence.

4.Isolation:

This defense mechanism is often used in compulsion neuroses. It is very unpleasant part that cannot be accepted by the ego.

5.Reaction Formation:

It is related to repression. When a wish or desire is repressed, the ego tries to prevent its reappearing.

6.Sublimation:

It is the cathexis of instinctual energy into a substitute aim or object, or both and a channeling of the instinctual demands into new and desexualized striving.

7.Repression:

Objectionable wishes or ideas are usually removed from conscious and forgotten; the ego "pushes them down" into the unconscious and acts as if they are now extinct.

8.Resistance:

The same forces that cause repression keep the repressed material under close guard and resist its unearthing.