Chapter 4.

1. Background of Sigmund Freud

In the bustling city of Vienna, 1856, a little boy named Sigmund was born — the first of eight
children in a small apartment filled with the laughter, chaos, and dreams of a growing family. His
father was a stern, authoritarian figure, the kind of man who ruled with rules more than
warmth. His mother, on the other hand, was loving and protective — someone young Sigmund
deeply admired and felt drawn to.

Though his family struggled with limited finances, they recognized a spark in the boy. His
curiosity was endless, his intelligence obvious. Even in their cramped living conditions, they
nurtured his hunger to learn, surrounding him with books and ideas instead of toys.

As Sigmund grew older, his love for knowledge flourished — he was interested in many fields,
but doors were closed to him because of one fact: he was Jewish. At a time when discrimination
was rampant, his career choices were limited. Eventually, he chose medicine. At just 26, he
earned his degree and secured a prestigious position at the University of Vienna.

But behind this brilliant career, there was a man fighting his own inner storms. In his 40s, Freud
battled intense fears of death, strange physical symptoms, and disturbing dreams. Instead of
running from them, he turned his curious mind inward. He analyzed his dreams, confronted
painful childhood memories, and admitted uncomfortable truths — like the deep resentment
he once felt toward his father, and the tender feelings he’d had for his mother as a child.

From these reflections, a theory began to take shape — a theory about how our past shapes our
present, how our unconscious guides our actions, and how our hidden desires live just beneath
the surface of our thoughts.

That little boy from Vienna would go on to change the way the world understood the human
mind. His name? Sigmund Freud — the father of psychoanalysis.

2. Freud's Contributions

 Originator of psychoanalysis, developed the first comprehensive theory of personality

and psychotherapy.

 His own emotional struggles led to significant self-analysis and theoretical

developments.

 Worked 18-hour days, authored 24 volumes, died in 1939 from cancer.

3. Core Concepts of Psychoanalysis

 Psychoanalysis: Model of personality development and psychotherapy.

  Key Ideas:

o Behavior is driven by unconscious motives.

o Focus on childhood experiences.

o Introduced concepts like defense mechanisms, id-ego-superego, and

psychosexual development.

4. View of Human Nature

 Deterministic: Behavior shaped by irrational forces, unconscious desires, and biological

drives.

 Libido: Originally sexual, later referred to as life energy.

 Death Instincts: Associated with aggression and self-destruction.

5. Structure of Personality

 Id: Instinctual, pleasure-seeking, present from birth.

 Ego: Reality-oriented, decision-making part.

 Superego: Moral compass, internalized societal rules.

6. Levels of Consciousness

 Unconscious: Holds repressed memories and drives.

 Conscious: Thin slice of awareness.

 Unconscious processes are central to neurotic behaviors.

7. Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

 Anxiety: Conflict between id, ego, and superego.

 Types:

o Reality Anxiety

o Neurotic Anxiety

o Moral Anxiety

 Defense Mechanisms (operate unconsciously, distort reality):

o Repression

o Denial
 o Reaction Formation

o Projection

o Displacement

o Rationalization

o Sublimation

o Regression

o Introjection

o Identification

o Compensation

8. Development of Personality

 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages:

o Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

 Unresolved conflicts can lead to fixation and issues in adulthood.

9. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

 Extended Freud’s work to entire lifespan.

 Stages of Development (infancy to old age), each with specific crisis:

o Trust vs. Mistrust

o Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

o Initiative vs. Guilt

o Industry vs. Inferiority

o Identity vs. Role Confusion

o Intimacy vs. Isolation

o Generativity vs. Stagnation

o Integrity vs. Despair

10. Counseling Implications

 Combines psychosexual and psychosocial approaches for therapeutic insight.

  Helps explore developmental stages and recurring life themes in clients.

 Focus on both childhood and later life experiences.

The Therapeutic Process in Psychoanalytic Therapy

1. Therapeutic Goals

 Main Goal: Increase adaptive functioning by reducing symptoms and resolving internal
conflicts.

 Two Core Objectives:

o Make the unconscious conscious.

o Strengthen the ego to balance reality, instincts, and guilt.

 Therapy involves deep exploration of childhood experiences to understand and change

character, not just symptom relief.

2. Therapist’s Role

 Classical psychoanalysis uses a blank-screen approach: neutral, anonymous, and

nonjudgmental.

 Therapist encourages transference (client projects past feelings onto them).

 Functions of the therapist:

o Create a safe environment for emotional exploration.

o Interpret unconscious material sensitively and with good timing.

o Strengthen therapeutic alliance and resolve resistances.

o Help client gain insight and control over life.

 Interpretation is key: reveals unconscious processes and fosters insight.

3. Client’s Experience in Therapy

 Commitment is intense: classical therapy involves long-term, multiple sessions per

week.

 Clients lie on a couch (after face-to-face sessions) and engage in free association (saying
whatever comes to mind).

 This setup encourages projection and reduces distractions.

 Clients are free to express any thought or feeling, no matter how socially unacceptable.
  Therapy involves “working through” old patterns, not just short-term fixes.

 Psychodynamic therapy (modern version) is:

o Shorter

o Face-to-face

o Less intense regression

o Still focused on transference, unconscious, and early experiences

4. Termination Process

 Mutually decided once:

o Symptoms and conflicts are resolved

o Client gains insight and emotional growth

o Transference is reduced

 Termination often brings up feelings of loss, separation, and reflection.

 Therapists prepare clients in advance and discuss what they’ve learned and achieved.

5. Therapist–Client Relationship

 Classical view: Therapist stays outside the relationship and comments on it.

 Contemporary view: Therapist engages emotionally, focuses on here-and-now

interactions.

 Relationship is key for:

o Emotional attunement

o Self-awareness and growth

o Healing early relational trauma

6. Transference

 Client unconsciously redirects feelings from past relationships to the therapist.

 Brings up unresolved childhood emotions: love, hostility, anxiety, etc.

 Must be “worked through” for therapy to succeed:

o Explore, understand, and reprocess old feelings

 o Form new ways of relating

7. Countertransference

 Therapist’s unconscious emotional reactions to the client.

 Originally seen as interference, now understood as valuable insight:

o Reveals client patterns

o Helps the therapist understand themselves better

 Can be positive or negative: withdrawal, over-identification, anger, attraction

 Therapists must:

o Undergo their own therapy

o Get supervision

o Maintain clear boundaries

Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures

1. Psychoanalytic vs. Psychodynamic Therapy

 Psychodynamic therapy is a modified, more flexible version of classical psychoanalysis:

o Fewer sessions, no couch, shorter duration.

o Greater use of empathy, reassurance, and support.

o More self-disclosure from therapists.

o Less emphasis on therapist neutrality.

o Greater focus on here-and-now and real-life concerns.

o Focuses on practical concerns and relational patterns.

2. Goals and Process

 Aim: Awareness → Catharsis → Insight → Working Through.

 End goal: Personality restructuring and emotional reeducation.

3. Core Techniques of Psychoanalytic Therapy

1. Maintaining the Analytic Framework

 Therapist ensures consistency in schedule, fees, boundaries, neutrality.

  Consistent structure promotes emotional safety and therapeutic depth.

2. Free Association

 Clients say whatever comes to mind without censorship.

 Helps uncover unconscious material (wishes, conflicts, fantasies).

 Therapist listens for patterns, gaps, or resistance in the flow.

3. Interpretation

 Therapist explains meanings of dreams, behaviors, resistances, and transferences.

 Purpose: Help client gain insight and link current issues to unconscious roots.

 Should be timely and collaborative, not imposed.

4. Dream Analysis

 Dreams = "Royal road to the unconscious" (Freud).

 Two levels:

o Manifest content: What’s remembered.

o Latent content: Hidden, symbolic meanings.

 Therapist deciphers dreams to explore repressed material and inner conflict.

5. Analysis of Resistance

 Resistance = client’s reluctance to face unconscious material.

 It appears in missed sessions, silences, distractions, or emotional discomfort.

 Interpreting resistance helps client understand defense patterns.

 Should be handled gently, respectfully, and supportively.

6. Analysis of Transference

 Transference = client projects past feelings onto the therapist.

 Interpreting these reactions helps clients understand and resolve old emotional
wounds.

 Seen as central to healing in psychoanalytic work.

 Therapist helps client see how they repeat early patterns in present relationships.
4. Application to Group Counseling

 Groups are a microcosm of real-life relationships.

 Members unconsciously reenact family roles (parents, siblings, rivals).

 Common dynamics: transference, countertransference, resistance, defense

mechanisms.

Key Concepts in Group Therapy:

 Transference: Clients may project unresolved feelings onto group members or leaders.

 Countertransference: Therapist’s reactions to group members can reveal their own

unresolved conflicts.

 Group leaders must:

o Be aware of their own emotional needs and unconscious biases.

o Avoid using members to meet their personal validation needs.

o Create a safe space that respects each client’s identity and worldview.

Jung’s Perspective on Personality Development

1. Key Differences from Freud

 Jung developed analytical psychology, integrating mythology, religion, history, and

anthropology.

 Freud emphasized sexual drives, while Jung stressed the search for meaning,
integration, and individuation.

 Jung broke from Freud due to Freud’s insistence on sexuality as the core of personality.

2. Focus on Midlife

 Midlife is a turning point: let go of early-life values and face the unconscious.

 Use dreams, art, and creativity to explore the inner self.

 Personal growth involves integrating unconscious elements with consciousness.

3. Collective Unconscious & Archetypes

 Collective unconscious: inherited reservoir of human experiences.

 Archetypes:
 o Persona: social mask we wear.

o Anima/Animus: internal feminine/masculine aspects.

o Shadow: dark, primitive side of personality.

 Dreams express rather than repress — aimed at wholeness and balance.

Contemporary Psychoanalytic Trends

1. Modern Branches

 Evolved into schools like:

o Object Relations Theory

o Self Psychology

o Relational Psychoanalysis

o Ego Psychology

Object Relations Theory

 Focuses on how early attachment and separation shape relationships.

 “Objects” = people who fulfill needs (e.g., mother as caregiver).

 Internalized images of early caregivers influence adult behavior and expectations.

Self Psychology (Kohut)

 Emphasizes the development of self through empathic interactions with self-objects.

 Healing occurs through genuine, empathic therapist–client relationships.

Relational Psychoanalysis

 Therapy is a mutual, interactive process.

 Values emotional connection, non-hierarchy, and cultural context.

 Therapist and client co-create the therapeutic experience, focusing on here-and-now

enactments.

Developmental Insights & Personality Disorders

Early Development and Object Relations:

 Modern psychoanalytic theory emphasizes how early self–other relationships shape

later interpersonal behaviors.
  People often repeat relational patterns from early caregiver relationships (e.g., overly
dependent or distant behavior linked to early maternal bonds).

2. Margaret Mahler’s Contributions:

 Focused on how the child gradually separates from the mother to develop a distinct self
(separation–individuation).

 Stages:

o Normal Infantile Autism (0–4 weeks): Infant is not psychologically connected to

others; driven mainly by physiological needs.

o Symbiosis (3–8 months): Infant sees the mother as an extension of itself; relies
heavily on her for emotional regulation.

o Separation–Individuation (5–36 months): Child begins to explore independence

while still needing emotional support.

 Success leads to self-confidence.

 Failures may lead to narcissistic or borderline personality traits in

adulthood.

Psychological Disorders and Development:

 Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Results from disrupted self-development;

characterized by grandiosity, lack of empathy, and low self-worth hidden behind
confidence.

 Borderline Personality Disorder: Stems from emotional rejection during the separation
phase; marked by identity disturbance, emotional instability, and relationship turmoil.

4. Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy:

 Shift from long-term analysis to brief, time-limited therapies (typically 10–25 sessions).

 Emphasis on:

o Specific problem identification early in therapy.

o Active therapeutic stance.

o Strengthening the therapeutic alliance.

o Interpretation and working through unconscious processes.

  Therapy aims not to "cure" but to increase insight, improve functioning, and foster
emotional growth.

Brief, Time-Limited Psychodynamic Therapy:

 Duration: Typically 10 to 25 sessions.

 Focus: Specific interpersonal issues and clear goals.

 Active therapist role: More directive and interpretive early in therapy.

 Goal: Changes in behavior and feelings, not a cure.

 Appropriate for: Neurotic, motivated clients (not severe cases like major depression).

Multicultural Perspective on Psychoanalytic Therapy:

Strengths:

 Cultural adaptability: Can be modified for diverse populations and developmental

issues.

 Therapist awareness: Focus on managing therapist biases and countertransference.

Shortcomings:

 Cost: Traditional psychoanalysis is expensive and may not be accessible to all.

 Cultural mismatch: Some cultures may prefer more structured, directive therapy.

 Limited external focus: May overlook social, cultural, and political factors impacting
clients.

Psychoanalytic Therapy in Stan’s Case:

 Unconscious processes: Stan’s self-destructive tendencies linked to early deprivation.

 Gender-role issues: Fear of women and relationship difficulties tied to family dynamics.