Psychology History entry

526 CHAPTER 16 qualified psychoanalyst one need not be a physician, what it really is about is its latent content. Freud but one does need to be psychoanalyzed. And, in concluded that every dream is a wish fulfillment. addition to being psychoanalyzed, one needs at least That is, it is a symbolic expression of a wish that the two years of supervised practice as a psychoanalyst. dreamer could not express or satisfy directly with- Because no one was available to psychoanalyze out experiencing anxiety. Wishes expressed in sym- Freud, he took on the job himself. Along with a bolic form during sleep are disguised enough to variety of insecurities, such as an intense fear of train allow the dreamer to continue sleeping because a travel, a major motivation for Freud’s self-analysis direct expression of the wish involved would pro- was his reaction to the death of his father in the fall duce too much anxiety and disrupt sleep. of 1896. Although his father had been very ill and According to Freud, dream interpretation is his death was no surprise, Freud found that his complex business, and only someone well versed father’s death affected him very deeply. For months in psychoanalytic theory can accomplish the task. following the death, Freud experienced severe de- One has to understand the dream work that dis- pression and could not work. His reaction was so guises the wish actually being expressed in the acute that he decided he had to regard himself as a dream. Dream work includes condensation,in patient. which one element of a dream symbolizes several things in waking life, such as when a family dog symbolizes an entire family. Dream work also in- Analysis of Dreams volves displacement, in which, instead of dream- Clearly, Freud could not use free association on ing about an anxiety-provoking object or event, himself, so he needed another vehicle for his self- the dreamer dreams of something symbolically sim- analysis. Freud assumed that the content of dreams ilar to it, such as when one dreams of a cave instead could be viewed in much the same way as hysterical of a vagina. symptoms. That is, both dreams and hysterical Freud believed that although the most impor- symptoms could be seen as symbolic manifestations tant dream symbols come from a person’s own ex- of repressed traumatic thoughts. If one properly an- perience, there also are universal dream symbols, alyzed the symbols of either dreams or hysterical which have the same meaning in everyone’s symptoms, one could get at the roots of the prob- dreams. For example, travel symbolizes death; fall- lem. Dream analysis, then, became a second way ing symbolizes giving in to sexual temptation; of tapping the unconscious mind (the first way be- boxes, gardens, doors, or balconies symbolize the ing free association) and one that was suitable for vagina; and cannons, snakes, trees, swords, church Freud’s self-analysis. About the interpretation of spires, and candles symbolize the penis. dreams, Freud said, “The interpretation of dreams After Freud used dream interpretation to ana- is the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious lyze himself, the procedure became an integral part activities of the mind” (1900/1953, p. 608). Freud’s of psychoanalysis. self-analysis culminated in what he, and others, considered to be his most important work, The Freud, Dreams, and Originality. In 1914 Freud Interpretation of Dreams (1900/1953). said about dreams, “I do not know of any outside Like the physical symptoms of hysteria, dreams influence which drew my interest to them or in- require a knowledgeable interpretation. During spired me with any helpful expectations” sleep, a person’s defenses are down but not elimi- (1914/1966c, p. 18). He also said that, prior to his nated, so a repressed experience reaches conscious- work, for a physician to suggest there was scientific ness only in disguised form. Therefore, there is a value in the interpretation of dreams would have major difference between what a dream appears to been “positively disgraceful,” and such a physician be about and what it really is about. What a dream would have been “excommunicated” from the appears to be about is its manifest content, and medical community. All of this is Freudian myth.

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 527 The use of dream interpretation for diagnosing neous sexual activity. At the same time, physical and mental disorders goes back at least to self-analysis enabled Freud to extend sig- the early Greeks. In fact, as we saw in Chapter 2, nificantly his understanding of the various Plato described dreams in a way reminiscent of psychological correlates of such early sexual Freud’s later description. Rosemarie Sand (1992) experiences. He was able to recall feelings of indicates that, before Freud, some of the most jealousy and hatred at the birth of a younger prominent physicians in Europe were convinced male sibling, one year his junior (and who of the scientific significance of dream interpretation. died after only eight months of life). He also Among them were Charcot, Janet, and Krafft- recognized love for the mother and jealousy Ebing. These individuals suggested that often of the father in the early years of his child- important information about a patient could be as- hood and therefore concluded that such certained only through the interpretation of dreams. feelings must be a universal concomitant of For example, Krafft-Ebing observed that some this period of life. … He even recalled that homosexuals dream of heterosexual relations and “libido towards matrem was aroused” when, concluded that, for them, homosexuality was ac- at the age of two, he had seen his mother in quired and not congenital. Krafft-Ebing believed the nude. (Sulloway, 1979, p. 209) that, for such individuals, heterosexual tendencies are unconscious and disclosed only by dream anal- Thus, by analyzing his own dreams, Freud con- ysis. In his personal library Freud had four editions firmed his belief that young males tend to love their of the book by Krafft-Ebing describing how dreams mothers and hate their fathers. He called this ten- could be used to explore the unconscious mind. dency the Oedipus complex after the Greek play Sand (1992) discusses the use of dream interpreta- Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, in which Oedipus un- tion by Charcot, Janet, and Krafft-Ebing, all of knowingly killed his father and married his mother. whom anticipated Freud’s contributions. Because male children have a close physical re- lationship with their mothers (the mother bathes, strokes, nurses, and hugs them), Freud thought The Oedipus Complex that it was natural for them to have a sexual desire Freud’s self-analysis did not result in any major the- for their mothers. It is important to note, however, oretical breakthroughs, but it served to confirm that Freud used the term sexual in a very general many of the theoretical notions that Freud enter- way. A better translation might be “pleasurable” tained before his self-analysis began: rather than “sexual.” For Freud, anything pleasur- able was roughly what he meant by sexual. Freud’s self-analysis [did not] serve, as Heidbreder (1933) summarized the Freudian use Freud scholars commonly claim, as the of the word sex: “heroic” vehicle for his discovery of the hidden world of spontaneous infantile Freud used the word “sex” in a very gen- sexuality. It is clear that he was already eral sense. He includes in it not only the looking for evidence of sexual activity in specifically sexual interests and activities, his own childhood … when he finally but the whole love life—it might almost undertook this self-analysis. be said, the whole pleasure life—of human What, then, was the real scientific value beings. The list of activities that he and his of Freud’s self-analysis? Self-analysis finally followers have seen as having a sexual sig- allowed him to confirm from his own ex- nificance is almost inexhaustible; but its perience just how remarkably widespread range and variety may be indicated by the the opportunities were in every normal fact that it includes such simple practices as childhood for both traumatic and sponta- walking, smoking, and bathing, and such

528 CHAPTER 16 complex activities as artistic creation, reli- At this point, Freud had the vehicle he needed gious ceremonial, social and political in- for explaining the seduction fantasies he had pre- stitutions, and even the development of sumably observed in so many of his patients. He civilization itself. (p. 389) now saw such fantasies as representing repressed desires to possess the parent of the opposite sex In the case of the Oedipus complex, however, and to eliminate the same-sex parent. Such desires, it appears that when Freud said sexual, he meant Freud concluded, are as natural and universal as the sexual. When the male child manipulates his sex need to repress them, and so infantile sexuality be- organs, he thinks about his mother and thus be- came an important ingredient in his general theory comes her lover: of unconscious motivation. He wishes to possess her physically in such According to the history of psychoanalysis of- ways as he has divined from his observa- fered by Freud and his followers, attributing sexual tions and intuitions about sexual life, and desires to children and claiming that such desires are he tries to seduce her by showing her the natural ran contrary to the Victorian morality of male organ which he is proud to own. In a Freud’s time, and therefore he was further alienated word, his early awakened masculinity seeks from the medical establishment. This contention to take his father’s place with her; his father appears to be another myth. Views of infantile sex- has hitherto in any case been an envied uality very similar to those proposed by Freud had model to the boy, owing to the physical already been offered by individuals such as Krafft- strength he perceives in him and the au- Ebing, Albert Moll (1862–1939), and Havelock thority with which he finds him clothed. Ellis (1859–1939), and sexology was very much in His father now becomes a rival who stands vogue when Freud was developing his theory. (For in his way and whom he would like to get details, see Sulloway, 1979.) rid of. (Freud, 1940/1969, p. 46) Now the male child is in competition with the father who also desires the mother, but the reality THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF of the situation (that the father is much more pow- EVERYDAY LIFE erful than the child) causes the child to repress his amorous desires for the mother and his hostility Freud’s next major work following The Interpretation toward the father. According to Freud, however, of Dreams was Psychopathology of Everyday Life repressed ideas do not go away; they continue to (1901/1960b) in which he discussed parapraxes manifest themselves in dreams, symptoms, or un- (singular, parapraxis). Parapraxes are relatively minor usual behavior. For example, it became clear to errors in everyday living, such as slips of the tongue Freud that his overreaction to his father’s death (Freudian slips), forgetting things, losing things, small had been at least partially motivated by the guilt accidents, and mistakes in writing. According to he felt from wishing his father would die. Freud, all behavior is motivated; so for him, it was Freud believed that the Oedipus conflict is uni- legitimate to seek the causes of all behavior, “nor- versal among male children and that its remnants in mal” or “abnormal.” Furthermore, he believed that adult life explain much normal and abnormal be- because the causes of behavior are usually uncon- havior. One bit of “normal” behavior it explains is scious, people seldom know why they act as they that males often marry women who are very similar do. Freud pointed out that parapraxes are often un- to their mothers. (We will discuss what happens to consciously motivated. female children at this time of life when we discuss the psychosexual stages of development later in this Freud is never at a loss to find evidence for chapter.) his theories in the commonplace incidents

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 529 we dismiss as insignificant or attribute to In the preceding quotation, Heidbreder used chance. Slips of the tongue and slips of the the term overdetermined in regard to acts of for- pen, forgotten names and forgotten ap- getting and errors in speech. The concept of over- pointments, lost gifts and mislaid posses- determination is very important in Freudian the- sions, all point to the role of wish and ory. In general, it means that behavioral and motive. Such happenings, Freud insists, are psychological acts often have more than one cause. by no means accidental. The woman who A dream, for example, may partially satisfy several loses her wedding ring wishes that she had needs at the same time, as may a hysterical symp- never had it. The physician who forgets tom. Also, as we have just seen, an error in speech the name of his rival wishes that name may be caused (determined) by difficulties in mus- blotted out of existence. The newspaper cle coordination, the tendency to transpose letters, that prints “Clown Prince” for “Crown or by some unconscious motive. If a phenomenon Prince” and corrects its error by an- is determined by two or more causes, it is said to be nouncing that of course it meant “Clown overdetermined. Prince,” really means what it says. Even untutored common sense had a shrewd suspicion that forgetting is significant; one Humor rarely admits without embarrassment that he failed to keep an appointment because Freud (1905/1960a) indicated that people often use he forgot it. Events of this sort are always jokes to express unacceptable sexual and aggressive determined. They are even overdeter- tendencies. Like dreams, jokes exemplify wish ful- mined. Several lines of causation may fillments; so, according to Freud, jokes offer a so- converge on the same mishap, and physical cially approved vehicle for being obscene, aggres- as well as psychical determinants may be sive or hostile, cynical, critical, skeptical, or involved. Errors in speech, for example, blasphemous. Viewed in this way, jokes offer a may be due in part to difficulties of mus- way of venting repressed, anxiety-provoking cular coordination, to transposition of let- thoughts, and so it is no wonder that people find ters, to similarities in words, and the like. most humorous those things that bother them the But such conditions do not constitute the most. Freud said that we laugh most at those things whole explanation. They do not explain that cause us the most anxiety. However, to be why one particular slip and not another effective, jokes, like dreams, must disguise the true was made—why just that combination of sexual or aggressive motives behind them, or they sounds and no other was uttered. A young would cause too much anxiety. Freud believed that business man, for example, striving to be a joke often fails because the motive it expresses is generous to a rival, and intending to say too blatant, in the same way that a nightmare is a “Yes, he is very efficient,” actually said, failed dream from which one awakes because the “Yes, he is very officious.” Obviously he motive expressed is too powerful for dream work to was slipping into an easy confusion of disguise. words, but he was also expressing his real Thus, in his search for the contents of the un- opinion. Desire and indirect fulfillment are conscious mind, Freud made use of free association, at the basis of normal as well as abnormal dream analysis, slips of the tongue, memory lapses, conduct, and motive determines even “accidents,” gestures and mannerisms, what the those happenings we attribute to chance. person finds humorous, and literally everything (Heidbreder, 1933, pp. 391–392) else the person does or says.

530 CHAPTER 16 FREU D’ ST RIPT OTH E UN IT ED ideas. I can make nothing in my own case STATES with his dream theories, and obviously ‘symbolism’ is a most dangerous method. (Hale, 1971, p. 19) As Freud’s fame gradually grew, he began to attract disciples. In 1902 Freud began meeting on Freud’s series of five lectures was later ex- Wednesday evenings with a small group of his fol- panded into his influential Introductory Lectures of lowers in the waiting room outside his office. This Psychoanalysis (1915–1917/1966a). group, called the Wednesday Psychological Society, Freud was deeply grateful that his visit to Clark became the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908. University had given psychoanalysis international By Freud’s own account, psychoanalysis remained recognition, but still he returned to Germany rather obscure until he and two of his disciples, Carl with a negative impression of the United States. Jung (discussed in the next chapter) and Sandor He said to Ernest Jones, “America is a mistake; a Ferenczi, were invited to Clark University in gigantic mistake it is true, but none the less a mis- 1909 by G. Stanley Hall. Aboard ship, Freud saw take” (E. Jones, 1955, p. 66). Hale (1971) summa- a cabin steward reading Psychopathology of Everyday rized what Freud liked and did not like about the Life and thought for the first time that he might be United States: famous (E. Jones, 1955). Freud was 53 years old at the time. At the time, the trip aroused Freud’s hope After a few days of sightseeing, Freud began his that there might be a future for psycho- series of five lectures. Each lecture was prepared analysis in the United States. He made only a half-hour before it was given, and prepara- lasting friendships with a few Americans. tion consisted of a walk and discussion with Yet he was puzzled and somewhat dis- Ferenczi. Freud delivered the lectures in German trustful, amused but not pleased, by what without any notes. Upon completion of his lec- he had seen—Worcester, the Adirondacks, tures, he was given an honorary doctorate, and in Coney Island, his first movie, full of wild his acceptance speech, he said, “This is the first of- chasing. He admired Niagara Falls—it was ficial recognition of my endeavors” (E. Jones, 1955, grander and larger than he had expected. p. 57). Although his lectures were met with some He was charmed by a porcupine and by criticism, reactions were generally favorable. the Greek antiquities at the Metropolitan Supposedly, none other than William James, who Museum. Yet the American cooking irri- was fatally ill at the time, said to Ernest Jones, tated his stomach; the free and easy infor- Freud’s friend, colleague, and, later, his biographer, mality irked his sense of dignity. He “The future of psychology belongs to your work” learned of a popular mania for religious (E. Jones, 1955, p. 57). However, Jones’s recollec- mind cures, and he detected a distressing tion may be another historical distortion. Simon potential lay enthusiasm for his hard-won (1998, pp. 362–364) indicates that James believed discoveries. (p. 4) that psychoanalysis had little value and was perhaps (For the details of Freud’s trip to the United even dangerous. In a letter to a friend, James ex- States, along with copies of his correspondence pressed ambivalence toward Freud and his ideas: with Hall concerning the trip and a number of in- I hope that Freud and his pupils will push teresting photographs, see Rosenzweig, 1992.) their ideas to their utmost limits, so that we After his trip to the United States, Freud’s fame may learn what they are. They can’t fail to and that of psychoanalysis grew very rapidly. In throw light on human nature, but I confess 1910 the International Training Commission was that he made on me personally the im- organized to standardize the training of psychoana- pression of a man obsessed with fixed lysts. However, not everything went well for

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 531 Freud. In 1911 Alfred Adler, an early disciple of associated with the instincts is called libido (the Freud’s, broke away to develop his own theory; Latin word for “lust”), and libidinal energy ac- this was closely followed by the defection of Carl counts for most human behavior. Associated with Jung. Freud worried that such defections would every instinct are a source, which is a bodily need of contaminate psychoanalytic doctrine; thus, in some kind; an aim of satisfying the need; an object, 1912 he established a committee of loyal disciples which is anything capable of satisfying the need; to ensure the purity of psychoanalytic theory. This and an impetus, a driving force whose strength is inner circle consisted of Karl Abraham, Sandor determined by the magnitude of the need. Ferenczi, Ernest Jones, Otto Rank, and Hans The id has only two means of satisfying a need. Sachs. In time, even members of this group would One is reflex action, which is automatically triggered disagree with Freud. when certain discomforts arise. Sneezing and recoil- ing from a painful stimulus are examples of reflex actions. The second means of satisfaction is wish fulfillment, in which the id conjures up an image A REVIEW OF THE BASIC of an object that will satisfy an existing need. But COMPONENTS OF FREUD’ S because the id never comes directly into contact with the environment, where do these images THEORY OF PERSONALITY come from? The components of Freud’s theory of personality Freud speaks of the id as being the true are widely known, so we will simply review them psychic reality. By this he means the id is here. the primary subjective reality, the inner world that exists before the individual has had experience of the external world. Not The Id, Ego, and Superego only are the instincts and reflexes inborn, Early in his theorizing, Freud differentiated among but the images that are produced by ten- the conscious, the preconscious, and the uncon- sion states may also be innate. This means scious. Consciousness consists of those things of that a hungry baby can have an image of which we are aware at any given moment. The food without having to learn to associate preconscious consists of the things of which we food with hunger. Freud believed that are not aware but of which we could easily become experiences that are repeated with great aware. The unconscious consists of those memories frequency and intensity in many indivi- that are being actively repressed from consciousness duals of successive generations become and are therefore made conscious only with great permanent deposits in the id. (C. S. Hall, effort. Later, Freud summarized and expanded these 1954, pp. 26–27) views with his concepts of the id, ego, and superego. Freud, then, accepted Lamarck’s theory of ac- quired characteristics when explaining how the id is The Id. The id (from the German das es, mean- capable of conjuring up images of things in the ing “the it”) is the driving force of the personality. external world that are capable of satisfying needs. It contains all instincts (although better translations Because the activities in the id occur indepen- of the word Freud used might be “drives” or dently of personal experience and because they “forces”) such as hunger, thirst, and sex. The id is provide the foundation of the entire personality, entirely unconscious and is governed by the pleasure Freud referred to them as primary processes. The pri- principle. When a need arises, the id wants immedi- mary processes are irrational because they are di- ate gratification of that need. The collective energy rectly determined by a person’s need state, they

532 CHAPTER 16 tolerate no time lapse between the onset of a need moral arm of the personality. The fully developed and its satisfaction, and they exist entirely on the superego has two divisions. The conscience consists of unconscious level. Furthermore, the primary pro- the internalized experiences for which the child has cesses can, at best, furnish only temporary satisfac- been consistently punished. Engaging in or even tion of a need; therefore, another aspect of the thinking about engaging in such activities now personality is necessary if the person is to survive. makes the child feel guilty. The ego-ideal consists of the internalized experiences for which the child The Ego. The ego (from the German das ich, has been rewarded. Engaging in or even thinking meaning “the I”) is aware of the needs of both the id about engaging in such activities makes the child and the physical world, and its major job is to coor- feel good about himself or herself. Although dinate the two. In other words, the ego’s job is to Freud believed that the superego, like the id, has match the wishes (images) of the id with their coun- archaic rudiments, he stressed the role of personal terparts in the physical environment. For this reason, experience with reward and punishment in its de- the ego is said to operate in the service of the id. The velopment. Once the superego is developed, the ego is also said to be governed by the reality principle, child’s behavior and thoughts are governed by in- because the objects it provides must result in real ternalized values, usually those of the parents, and rather than imaginary satisfaction of a need. the child is said to be socialized. When the ego finds an environmental object At this point, the job of the ego becomes much that will satisfy a need, it invests libidinal energy more complex. The ego not only must find objects into the thought of that object, thus creating a or events that satisfy the needs of the id, but these cathexis (from the Greek kathexo, meaning “to oc- objects or events must also be sanctioned by the cupy”) between the need and the object. A ca- superego. In some cases, a cathexis that is acceptable thexis is an investment of psychic energy in to the id and ego causes guilt, and therefore libidi- thoughts of objects or processes that will satisfy a nal energy is diverted to inhibit the cathexis. The need. The realistic activities of the ego are called diversion of libidinal energy in an effort to inhibit secondary processes, and they contrast with the unre- an association between a need and an object or alistic primary processes of the id. event is called an anticathexis. In such cases, the If the id and the ego were the only two com- superego inhibits the association to avoid the feel- ponents of the personality, humans could hardly be ings of guilt, and the ego inhibits it to postpone distinguished from other animals. There is, how- need satisfaction until an acceptable object or event ever, a third component of the personality that can be found. Anticathexis causes a displacement vastly complicates matters. from a guilt- or anxiety-provoking object or event to one that does not cause anxiety or guilt. The Superego. Although the newborn child is completely dominated by the id, the child must Life and Death Instincts. Freud (1920/1955b) soon learn that need gratification usually cannot differentiated between life and death instincts. The be immediate. More important, he or she must life instincts were collectively referred to as eros learn that some things are “right” and some things (named after the Greek god of love), and the en- are “wrong.” For example, the male child must ergy associated with them was called libido. Earlier, inhibit his sexual desires for his mother and his ag- Freud equated libido with sexual energy, but be- gressive tendencies toward his father. Teaching cause of increased evidence to the contrary and these do’s and don’ts is usually what is meant by because of severe criticism from even his closest socializing the child. colleagues, he expanded the notion of libido to in- As the child internalizes these do’s and don’ts, clude the energy associated with all life instincts he or she develops a superego (from the German including sex, hunger, and thirst. Freud’s final posi- das überich, meaning “the over I”), which is the tion was that when a need arises, libidinal energy is

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 533 expended to satisfy it, thereby prolonging life. the person’s well-being. For example, being physi- When all needs are satisfied, the person is in a state cally attacked by another person or an animal would of minimal tension. One of life’s major goals is to cause objective anxiety. Neurotic anxiety arises when seek this state of needlessness that corresponds to the ego feels that it is going to be overwhelmed by complete satisfaction. the id—in other words, when the needs of the id What happens if the above discussion is carried become so powerful that the ego feels that it will be an additional step? There is a condition of the body unable to control them and that the irrationality of that represents the ultimate steady state or state of the id will manifest itself in the person’s thought and nontension; it is called death. Life, Freud said, behavior. Moral anxiety arises when an internalized started from inorganic matter, and part of us longs value is or is about to be violated. Moral anxiety is to return to that state because only in that state is about the same as shame or guilt. It is the self- there no longer the constant struggle to satisfy bio- punishment we experience when we act contrary logical needs. Here we see the influence of to the values internalized in the superego. Schopenhauer, who said every meal we eat and Any form of anxiety is uncomfortable, and the every breath we take simply postpone death, which individual experiencing it seeks its reduction or is the ultimate victor. Quoting Schopenhauer, elimination just as one would seek to reduce hun- Freud said that “the aim of all life is death” ger, thirst, or pain. It is the ego’s job to deal with (1920/1955b, p. 38). Thus, besides the life instincts, anxiety. To reduce objective anxiety, the ego must there is a death instinct called thanatos (named af- deal effectively with the physical environment. To ter the Greek god of death). The life instincts seek deal with neurotic and moral anxiety, the ego must to perpetuate life, and the death instinct seeks to use processes that Freud called the ego defense terminate it. So, to all the other conflicts that occur mechanisms. Freud believed that all ego defense among the id, ego, and superego, Freud added a mechanisms have two things in common: They dis- life-and-death struggle. When directed toward tort reality, and they operate on the unconscious one’s self, the death instinct manifests itself as sui- level—that is, a person is unaware of the fact that cide or masochism; when directed outwardly, it he or she is using one. manifests itself in hatred, murder, cruelty, and gen- eral aggression. For Freud then, aggression is a nat- The Ego Defense Mechanisms. Repression is the ural component of human nature. fundamental defense mechanism because it is in- No wonder the ego was referred to as the ex- volved in all others. Repressed ideas enter con- ecutive of the personality. Not only does it need to sciousness only when they are disguised enough deal with real environmental problems, but it also that they do not cause anxiety. Modified repressed needs to satisfy the needs of the id in ways that ideas show up in dreams, in humor, in physical do not alienate the superego. Another of its jobs symptoms, during free association, and in para- is to minimize the anxiety that arises when one praxes. Because it is found almost everywhere in does act contrary to one’s internalized values. To psychoanalytic theory, displacement is another very combat such anxiety, the ego could employ the important defense mechanism. In general, displace- ego defense mechanisms to which we turn next. ment involves replacing an object or goal that pro- vokes anxiety with one that does not. When a displacement involves substituting a nonsexual goal Anxiety and the Ego Defense for a sexual one, the process is called sublimation. Mechanisms Freud considered sublimation to be the basis of civ- ilization. Because we often cannot express our sex- Anxiety. Anxiety is a warning of impending dan- ual urges directly, we are forced to express them ger, and Freud distinguished three types. Objective indirectly in the form of poetry, art, religion, foot- anxiety arises when there is an objective threat to ball, baseball, politics, education, and everything else

534 CHAPTER 16 that characterizes civilization. Thus, Freud viewed pleasure was concentrated on different parts of the civilization as a compromise. For civilization to ex- body at different stages of development. At any ist, humans must inhibit direct satisfaction of their stage, the area of the body on which sexual pleasure basic urges. Freud believed that humans are animals is concentrated is called the erogenous zone. The frustrated by the very civilization they create to pro- erogenous zones give the stages of development tect themselves from themselves. Freud said, their respective names. According to Freud, the ex- “Sublimation of instinct is an especially conspicuous periences a child has during each stage determine, feature of cultural development; it is what makes it to a large extent, his or her adult personality. For possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, ar- this reason, Freud believed that the foundations for tistic or ideological, to play such an important part in one’s adult personality are formed by the time a civilized life” (1930/1961b, p. 49). child is about five years old. Another way to deal with an anxiety- provoking thought is to attribute it to someone or The Oral Stage. The oral stage lasts through something other than one’s self. Such a process is about the first year of life, and the erogenous called projection. One sees the causes of failure, un- zone is the mouth. Pleasure comes mainly through desirable urges, and secret desires as “out there” the lips, tongue, and such activities as sucking, instead of in the self because seeing them as part chewing, and swallowing. If either overgratification of one’s self would cause anxiety. Also, when one or undergratification (frustration) of the oral needs feels frustrated and anxious because one has not causes a fixation to occur at this level of develop- lived up to some internalized value, one can sym- ment, as an adult the child will be an oral character. bolically borrow someone else’s success through the Fixation during the early part of the oral stage re- process of identification. Thus, if one dresses, be- sults in an oral-incorporative character. Such a person haves, or talks the way a person considered success- tends to be a good listener and an excessive eater, ful does, some of that person’s success becomes drinker, kisser, or smoker; he or she also tends to be one’s own. Rationalization involves giving a rational dependent and gullible. A fixation during the latter and logical, but false, reason for a failure or short- part of the oral stage, when teeth begin to appear, coming rather than the true reason for it. results in an oral-sadistic character. Such a person is Sometimes, when people have a desire to do some- sarcastic, cynical, and generally aggressive. thing but doing it would cause anxiety, they do the opposite of what they really want to do. This is TheAnalStage. The anal stage lasts through about called reaction formation. Thus, the male with strong the second year of life, and the erogenous zone is the homosexual tendencies becomes a Don Juan type, anus-buttocks region of the body. Fixation during the mother who hates her child becomes overin- this stage results in an anal character. During the first dulgent, the person with strong antigovernment part of the anal stage, pleasure comes mainly from leanings becomes a superpatriot, or the person activities such as feces expulsion, and a fixation here with strong sexual urges becomes a preacher con- results in the adult being an anal-expulsive character. cerned with pornography, promiscuity, and the sin- Such a person tends to be generous, messy, or waste- fulness of today’s youth. ful. In the latter part of the anal stage, after toilet For a discussion of the status of the ego defense training has occurred, pleasure comes from being mechanisms in contemporary psychology, see, for able to withhold feces. A fixation here results in the example, Cramer, 2000. person becoming an anal-retentive character. Such an adult tends to be a collector and to be stingy, orderly, and perhaps perfectionistic. Psychosexual Stages of Development Although Freud considered the entire body to be a The Phallic Stage. The phallic stage lasts from source of sexual pleasure, he believed that this about the beginning of the third year to the end

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 535 of the fifth year, and the erogenous zone is the The female child’s situation is much different genital region of the body. Because Freud believed from the male’s. Like the male child, the female the clitoris to be a small penis, the phallic stage starts out with a strong attraction and attachment describes the development of both male and female to the mother. She soon learns, however, that she children. The most significant events that occur lacks a penis and she blames the mother for its ab- during this stage are the male and female Oedipal sence. She now has both positive and negative feel- complexes. According to Freud, both male and fe- ings toward her mother. At about the same time, male children develop strong, positive, even erotic she learns that her father possesses the valued organ, feelings toward their mother because she satisfies which she wants to share with him. This causes a their needs. These feelings persist in the boy but sexual attraction toward the father, but the fact that typically change in the girl. The male child now her father possesses something valuable that she has an intense desire for his mother and great hos- does not possess causes her to experience penis tility toward his father, who is perceived as a rival envy. Thus, the female child also has ambivalent for his mother’s love. Because the source of his feelings toward her father. To resolve the female pleasurable feelings toward his mother is his penis Oedipal complex in a healthy way, the female child and because he sees his father as much more pow- must repress her hostility toward her mother and erful than he, the male child begins to experience her sexual attraction to her father. Thereafter, she castration anxiety, which causes him to repress his “becomes” the mother and shares the father. sexual and aggressive tendencies. According to The repression and strong identification neces- Freud, a male child need not be overtly threatened sary during this stage result in the full development with castration to develop castration anxiety. Boys of the superego. When a child identifies with his or may have had the opportunity to observe that girls her parent of the same sex, the child introjects that do not have penises and assume they once did. parent’s moral standards and values. Once these Also, castration anxiety can result from the phylo- standards have been introjected, they control the genetic memory of actual castrations that occurred child for the rest of his or her life. For this reason, in the distant past: the final and complete formation of the superego is said to go hand in hand with the resolution of the It is not a question of whether castration is Oedipal complexes. really carried out; what is decisive is that One of the major reasons Freud believed that the danger is one that threatens from out- the male’s and female’s experiences during the side and that the child believes in it. He has phallic stage are not symmetrical is the fact that a some ground for this, for people threaten key ingredient in the male experience is castration him often enough with cutting off his pe- anxiety. Because the female is already castrated nis during the phallic phase, at the time of (symbolically), she never has the intense motivation his early masturbation, and hints at the to defensively identify with the potential castrator. punishment must regularly find a phylo- Because such identification results in the develop- genetic reinforcement in him. (Freud, ment of the superego, Freud reached the contro- 1933/1964a, p. 86) versial conclusion that the male superego (morality) In any case, the male child solves the problem is stronger than that of the female. by identifying with the father. This identification Clearly, Freud viewed women as more enig- accomplishes two things: Symbolically becoming matic than men. He once commented to his close his father (through identification) allows the child friend Princess Marie Bonaparte that “the great at least to share the mother; and it removes his question that has never been answered and which father as a threat, thus reducing the child’s castration I have not yet been able to answer, despite my anxiety. thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is

536 CHAPTER 16 ‘What does a woman want?’” (Jones, 1955, p. 421). will determine the person’s adult personality. If After trying several approaches to understanding the person has adjustment problems later in life, feminine psychology, Freud essentially admitted the psychoanalyst looks into these early experiences defeat. His last words on the subject were: for solution to the problems. For the psychoanalyst, childhood experience is the stuff of which neuroses That is all I [have] to say to you about or normality are made. Indeed, psychoanalysts be- femininity. It is certainly incomplete and lieve that “the child is father to the man” (Freud, fragmentary and does not always sound 1940/1969, p. 64). friendly. … If you want to know more about femininity, enquire from your own experiences of life, or turn to the poets, or wait until science can give you deeper and FREUD ’SV IE WOFH UM AN more coherent information. (1933/1966b, NATURE p. 599) Freud’s views on women have been appropri- It should be clear by now that Freud was largely ately criticized. However, he is often also criticized pessimistic about human nature. Freud (1930/ for things he never said. To provide a more objec- 1961b) reacted to the biblical commandment tive appraisal of Freud’s views on feminine psychol- “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” as ogy, Young-Bruehl (1990) collected all Freud’s follows: writings on the topic and arranged them in chro- What is the point of a precept enunciated nological order so that one can observe how with so much solemnity if its fulfillment Freud’s views on the topic changed throughout his cannot be recommended as reasonable? … career. Not merely is this stranger in general un- worthy of my love; I must honestly confess The Latency Stage. The latency stage lasts from that he had more claim to my hostility and about the beginning of the sixth year until puberty. even my hatred. He seems not to have the Because of the intense repression required during least trace of love for me and shows me not the phallic stage, sexual activity is all but eliminated the slightest consideration. If it will do him from consciousness during the latency stage. This any good he has no hesitation in injuring stage is characterized by numerous substitute activi- me, nor does he ask himself whether the ties, such as schoolwork and peer activities, and by amount of advantage he gains bears any extensive curiosity about the world. proportion to the extent of the harm he does to me. Indeed, he need not even The Genital Stage. The genital stage lasts from obtain an advantage; if he can satisfy any puberty through the remainder of one’s life. With sort of desire by it, he thinks nothing of the onset of puberty, sexual desires become too jeering at me, insulting me, slandering me intense to repress completely, and they begin to and showing his superior power; and, the manifest themselves. The focus of attention is more secure he feels and the more helpless now on members of the opposite sex. If everything I am, the more certainly I can expect him has gone correctly during the preceding stages, this to behave like this to me. … Indeed, if this stage will culminate in dating and eventually grandiose commandment had run “Love marriage. thy neighbour as thy neighbour loves The undergratifications or overgratifications thee,” I should not take exception to it.… and fixations that a person experiences (or does The element of truth behind all this, not experience) during the psychosexual stages which people are so ready to disavow, is

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 537 that men are not gentle creatures who operating at a childlike, irrational level. The dog- want to be loved, and who at the most can matic teachings of religion inhibit a more rational, defend themselves if they are attacked; realistic approach to life. In Civilization and Its they are, on the contrary, creatures among Discontents (1930/1961b), he said, whose instinctual endowments is to be The whole thing [religion] is so patently reckoned a powerful share of aggres- infantile, so foreign to reality, that to any- siveness. As a result, their neighbour is for one with a friendly attitude to humanity it them not only a potential helper or sexual is painful to think that the great majority of object, but also someone who tempts them mortals will never be able to rise above this to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to view of life. (p. 22) exploit his capacity for work without compensation, to use him sexually without For Freud our only hope is to come to grips his consent, to seize his possessions, to with the repressed forces that motivate us; only humiliate him, to cause him pain, to tor- then can we live rational lives. Freud said, “Those ture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus who do not suffer from the neurosis will need no [man is a wolf to man]. (pp. 65–69) intoxicant to deaden it” (1927/1961a, p. 49). For him, religion is the intoxicant. Just as Freud refused Although pessimistic, Freud (1917/1955a) be- to take pain-killing drugs during his 16-year bout lieved that people could, and should, live more ra- with cancer, he believed that humans could and tional lives, but to do so they must first understand should confront reality without religious or any the workings of their own minds: other type of illusions. The news that reaches your consciousness It was Freud’s hope that religious illusions would is incomplete and often not to be relied eventually be replaced by scientific principles as on. … Even if you are not ill, who can tell guides for living. Scientific principles are not always all that is stirring in your mind of which flattering or comforting, but they are rational: you know nothing or are falsely informed? No belittlement of science can in any way You behave like an absolute ruler who is alter the fact that it is attempting to take content with the information supplied him account of our dependence on the real by his highest officials and never goes external world, while religion is an illusion among the people to hear their voice. and it derives its strength from its readiness Turn your eyes inward, look into your to fit in with our instinctual wishful im- own depths, learn first to know yourself! pulses. (Freud, 1933/1966b, pp. 638–639) (p. 143) And elsewhere Freud said, “Our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that Religion what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere” (1927/1961a, p. 71). Freud also showed his pessimism in The Future of an Illusion (1927/1961a), which was his major state- ment on religion. In this book, Freud contended that the basis of religion is the human feeling of FREUD’ SF AT E helplessness and insecurity. To overcome these feel- ings, we create a powerful father figure who will Even while suffering from cancer in the later years of supposedly protect us, a father figure symbolized in his life, Freud continued to be highly productive. the concept of God. The problem with this prac- However, when the Nazis occupied Austria in tice, according to Freud, is that it keeps humans 1936, his life became increasingly precarious.

538 CHAPTER 16 Psychoanalysis had already been labeled as “Jewish science” in Germany, and his books were banned there. In Vienna, the Nazis destroyed Freud’s personal library and publicly burned all his books found in the Vienna public library. About this Freud said, “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burnt me; nowa- days they are content with burning my books” (E. Jones, 1957, p. 182). Freud resisted as long as he could but eventually decided it was time to leave Vienna. To do so, however, he was required to Images sign a document attesting to the respectful and con- siderate treatment he had received from the Nazis; to Photos/Getty this document, Freud added the comment (sarcasti- cally, of course), “I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone” (Clark, 1980, p. 511). When Freud left Vienna, he had to leave four of his sisters © Popperfoto/Archive behind, and he died without knowing that they were all soon to perish in Nazi concentration camps (E. Jones, 1957). Sigmund and Anna Freud With his daughter Anna, Freud first journeyed to Paris, where they were received by their close friend Princess Marie Bonaparte and one of Freud’s anyone die like that. On September 21, sons. Shortly afterward, they traveled to London, Schur injected Freud with three centi- where they took up residence at 20 Maresfield grams of morphine—the normal dose for Gardens in Hampstead, North London. Freud was sedation was two centigrams—and Freud well received in England and, although in great sank into a peaceful sleep. Schur repeated pain, he continued to write, see patients, and occa- the injection, when he became restless, and sionally attend meetings of the London Psychoanalytic administered a final one the next day, Society. On June 28, 1938, three secretaries from the September 22. Freud lapsed into a coma London Royal Society brought to Freud’s home the from which he did not awake. He died at “sacred book of the Society” for his signature; among three in the morning, September 23, 1939. the other signatures in the book were those of Newton (p. 651) and Darwin. Freud was very pleased. It was in London that Freud completed his last book, Moses and Freud’s body was cremated and his ashes placed Monotheism, 1939/1964b, and he died the same year in a Grecian urn that had been given to him by at the ageof83. Freud’s wife Martha died 12yearslater Marie Bonaparte. He left an estate of 20,000 on November 2, 1951, at the age of 90. English pounds (Roazen, 1992, p. 543). Freud had reached an agreement with his phy- sician, Max Schur, that when Freud’s condition be- REVISIONS OF THE FREUDIAN came hopeless, Schur would assist him in dying. Gay (1988) describes Freud’s final days: LEGEND Schur was on the point of tears as he wit- We have already examined two recent modifica- nessed Freud facing death with dignity and tions of the Freudian legend: the dubious circum- without self-pity. He had never seen stances under which Freud revised his seduction

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 539 theory and that many of his ideas were not as cou- Freud and his followers had a very low toler- rageous and innovative as he and his followers ance for criticism and usually accused critics of re- claimed (such as his ideas concerning infantile sistance, lack of understanding, or even bigotry. sexuality, dream analysis, and male hysteria). However, Sulloway (1979) points out that most According to Ellenberger (1970), Freud and his fol- of the criticisms of psychoanalysis were valid: lowers purposefully attempted to create an image of In addition to the criticisms that had al- Freud as a lonely, heroic figure who was discrimi- ready been raised before Freud acquired a nated against because he was a Jew and because his substantial following, common objections ideas were so revolutionary that the established against psychoanalysis now began to in- medical community could not accept them. clude: (1) that psychoanalysts were con- According to Ellenberger (1970), the Freudian leg- tinually introducing their assertions with end had two main components: the statement, “We know from psycho- The first is the theme of the solitary hero analytic experience that …,” and then struggling against a host of enemies, suf- leaving the burden of proof to others; (2) fering “the slings and arrows of outrageous that Freud’s disciples refused to listen to fortune” but triumphing in the end. The opinions that did not coincide with their legend considerably exaggerates the extent own; (3) that they never published statistics and role of anti-Semitism, of the hostility on the success of their method; (4) that of the academic world, and of alleged they persisted in claiming that only those Victorian prejudices. The second feature of who had used the psychoanalytic method the Freudian legend is the blotting out of had the right to challenge Freud; (5) that the greatest part of the scientific and cul- they saw all criticism as a form of “neurotic tural context in which psychoanalysis de- resistance”; (6) that psychoanalysts tended veloped, hence the theme of the absolute to ignore all work that had been done originality of the achievements, in which before them and then proceeded to make the hero is credited with the achievements unwarranted claims about their own orig- of his predecessors, associates, disciples, inality; (7) that they frequently addressed rivals, and contemporaries. (p. 547) themselves to the wider lay audience as if their theories were already a proven fact, According to Ellenberger, the facts contradict thus making their opponents seem both components of the legend. First, Freud expe- narrow-minded and ignorant; (8) that so- rienced only slight anti-Semitism, and he did not called wild analysts, or individuals without experience nearly the amount of hostility that sev- proper training, were analyzing patients in eral more prominent physicians experienced. irresponsible ways; and (9) that Freud’s Second, most of Freud’s ideas were not as original followers were becoming a sect, with all of as he and his followers claimed. Concerning the the prominent features of one, including a tendency for psychoanalysts to distort their history, fanatical degree of faith, a special jargon, a Sulloway (1992) noted, “Insofar as psychoanalysts sense of moral superiority, and a predilec- have repeatedly censored and distorted the history tion for marked intolerance of opponents. of their own discipline, they may well be doing the In their contemporary context, such criti- same thing in reconstructing the case histories of cisms were considerably more rational and their patients” (p. 159). We will see in the next had far more merit than traditional psy- section that a growing number of Freudian scholars choanalytic historians have been willing to support Sulloway’s conclusion. admit. (p. 460)

540 CHAPTER 16 The Reality of Repressed Memories that analysts could encourage patients to have cer- tain ideas through suggestion or that patients may Concerning his seduction theory, Freud believed invent stories of seduction: the mistake he made was accepting the stories of seduction his patients told as true. As we have Is it not very possible … that the physician seen, Jeffrey Masson believed the opposite. For forces such scenes upon his docile patients, Masson, Freud’s mistake was rejecting the seduction alleging that they are memories, or else stories as true and accepting them as fantasies in- that the patients tell the physician things stead. But what if Freud’s patients did not report which they have deliberately invented or seduction stories at all? What if the seduction stories have imagined and that he accepts those were created by Freud instead of by his patients? A things as true? (Masson, 1984, p. 264) careful reading of Freud’s “The Aetiology of Hysteria” (1896), and two other articles he wrote Freud (1896) rejected these ideas, saying, on his seduction theory in the same year, reveals In the first place, the behaviour of patients that none of Freud’s patients reported a seduction while they are reproducing these infantile of any kind. There is now convincing evidence experiences is in every respect incompati- that Freud entered the therapeutic process with a ble with the assumption that the scenes are strong conviction that hysteria had a sexual origin anything else than a reality which is being and that he manipulated events during therapy so felt with distress and reproduced with the that his conviction was confirmed: “A consideration greatest reluctance. Before they come for of all the evidence … points to the conclusion that analysis the patients know nothing about these Freud’s early patients, in general, did not recount scenes. They are indignant as a rule if we warn stories of infantile seductions, these stories were ac- them that such scenes are going to emerge. Only tually analytic reconstructions which he foisted on the strongest compulsion of the treatment can them” (Esterson, 1993, pp. 28–29; see also, induce them to embark on a reproduction of Esterson, 1998, 2001). them. While they are recalling these infantile Freud noted that a physician does not require experiences to consciousness, they suffer under that a patient know the nature of his or her ailment the most violent sensations, of which they are before it can be effectively treated. Similarly, psycho- ashamed and which they try to conceal; and, analysts assume that patients are ignorant of the ori- even after they have gone through them once gins of their symptoms. It is the analyst who must more in such a convincing manner, they still define the ailment, determine its cause and cure, attempt to withhold belief from them, by em- and then inform the patient of these matters. Freud phasizing the fact that, unlike what happens in assumed seduction was present in a hysteric’s history the case of other forgotten material, they have no whether the patient realized it or not; the disease feeling of remembering the scenes. required it! In Studies on Hysteria (1895), Freud said, This latter piece of behaviour seems to It is of use if we can guess the ways in provide conclusive proof. Why should pa- which things are connected up and tell the tients assure me so emphatically of their unbelief, patient before we have uncovered it. … if what they want to discredit is something which We need not be afraid … of telling the —from whatever motive—they themselves have patient what we think his next connection invented? [emphasis added] of thought is going to be. It will do no It is less easy to refute the idea that the harm. (Webster, 1995, p. 163) doctor forces reminiscences of this sort on the patient, that he influences him by In “The Aetiology of Hysteria” (1896, rep- suggestion to imagine and reproduce rinted in Masson, 1984), Freud pondered the idea them. Nevertheless it appears to me

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 541 equally untenable. I have never yet suc- domestic servants, adult strangers, teachers, tutors, ceeded in forcing on a patient a scene I was and in most cases brothers who were slightly older expecting to find, in such a way that he than the sisters they supposedly seduced. seemed to be living through it with all the Immediately after abandoning his seduction theory, appropriate feelings. Perhaps others may be Freud claimed that seduction stories were created more successful in this. (Masson, 1984, by patients to mask memories of real infantile sexual pp. 264–265) experiences, such as masturbation. It was only later, when Freud developed his concept of the Oedipal Thus, even when Freud suggested stories of complex, that he began to attribute seduction fan- seduction to his patients, the stories were met tasies to infantile incestuous desires directed at the with great resistance and denial, which Freud took parent of the opposite sex. In his An Autobiographical as signs of confirmation. The suggestive nature of Study (1925/1952), Freud remembered the events Freud’s technique was well known to a number of surrounding first his acceptance and then his rejec- Freud’s contemporaries. French psychologist and tion of the seduction theory much differently than psychotherapist Pierre Janet (1925) said, “The psy- his account of them in 1896: choanalysts invariably set to work in order to discover a traumatic memory, with the a priori con- Under the pressure of the technical pro- viction that it is there to be discovered. … Owing cedure which I used at that time, the ma- to the nature of their methods, they can invariably jority of my patients reproduced from their find what they seek” (p. 65). In 1899, the German childhood scenes in which they were sex- psychiatrist Leopold Lowenfeld reported what hap- ually seduced by some grown-up person. pened when one of Freud’s previous patients came With female patients the part of seducer under Lowenfeld’s care: was almost always assigned to their father. … I do not believe even now that I forced By chance, one of the patients with whom the seduction-phantasies upon my patients, Freud used the analytic method came un- that I ‘suggested’ them. I had in fact der my observation. The patient told me stumbled for the first time upon the with certainty that the infantile sexual Oedipus complex, which was later to assume scene which analysis had apparently un- such an overwhelming importance. covered was pure fantasy and had never (pp. 36–37) really happened to him. It is difficult to understand how a researcher like Freud, Esterson (1993) notes that Freud’s clinical who normally is very critical, despite such method allowed him to corroborate whatever the- remarks, still could maintain toward his oretical notions he was entertaining at the time. patients that the pictures that arose in their Concerning Freud’s seduction theory and its subse- minds were memories of real events. quent abandonment, Esterson says, “It is difficult to However, it is even still more difficult to escape the conclusion that both self-deception understand that Freud thought that he and dishonesty play a role in this story though at could consider this assumption to be times it is scarcely possible to distinguish one from completely proven in each single case of the other” (p. 31). The philosopher Ludwig hysteria. (Israëls and Schatzman, 1993, Wittgenstein (1889–1951) made the following ob- p. 44) servations about Freud in a letter to a friend: It is also important to note that even while He is full of fishy thinking & his charm & Freud was embracing his seduction theory, in no the charm of [his] subject is so great that case did he implicate parents in the seductions. you may be easily fooled. … Unless you Rather, he implicated nursemaids, governesses, think very clearly psycho-analysis is a

542 CHAPTER 16 dangerous & a foul practice & it’s done no Erdelyi, 1985; Frawley, 1990; Rieker and end of harm &, comparatively, very little Carmen, 1986; Schuker, 1979; and M. Williams, good. … So hold on to your brains. 1987), many do not. Elizabeth Loftus, in her article (Malcolm, 2001, p. 39). “The Reality of Repressed Memories” (1993), re- cognizes that childhood sexual abuse is tragically Elsewhere Wittgenstein said, “Freud’s fanciful common and constitutes a major social problem. pseudo-explanations, precisely because they are so She does, however, question the repression and brilliant, perform a disservice. Now any ass has subsequent recovery of the memory of such experi- these pictures available for use in ‘explaining’ symp- ences. From her own research, and after reviewing toms of illness” (Cioffi, 1998, p. 79). the literature on the topic, Loftus concludes that It should be clear that the questions raised about most, if not all, reports of repressed memories are Freud’s clinical method are valid whether repressed false. If her conclusion is accurate, why do so memories are assumed to be of real or imagined many individuals claim to have such memories? events. The basic question is whether psychoanalysts, One possible reason is that the creation of such when uncovering repressed memories, are discover- memories satisfies a personal need: ing something real about the patient or embracing The internal drive to manufacture an abuse figments of their own imagination. For Webster memory may come about as a way to (1995) the answer to the question is unambiguous: provide a screen for perhaps more prosaic “There is no evidence that any of the patients who but, ironically, less tolerable, painful ex- came to Freud without memories of sexual abuse had periences of childhood. Creating a fantasy ever suffered from such abuse” (p. 517). of abuse with its relatively clear-cut dis- Not all of the recent accounts of Freud’s devel- tinction between good and evil may pro- opment of his seduction theory and its subsequent vide the needed logical explanation for rejection are negative. For a more positive account confusing experiences and feelings. The and a rebuttal to most of the criticisms just de- core material for the false memories can be scribed, see Gleaves and Hernandez (1999). For a borrowed from the accounts of others who rebuttal of the claims made by Gleaves and are either known personally or encoun- Hernandez (1999), see Esterson (2002b); and for a tered in literature, movies, and television. rebuttal of Esterson’s rebuttal, see Gleaves and (Loftus, 1993, p. 525) Hernandez (2002). Space does not permit a discussion of additional According to Loftus, the popular literature is problems associated with Freud’s account of re- filled with material that suggests or even encourages pressed memories and several of his other theoreti- a belief in repressed memories. The “bible” of such cal concepts. For a more comprehensive discussion books is The Courage to Heal (Bass and Davis, 1988). of these problems, see, for example, Cioffi, 1974, As of 1995, Courage had sold over 750,000 copies in 1998; Crews, 1995; Esterson, 1993, 1998, 2001; the United States alone (Webster, 1995, p. 523). Gelfand and Kerr, 1992; Israëls and Schatzman, This book suggests that people with low self- 1993; Powell and Boer, 1994; Schatzman, 1992; esteem, suicidal or self-destructive thoughts, depres- Webster, 1995; Wilcocks, 1994. sion, or sexual dysfunction were probably victims of childhood sexual abuse, even if they have no recol- Current Concern about Repressed Memo- lection of it. About this book, Loftus (1993) says, ries. Recently there has been a dramatic increase “Readers without any abuse memories of their own in the number of reported memories of childhood cannot escape the message that there is a strong abuse that had allegedly been repressed for many likelihood that abuse occurred even in the absence years. Although many researchers accept the con- of such memories” (p. 525). Other “checklists” sug- cept of repressed memories as valid (for example, gest people were probably victims of childhood

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 543 victim of childhood trauma, might they too be creating this social reality? Whatever the good intentions of therapists, the documented examples of rampant suggestion should force us to at least ponder whether some therapists might be suggesting illusory memories to their clients rather than unlocking au- thentic distant memories. … What is considered to be present in the client’s unconscious mind might actually be pres- ent solely in the therapist’s conscious mind. (p. 530) Loftus Researchers, such as Loftus, do not deny that Elizabeth many individuals have had traumatic experiences as children or that therapy can help them cope with or of overcome the memories of such experiences. It is ©Courtesy the supposed repression and the procedures em- ployed to recover “repressed memories” that are being questioned: Elizabeth Loftus Many tortured individuals live for years abuse if they have trouble knowing what they with the dark secret of their abusive past and want, are afraid of having new experiences, cannot only find the courage to discuss their child- remember parts of their childhood, have a feeling hood traumas in the supportive and em- that something bad happened to them, or are in- pathic environment of therapy. We are not timidated by authority figures (Loftus and Ketcham, disputing those memories. We are only 1994). School performance such as failing grades, questioning the memories commonly re- decreased interest, and difficulty in concentrating ferred to as “repressed”—memories that did have also been suggested as signs of abuse (Davies not exist until someone went looking for and Frawley, 1994). With these criteria, almost any- them. (Loftus and Ketcham, 1994, p. 141) one can suspect that they were the victim of child- hood abuse. As Loftus (1994) says, “If everything is Loftus (1993) believes that many questions sur- a sign of past childhood sexual abuse, then nothing rounding the area of repression remain essentially is” (p. 444). unanswered, and they must be addressed in an ob- According to Loftus, the fact that so many in- jective manner: dividuals enter therapy without memories of abuse, Is it possible that the therapist’s interpre- but leave with them, should make one wonder tation is the cause of the patient’s disorder about what is going on in therapy. Loftus (1993) rather than the effect of the disorder? … Is cites numerous examples of how therapists suggest it necessarily true that people who cannot memories of abuse to their clients and reaches the remember an abusive childhood are re- following conclusion: pressing the memory? Is it necessarily true If therapists ask questions that tend to elicit that people who dream about or visualize behaviors and experiences thought to be abuse are actually getting in touch with characteristic of someone who had been a true memories? (p. 534)

544 CHAPTER 16 Loftus (1993) warns that until answers to ques- ■ Method of data collection. Freud used his own tions like those above are provided, “zealous con- observations of his own patients as his source of viction is a dangerous substitute for an open mind” data. There was no controlled experimenta- (p. 534). Elsewhere Loftus says, tion. Not only did his patients not represent the general population, but his own needs and My efforts to write about the power of expectations probably influenced his suggestion to create false memories have observations. been with the hope of encouraging changes in procedures and practices …. ■ Definition of terms. Freud’s theory became pop- Aggressive efforts to unearth presumably ular at a time when psychology was preoccu- recalcitrant memories can lead to false- pied with operational definitions, and many, if memory reports. Uncritical acceptance of not most, of Freud’s concepts were too nebu- every trauma memory report can harm the lous to be measured. For example, how does false victims and, also sadly, trivialize the one quantify psychic energy, castration anxiety, experiences of the true victims. (2003, penis envy, or the Oedipal complex? How p. 871) does one determine whether the interpretation of the latent symbols of a dream is valid? Similarly, Powell and Boer (1994) advise that Science demands measurement, and many of until additional information is obtained on the reli- Freud’s concepts were not and are not ability, risks, and therapeutic effectiveness of mem- measurable. ory retrieval, it should be used very conservatively. ■ Dogmatism. As we have seen, Freud saw himself A primary reason for caution is that the lives of as the founder and leader of the psychoanalytic those falsely accused of abuse on the basis of “re- movement, and he would tolerate no ideas that covered memories” are often all but destroyed (see, conflicted with his own. If a member of his for example, Pendergrast, 1995). group insisted on disagreeing with him, Freud In 2003 the American Psychological expelled that member from the group. Association (APA) presented Loftus its Award for Distinguished Scientific Applications of ■ Overemphasis on sex. The main reason many of Psychology for her over 30 years of research on Freud’s early colleagues eventually went their memory, both real and false. See Loftus (2007) for own way was that they believed Freud over- an interesting and informative autobiographical emphasized sex as a motive for human behav- sketch. ior. Some thought that to see sexual motivation everywhere, as Freud did, was extreme and unnecessary. The personality theories that other psychoanalytically oriented theorists de- EVALUATION OF FREUD’ S veloped show that human behavior can be THEORY explained just as well, if not better, employing motives other than sexual ones. ■ The self-fulfilling prophecy. Any theorist, not just Freud, can be criticized for being susceptible to Criticisms self-fulfilling prophecy. The point is that Freud It should come as no surprise that a theory as broad may have found what he was looking for sim- as Freud’s, and one that touched so many aspects of ply because he was looking for it. For example, human existence, would receive severe criticism. free association is not really free. Rather, it is The common criticisms of Freud and his theory guided, at least in part, by the analyst’s com- include the following: ments and gestures. Furthermore, once a

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 545 patient is “trained,” he or she may begin to tell vidual quirks of behavior to large-scale the analyst exactly what the analyst wants to social phenomena, but their success in hear. This criticism also applies to dream making the theory a rich source of after- interpretation. the-fact explanation robs it of any scientific utility. (p. 26) ■ Length, cost, and limited effectiveness of psycho- analysis. Because psychoanalysis usually takes years to complete, it is not available to most Contributions troubled people. Only the most affluent can participate. Furthermore, only reasonably in- Despite the criticisms, many believe that Freud telligent and mildly neurotic people can benefit made truly exceptional contributions to psychol- from psychoanalysis because patients must be ogy. The following are usually listed among them: able to articulate their inner experiences and ■ Expansion of psychology’s domain. Like no one understand the analyst’s interpretation of those before him, Freud pointed to the importance experiences. Psychoanalysis is not effective of studying the relationships among uncon- with psychotic patients. scious motivation, infantile sexuality, dreams, ■ Lack of falsifiability. In Chapter 1, we saw that and anxiety. Freud’s was the first comprehen- Karl Popper said Freud’s theory was unscien- sive theory of personality, and every personality tific because it violated the principle of falsifi- theory since his can be seen as a reaction to his cation. According to Popper, for a theory to be theory or to some aspect of it. scientific, it must specify observations that, if ■ Psychoanalysis. Freud created a new way of made, would refute the theory. Unless such dealing with age-old mental disorders. Many observations can be specified, the theory is still believe that psychoanalysis is the best way unscientific. Popper claimed that because to understand and treat neuroses. Freudian theory could account for anything a person did, nothing that a person could do ■ Understanding of normal behavior. Freud not only would be contrary to what the theory pre- provided a means of better understanding dicted. Let us say, for example, that according much abnormal behavior but also made much to Freudian theory a certain cluster of child- normal behavior comprehensible. Dreams, hood experiences will make an adult leery of forgetfulness, mistakes, choice of mates, hu- heterosexual relationships. Instead, we find an mor, and use of the ego defense mechanisms adult who has had those experiences seeking characterize everyone’s life, and Freud’s analysis and apparently enjoying such relationships. of them makes them less mysterious for The Freudian can simply say that the person is everyone. demonstrating a reaction formation. Thus, no ■ Generalization of psychology to other fields.By matter what happens, the theory is supported. showing psychology’s usefulness in explaining A related criticism is that psychoanalysts engage phenomena in everyday life—religion, sports, in postdiction rather than prediction. That is, politics, art, literature, and philosophy—Freud they attempt to explain events after they have expanded psychology’s relevance to almost occurred rather than predict what events will every sector of human existence. occur. The former is clearly easier than the As influential as Freud’s theory has been, much latter. Stanovich (2004) says, of it has not withstood the rigors of scientific exam- Adherents of psychoanalytic theory spend ination; in fact, much of it, as we have seen, is much time and effort in getting the theory untestable. Why then is Freud’s theory so often to explain every known event, from indi- referred to as a milestone in human history? The

546 CHAPTER 16 answer seems to be that scientific methodology is closeness of its problems to the concerns of not the only criterion by which to judge a theory. everyday life. (Heidbreder, 1933, Structuralism, for example, was highly scientific, pp. 410–411) requiring controlled, systematic experiments to test its hypotheses. Yet structuralism has faded Similarly, Robinson (1985) says, away while psychoanalysis has remained. The psychoanalytic account is a story, a It is enlightening to compare psychoana- narrative, but not a scientific one. It is lytic psychology with structuralism, in this rather a historical narrative—something of respect its antithesis. Structuralism, a saga—which is “good” or less than good equipped with a highly developed scien- depending upon the contact it makes with tific method, and refusing to deal with the reader’s own experiences and thoughts. materials not amenable to that method, We ask of such accounts only whether admirably illustrates the demand for ex- they make sense, recognizing that they are actness and correctness by which science but one of an indefinite number of possible disciplines untutored curiosity. accounts all of which may make as much Psychoanalysis, with its seemingly inex- (or as little) sense. (p. 123) haustible curiosity, at present lacks the means, and apparently at times the incli- To the means by which we evaluate theories, nation, to check its exuberant speculation we must add intuition. A theory that, among other by severely critical tests. But what it lacks things, makes sense personally may survive longer in correctness, it gains in vitality, in the than one that develops and is tested within the comprehensiveness of its view, and in the realm of science. SUMMARY Although most, if not all, of the conceptions that person in the patient’s life, a process called transfer- would later characterize psychoanalysis were part of ence. Sometimes the therapist also became emo- Freud’s philosophical and scientific heritage, his his- tionally involved with a patient, a process called torically significant accomplishment was to take countertransference. Studies on Hysteria (1895/ those disparate conceptions and synthesize them 1955), the book that Freud coauthored with into a comprehensive theory of personality. Breuer, is usually taken as the formal beginning of Although Freud was trained in the tradition of pos- the school of psychoanalysis. From his visit with itivistic physiology and originally tried to explain Charcot, Freud learned that hysteria is a real disor- hysteria as a physiological problem, events led him der that occurs in both males and females, that ideas to attempt a psychological explanation of hysteria dissociated from consciousness by trauma could instead. Freud learned from Breuer that when trigger bodily symptoms in those inherently predis- Breuer’s patient Anna O. was totally relaxed or posed to hysteria, and that the symptoms of hysteria hypnotized and then asked to remember the cir- may have a sexual origin. cumstances under which one of her many symp- The year before his visit with Charcot, Freud toms had first occurred, the symptom would at least began experimenting with cocaine. At first, he temporarily disappear. This type of treatment was viewed it as a “magical substance” that could be called the cathartic method. Freud also learned used to cure a wide variety of ailments. It was from Breuer’s work with Anna O. that the therapist soon realized, however, that cocaine was highly ad- was sometimes responded to as if he were a relevant dictive and had a number of negative side effects.

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 547 Freud’s medical career suffered considerably be- vokes the anxiety. During his self-analysis, Freud cause of close association with and strong endorse- confirmed several of his theoretical notions such as ment of the drug. Although Freud escaped personal the Oedipus complex. addiction to cocaine, he was addicted to nicotine, According to Freud, the adult mind consists of and it is widely believed that his lifelong habit of an id, an ego, and a superego. The id is entirely smoking about 20 cigars a day caused the cancer of unconscious and demands immediate gratification; the mouth and jaw that he developed late in life. it is therefore said to be governed by the pleasure Soon after Freud began treating hysterical pa- principle. The id also contains all instincts and the tients, he used hypnosis but found that he could not energy associated with instincts. To satisfy needs, hypnotize some patients and that the ones he could the id has at its disposal only the primary processes hypnotize received only temporary relief from their of reflex action and wish fulfillment. The ego’s job symptoms. He also found that patients often refused is to find real objects in the environment that can to believe what they had revealed under hypnosis satisfy needs; it is therefore said to be governed by and therefore could not benefit from a rational dis- the reality principle. The realistic processes of the cussion of previously repressed material. After ex- ego are referred to as secondary in order to distin- perimenting with various other techniques, Freud guish them from the irrational primary processes of finally settled on free association, whereby he en- the id. The third component of the mind is the couraged his patients to say whatever came to their superego, which consists of the conscience, or the minds without inhibiting any thoughts. By analyz- internalization of the experiences for which a child ing a patient’s symptoms and by carefully scrutiniz- had been punished, and the ego-ideal, or the inter- ing a patient’s free associations, Freud hoped to nalization of the experiences for which a child had discover the repressed memories responsible for a been rewarded. patient’s disorder. Because these pathogenic The ego’s job is to find ways of effectively sat- thoughts provoked anxiety, patients resisted allow- isfying needs without violating the values of the ing them to enter consciousness. Freud originally superego. When such a way is found, the ego in- believed that hysteria results from a childhood sex- vests energy in it, a process called cathexis. If an ual seduction but later concluded that the seduc- available way to satisfy a need violates a person’s tions he had discovered were usually patient values, energy is expended to inhibit its utilization, fantasies. in which case an anticathexis occurs. When an an- During his self-analysis, Freud found that ticathexis occurs, the person displaces the anxiety- dreams contain the same clues concerning the ori- provoking object or event to one that does not gins of a psychological problem as did physical cause anxiety. Freud distinguished between life in- symptoms or free associations. He distinguished be- stincts called eros and a death instinct called thana- tween the manifest content of a dream, or what the tos. Freud used the concept of the death instinct to dream appears to be about, and the latent content, explain such things as suicide, masochism, murder, or what the dream is actually about. Freud believed and general aggression. that the latent content represents wish fulfillments Freud distinguished among objective anxiety, that a person could not entertain consciously with- the fear of environmental events; neurotic anxiety, out experiencing anxiety. Dream work disguises the the feeling that one is about to be overwhelmed by true meaning of a dream. Examples of dream work one’s id; and moral anxiety, the feeling caused by include condensation, in which several things from violating one or more internalized values. One of a person’s life are condensed into one symbol, the major jobs of the ego is to reduce or eliminate and displacement, in which a person dreams anxiety; to accomplish this, the ego employs the about something symbolically related to an anxiety- ego defense mechanisms, which operate on the un- provoking object, person, or event instead of conscious level and distort reality. All defense me- dreaming about whatever it is that actually pro- chanisms depend on repression, which is the

548 CHAPTER 16 holding of disturbing thoughts in the unconscious. animal nature. Freud was especially critical of reli- Other ego defense mechanisms are displacement, gion, believing that it is an illusion that keeps peo- sublimation, projection, identification, rationaliza- ple functioning on an infantile level. His hope was tion, and reaction formation. that people would embrace the principles of sci- During the psychosexual stages of develop- ence, thereby becoming more objective about ment, the erogenous zone, or the area of the themselves and the world. body associated with the greatest amount of plea- In recent years, there have been efforts to cor- sure, changes. Freud named the stages of develop- rect several misconceptions about Freud and psy- ment in terms of their erogenous zones. During the choanalysis. Historians such as Ellenberger and oral stage, either overgratification or undergratifica- Sulloway have shown that Freud was not the cou- tion of the oral needs results in a fixation, which in rageous, innovative hero that he and his followers turn causes the individual to become either an oral- portrayed him to be. The facts seem to be that he incorporative or an oral-sadistic character. Fixation did not suffer nearly the amount of anti-Semitism during the anal stage results in the adult being either that he claimed, he was not overly discriminated an anal-expulsive or an anal-retentive character. against by the medical establishment, and his ideas During the phallic stage, the male and female were not as original as he and his followers claimed. Oedipal complexes occur. Freud believed the psy- Several current scholars and researchers suggest that chology of males and females to be qualitatively Freud entered the therapeutic situation assuming different, primarily because of differential Oedipal that childhood sexual trauma is the cause of a pa- experiences. After encountering difficulties in his tient’s disorder. He then manipulated events so that various attempts to understand women, he finally his expectations were confirmed. Evidence indi- gave up trying. The latency stage is characterized by cates that none of Freud’s early patients volunteered repression of sexual desires and much sublimation. seduction stories (either real or imagined) and that During the genital stage, the person emerges pos- in each case such stories were suggested to them by sessing the personality traits that experiences during Freud. Others, such as Loftus, question the very the preceding stages have molded. existence of repressed memories and suggest that a Freud found considerable evidence for his the- search for them may do more harm than good. ory in everyday life. He felt that forgetting, losing Freud has also been criticized for using data from things, accidents, and slips of the tongue were often his patients to develop and validate his theory, using unconsciously motivated. He also thought jokes nebulous terms that make measurement difficult or provide information about repressed experience be- impossible, being intolerant of criticism, overem- cause people tend to find only anxiety-provoking phasizing sexual motivation, and creating a method material humorous. Freud believed that although of psychotherapy that is too long and costly to be we share the instinctual makeup of other animals, useful to most troubled people. Also, Freud’s theory humans have the capacity to understand and harness violates Popper’s principle of falsifiability. Among instinctual impulses by exercising rational thought. Freud’s contributions are the vast expansion of psy- To come to grips with the unconscious mind chology’s domain, a new method of psychotherapy, through rationality, however, is an extremely diffi- and a theory that explains much normal as well as cult process, and for that reason, Freud was not abnormal behavior and is relevant to almost every optimistic that rationalism would prevail over our aspect of human existence.

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 549 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Provide evidence that many components of 15. Why did Freud feel the need to postulate the what was to become psychoanalysis were part existence of a death instinct? What types of of Freud’s philosophical or scientific heritage. behavior did this instinct explain? 2. Describe the cocaine episode in Freud’s career. 16. Define and give examples of objective, neu- 3. Briefly define the terms pathogenic idea, catharsis, rotic, and moral anxiety. transference, and countertransference. 17. What, according to Freud, is the function of 4. What was the significance of Freud’s visit with the ego defense mechanisms? Why is repression Charcot for the development of considered the most basic ego defense mecha- psychoanalysis? nism? Explain what Freud meant when he said that civilization is built on sublimation. 5. What did Freud learn from Liébeault and Bernheim at the Nancy school of hypnosis that 18. Why did Freud refer to the experiences of both influenced the development of psychoanalysis? male and female children during the phallic stage as Oedipal complexes? In what important 6. Discuss the importance of resistance in ways do the two complexes differ? How did psychoanalysis. Freud’s effort to understand women end? 7. What did Freud mean when he said that true 19. What was Freud’s view of human nature? psychoanalysis began only after hypnosis had Religion? What was his hope for humankind? been discarded? 20. What major Freudian myths are currently be- 8. What was Freud’s seduction theory? What did ing revealed and corrected by such individuals Freud conclude his mistake regarding the se- as Ellenberger, Esterson, and Sulloway? duction theory had been? 21. Summarize the evidence suggesting that Freud 9. Explain the significance of dream analysis for instilled in his patients the repressed memories Freud. Why did he originally use it? What is that he claimed to discover. the difference between the manifest and the latent content of a dream? What is meant by 22. Explain why Esterson and others argue that dream work? psychoanalysts often discover repressed mem- ories of childhood seduction in their patients 10. What is the Oedipus complex, and what is its because the analysts’ beliefs require that they be significance in Freud’s theory? found. Also explain why, according to this ar- 11. Define the term parapraxes and show its im- gument, it is irrelevant whether such memories portance to Freud’s contention that much ev- are assumed to be of real or imagined events. eryday behavior is unconsciously motivated. 23. Why do researchers, such as Loftus, question 12. What is meant by saying that a behavioral or the existence of repressed memories? Explain psychological act is overdetermined? why these researchers believe that a search for 13. Give an example showing the interactions repressed memories may do more harm than among the id, the ego, and the superego. good. 14. Make the case that Freud’s theory accepted 24. Summarize the major criticisms and contribu- Lamarck’s theory of evolution, that is, the in- tions of Freud’s theory. heritance of acquired characteristics.

550 CHAPTER 16 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING Borch-Jacobsen, M. (1996). Remembering Anna O.: A Loftus, E. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. century of mystification (K. Olson, Trans.). New York: American Psychologist, 48, 518–537. Routledge. Loftus, E. (2007). Elizabeth F. Loftus. In G. Lindzey & Cioffi, F. (1998). Freud and the question of pseudoscience.La W. M. Runyan (Eds.), A history of psychology in au- Salle, IL: Open Court. tobiography (Vol. 9, pp. 199–224). Washington, DC: Crews, F. (1995). The memory wars: Freud’s legacy in dis- American Psychological Association. pute. New York: The New York Review of Books. Roazen, P. (1992). Freud and his followers. New York: Da Esterson, A. (1993). Seductive mirage: An exploration of the Capo Press. work of Sigmund Freud. La Salle, IL: Open Court. Sulloway, F. J. (1979). Freud, biologist of the mind: Beyond Gay, P. (1988). Freud: A life for our time. New York: the psychoanalytic legend. New York: Basic Books. Norton. Webster, R. (1995). Why Freud was wrong: Sin, science, and psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books. GLOSSARY Anticathexis The expenditure of psychic energy to Countertransference The process by which a therapist prevent the association between needs and the ideas of becomes emotionally involved with a patient. anxiety-provoking objects or events. Death instinct The instinct that has death as its goal Anxiety The feeling of impending danger. Freud dis- (sometimes called the death wish). tinguished three types of anxiety: objective anxiety, Displacement The ego defense mechanism by which a which is caused by a physical danger; neurotic anxiety, goal that does not provoke anxiety is substituted for one which is caused by the feeling that one is going to be that does. Also, the type of dream work that causes the overwhelmed by his or her id; and moral anxiety, which dreamer to dream of something symbolically related to is caused by violating one or more values internalized in anxiety-provoking events rather than dreaming about the superego. the anxiety-provoking events themselves. Breuer, Josef (1842–1925) The person Freud credited Dream analysis A major tool that Freud used in with the founding of psychoanalysis. Breuer discovered studying the contents of the unconscious mind. Freud that when the memory of a traumatic event is recalled thought that the symbols dreams contain could yield under deep relaxation or hypnosis, there is a release of information about repressed memories, just as hysterical emotional energy (catharsis) and the symptoms caused by symptoms could. the repressed memory are relieved. Dream work The mechanism that distorts the meaning Cathartic method The alleviation of hysterical symp- of a dream, thereby making it more tolerable to the toms by allowing pathogenic ideas to be expressed dreamer. (See also Condensation and Displacement.) consciously. Ego According to Freud, the component of the per- Cathexis The investment of psychic energy in thoughts sonality that is responsible for locating events in the en- of things that can satisfy a person’s needs. vironment that will satisfy the needs of the id without Condensation The type of dream work that causes violating the values of the superego. several people, objects, or events to be condensed into Ego defense mechanisms The strategies available to one dream symbol. the ego for distorting the anxiety-provoking aspects of Conflict According to Freud, the simultaneous ten- reality, thus making them more tolerable. dency both to approach and avoid the same object, Free association Freud’s major tool for studying the event, or person. contents of the unconscious mind. With free association,

PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 551 a patient is encouraged to express freely everything that Overdetermination Freud’s observation that behav- comes to his or her mind. ioral and psychological phenomena often have two or Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939) The founder of psy- more causes. choanalysis, a school of psychology that stresses the Parapraxes Relatively minor errors in everyday living conflict between the animalistic impulses possessed by such as losing and forgetting things, slips of the tongue, humans and the human desire to live in a civilized mistakes in writing, and small accidents. Freud believed society. that such errors are often unconsciously motivated. Id According to Freud, the powerful, entirely uncon- Pathogenic ideas Ideas that cause physical disorders. scious portion of the personality that contains all instincts Repression The holding of traumatic memories in the and is therefore the driving force for the entire unconscious mind because pondering them consciously personality. would cause too much anxiety. Instincts According to Freud, the motivational forces Resistance The tendency for patients to inhibit the behind personality. Each instinct has a source, which is a recollection of traumatic experiences. bodily deficiency of some type; an aim of removing the Seduction theory Freud’s contention that hysteria is deficiency; an object, which is anything capable of re- caused by a sexual attack: Someone familiar to or related moving the deficiency; and an impetus, which is a driv- to the hysteric patient had attacked him or her when the ing force whose strength is determined by the magnitude patient was a young child. Freud later concluded that in of the deficiency. (See also Life instincts and Death most cases such attacks are imagined rather than real. instinct.) Studies on Hysteria The book Breuer and Freud Latent content What a dream is actually about. published in 1895 that is usually viewed as marking the Libido For Freud, the collective energy associated with formal beginning of the school of psychoanalysis. the life instincts. Superego According to Freud, the internalized values Life instincts The instincts that have as their goal the that act as a guide for a person’s conduct. sustaining of life. Transference The process by which a patient responds Manifest content What a dream appears to be about to the therapist as if the therapist were a relevant person Oedipus complex The situation that, according to in the patient’s life. Freud, typically manifests itself during the phallic stage of Unconscious motivation The causes of our behavior psychosexual development, whereby children sexually of which we are unaware. desire the parent of the opposite sex and are hostile to- Wish fulfillment In an effort to satisfy bodily needs, ward the parent of the same sex. the id conjures up images of objects or events that will satisfy those needs.

17 ✵ Early Alternatives to Psychoanalysis lthough much of Anna Freud’s work in psychoanalysis reflected her father’s A views, some of her contributions represent important extensions of, or al- ternatives to, psychoanalytic orthodoxy. Thus, we begin our sample of early al- ternatives to psychoanalysis with a discussion of those contributions. ANNA FREUD Anna Freud (1895–1982), the youngest of Freud’s six children, was born on December 3 in the same year that Breuer and Freud published Studies on Hysteria, marking the founding of psychoanalysis. According to Young-Bruehl, “To Anna Freud’s reckoning, she and psychoanalysis were twins who started out life competing for their father’s attention” (1988, p. 15). As a young child, Anna began describing her dreams to her father, and several of them were in- cluded in Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900/1953). At the age of 13 or 14, Anna was allowed to attend the Wednesday meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society by sitting on a library ladder in the corner of the room. By the time she was 17, Anna had read some of her father’s books and often discussed with him the meaning of psychoanalytic terms. Although Anna became a successful primary school teacher, her interest in psychoanalysis intensified and, contrary to his own sanction against analysts ana- lyzing their own friends or family members, Freud began to psychoanalyze Anna in 1918. The analysis continued until 1922 and was resumed for another year in 1925. In 1922 Anna presented a paper to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society on childhood fantasies (presumably her own), and two weeks later she was certified as a psychoanalyst. 552

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 553 the views being developed by Melanie Klein (1882–1960). Klein attended the University of Vienna and was analyzed by two members of the Akron Freudian inner circle, Sandor Ferenczi and Karl of Abraham. Soon after becoming an analyst, Klein University began extending psychoanalytic concepts to chil- dren. She summarized her ideas in The Psycho- Archives–The Analysis of Children (1932). Klein departed from traditional psychoanalysis by emphasizing pre- Oedipal development. She also deemphasized © Psychology biological drives (such as sexual pleasure) and em- phasized the importance of interpersonal relation- ships. The mother-child relationship was especially Anna Freud important to Klein. The earliest stage of this rela- tionship focused on the mother’s breast, which the The discovery of Freud’s cancer in 1923 (Anna infant viewed as either good (satisfying) or bad was 27 years old at the time) brought him and Anna (frustrating). The good breast satisfies the life in- even closer together. Anna’s mother (Martha) was stincts and stimulates feelings of love and creativity. never as important to Anna as her father was, and as The bad breast satisfies the death instinct and sti- her father’s physical condition worsened, Anna mulates feelings of hate and destruction. According successfully competed with her mother to become to Klein, the emotions caused by the interaction of his primary caregiver. The relationship was recipro- the infant’s experiences with the mother’s breast cal. With Anna, Freud could have meaningful dis- and with life and death instincts provide the proto- cussions about psychoanalysis, something he could type used to evaluate all subsequent experiences. never do with his wife, who considered psychoana- For Klein notions of good and bad and right and lytic ideas a form of pornography (Gay, 1988, p. 61). wrong develop during the oral stage, not the phal- By the early 1920s, Freud and Anna were insepara- lic stage as the Freudians (including Anna) had as- ble. Anna became her father’s emissary to psychoan- sumed. According to Klein’s theory, the superego alytic societies throughout the world, delivered his develops very early in life, and its development is papers, typed his daily correspondence, and, along largely determined by the interaction between life with his friend and physician Max Schur, attended to and death instincts. About the importance of the his personal and medical needs. When her father death instinct in Klein’s theory, Gay (1988) said, died, Anna inherited his library, his cherished an- “If anyone took Freud’s death drive with all its tiques, and his ideas. Anna Freud not only preserved implications seriously, it was Melanie Klein” (p. and perpetuated her father’s ideas, but she extended 468). Klein also believed that child analysis could them into new areas such as child analysis (1928) and begin much earlier than the traditional psychoana- education and child rearing (1935). As we shall see, lysts believed by analyzing a child’s playful activities she also made several original contributions to the instead of the child’s free associations. Klein’s belief psychoanalytic literature. that a child’s free, undirected play reveals uncon- scious conflicts allows children as young as two years old to be analyzed. For an overview of Anna Freud’s and Melanie Klein’s Klein’s version of psychoanalysis, see Segal, 1974. Anna Freud disagreed with most of Klein’s Conflicting Views on Child Analysis conceptions of child analysis, continuing to empha- As Anna Freud began developing her views on size the importance of the phallic and genital stages child analysis, they soon came into conflict with of development and to analyze children’s fantasies

554 CHAPTER 17 and dreams instead of their play activities during Although Anna Freud believed that her devel- therapy. Although Klein’s views had a substantial opmental lines complemented her father’s psycho- impact on child analysis, it was the views of Anna sexual stages, we see in them ego functions that are Freud that generally prevailed. (For the details of relatively independent of conflicts between the id the controversies between Klein and Anna Freud, and superego. see Donaldson, 1996; King and Steiner, 1991; In her influential book The Ego and the Viner, 1996.) Mechanisms of Defense (published in German in 1936; in English in 1937), Anna Freud also empha- sized autonomous ego functions. In this book, she Ego Psychology described in detail the ego defenses described by her There are significant differences between analyzing father and others, and she correlated each mechanism children and adults, and these differences caused with a specific type of anxiety (objective, neurotic, Anna to emphasize the ego more in child analysis moral). Whereas traditional analysts—including her than when treating adults. The major difference is father—had viewed the ego defenses as obstacles to that children do not recall early traumatic experi- the understanding of the unconscious, Anna viewed ences as adults do. Rather, children display devel- them as having independent importance. She showed opmental experiences as they occur. The problems how the mechanisms are normally used in adjusting that children have reflect obstacles to their normal to social and biological needs. When normal use is growth. Rather than viewing the problems of understood, abnormal use is easier to determine. To childhood as reflecting conflicts among the id, the traditional list of defense mechanisms, Anna ego, and superego, as with adults, children were Freud added two of her own. Altruistic surrender viewed as reflecting the many vulnerabilities en- occurs when a person gives up his or her own ambi- countered during the transition between childhood tions and lives vicariously by identifying with another and adolescence and young adulthood. Anna Freud person’s satisfactions and frustrations. Identification (1965) used the term developmental lines to describe a with the aggressor occurs when a person adopts the child’s gradual transition from dependence on ex- values and mannerisms of a feared person as his or her ternal controls to mastery of internal and external own. According to Anna Freud, it was the latter reality. Developmental lines are attempts by the mechanism that explains the development of the su- child to adapt to life’s demands, whether those de- perego: “What else is the superego than identification mands are situational, interpersonal, or personal. with the aggressor?” (Young-Bruehl, 1988, p. 212). They describe normal development and therefore Identification with the aggressor also explains why can be used as a frame of reference for defining some hostages develop affection toward their captors. maladjustment. Although, according to Anna In contemporary psychology, the latter tendency is Freud (1965), each developmental line consists of referred to as the Stockholm syndrome. The name several components, the following list consists derives from the case of a woman who was taken only of the major characteristics of each line: hostage during a 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. During the ordeal the woman became so ■ From dependency to emotional self-reliance emotionally attached to one of the robbers that she ■ From sucking to rational eating subsequently broke off her engagement to another ■ From wetting and soiling to bowel-bladder man and remained faithful to her former captor as control he served his prison term. Clearly, Anna Freud overcame her conflict ■ From irresponsibility to responsibility in body with her “twin,” psychoanalysis: management By the time Anna Freud was thirty and a ■ From egocentricity to companionship practicing psychoanalyst as well as a ■ From play to work

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 555 lecturer at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Childhood and Society (1950/1985), described how Institute on her specialty, child analysis, she the ego gains strength as it progresses through eight and her twin were no longer rivals. They stages of psychosocial (not psychosexual) develop- were merged. In 1936, for his eightieth ment that occur over a person’s lifetime. birthday, she gave her father a book she Incidentally, it was Anna Freud who analyzed had written, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Erikson, qualifying him to become an analyst him- Defense, which marked a reconfiguration of self. (For the details of Erikson’s influential theory their lives: she was then the inheritor of of personality, see Hergenhahn and Olson, 2007.) her twin, the mother of psychoanalysis; the one to whom primary responsibility for its CARL JUNG spirit, its future, was passed. Sigmund Freud, old, weak, faced with the imminent Born on July 26 in the Swiss village of Kesswil, occupation of his homeland by the Nazis, Carl Jung (1875–1961) studied medicine at Basel the prospect of exile, called his daughter from 1895 to 1901 and then worked as a resident “Anna Antigone.” (Young-Bruehl, 1988, under Eugen Bleuler (who coined the term schizo- p. 15) phrenia). Jung spent the winter of 1902–1903 study- ing with Janet. On Bleuler’s recommendation, Jung Why Antigone? Because in Sophocles’ play administered Galton’s word association test to psy- Oedipus at Colonus, it is the dutiful and courageous chotics in hopes of discovering the nature of their Antigone who leads her blind and ill father unconscious thought processes. This research was (Oedipus) by the hand. She, like Anna, was a gal- fairly successful and brought Jung some early lant and loyal companion to her father: “It was fame. Jung first became acquainted with Freud’s Anna Freud who was firmly installed as her theory when he read The Interpretation of Dreams. wounded father’s secretary, confidante, representa- When Jung tried Freud’s ideas in his own practice, tive, colleague, and nurse. She became his most he found them effective. He and Freud began to precious claim on life, his ally against death” (Gay, correspond, and eventually they met in Freud’s 1988, p. 442). In 1950 Anna Freud received an honorary de- gree from Clark University, as her father had done in 1909. This was her first university degree of any kind. She subsequently received honorary degrees from several other universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Vienna. After devoting nearly 60 years to the analysis of children and adolescents, Anna Freud suffered a stroke on March 1, 1982, and died on October 9. Archive/Getty Images The analysis of the ego for its own sake, started by Anna Freud, was continued by others and be- came known as ego psychology. For example, Heinz Hartmann (1894–1970) wrote Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation (1939/ Press/Stringer/Hulton 1958), in which he introduced the concept of the “conflict-free ego sphere.” Problems, he said, are often solved in an open and adaptive manner, with- © Central out regard to the remnants of infantile experiences. Erik Erikson (1902–1994), in his influential book Carl Jung

556 CHAPTER 17 home in Vienna. Their initial meeting lasted 13 the physical environment. It is everything of which hours, and the two became close friends. we are conscious and is concerned with thinking, When G. Stanley Hall invited Freud to give a problem solving, remembering, and perceiving. series of lectures at Clark University in 1909, Jung traveled to the United States with Freud and gave a The Personal Unconscious few lectures of his own (on his word-association Combining the Freudian notions of the precon- research). About this time, Jung began to express scious and the unconscious, Jung’s personal un- doubts about Freud’s emphasis on sexual motiva- conscious consists of experiences that had either tion. These doubts became so intense that in 1912 been repressed or simply forgotten—material from the two stopped corresponding, and in 1914 they one’s lifetime that for one reason or another is not completely terminated their relationship—despite in consciousness. Some of this material is easily re- the fact that Freud had earlier nominated Jung to be trievable, and some of it is not. the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association. The break in the relationship was espe- The Collective Unconscious and the cially disturbing to Jung, who entered what he called Archetypes his “dark years,” a period of three years during which he was so depressed he could not even read a scientific The collective unconscious was Jung’s most book. During this time, he analyzed his innermost mystical and controversial concept, and his most thoughts and developed his own distinct theory of important. Jung believed the collective unconscious personality, which differed markedly from Freud’s. to be the deepest and most powerful component of Jung continued to develop his theory until his death the personality, reflecting the cumulative experi- on June 6, 1961. ences of humans throughout their entire evolution- ary past. According to Jung, it is the “deposit of Libido ancestral experience from untold millions of years, the echo of prehistoric world events to which each The major source of difficulty between Freud and century adds an infinitesimally small amount of var- Jung was the nature of the libido. At the time of iation and differentiation” (1928, p. 162). The col- his association with Jung, Freud defined libido as lective unconscious registers common experiences “sexual energy,” which he saw as the main driving that humans have had through the eons. These force of personality. Thus, for Freud, most human common experiences are recorded and are inherited behavior is sexually motivated. Jung disagreed, say- as predispositions to respond emotionally to certain ing that libidinal energy is a creative life force that categories of experience. Jung referred to each in- could be applied to the individual’s continuous psy- herited predisposition contained in the collective chological growth. According to Jung, libidinal en- unconscious as an archetype. ergy is used in a wide range of human endeavors Thus, for Jung, the mind is not a “blank tablet” beyond those of a sexual nature, and it can be ap- at birth but contains a structure that had developed plied to the satisfaction of both biological and phil- in a Lamarckian fashion. That is, experiences of osophical or spiritual needs. In fact, as one becomes preceding generations are passed on to new genera- more proficient at satisfying the former needs, one tions. Archetypes can be thought of as generic can use more libidinal energy in dealing with the images with which events in one’s lifetime interact. latter needs. In short, sexual motivation was much They record not only perceptual experiences but less important to Jung than it was to Freud. also the emotions typically associated with those perceptual experiences. In fact, Jung thought that The Ego the emotional component of archetypes is their Jung’s conception of the ego was similar to Freud’s. most important feature. When an experience The ego is the mechanism by which we interact with “communicates with” or “identifies with” an

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 557 archetype, the emotion elicited is typical of the the archetype that we inherit from our prehuman emotional response people have had to that type ancestors, provides us with a tendency to be im- of experience through the eons. For example, moral and aggressive. We project this aspect of each child is born with a generic conception of our personalities onto the world symbolically as mother that is the result of the cumulative experi- devils, demons, monsters, and evil spirits. The self ences of preceding generations, and the child will causes people to try to synthesize all components of tend to project onto its real mother the attributes of their personalities. It represents the human need for the generic mother-image. This archetype will in- unity and wholeness of the total personality. The fluence not only how the child views his or her goal of life is first to discover and understand the mother but also how the child responds to her various parts of the personality and then to synthe- emotionally. For Jung then, archetypes provide size them into a harmonious unity. Jung called this each person with a framework for perceptual and unity self-actualization. emotional experience. They predispose people to see things in certain ways, to have certain emotional The Attitudes experiences, and to engage in certain categories of behavior. One such category is myth making: Jung described two major orientations, or attitudes, that people take in relating to the world. One atti- Primitive humans responded to all of their tude he labeled introversion, the other extrover- emotional experiences in terms of myths, sion. Jung believed that although every individual and it is this tendency toward myth mak- possesses both attitudes, he or she usually assumes ing that is registered in the collective one of the two attitudes more than the other. The unconscious and passed on to future gen- introverted person tends to be quiet, imaginative, erations. What we inherit, then, is the and more interested in ideas than in interacting tendency to reexperience some manifesta- with people. The extroverted person is outgoing tion of these primordial myths as we en- and sociable. Although most people tend toward counter events that have been associated either introversion or extroversion, Jung believed with those myths for eons. Each archetype that the mature, healthy adult personality reflects can be viewed as an inherited tendency to both attitudes about equally. respond emotionally and mythologically to certain kinds of experience—for example, when a child, a mother, a lover, a night- Causality, Teleology, and mare, a death, a birth, an earthquake, or a Synchronicity stranger is encountered. (Hergenhahn and Olson, 2007, p. 75) Like Freud, Jung was a determinist. Both believed that important causes of a person’s personality are Although Jung recognized a large number of found in his or her past experiences. However, Jung archetypes, he elaborated the following ones most believed that to truly understand a person, one fully. The persona causes people to present only part must understand the person’s prior experiences— of their personality to the public. It is a mask in the including those registered in the collective uncon- sense that the most important aspects of personality scious—and the person’s goals for the future. Thus, are hidden behind it. The anima provides the female unlike Freud’s theory, Jung’s embraced teleology component of the male personality and a frame- (purpose). For Jung people are both pushed by work within which males can interact with females. the past and pulled by the future. The animus provides the masculine component of For Jung another important determinant of the female personality and a framework within personality is synchronicity, or meaningful coin- which females can interact with males. The shadow, cidence. Synchronicity occurs when two or more

558 CHAPTER 17 events, each with their own independent causality, individuals differ in their ability to recognize and come together in a meaningful way. Progoff (1973) give expression to the various archetypes. As we gives the following examples: have seen, Jung also believed that everyone has an innate tendency to recognize, express, and synthe- A person … has a dream or a series of size the various components of his or her personal- dreams, and these turn out to coincide ity and, in so doing, to become self-actualized. with an outer event. An individual prays Even with this tendency, however, most people for some special favor, or wishes, or hopes are not self-actualized. For most individuals, certain for it strongly, and in some inexplicable components of the personality remain unrecog- way it comes to pass. One person believes nized and underdeveloped. For Jung, dreams are a in another person, or in some special means of giving expression to aspects of the psyche symbol, and while he is praying or medi- that are underdeveloped. If a person did not give tating by the light of faith, a physical adequate expression to the shadow, for example, healing or some other “miracle” comes to he or she would tend to have nightmares involving pass. (p. 122) various monsters. Dream analysis, then, can be Progoff (1973, pp. 170–171) describes a syn- used to determine which aspects of the psyche are chronistic experience in the life of Abraham being given adequate expression and which are not. Lincoln. In his early life, Lincoln had dreams of doing meaningful work in the world. In conflict with these The Importance of Middle Age dreams was Lincoln’s realization that in his frontier environment there were few tools available for his According to Jung, the goal of life is to reach self- intellectual development. Lincoln despaired of his actualization, which involves the harmonious dreams ever being fulfilled. Then a stranger appeared blending of all aspects of the personality. How the wishing to sell a barrel full of odds and ends for a various aspects of personality manifest themselves dollar. The stranger told Lincoln that the contents within the context of a particular person’s life is of the barrel were essentially worthless, but that he called individuation. The job of recognizing and ex- needed a dollar very badly. With characteristic kind- pressing all forces within us is monumental because ness, Lincoln gave the stranger a dollar for the barrel. these forces usually conflict with one another. The Some time later, Lincoln discovered that the barrel rational conflicts with the irrational, feeling with contained an almost complete edition of Blackstone’s thinking, masculine tendencies with feminine ten- Commentaries. These books furnished Lincoln with dencies, introversion with extroversion, and con- the information and the intellectual stimulation he scious processes with unconscious processes. The needed to eventually become a lawyer and enter process of attempting to understand these conflict- into a career in politics. ing forces occupies most of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. It is usually not until the late thirties or early forties that a major transformation Dreams occurs. Once a person has recognized the many Dreams were important to Jung, but he interpreted conflicting forces in his or her personality, the per- them very differently than Freud. Freud believed son is in a position to synthesize and harmonize that repressed, traumatic experiences reveal them- them. Self-actualization occurs when all discordant selves in dreams because one’s defenses are reduced elements of personality are given equal expression. during sleep. During the waking state, these experi- In a healthy, integrated individual, each system of ences are actively held in the unconscious mind the personality is differentiated, developed, and ex- because to entertain them consciously would pro- pressed. Although Jung believed that everyone has voke extreme anxiety. Jung believed that everyone an innate tendency toward self-actualization, he has the same collective unconscious but that also believed that people rarely attain that state.

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 559 Criticisms and Contributions Jung’s theory has been criticized for embracing oc- cultism, spiritualism, mysticism, and religion. Many saw Jung as unscientific or even antiscientific be- cause he used such things as the symbols found in art, religion, and human fantasy to develop and verify his theory. The concept of the archetype, which is central to Jung’s theory, has been criticized for being metaphysical and unverifiable. Some have referred to Jung’s theory in general as unclear, in- comprehensible, inconsistent, and, in places, con- tradictory. Finally, Jung has been criticized for employing the Lamarckian notion of the inheri- © Bettmann/CORBIS tance of acquired characteristics. Despite these criticisms, Jungian theory remains popular in psychology. Jung has influential fol- Alfred Adler lowers throughout the world, and several major cities have Jungian institutes that elaborate and dis- Psychoanalytic Society, of which he became presi- seminate his ideas (DeAngelis, 1994; Kirsch, 2000). dent in 1910. Differences between Adler and Freud Jung’s notions of introversion and extroversion began to emerge, however, and by 1911 they be- have stimulated much research and are part of sev- came so pronounced that Adler resigned as presi- eral popular personality tests—for example, the dent of the society. After a nine-year association Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and with Freud, the friendship crumbled, and the two the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. Also, Jung’s con- men never saw each other again. Freud accused cepts of introversion and extroversion were major Adler of becoming famous by reducing psychoanal- components of Hans J. Eysenck’s (1916–1997) in- ysis to the commonsense level of the layperson. fluential theory of personality (see, for example, About Adler, Freud said, “I have made a pygmy Eysenck and Eysenck, 1985). Finally, it was Jung great” (Wittels, 1924, p. 225). History shows that who introduced the Aristotelian notion of self- Freud and Adler never had much in common, and actualization into modern psychology. it was probably a mistake for Adler to join the Freudians. Ernest Jones (1955) summarized Adler’s major disagreements with Freud: ALFRED ADLER Sexual factors, particularly those of child- hood, were reduced to a minimum: a Born on February 17 in a suburb of Vienna, Alfred boy’s incestuous desire for intimacy with Adler (1870–1937) remembered his childhood as his mother was interpreted as the male being miserable. He was a sickly child who thought wish to conquer a female masquerading as of himself as small and ugly. He also had a severe sexual desire. The concepts of repression, rivalry with his older brother. All these recollections infantile sexuality, and even that of the may have influenced the type of personality theory unconscious itself were discarded. (p. 131) Adler developed. Like Jung, Adler became acquainted with In 1926 Adler visited the United States and was Freudian psychology by reading The Interpretation warmly received. Adler made the United States his of Dreams. Adler wrote a paper defending Freud’s permanent home in 1935, partially because of the theory and was invited to join the Vienna Nazi menace in Europe. He died on May 28, 1937,

560 CHAPTER 17 while on a lecture tour in Aberdeen, Scotland. The presented this view, he was a physician, and his animosity that Freud felt toward Adler can be seen observations were clearly in accord with the in the following comment Freud made to a person materialistic-positivistic medicine of the time. who was moved by the news of Adler’s death: I don’t understand your sympathy for Feelings of Inferiority Adler. For a Jew boy out of a Viennese In 1910 Adler entered the realm of psychology suburb a death in Aberdeen is an unheard- when he noted that compensation and overcom- of career in itself and a proof of how far he pensation can be directed toward psychological infer- had got on. The world really rewarded iorities as well as toward physical ones. Adler noted him richly for his service in having con- that all humans begin life completely dependent on tradicted psychoanalysis. (E. Jones, 1957, others for their survival and therefore with feelings p. 208) of inferiority, or weakness. Such feelings motivate Fiebert (1997) provides details concerning people first as children and later as adults to gain Adler’s initial professional involvement with Freud, power to overcome these feelings. In his early the- the sources of dissension between Adler and Freud, orizing, Adler emphasized the attainment of power and the relationship between the two following as a means of overcoming feelings of inferiority; Adler’s “excommunication.” later, he suggested that people strive for perfection or superiority to overcome these feelings. Although feelings of inferiority motivate all Organ Inferiority and Compensation personal growth and are therefore good, they can Like Freud, Adler was trained in the materialistic- also disable rather than motivate some people. positivistic medical tradition; that is, every disorder, These people are so overwhelmed by such feelings whether physical or mental, was assumed to have a that they accomplish little or nothing, and they are physiological origin. Adler (1907/1917) presented said to have an inferiority complex. Thus, feel- the view that people are particularly sensitive to ings of inferiority can act as a stimulus for positive disease in organs that are “inferior” to other organs. growth or as a disabling force, depending on one’s For example, some people are born with weak attitude toward them. eyes, others with weak hearts, still others with weak limbs, and so on. Because of the strain the Worldviews, Fictional Goals, environment puts on these weak parts of the and Lifestyles body, the person develops weaknesses that inhibit normal functioning. Hans Vaihinger’s philosophy of “as if” influenced One way to adjust to a weakness is through Adler’s theory. We saw in Chapter 9 that Vaihinger compensation. That is, a person can adjust to a was primarily concerned with showing how fictions weakness in one part of his or her body by devel- in science, mathematics, religion, philosophy, and oping strengths in other parts. For example, a blind jurisprudence make complex societal life possible. person can develop especially sensitive auditory Adler, however, applied Vaihinger’s concept of fic- skills. Another way to adjust to a weakness is tion to the lives of individuals. Like Vaihinger, through overcompensation, which is the conver- Adler believed that life is inherently meaningless, sion of a weakness into a strength. The usual ex- and therefore whatever meaning life has must be amples include Teddy Roosevelt, who was a frail assigned to it by the individual. child but became a rugged outdoorsman, and A person’s worldview develops from early ex- Demosthenes, who had a speech impediment but periences as a child. Depending on the nature of became a great orator. At the time when Adler these experiences, a child could come, for example,

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 561 to view the world as a dangerous, evil place or as a then act “as if” it were true. His concept of the safe and loving place. The first invention of mean- creative self aligned Adler with the existential be- ing in a person’s life, then, is the creation of a lief that humans are free to choose their own worldview. Once a worldview develops, the child destiny. ponders how to live in the world as he or she per- With his concept of the creative self, Adler re- ceives it. The child begins to plan his or her future jected the very foundation of Freud’s psychoanalysis by creating what Adler at various times called “fic- —repressed memories of traumatic experiences. tional finalisms,”“guiding self-ideals,” or “guiding Adler said, “We do not suffer the shock of [trau- fictions.” These are future goals that are reasonable matic experiences] we make out of them just what given the child’s worldview. If the worldview is suits our purposes” (1931/1958, p. 14). Once a positive, the child might attempt to embrace the worldview, final goals, and a lifestyle are created world by planning to become a physician, teacher, by an individual, all experiences are interpreted rel- artist, or scientist, for example. If the worldview is ative to them. These creations, which provide the negative, the child might aggress toward the world basic components of one’s personality, allow some by planning a life of crime and destruction. experiences to be understood but not others. For From the worldview come guiding fictions Adler, experiences that can be assimilated into one’s (future goals), and from guiding fictions comes a personality are understood; those experiences that lifestyle. Primarily, a lifestyle encompasses the ev- cannot be assimilated are not understood. For eryday activities performed while pursuing one’s him, what Freud and others called unconscious goals. However, a person’s lifestyle also determines simply meant not understood. which aspects of life are focused on and how, what Thus, although Adler was an early member of is perceived and what is ignored, and how problems Freud’s inner circle, the theory he developed had are solved. little, if anything, in common with Freud’s. Unlike According to Adler, for a lifestyle to be truly Freud’s theory, Adler’s theory emphasized the con- effective it must contain considerable social inter- scious mind, social rather than sexual motives, and est. That is, part of its goal must involve working free will. Much of Adler’s thinking was to emerge toward a society that would provide a better life for later in such theories as those of Rollo May, George everyone. Adler called any lifestyle without ade- Kelly, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow. All quate social interest a mistaken lifestyle. Because these theories have in common the existential the neurotic typically has a mistaken lifestyle, theme, which is a focus of the next chapter. the job of the psychotherapist is to replace that life- For a discussion of the influence of Adlerian style with one that contains a healthy amount of theory and therapeutic techniques in contemporary social interest. psychology, see Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci, 2006. The Creative Self Adler departed radically from the theories of Freud KAREN HORNEY and Jung by saying that humans are not victims of their environment or of biological inheritance. Karen Horney (pronounced “horn-eye”; 1885– Although environment and heredity provide the 1952) was born Karen Danielson on September raw materials of personality, the person is free to 16 in a small village near Hamburg, Germany. arrange those materials in any number of ways. Her father was a Norwegian sea captain, and her For example, whether feelings of inferiority facili- mother, who was 18 years younger than the cap- tate growth or disable a person is a matter of tain, was a member of a prominent Dutch-German personal choice. And, although life is inherently family. Karen’s father was a God-fearing fundamen- meaningless, one is free to invent meaning and talist who believed that women are inferior to men

562 CHAPTER 17 and are the primary source of evil in the world. where she was psychoanalyzed first by Karl Karen had conflicting feelings about her father. Abraham and then by Hans Sachs, two of the She disliked him because of the frequent derogatory most prominent Freudian analysts at the time (and statements he made about her appearance and in- both members of Freud’s inner circle). In 1918, at telligence. She liked him because he added adven- the age of 33, she became a practicing analyst; from ture to her life by taking her with him on at least that time until 1932, she taught at the Berlin three lengthy sea voyages. Karen’s family also con- Psychoanalytic Institute and also maintained a pri- sisted of four children from the captain’s previous vate practice. marriage and her older brother Berndt. The family In 1923 the Horney marriage started to disin- called the father the “Bible thrower” (Rubins, tegrate, and at about the same time, Horney’s 1978, p. 11) because often, after reading the Bible brother died of pneumonia. These and other events at length, he would explode in a fit of anger and triggered one of many bouts of depression that throw the Bible at his wife. Such experiences Horney experienced during her life, and on a fam- caused Karen to develop a negative attitude toward ily vacation she came close to committing suicide. religion and toward authority figures in general. Her marriage was becoming increasingly difficult, After being treated by a physician when she was and in 1926 Horney and her three daughters age 12, Karen decided she wanted to become a moved into an apartment. It was not until 1936, medical doctor. Her decision was supported by however, that Horney officially filed for a divorce, her mother and opposed by her father. and the divorce did not become final until 1939 In 1906, at the age of 21, Karen entered the (the year that Freud died). medical school at Freiberg, Germany. In October In 1932 Horney accepted an invitation from 1909, she married Oskar Horney, a lawyer with the prominent analyst Franz Alexander to come whom she eventually had three children (two of to the United States to become an associate direc- whom were psychoanalyzed by Melanie Klein). tor of the newly founded Chicago Institute of Horney completed her medical degree at the Psychoanalysis. Two years later, she moved to University of Berlin in 1913, where she was an New York, where she trained analysts at the New outstanding student. She then received psychoana- York Psychoanalytic Institute and established a pri- lytic training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, vate practice. It was during this time that major differences between her views and those of the tra- ditional Freudians became apparent. Because of these differences, the theses submitted by her stu- dents were routinely rejected, and eventually her teaching duties were restricted. In 1941 she re- signed from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute; shortly afterward, she founded her own organization called the American Institute for Psychoanalysis, where she continued to develop her own ideas until her death in 1952. General Disagreement with © Bettmann–CORBIS Horney believed that Freudian notions such as un- Freudian Theory conscious sexual motivation, the Oedipal complex, and the division of the mind into an id, ego, and Karen Horney

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 563 superego may have been appropriate in Freud’s cul- hostile world” (Horney, 1937, p. 77), and it is the tural setting and at his time in history but that they prerequisite for the development of neurosis. had little relevance for problems experienced by people during the Depression years in the United Adjustments to Basic Anxiety States. She found that the problems that her clients were having had to do with losing their jobs and Feeling alone and helpless in a hostile world, the not having enough money to pay the rent, buy person experiencing basic anxiety must find a way food, or provide their families with adequate medi- to cope with such feelings and such a world. cal care. She rarely found unconscious sexual con- Horney (1945) described three major adjustment flicts to be the cause of a client’s problem. Horney patterns available to neurotic individuals, that is, reached the conclusion that what a person experi- those with basic anxiety. ences socially determines whether he or she will One adjustment is moving toward people, have psychological problems, and not the intrap- thus becoming the compliant type. The compliant syche conflict (among the id, ego, and superego) type seems to be saying, “If I give in, I shall not that Freud had described. For Horney, the causes be hurt” (Horney, 1937, p. 83). of mental illness are to be found in society and in In sum, this type needs to be liked, social interactions, and it is therefore those factors wanted, desired, loved; to feel accepted, that need to be addressed in the therapeutic process. welcomed, approved of, appreciated; to be needed, to be of importance to others, Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety especially to one particular person; to be helped, protected, taken care of, guided. Horney (1937) elaborated her view that psycholog- (Horney, 1945, p. 51) ical problems are caused by disturbed human rela- tionships, and of these relationships, those between A second major adjustment pattern is moving the parents and the child are most important. She against people, thus becoming the hostile type. The believed that every child has two basic needs: to be hostile type seems to be saying, “If I have power, safe from pain, danger, and fear and to have biolog- no one can hurt me” (Horney, 1937, p. 84). ical needs satisfied. Two possibilities exist: the par- ents can consistently and lovingly satisfy the child’s Any situation or relationship is looked at needs, or the parents can demonstrate indifference, from the standpoint of “What can I get out inconsistency, or even hatred toward the child. If of it?”—whether it has to do with money, the former occurs, the child is well on the way to prestige, contacts, or ideas. The person becoming a normal, healthy adult. If the latter oc- himself is consciously or semiconsciously curs, the child is said to have experienced the basic convinced that everyone acts this way, and evil and is well on the way to becoming a neurotic. so what counts is to do it more efficiently A child experiencing some form of the basic than the rest. (Horney, 1945, p. 65) evil develops basic hostility toward the parents. The third major adjustment pattern is moving Because the parent-child relationship is so basic to away from people, thus becoming the detached a child, the hostility he or she feels develops into a type. The detached type seems to be saying, “If I worldview. That is, the world is viewed as a dan- withdraw, nothing can hurt me” (Horney, 1937, gerous, unpredictable place. However, because the p. 85). child is in no position to aggress toward the parents or the world, the basic hostility felt toward them What is crucial is their inner need to put must be repressed. When basic hostility is repressed, emotional distance between themselves it becomes basic anxiety. Basic anxiety is the “all- and others. More accurately, it is their pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a conscious and unconscious determination

564 CHAPTER 17 not to get emotionally involved with write such articles until 1937. These articles have others in any way, whether in love, fight, been compiled in Feminine Psychology (Horney and co-operation, or competition. They draw Kelman, 1967). around themselves a kind of magic circle Horney agreed with Freud that women often which no one may penetrate. (Horney, feel inferior to men, but, to her, this feeling has 1945, p. 75) nothing to do with penis envy. According to Horney, women are indeed inferior to men, but Horney believed that psychologically healthy they are culturally, not biologically, inferior. individuals use all three adjustment patterns as cir- Horney described how cultural stereotypes hold cumstances warrant. Neurotics, however, use only women back: one pattern and attempt to use it to deal with all of life’s eventualities. Woman’s efforts to achieve independence and an enlargement of her field of interests and activities are continually met with Feminine Psychology skepticism which insists that such efforts Horney initially agreed with Freud’s contention should be made only in the face of eco- that anatomy is destiny—that is, that one’s major nomic necessity, and that they run counter personality traits are determined by gender. to her inherent character and her natural However, in her version of this contention, it is tendencies. Accordingly, all efforts of this males who envy female anatomy rather than the sort are said to be without any vital sig- other way around: nificance for woman, whose every thought, in point of fact, should center From the biological point of view woman exclusively upon the male or upon has in motherhood, or in the capacity for motherhood. (Horney and Kelman, 1967, motherhood, a quite indisputable and by p. 182) no means negligible physiological superi- ority. This is most clearly reflected in the When women appear to wish to be masculine, unconscious of the male psyche in the what they are really seeking is cultural equality. boy’s intense envy of motherhood.… Because culture is a masculine product, one way When one begins, as I did , to analyze men to gain power in culture is to become masculine: only after a fairly long experience of ana- “Our whole civilization is a masculine civilization. lyzing women, one receives a most sur- The State, the laws, morality, religion, and the prising impression of the intensity of this sciences are the creation of men” (Horney and envy of pregnancy, childbirth, and moth- Kelman, 1967, p. 55): erhood, as well as of the breasts and of the act of suckling. (Horney and The wish to be a man … may be the ex- Kelman,1967, pp. 60–61) pression of a wish for all those qualities or privileges which in our culture are re- (For a discussion of how Horney’s views con- garded as masculine, such as strength, cerning the contention that anatomy is destiny courage, independence, success, sexual changed over time, see Hergenhahn and Olson, freedom, right to choose a partner. (1939, 2007, pp. 141–143; Paris, 2000, pp. 166–168.) p. 108) In the end, Horney’s position was that person- ality traits are determined more by cultural than by As we have seen, Freud was essentially mysti- biological factors. As early as 1923, Horney began fied by women and finally gave up trying to under- writing articles on how culture influences female stand them. Perhaps for this reason, psychoanalysis personality development, and she continued to has always seemed to understand men better than

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 565 women and to view men more positively than In conclusion, we can say that Horney was women. According to Horney, this should not be strongly influenced by Freudian theory and ac- surprising: cepted much of it. However, she ended up dis- agreeing with almost every conclusion that Freud The reason for this is obvious. had reached about women. At the time, disagreeing Psychoanalysis is the creation of a male with Freud took considerable courage: genius, and almost all those who have de- veloped his ideas have been men. It is only It must be realized that departing from right and reasonable that they should Freudian dogma at the time was no easy evolve more easily a masculine psychology matter. In fact, those who did so were and understand more of the development excommunicated just as if they had vio- of men than of women. (Horney and lated religious dogma. Horney was Kelman, 1967, p. 54) excommunicated because she dared to contradict the master.… Horney learned Horney agreed with Freud on the importance from observing her father as a child how of early childhood experiences and unconscious devastating blind belief in religious dogma motivation but disagreed with his emphasis on bio- could be; perhaps that was one reason she logical motivation, stressing cultural motivation in- decided not to let Freud go unchallenged. stead. As far as the therapeutic process is concerned, (Hergenhahn and Olson, 2007, p. 149) Horney used free association and dream analysis and believed transference and resistance provided im- Chodorow (1989) recognizes Horney as the portant information. She was much more optimistic first psychoanalytic feminist. about people’s ability to change their personalities Because Freud’s was the first comprehensive than Freud was, and, unlike Freud, she believed effort to explain personality and his was the first people could solve many of their own problems. comprehensive attempt to understand and treat in- Horney’s book Self-Analysis (1942/1968) was one dividuals with mental illness, all subsequent theories of the first self-help books in psychology, and it of personality and therapeutic techniques owe a was controversial. One reason for the controversy debt to him. One of the greatest tributes to Freud was Freud’s contention that all analysts had to be is the number of prominent individuals he influ- psychoanalyzed before being qualified to treat enced, and we have discussed only a small sample. patients. (For a more extensive sample, see Roazen, 1992.) SUMMARY Anna Freud became the spokesperson for psycho- ther demonstrated by her analysis of the ego defense analysis after her father died. She also applied psy- mechanisms, to which she added two: altruistic sur- choanalysis to children, which brought her into render and identification with the aggressor. conflict with Melanie Klein, who had distinctly dif- Jung, an early follower of Freud, eventually ferent ideas about child analysis. In her analysis of broke with him because of Freud’s emphasis on children, Anna Freud concentrated on develop- sexual motivation. Jung saw the libido as a pool mental lines, which describe a child’s attempts to of energy that could be used for positive growth deal with situational, personal, and interpersonal throughout one’s lifetime rather than as purely sex- problems. Her approach to understanding children ual energy, as Freud had seen it. Jung distinguished emphasized ego functions and minimized libidinal between the personal unconscious, which consists functions. Her interest in ego psychology was fur- of experiences from one’s lifetime of which a

566 CHAPTER 17 person is not conscious, and the collective uncon- From the worldview, guiding fictions or future scious, which represents the recording of universal goals are derived, and a lifestyle is created to achieve human experience through the eons of human his- those goals. According to Adler, healthy lifestyles tory. According to Jung, the collective unconscious involve a significant amount of social interest, contains archetypes, or predispositions, to respond whereas mistaken lifestyles do not. The creative emotionally to certain experiences in one’s life and self gives people control over their personal to create myths about them. Among the more fully destinies. developed archetypes are the persona, the anima, Horney was trained as a Freudian analyst but the animus, the shadow, and the self. Jung distin- eventually developed her own theory. She believed guished between the attitudes of introversion and that psychological problems result more from soci- extroversion. He stressed the importance of middle etal conditions and interpersonal relationships than age in personality development because before self- from sexual conflicts, as the Freudians maintained. actualization can occur, the many conflicting forces Among interpersonal relationships, that between within the psyche must be understood. Reaching parent and child is most important. Horney be- such an understanding is a long, complicated pro- lieved that there were two types of parent-child cess that usually takes place during childhood, ado- relationships: one that consistently and lovingly sa- lescence, and early adulthood. Jung believed that tisfies the child’s biological and safety needs and one human behavior is both pushed by the past and that frustrates those needs. Horney referred to the the present (causality) and pulled by the future (tel- latter relationship as the basic evil, and for her, it eology). He also believed that synchronicity, or was the seed from which neurosis grows. The basic meaningful coincidence, plays a major role in de- evil causes the child to feel basic hostility toward termining one’s course of life. Jung assumed that the parents and the world, but this hostility must dreams give expression to the parts of the personal- be repressed because of the child’s helplessness. ity that are not given adequate expression in one’s When basic hostility is repressed, it becomes basic life. Dream analysis, then, can be used to determine anxiety, which is the feeling of being alone and which aspects of the personality are adequately de- helpless in a hostile world. A child experiencing veloped and which are not. basic anxiety typically uses one of three major ad- Like Jung, Adler was an early follower of Freud justment patterns with which to embrace reality: who eventually went his own way. The theory Moving toward people emphasizes love, moving Adler developed was distinctly different from the against people emphasizes hostility, and moving theories of both Freud and Jung. Early in his career, away from people emphasizes withdrawal. Normal Adler noted that a person suffering from some people use all three adjustment techniques as they physical disability could either compensate for the are required, whereas neurotics attempt to cope disability by strengthening other abilities or, by with all of life’s experiences using just one. overcompensating, turn the disability into a Horney disagreed with Freud’s contention that strength. Later, he discovered that all humans begin anatomy is destiny, saying instead that gender dif- life feeling inferior because of infant helplessness. ferences in personality are culturally determined. Adler believed that most people develop a lifestyle She said that women often feel inferior to men that allows them to gain power or approach perfec- because they are often culturally inferior. In her tion and thereby overcome their feelings of inferi- practice, Horney found that it was males who ority. Some people, however, are overwhelmed by were envious of female biology rather than the re- their feelings of inferiority and develop an inferior- verse. Horney contended that psychoanalysis ity complex. Influenced by Vaihinger’s philosophy seemed more appropriate and complimentary to of “as if,” Adler believed that the only meaning in males because it was created by males. Although life is the meaning created by the individual. Out of in her practice of psychoanalysis Horney used a its earliest experiences, a child creates a worldview. number of Freudian concepts and techniques, she

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 567 was more optimistic in her prognosis for personality psychological problems and wrote a book designed change than was Freud. Also, unlike Freud, she be- to help them in that effort. lieved that many individuals could solve their own DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What were Anna Freud’s contributions to 6. Define the following terms from Horney’s psychoanalysis? Why is she considered a pio- theory: basic evil, basic hostility, and basic anxiety. neer of ego psychology? 7. According to Horney, what are the three major 2. Define the following terms from Jung’s theory: adjustment patterns that neurotics can use collective unconscious, archetype,persona, anima, while interacting with people? How does the animus, shadow, and self. way normal people use these patterns differ 3. Define the following terms from Adler’s the- from the way neurotics use them? ory: compensation, overcompensation,feelings of in- 8. Why, according to Horney, do women some- feriority, inferiority complex, worldview, guiding times feel inferior to men? fiction, lifestyle, social interest, mistaken lifestyle, and 9. Did Horney agree with Freud’s contention that creative self. anatomy is destiny? Explain. 4. Summarize the main differences between 10. How did Horney and Freud differ in their Freud’s and Adler’s theories of personality. explanations of the origins of psychological 5. In what way(s) did Vaihinger’s philosophy of problems? On the prognosis for personality “as if” influence Adler’s theory of personality? change? On the belief in peoples’ ability to solve their own psychological problems? SU GGE STIONS FOR FURTHER READING Alexander, I. E. (1991). C. G. Jung: The man and his (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. 4, pp. work, then, and now. In G. A. Kimble, 163–179). Washington, DC: American M. Wertheimer, & C. L. White (Eds.), Portraits of Psychological Association. pioneers in psychology, (pp. 153–196). Washington, Quinn, S. (1988). A mind of her own: The life of Karen DC: American Psychological Association. Horney. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Hannah, B. (1976). Jung, his life and work: A biographical Rubins, J. L. (1978). Karen Horney: Gentle rebel of psy- memoir. New York: Putnam. choanalysis. New York: Dial. Horney, K., & Kelman, H., (Ed.). (1967). Feminine psy- Segal, H. (1974). Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein chology. New York: Norton. (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books. Paris, B. J. (1994). Karen Horney: A psychoanalyst’s search Stern, P. J. (1976). C. G. Jung: The haunted prophet. New for self-understanding. New Haven, CT: Yale York: Dell. University Press. Young-Bruehl, E. (1988). Anna Freud: A biography. New Paris, B. J. (2000). Karen Horney: The three phases of York: Norton. her thought. In G. A. Kimble, & M. Wertheimer

568 CHAPTER 17 GLOSSARY Adler, Alfred (1870–1937) An early follower of Freud Ego According to Jung, that aspect of the psyche re- who left the Freudian camp and created his own theory sponsible for problem solving, remembering, and of personality, which emphasized the conscious mind perceiving. and the individual creation of a worldview, guiding fic- Ego psychology Psychology that emphasizes the au- tions, and a lifestyle in order to overcome feelings of tonomous functions of the ego and minimizes the con- inferiority and to seek perfection. flicts among the ego, id, and superego. Altruistic surrender An ego defense mechanism, pos- Extroversion According to Jung, the attitude toward tulated by Anna Freud, whereby a person avoids personal life that is characterized by gregariousness and a willing- anxiety by vicariously living the life of another person. ness to take risks. Anatomy is destiny The Freudian contention that a Feelings of inferiority According to Adler, those number of major personality characteristics are deter- feelings that all humans try to escape by becoming mined by one’s gender. powerful or superior. Archetype According to Jung, an inherited predisposi- Freud, Anna (1895–1982) Became the official tion to respond emotionally to certain categories of spokesperson for psychoanalysis after her father’s death. experience. In addition to perpetuating traditional psychoanalytic Basic anxiety According to Horney, the feeling of concepts, she extended them into new areas such as child being alone and helpless in a hostile world that a child psychology, education, and child rearing. By elaborating experiences when he or she represses basic hostility. (See on autonomous ego functions, she encouraged the also Basic hostility.) development of ego psychology. (See also Ego psy- Basic evil According to Horney, anything that parents chology.) do to frustrate the basic needs of their child and thus Horney, Karen (1885–1952) Trained in the Freudian undermine the child’s feeling of security. tradition, she later broke away from the Freudians and Basic hostility According to Horney, the feeling of created her own theory of mental disorders that em- anger that a child experiences when he or she experi- phasized cultural rather than biological (such as sexual) ences the basic evil. (See also Basic evil.) causes. Collective unconscious Jung’s term for the part of the Identification with the aggressor An ego defense unconscious mind that reflects universal human experi- mechanism, postulated by Anna Freud, whereby the fear ence through the ages. For Jung the collective uncon- caused by a person is reduced by adopting the feared scious is the most powerful component of the person’s values. personality. Inferiority complex According to Adler, the condi- Compensation According to Adler, the making up for tion one experiences when overwhelmed by feelings of a weakness by developing strengths in other areas. inferiority instead of being motivated toward success by those feelings. Creative self According to Adler, the component of the personality that provides humans with the freedom Introversion According to Jung, the attitude toward to choose their own destinies. life that is characterized by social isolation and an intro- Developmental lines A concept introduced by Anna spective nature. Freud describing the major adjustments that typify the Jung, Carl (1875–1961) An early follower of Freud transition between childhood and adolescence and who eventually broke with him because of Freud’s em- young adulthood. phasis on sexual motivation. Jung developed his own Dream analysis For Jung dreams provided a mecha- theory, which emphasized the collective unconscious nism by which inhibited parts of the psyche might be and self-actualization. given expression. Therefore, for Jung, dream analysis Klein, Melanie (1882–1960) An early child analyst indicated which aspects of the psyche are whose theory emphasized the importance of the mother- underdeveloped. child relationship and the development of the superego

EARLY ALTERNATIVES TO PS YC HOA NAL YS IS 569 during the oral stage of development. By using play Moving toward people The neurotic adjustment pat- therapy, Klein believed that child analysis could begin as tern suggested by Horney by which people adjust to a early as two years of age. Klein’s ideas concerning the world perceived as hostile by being compliant. psychology of children were often in conflict with those Overcompensation According to Adler, the conver- of Anna Freud. sion of a weakness into a strength. Libido For Jung, the creative life force that provides the Personal unconscious Jung’s term for the place that energy for personal growth. stores material from one’s lifetime of which one is cur- Lifestyle According to Adler, the way of life that a rently not conscious. person chooses to implement the life’s goals derived from Social interest The concern for other humans and for his or her worldview. society that Adler believed characterizes a healthy Mistaken lifestyle According to Adler, any lifestyle lifestyle. lacking sufficient social interest. Synchronicity According to Jung, what occurs when Moving against people The neurotic adjustment pat- unrelated events converge in a person’s life in a mean- tern suggested by Horney by which people adjust to a ingful way. world perceived as hostile by gaining power over people Teleology The doctrine that states that at least some and events. human behavior is purposive, that is, directed to the at- Moving away from people The neurotic adjustment tainment of future goals. pattern suggested by Horney by which people adjust to a world perceived as hostile by creating a distance between themselves and the people and events in that world.

18 ✵ Humanistic (Third-Force) Psychology THE MIND, TH E BODY, AND T HE SPIRIT Generally speaking, human nature can be divided into three major components: the mind (our intellect), the body (our biological makeup), and the spirit (our emotional makeup). Different philosophies and, more recently, schools of psy- chology have tended to emphasize one of these aspects at the expense of the others. Which philosophy or school of psychology prevailed seemed to be deter- mined largely by the Zeitgeist. The decade of the 1960s was a troubled time in the United States. There was increased involvement in the unpopular Vietnam War and its corresponding antiwar movement; Martin Luther King Jr., John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; and violent, racial protests occurred in a number of major cities. “Hippies” were in open rebellion against the values of their parents and their nation. Like the ancient Skeptics, they found little worth believing in, and like the ancient Cynics, they dropped out of society and returned to a simple, natural life. This Age of Aquarius was clearly not a time when rational philosophy (with emphasis on the mind) or em- pirical philosophy (with emphasis on the body) were appealing. During the 1920s and 1930s, the schools of structuralism, functionalism, be- haviorism, Gestalt psychology, and psychoanalysis coexisted and pursued their respective goals. By the mid-20th century, however, structuralism had disap- peared as a school, and functionalism and Gestalt psychology had lost their dis- tinctiveness as schools by being assimilated into other viewpoints. In the 1950s and early 1960s, only behaviorism and psychoanalysis remained as influential, in- tact schools of thought. In the troubled times described above, the knowledge of humans provided by behaviorism and psychoanalysis was seen by many as 570

HUM ANISTIC (THIRD -FORCE) PSYCHOLOGY 571 incomplete, distorted, or both. Needed was a new sciences study physical objects. Rather, it would view of psychology, one that emphasized neither study humans as aware, choosing, valuing, emo- the mind nor the body but the human spirit. tional, and unique beings in the universe. In the early 1960s, a group of psychologists Traditional science does not do this and must there- headed by Abraham Maslow started a movement fore be rejected. referred to as third-force psychology. These psy- chologists claimed that the other two forces in psy- chology, behaviorism and psychoanalysis, neglected ANTECEDENTS OF TH IRD- a number of important human attributes. They said that by applying the techniques used by the natural FORCE PSYC HOLOGY sciences to the study of humans, behaviorism lik- ened humans to robots, lower animals, or compu- Like almost everything else in modern psychology, ters. For the behaviorist, there was nothing unique third-force psychology is not new. It can be traced about humans. The major argument against psy- to the philosophies of romanticism and existential- choanalysis was that it concentrated mainly on ism, which in turn can be traced to the early emotionally disturbed people and on developing Greeks. In Chapter 7, we saw that the romantics techniques for making abnormal people normal. (such as Rousseau) insisted that humans are more What was missing, according to third-force psy- than machines, which was how the empiricists and chologists, was information that would help already sensationalists were describing them, and more than healthy individuals become healthier—that is, to the logical, rational beings, which was how ration- reach their full potential. What was needed was a alists were describing them. Like the ancient model of humans that emphasized their uniqueness Cynics, the romantics distrusted reason, religious and their positive aspects rather than their negative dogma, science, and societal laws as guides for hu- aspects, and it was this type of model that third- man conduct. For them, the only valid guide for a force psychologists attempted to provide. person’s behavior was that person’s honest feelings. Although third-force psychology became very The romantics (especially Rousseau) believed that popular during the 1960s and 1970s, its popularity humans are naturally good and gregarious, and if began to wane in the 1980s. Like behaviorism and given freedom they would become happy, fulfilled, psychoanalysis, however, third-force psychology and social-minded. That is, given freedom, people remains influential in contemporary psychology would do what was best for themselves and for (see, for example, Clay, 2002). Third-force psy- other people. If people acted in self-destructive or chology contrasts vividly with most other types be- antisocial ways, it was because their natural impulses cause it does not assume determinism in explaining had been interfered with by societal forces. People human behavior. Rather, it assumes that humans can never be bad, but social systems can be and are free to choose their own type of existence. often are. Also in Chapter 7, we saw that the ex- Instead of attributing the causes of behavior to sti- istentialists (such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche) muli, drive states, genetics, or early experience, emphasized the importance of meaning in human third-force psychologists claim that the most im- existence and the human ability to choose that portant cause of behavior is subjective reality. meaning; this, too, was contrary to the philosophies Because these psychologists do not assume deter- of empiricism and rationalism. For Kierkegaard sub- minism, they are not scientists in the traditional jectivity is truth. That is, it is a person’s beliefs that sense, and they make no apology for that. Science guide his or her life and determine the nature of his in its present form, they say, is not equipped to or her existence. Truth is not something external to study, explain, or understand human nature. A the person waiting to be discovered by logical, ra- new science is needed, a human science. A human tional thought processes; it is inside each person and science would not study humans as the physical is, in fact, created by each person. According to

572 CHAPTER 18 Nietzsche, God is dead, and therefore humans are rationale behind systematic behavior mod- on their own. People can take two approaches to ification by purely external forces is in- life: they can accept conventional morality as a compatible with a concept of man as a self- guide for living, thus participating in herd confor- purposive and proactive, rather than merely mity; or they can experiment with beliefs, values, reactive, being. and life and arrive at their own truths and morality The focus of humanistic psychology is and thus become supermen. Nietzsche clearly en- upon the specificity of man, upon that couraged people to do the latter. which sets him apart from all other species. Third-force psychology combines the philoso- It differs from other psychologies because it phies of romanticism and existentialism, and this views man not solely as a biological organ- combination is called humanistic psychology. ism modified by experience and culture but Third-force and humanistic psychology, then, are as a person, a symbolic entity capable of the same, but humanistic psychology has become pondering his existence, of lending it the preferred label. In applying this label, however, meaning and direction. (Kinget, 1975, p. v) it is important not to confuse the term humanistic with the terms human, humane, or humanitarian. Although it is true that existentialism is a major component of humanistic psychology, important The frequent confusion of the terms hu- differences exist between existential and humanistic man, humane, and humanistic indicates that psychology. After discussing phenomenology, a many do not clearly understand the technique used by both existential and humanistic meaning of the humanistic stance. To psychologists, we will review existential psychology qualify as humanistic, it is not enough to and then humanistic psychology, and we will con- concern human beings. Playing, working, clude the chapter with a comparison of the two. building, traveling, organizing, are all hu- man activities. This, however, does not make them humanistic. Similarly, when these activities are performed, for instance, PHENOMENOLOGY for charitable or philanthropic purposes, they are then raised to a humane or hu- Throughout this text, we have referred to a variety manitarian status, which may be of vital of methodologies as phenomenological. In its most importance but still does not make them general form, phenomenology refers to any meth- humanistic. For an endeavor or a view- odology that focuses on cognitive experience as it point to qualify properly as humanistic, it occurs, without attempting to reduce that experi- must imply and focus upon a certain con- ence to its component parts. Thus, one can study cept of man—a concept that recognizes his consciousness without being a phenomenologist, as status as a person, irreducible to more ele- was the case when Wundt and Titchener attempted mentary levels, and his unique worth as a to reduce conscious experience to its basic elements. being potentially capable of autonomous After making this distinction, however, phenome- judgment and action. A pertinent example nology can take many forms. The phenomenology of the difference between the humane and of Johann Goethe and Ernst Mach focused on com- the humanistic outlook is found in the case plex sensations including afterimages and illusions. of behavior control that relies entirely upon The phenomenology of Franz Brentano (1838– positive reinforcement. Such an approach is 1917) and his colleagues focused on psychological humane (or humanitarian), since it imple- acts such as judging, recollecting, expecting, doubt- ments generous and compassionate atti- ing, fearing, hoping, or loving. As we saw in Chapter tudes. But it is not humanistic, because the 9, in Brentano’s brand of phenomenology, the

HUM ANISTIC (THIRD -FORCE) PSYCHOLOGY 573 concept of intentionality was extremely important. Husserl’s pure phenomenology soon expanded Brentano believed that every mental act refers to into modern existentialism. Whereas Husserl was (intends) something outside itself—for example, “I mainly interested in epistemology and in the es- see a tree,”“I like my mother,” or “That was a good sence of mental phenomena, the existentialists piece of pie.” The contents of a mental act could be were interested in the nature of human existence. real or imagined, but the act, according to Brentano, In philosophy, ontology is the study of existence, always refers to (intends) something. In Chapter 14, or what it means to be. The existentialists are con- we saw how Brentano’s phenomenology influenced cerned with two ontological questions: (1) What is the Gestalt psychologists. Next, we see how the nature of human nature? and (2) What does it Brentano’s phenomenology was instrumental in mean to be a particular individual? Thus, the exis- the development of modern existentialism, mainly tentialists use phenomenology to study either the through its influence on Edmund Husserl. important experiences that humans have in com- The goal of Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) was mon or those experiences that individuals have as to take the type of phenomenology Brentano de- they live their lives—experiences such as fear, scribed and use it to create an objective, rigorous dread, freedom, love, hate, responsibility, guilt, basis for philosophical and scientific inquiry. Like wonder, hope, and despair. Brentano, Husserl believed that phenomenology Husserl’s phenomenology was converted into could be used to create an objective bridge between existential psychology mainly by his student the outer, physical world and the inner, subjective Martin Heidegger, to whom we turn next. world. Of prime importance to Husserl was that phenomenology be free of any preconceptions. That is, Husserl believed in reporting exactly what appears in consciousness, not what should be there EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY according to some belief, theory, or model. As we saw in Chapter 9, however, Husserl be- Although it is possible to trace existential philoso- lieved that phenomenology could go beyond an phy to such early Greek philosophers as Socrates, analysis of intentionality. A study of intentionality who urged people to understand themselves and determined how the mind and the physical world said that “an unexamined life is not worth living,” interact, and such a study was essential for the phys- it has become traditional to mark the beginning of ical sciences. But, in addition to an analysis of existential philosophy with the writings of intentionality, Husserl proposed a type of phenom- Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The great Russian nov- enology that concentrates on the workings of the elist Fyodor Dostoevsky is also mentioned as among mind that are independent of the physical world. the first existential thinkers. All these individuals Husserl called this second type of phenomenology probed the meaning of human existence and tried pure phenomenology, and its purpose was to dis- to restore the importance of human feeling, choice, cover the essence of conscious experience. Whereas and individuality that had been minimized in ratio- the type of phenomenology that focuses on inten- nalistic philosophies, such as those of Kant and tionality involves the person turned outward, pure Hegel, and in conceptions of people based on phenomenology involves the person turned in- Newtonian concepts, such as those proposed by ward. The goal of the latter is to accurately catalog the British empiricists and French sensationalists. all mental acts and processes by which we interact with environmental objects or events. Husserl be- Martin Heidegger lieved that an inventory of such acts and processes had to precede any adequate philosophy, science, or Born on September 26, Martin Heidegger psychology because it is those mental acts and pro- (1889–1976) was Husserl’s student and then his as- cesses on which all human knowledge is based. sistant, and he dedicated his famous book Being and

574 CHAPTER 18 Time (1927) to Husserl. Heidegger’s work is gener- and Heidegger usually described the relationship ally considered the bridge between existential phi- between a person and the world as “being-in-the- losophy and existential psychology. Many, if not world.” A more dramatic way of stating this rela- most, of the terms and concepts that appear in the tionship is to say that without the world humans writings of current existential psychologists can be would not exist, and without humans the world traced to the writings of Heidegger. Like Husserl, would not exist. The human mind illuminates the Heidegger was a phenomenologist; but unlike physical world and thereby brings it into existence. Husserl, Heidegger used phenomenology to exam- But Heidegger’s concept of Dasein is even ine the totality of human existence. In 1933 more complicated. To be means “to exist,” and to Heidegger became rector at the University of exist is a dynamic process. To exist as a human is to Freiburg. In his inaugural speech titled “The Role exist unlike anything else. In the process of existing, of the University in the New Reich,” he was humans choose, evaluate, accept, reject, and ex- highly supportive of the Nazi party. Although pand. Humans are not static; they are always be- Heidegger resigned his rectorship a few months af- coming something other than what they were. To ter the Nazis took office, he never took a strong exist is to become different; to exist is to change. stand against them (Langan, 1961, p. 4). In fact, How a particular person chooses to exist is an indi- Farias (1989) leaves little doubt that Heidegger vidual matter, but for all people existence is an ac- was committed to Nazism and was involved in tive process. The Da, or there, in Dasein refers to the activities of the Nazi regime. It is ironic that that place in space and time where existence takes someone with such unfortunate political leanings place; but no matter where and when it takes place, had such a significant influence on humanistic existence (to be) is a complex, dynamic, and psychology. uniquely human phenomenon. Unlike anything else in the universe, humans choose the nature of Dasein. Heidegger used the term Dasein to in- their own existence. dicate that a person and the world are inseparable. Literally, Dasein means “to be” (sein) “there” (Da), Authenticity and Inauthenticity. It was very important to Heidegger that humans can ponder the finiteness of their existence. For Heidegger a prerequisite for living an authentic life is coming to grips with the fact that “I must someday die.” With that realization dealt with, the person can get busy and exercise his or her freedom to create a meaningful existence, an existence that allows for almost constant personal growth, or becoming. Because realizing that one is mortal causes anx- iety, however, people often refuse to recognize that fact and thereby inhibit a full understanding of themselves and their possibilities. According to Heidegger, this results in an inauthentic life.An authentic life is lived with a sense of excitement or even urgency because one realizes one’s existence is © Bettman/CORBIS must explore life’s possibilities and become all that finite. With the time that one has available, one one can become. An inauthentic life does not have the same urgency because the inevitability of death Martin Heidegger is not accepted. One pretends, and pretending is

HUM ANISTIC (THIRD -FORCE) PSYCHOLOGY 575 inauthentic. Other inauthentic modes of existence thrownness determines, for example, whether we include living a traditional, conventional life ac- are male or female, short or tall, attractive or unat- cording to the dictates of society and emphasizing tractive, rich or poor, American or Russian, the present activities without concern for the future. time in human history that we are born, and so The inauthentic person gives up his or her freedom on. Thrownness determines the conditions under and lets others make the choices involved in his or which we exercise our freedom. According to her life. In general, the speech and behavior of au- Heidegger, all humans are free, but the conditions thentic individuals accurately reflect their inner under which that freedom is exercised varies. feelings, whereas with inauthentic individuals this Thrownness provides the context for one’s exis- is not the case. tence. What Heidegger called thrownness has also been called facticity, referring to the facts that char- Guilt and Anxiety. Heidegger believed that if acterize a human existence. we do not exercise our personal freedom, we ex- perience guilt. Because most people do not fully Ludwig Binswanger exercise their freedom to choose, they experience at least some guilt. All humans can do to minimize Ludwig Binswanger (1881–1966) obtained his guilt is try to live an authentic life—that is, to rec- medical degree from the University of Zürich in ognize and live in accordance with their ability to 1907 and then studied psychiatry under Eugen choose their own existence. Bleuler and psychoanalysis under Carl Jung. Because acceptance of the fact that at some Binswanger was one of the first Freudian psycho- time in the future we will be nothing causes anxi- analysts in Switzerland, and he and Freud remained ety, such acceptance takes courage. Heidegger be- friends throughout their lives. Under the influence lieved that choosing one’s existence rather than of Heidegger, Binswanger applied phenomenology conforming to the dictates of society, culture, or to psychiatry, and later he became an existential someone else also takes courage. And in general, analyst. Binswanger’s goal was to integrate the writ- living an authentic life by accepting all conditions ings of Husserl and Heidegger with psychoanalytic of existence and making personal choices means theory. Adopting Heidegger’s notion of Dasein, that one must experience anxiety. For Heidegger Binswanger called his approach to psychotherapy anxiety is a necessary part of living an authentic Daseinanalysis (existential analysis). life. One reason for this anxiety is that authentic Like most existential psychologists, Binswanger people are always experimenting with life, always emphasized the here-and-now, considering the past taking chances, and always becoming. Entering the or future important only insofar as they manifested unknown causes part of the anxiety associated with themselves in the present. To understand and help a an authentic life. person, according to Binswanger, one must learn Another reason that exercising one’s freedom how that person views his or her life at the mo- in life causes anxiety is that it makes one responsible ment. Furthermore, the therapist must try to under- for the consequences of those choices. The free stand the particular person’s anxieties, fears, values, individual cannot blame God, parents, circum- thought processes, social relations, and personal stances, genes, or anything else for what he or she meanings instead of those notions in general. Each becomes. One is responsible for one’s own life. person lives in his or her own private, subjective Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. world, which is not generalizable. Thrownness. Heidegger did, however, place Modes of Existence. Binswanger discussed three limits on personal freedom. He said that we are different modes of existence to which individuals thrown into the Da, or there, aspect of our partic- give meaning through their consciousness. They ular life by circumstances beyond our control. This are the Umwelt (the “around world”), the world