PSYCHOANALYSIS (PA)
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th century by the Austrian psychotherapist Sigmund Freud (Freud), which has become one of the extremely influential methods of treating mental disorders based on this theory. Psychoanalysis has been expanded, criticized and developed in various directions, mainly by former colleagues and students of Freud, such as A. Adler and C.G. Jung, who subsequently developed their own schools of analytical and individual psychology, which, together with psychoanalysis, constituted the so-called Depth Psychology. Later, the ideas of PA were developed by neo-Freudians such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, Jacques Lacan. A huge contribution to PA was made by the works of W. Reich, Anna Freud, M. Klein, D. Winnicott, H. Kohut and other psychoanalysts.
PA has been around for over a hundred years. During this time, it has undergone a huge evolution both in theory and practice. The classical theory put forward by 3. Freud has been rethought many times. Within psychoanalysis, new directions began to emerge: Ego psychology, the tradition of object relations, the school of M. Klein, structural psychoanalysis of J. Lacan, I-psychology of H. Kohut (psychology of the Self). Much has changed in the views on the development process. On the one hand, more attention began to be paid to the early stages of development: the emphasis shifted from the Oedipal to the pre-Oedipal period. On the other hand, in contrast to the classical theory, which paid great attention to drives, modern psychoanalytic theories began to take into account other factors: the development of object relations, the development of the Self, etc. In addition, the model of intrapsychic conflict was supplemented and enriched by the deficit model. Now it is generally accepted that the unsuccessful, traumatic passage of the early stages of development, the violation of object relations in the mother-child dyad leads to the formation of a deficit in mental life.
Changing views on the development of the psyche led to a revision of psychoanalytic technique. Thus, for example, thanks to the work of ego psychologists who developed the theory of defense mechanisms, an important technical principle of analysis from the surface into depth was formulated. The shift of interpretive activity from the pole of drives to the defensive pole of intrapsychic conflict made it possible to make the psychoanalytic technique of working with resistance more flexible and less painful for patients. As a result of the development of object relations theory and the revision of the theory of narcissism by self-psychology, there have been great changes in the understanding of transference and countertransference, which has significantly expanded the circle of patients who can now be helped by psychoanalytic treatment.
PA has long been an integral part of modern culture. It is not only a method of psychotherapy, but also a rather rich theoretical and literary tradition, with which the Russian-speaking reader, who is interested in the problems of depth psychology and psychotherapy, is still little familiar. For several decades, we were cut off from world psychoanalytic thought, despite the fact that at the beginning of the century psychoanalysis had great prospects in our country (this was evidenced by the fact that almost a third of the members of the International Psychoanalytic Association spoke Russian). The Russian PA had a fairly large potential both in the clinical and theoretical fields. In Russia at that time there was a developed psychiatry, which could become the basis for clinical psychoanalysis. Speaking about theory, the contribution of Russian psychoanalysts can be illustrated by the fact that, largely due to the work of Sabina Spielrein “Destruction as the Cause of Becoming” 3, Freud proposed a new look at the theory of drives.
But, having received rapid development in the 10-20s of the 20th century, the PA in our country was then destroyed. Only in the last twenty years has it come out of hiding and a slow process of recovery has begun. In the early 90s, Freud's main works were again republished in huge editions. Later, the domestic reader was able to get acquainted with other, more modern psychoanalytic texts. But in our country little is known about what has happened to PA over the past century. The books that are translated and published in Russian are just fragments of a mirror that reflects the history of psychoanalytic thought. Unfortunately, the works of many outstanding theorists and practitioners of psychoanalysis, such as R. Feuerburn, M. Balint, V. Bion, M. Maller, Fawkes, and many others, are still awaiting publication.
The main provisions of the Modern PA are still based on the classic PA:
- human behavior, experience and knowledge are largely determined by internal and irrational drives;
- these drives are mostly unconscious;
- attempts to become aware of these drives lead to psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms;
- in addition to the structure of personality, individual development is determined by the events of early childhood;
- conflicts between conscious perception of reality and unconscious (repressed) material can lead to mental disorders such as neurosis, neurotic character traits, fear, depression, and so on;
- liberation from the influence of unconscious material can be achieved through awareness of it
Modern psychoanalysis in a broad sense is more than 20 concepts of human mental development. Approaches to psychoanalytic therapeutic treatment vary as much as the theories themselves.
Classical Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of therapy in which the "analysant" (analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies and dreams, from which the analyst attempts to infer and interpret the unconscious conflicts that are the causes of the patient's symptoms and character problems. for the patient, to find a way to solve problems. The specificity of psychoanalytic interventions usually involves confrontation and clarification of the patient's pathological defenses and desires.
The main method of PA is the method of free associations, the main subject of study is the unconscious.
It was Z. Freud who brought out two models (topics) of the psyche, which became the basis for all types of psychotherapy. The first topic is consciousness-preconscious-unconscious.
The second topic - Over I - I - It or Super Ego - Ego - Id
The first topic of Z. Freud
Historians of psychoanalysis, whether psychoanalysts or other psychologists, point out that during the long period of development of psychoanalysis, Freud applied a topographical model of personality organization. According to this model of personality psychology, mental life can be divided into three levels: consciousness, preconscious and unconscious. Considering them in unity, Freud, as a psychologist and psychotherapist, used this "psychic map" to show the degree of consciousness of such mental phenomena as thoughts, dreams, fantasies and to reveal the essence of such phenomena as neurosis, depression, fear - the results of stress or deviations. in development requiring psychological assistance - professional psychologist consultation and psychotherapy.
The second topic of Z. Freud
Later, Z. Freud introduced three main structures into personality anatomy: It, I and Super-I (the English translations of Freud and the English language PA use the Latin equivalents of these terms - Id, Ego and Superego). This tripartite division of personality is known as structural model mental life, although Freud believed that these components should be considered more as certain processes than as special "structures" of the personality. Freud understood that the constructs he proposed were hypothetical, since the level of development of neuroanatomy at that time was not sufficient to determine their localization in the central nervous system. The sphere of the id is completely unconscious, while the ego and superego operate on all three levels of consciousness. Consciousness covers all three personal structures, although its main part is formed by impulses emanating from the It. Freud considered the id as an intermediary between somatic and mental processes in the body. He wrote that the id "is directly connected with somatic processes, stems from instinctive needs and communicates psychic expression to them, but we cannot say in what substratum this connection is carried out." It acts as a reservoir for all primitive instinctive urges and draws its energy directly from bodily processes. It is subordinate the pleasure principle. Unlike the id, whose nature is to seek pleasure, the ego obeys reality principle, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism by delaying the satisfaction of instincts until the moment when the opportunity to achieve discharge in a suitable way is found and / or appropriate conditions are found in the external environment. The reality principle enables the individual to inhibit, redirect, or gradually release the crude energy of the id within the social constraints and conscience of the individual. in his environment. All this is acquired in the process of "socialization"; in the language of the structural model of psychoanalysis - through the formation of the Super-I. Freud divided the Super-I into two subsystems - I-ideal and Conscience.
Currently, the theory of psychoanalysis is used in two aspects. CLINICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS And APPLIED PSYCHOANALYSIS.
APPLIED PSYCHOANALYSIS
APPLIED PSYCHOANALYSIS - the use of psychoanalytic ideas and concepts in various areas of theoretical knowledge and practical actions of people. It is customary to distinguish between clinical psychoanalysis, which deals with mental illness and involves appropriate work with patients, and applied psychoanalysis. The latter is associated, as a rule, with the use of psychoanalytic ideas and concepts in the fields of philosophy, sociology, economics, politics, pedagogy, religion, art, including the study of various manifestations of the individual and collective unconscious, biographies of scientists, politicians, writers, artists.
At the heart of the emergence of applied psychoanalysis lies the research activity of Z. Freud. Already at the initial stages of the formation and development of psychoanalysis as such, the ideas put forward by him about the unconscious activity of a person were reflected not only in clinical practice, but also in the interpretation of works of art. So, in the letters to the Berlin doctor W. Fliess, written by Z. Freud in the 90s of the 19th century, there are reflections related to the peculiar interpretation of such world masterpieces as Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare's Hamlet, which received its further development in his first fundamental psychoanalytic work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and in his subsequent works. Subsequently, he paid considerable attention to the psychoanalytic understanding of wit, primitive religion, art, culture in general, which was the subject of a number of works that marked the beginning of the development of what is now commonly called applied psychoanalysis. These include such works as Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious (1905), The Artist and Fantasizing (1905), Delusions and Dreams in I. Jensen’s Gradiva (1907), Leonardo da Vinci’s Reminiscence on Early Childhood (1910), Totem and Taboo (1913), The Future of an Illusion (1927), Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928), Dissatisfaction with Culture (1930), Moses the Man and Monotheistic Religion (1938);
Many followers of Z. Freud began to use psychoanalytic ideas and concepts in biographical (pathographic) studies, in comprehending the history of the formation and development of culture, political and social structure, which contributed to the formation of applied psychoanalysis as a specific activity that went beyond clinical analysis, medicine. Thus, in modern psychoanalytic literature, the division into clinical and applied psychoanalysis has been established.
However, it should be borne in mind that Z. Freud himself considered such a division of psychoanalysis into clinical and applied is not correct. In The Problem of Amateur Analysis (1926), he drew attention to the fact that "in reality, the boundary lies between scientific psychoanalysis and its application (in the medical and non-medical fields)". In this sense, clinical psychoanalysis is also applied, based on the use of psychoanalytic ideas and concepts in the process of therapeutic activity.
CLINICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS (PA)
Clinical PA refers to a psychodynamic approach to therapy and was originally used in practice to treat hysteria. PA has changed significantly since the time of Freud, so in the future we will call it MODERN PSYCHOANALYSIS or just PA.
According to Freud's definition, "any treatment based on the understanding and application of the concepts of transference and resistance can be called psychoanalytic." The modern definition of psychoanalysis is similar. Psychoanalytic is a therapy that recognizes the existence of unconscious mental processes, which studies the motives of human behavior and development, which uses the concepts of resistance and transference. The setting of therapy itself has also changed. In Freud's time, PA was performed 5-6 times a week. Now it is customary to call PA therapy with such a frequency of meetings, if the setting is one or two meetings during the week, then this type of mental assistance is called psychoanalytically oriented therapy or psychoanalytically oriented therapy, which, however, does not beg its therapeutic effect.
Key concepts of clinical psychoanalysis (e.g., therapeutic relationship, transference, countertransference, resistance, insight, defense mechanisms) and rules of the game (such as inviting the patient to freely associate and recount dream material, focus on the here and now interaction, the analyst's offer to the client - lie on the couch, all this has been applied by modern psychoanalysis since the time of Freud.
INDICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYTICAL THERAPY.
Various forms of hysteria; - anxiety neuroses; - phobias; - neurotic depression; - psychosomatic disorders; - dysthymia; - obsessive-compulsive disorders; - conversion disorders; - affective disorders; - mild to moderate personality disorders; - autonomic functional disorders with an established mental etiology; - mental disorders caused by emotional deficits in early childhood; - mental disorders resulting from extreme situations.
TO WHOM PSYCHOANALYSIS IS CONTRAINDICATED.
Psychoanalysis cannot help a person who does not want to change.
"Everyone hates me!"
Even when we are really surrounded by bad people and they cause us suffering, often we unconsciously do our part to continue to stay in this situation, or even provoke it. When a person is sure that the causes of all his troubles lie in someone else, it is very difficult to help him. After all, if nothing depends on you, then you cannot change anything.
The mechanism of changes in the process of psychoanalytic therapy is as follows: a person begins to become more aware of his feelings and see how they affect his behavior, decisions made, how they determine his life strategies. Then he can change his behavior in certain situations or attitude towards certain people or things. To benefit from psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic therapy, it is not enough to want others to change. Only you can change yourself.
"You need to be treated!"
Also, you cannot force someone to undergo psychoanalysis. The great therapeutic potential of this method lies in the cooperation between analyst and client based on trust and respect. But it's impossible to trust, respect, and cooperate in a relationship you've been forced into.
If you think that one of your relatives needs the help of a psychoanalyst, you can offer him a specialist, show him the possibilities, support his decision. But don't force it. A person who is forced to go to a psychoanalyst will resist cooperation, and will rather be convinced that he will not be helped here than benefit.
In psychoanalysis it is impossible to get everything at once.
Changes: Fast! Effective! For life! Choose any TWO options
If your main priority is very rapid change, and its depth and sustainability are secondary to you, then psychoanalysis is probably not the most effective method to achieve your goals.
Some psychoanalysts may offer you focussed short-term therapy that may address specific issues. This makes sense when the problems are not very serious and exist in one specific area. If there are a number of problems affecting different areas of life, or if one of your goals is to get to know yourself better, then longer-term work is effective.
Psychoanalysis is a deep psychological method, i.e. deals with the unconscious layers of the human psyche. Its advantage lies in the ability to change a person's life at a very deep level, helping him to realize what is hidden not only from prying eyes, but even from himself.
Psychoanalytic therapy is like diving into the depths of the ocean. This process should not be infinitely long, but it should have such a pace that the body adapts to what is happening and does not get injured. In psychoanalysis, the pace of progress also depends to a large extent on the capabilities and needs of the client's psyche.
Along with the desire to get rid of suffering and achieve positive changes, the psyche of any person is inherent in resistance to change. Non-traumatic overcoming of this resistance takes time.
Psychoanalysis is difficult for people who are unable to talk about their feelings.
"When you do not know the words, there is nothing to know people." (Confucius).
Psychoanalysis is a conversational method of psychotherapy, i.e. therapy happens in conversation. For a small child, learning to understand speech and speak is an opportunity to move to a qualitatively new level of understanding oneself, relationships with other people and the world. For an adult, talking about your feelings and finding names for your states is an opportunity to express and understand yourself much more.
Therefore, in psychoanalysis it is important that the client talks about what comes to his mind. The famous French psychoanalyst J. Lacan said that the unconscious is structured like a language. Thus, conversation opens the way in psychoanalysis to understanding the unconscious.
If a conversation is impossible for some reason, or a person experiences strong negative feelings when it is necessary to talk about himself, it makes sense to turn to other methods of psychotherapy (for example, art therapy, dance therapy, psychodrama, etc.)
Sometimes you don't need psychoanalysis
There are situations in life in which a person really needs help, but this is not psychoanalysis. What are these situations?
- Newly experienced mental and physical traumas, as well as situations of acute grief.
Here, the psychological support of loved ones is most needed. In case this is not enough, you can connect a specialist who will provide crisis assistance. Sometimes it also makes sense not to refuse short-term pharmacological assistance, which can alleviate the excessive burden on the psyche.
- Drug or heavy alcohol addiction
In these cases, the person certainly has psychological problems and needs help. But in these states, tangible chemical dependence also plays an essential role. This must be understood and appropriate measures taken to combat it. This is what narcologists specialize in.
The most effective way to cope with these addictions is recognized as programs built on the principles of "Alcoholics Anonymous" (12 steps).
- serious mental illness (psychosis, schizophrenia)
For people suffering from severe mental illness, modern pharmacology provides the opportunity to be in remission. It is very important that a person with a psychiatric diagnosis be in constant contact with an experienced psychiatrist who will be able to select pharmacological therapy adequate to the condition.
Psychological help in this case is also very important, but only such help is not enough.
A good psychoanalyst is interested in the client who turns to him to receive the most effective help. The specialist will select the most suitable approach for you or recommend the appropriate specialist.
If you have hesitations and doubts about psychoanalysis, you can seek the advice of a psychoanalyst who can help you make a decision for or against.
Initially, psychoanalysis arose as a method of studying and treating hysterical neuroses. The results of psychotherapeutic practice, as well as the analysis of various phenomena of normal mental life - dreams, erroneous actions, wit - were interpreted by Freud as the result of the operation of general psychological mechanisms.
The main premise of psychoanalysis is the division of the psyche into the conscious and the unconscious. Human behavior and thinking predetermine unconscious drives that are rooted in traumatic childhood experiences or come into conflict with existing moral and cultural norms in society. This is how intrapsychic conflicts arise. The resolution of these conflicts is carried out by ousting "evil", but natural inclinations and desires from the consciousness. Displaced from the consciousness of attraction and desire do not disappear without a trace. They are driven into the depths of the human psyche and one way or another, sooner or later they make themselves felt, causing tension.
What is psychoanalysis?
First, psychoanalysis is a method of treatment, and nowadays almost all psychoanalysts are doctors. The psychoanalyst tries to remove the patient's symptoms by freeing him from unnecessary doubts, unjustified feelings of guilt, painful self-accusations, false judgments and unreasonable impulses. In addition, he aims not only to calm the patient, but also to unravel his personality. But the analyst is only a guide and observer, and the patient is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the entire process.
Secondly, it is a method of scientific observation and study of personality, and especially desires, impulses, motives, dreams, fantasies, early development and emotional disorders.
Thirdly, it is a system of scientific psychology, that is, the observations and ideas of psychoanalysis can be used in an attempt to predict human behavior and the outcome of human relationships, such as marriage and relationships between parents and children.
How is psychoanalysis performed?
The process of psychoanalysis consists in the study and reorganization of the personality; this is done so that the individual can store his tensions with less difficulty until the time comes for them to be released. It is necessary to make the subconscient conscious and to bring unsatisfied tensions under observation. It is believed that in order to fully carry out this process, it should last at least a year and be from three to six sessions per week, each lasting about an hour. If the study lasts less than a year or the number of sessions is less than three per week, it is almost impossible to carry out the process effectively.
To conduct a psychoanalytic session, the patient lies down on the couch, and the analyst sits in his head so as to be out of sight. Thanks to this, the patient's psyche can work without being distracted. In turn, this method relieves the doctor of unnecessary tension: without being under constant supervision, he can better focus on what the patient is saying.
The so-called free association method is used. This means that the free expression of the free flow of ideas is not restrained and not changed by the usual censorship of consciousness (ideas of politeness, shame, self-respect).
In a state of free association, the patient's psyche is often overflowing with desires, feelings, reproaches, memories, fantasies, judgments, and new points of view, all of which appear at first sight in complete disarray. However, despite the apparent confusion and incoherence, every statement and every gesture has its own meaning in connection with this or that unsatisfied tension. Hour after hour, day after day, meanings and connections begin to emerge from the chaotic web of thoughts. Over a long period, certain central themes may gradually develop, relating to a number of tensions that have been unsatisfied since early childhood, long buried in the subconscious and inaccessible to conscious recognition, which form the basis of the patient's personality structure, the source of all his symptoms and associations.
The position of the analyst in relation to the patient must be strictly neutral. The main work of the analyst is, in a sense, that he shows the patient every time when he is deceiving himself; therefore, the doctor must always maintain a self-critical position, excluding any manifestations of sympathy and indignation for the patient, which would give him the opportunity to deceive the doctor and himself. The analyst's unwanted emotional attitude towards the patient is called countertransference.
The question often arises, can psychoanalysis harm anyone? The greatest danger is to treat a patient who is on the verge of psychosis, if the analyst is not aware of his true state. The analyst must also be careful in distinguishing neuroses from certain diseases of the brain and hormonal disorders.
Based on the materials of the book by E. Bern
"Introduction to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis for the Uninitiated"
One of the most important directions for the development of modern psychology was psychoanalysis. First of all, it is associated with the name of the Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1940). Initially formed as a method of treating neuroses, it then turned into a psychological theory, and subsequently into one of the important areas of philosophy of the 20th century. Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that a person's behavior is determined not only and not so much by his consciousness, but by the unconscious, which includes those desires, drives, experiences that a person cannot admit to himself and which are therefore either not allowed to consciousness or are forced out. from it, as it were, they disappear, are forgotten, but in reality they remain in the spiritual life and strive for realization, inducing a person to certain actions, manifesting themselves in a distorted form (for example, in dreams, creativity, neurotic disorders, fantasies, reservations, etc.). ).
Why does this kind of censorship arise, forbidding awareness of certain desires and experiences? First of all, due to the fact that they do not correspond to the rules, prohibitions, ideals that a person develops under the influence of interaction with the environment - primarily relationships with parents in childhood. These desires, experiences are, as it were, immoral, but, according to 3. Freud, they are natural for a person. Suppressed desires, the conflict of attraction and prohibition (internal conflict) are the cause of the difficulties and suffering that a person experiences psychologically, up to neurotic diseases. Striving for realization, the unconscious, as it were, finds ways to circumvent censorship. Dreams, fantasies, reservations, etc. - all this is a kind of symbolic language that can be read and deciphered. The task of a psychoanalyst is to help a suffering person understand the true cause of his suffering, hidden in the unconscious, remember those traumatic experiences that were forgotten (i.e., were repressed), transfer them to consciousness and, as it were, live anew - this, according to Freud, leads to the effect catharsis, i.e. purification and liberation.
What are these experiences, what is their nature? 3. Freud claimed that there are two principles in a person, two drives - the desire for love and the desire for death and destruction. The main place in Freud's original concept is occupied by erotic attraction, which he associates with a specific energy called "libido. It, in fact, drives a person; all life, starting from birth, is permeated with eroticism. In the development of a child, this energy is initially distributed in himself, he enjoys experiences associated with the oral cavity, for example, from eating, from experiences associated with the administration of natural needs - according to Freud, all these are erotic experiences, and the oral cavity, later, the excretory organs, initially act as the main erogenous zones. But in life the child enters an important stage - about 4 years - when his erotic interest is taken outward and directed to his parents, mainly to the parent of the opposite sex.The child becomes very attached to him, strives for communication, tries, as it were, to "own" the parent, without dividing him In this situation, a parent of the same sex is perceived as a rival, "selecting" a loved one; the child unconsciously desires his "departure", i.e., death (it is this moment - in fact, the recognition of the initial sexual depravity of the child - that was the most shocking in classical psychoanalysis). But attraction to a parent of the opposite sex and wishing the death of a parent of the same sex are forbidden; experiences associated with this are repressed, they are unconscious. The situation of the boy is described as an Oedipus complex (named after the hero of ancient mythology, Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his own father and married his own mother, from whom he was separated in early childhood); the girl's experiences are defined as the Electra complex ^ (Electra is the daughter of the hero of the Trojan War Agamemnon, who was killed by his wife and her lover upon his return; Electra takes revenge on the killers for the death of her father). The child finds himself in a situation of internal conflict: he depends on the parent of his gender and at the same time is aggressive towards him, fearing punishment for forbidden desires and actions.
Freud describes the picture as follows.
At the beginning of life, the child is led by a special mental instance called "It" - his desires and inclinations; guided by "It", the child would act in accordance with the "principle of pleasure", doing what he wants. "It" is entirely unconscious. However, desires must find realistic forms of satisfaction; for this, from the “It” (and this happens quite quickly in childhood development) a structure called the “I” is allocated, the task of which is to find such paths, that is, according to Freud, the “I” acts as a servant of the “It”. The "I" is oriented towards the reality principle. But in the period under discussion, starting from the age of 4, the child is forced to orient himself on the system of prohibitions that oppose the impulses of the "It"; another" instance is formed, called the "Super-I" and acting in the direction opposite to "It" and "I", acting, in particular, as the voice of conscience; suppressing drives. ("I" and "Super-I" are partially unconscious From this moment on, the main internal conflict of the child - and later on the adult - is the conflict between desires and internal prohibitions, i.e. between "It" and "Super-I". "I" becomes a kind of battlefield between them, its the task is to help fulfill desires without offending prohibitions.In a traumatic situation of internal conflict, the "I" develops psychological defenses, special forms of unconscious mental activity that would at least temporarily alleviate the conflict, relieve tension, and in specific life situations distort the meaning events and experiences, so as not to damage the idea of \u200b\u200bhimself as corresponding to some ideal.One form of psychological protection allows the child to "cope" with the oedipal situation (this happens by 5- 6 years old): the child seems to solve the problem, identifying with the parent of his gender (identification form of protection): unable to change the situation and realize dislike for his father, the boy tries to accept his position and become like him (thus, in the structure of "Over -I", along with the prohibition-m1!, the ideal-image is included). According to Freud, echoes of the experience of this period of a child's life (and other periods, too, but this one is especially important) can be heard throughout a person's life, and unrealized sexual aspirations can be seen behind a huge number of suffering and neurotic manifestations of an adult. The idea of unconscious sexuality underlying human behavior, including those of its forms that we consider the highest (creativity, religion) is the central idea of Freud, on which he insisted and about which he was subjected to severe criticism, including from his own students. , many of whom left him without sharing "pansexualism", i.e. e. the desire to explain everything through sexual issues.
In addition to identification, there are many more forms of psychological defense of various types and levels:
Projection - that is, attributing to others their own hidden properties and experiences; regression - a temporary transition to an earlier, primitive level of mental development, as if retreating into that psychological period when a person felt most protected (for example, a child's crying in an adult); rationalization - attributing to one's behavior wrong, but convenient reasons that do not harm self-esteem, etc. Most psychological defenses, however, do not remove the problem; in essence, only sublimation, that is, the transfer of unrealized energy to other areas, work, creativity, acts as an adequate way of protection.
We have already said that psychoanalysis was born as a method of psychotherapy of neuroses, in particular, hysteria - a disease in which, as it was shown, it is psychological causes, internal conflict that cause symptoms of physical disorders (paralysis, blindness, pain, etc.) *. As you understand, all people, according to Freud, are inevitably internally conflicted (he even used the term "normal neurotic"). Behind many manifestations of fantasy, creativity, etc. lies, first of all, hidden sexual problems, all this is, as it were, a symbolic embodiment of unfulfilled desires. (Contrary to the rage among non-psychologists, Freud did not propose to expect a sexual background behind each image - it may not be there - but in the general case it is undeniable.) Reveal the hidden, make the unconscious content conscious - and therefore accessible to comprehension and partly control - the task of psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method.
* For a long time - especially before Freud - physicians considered such manifestations to be simulations, since they could not find their organic cause.
Freud's teaching, which we have outlined in an extremely incomplete and schematic way - and it was also transformed in the process of its development - has always caused the most opposite opinions, from admiration to absolute rejection. At the same time, regarding a number of Freud's discoveries, the vast majority of modern psychologists pay tribute to him.
First of all, in psychoanalysis, the dynamics of the relationship between the unconscious and consciousness became the subject of study. The existence of the unconscious itself was recognized by a number of authors even before Freud; however, the dynamics of the influence of the unconscious on consciousness, the mutually moving contents, its mechanisms were first put in the center of attention precisely by Freud. This meant a change in the subject of psychology: consciousness ceased to be a cognitive space closed in itself, but became part of a living, emotional, motivated human life.
The sexual sphere of human life, the significance of which it would be strange to deny now, entered the circle of psychological study also thanks to Freud (by the way, who did not immediately come to the idea of the sexual conditioning of neuroses and resisted it for a long time. Contrary to opinions and rumors, Freud himself was very strict in sexual life). Another question is what significance to attach to sexuality, for example, whether to reduce love to it or not, whether to correlate the highest ethical problems of a person with it, etc.
Further, Freud drew special attention to the role of childhood, especially family experience in the development of personality; a significant number of psychotherapists, including non-psychoanalysts, include its study in the process of helping those with whom they work.
Finally, the idea of psychological defense is one of the central ideas in modern psychotherapy. Not everyone shares the theoretical explanations proposed by Freud, but, as a rule, it is recognized that it was his method that formed the basis of most therapeutic systems, including those that have gone far from him; the leaders of most of the major psychotherapeutic trends have passed through the sheet of Freudian psychoanalysis.
Freudian psychoanalysis indeed introduced a completely new psychological system: one can come across the term "psychoanalytic revolution" in the literature. He had a tremendous influence on art; it manifests itself, sometimes quite directly, through the transfer of symbols - in the films of F. Fellini and I. Bergman, the prose of A. Murdoch, the painting of S. Dali, etc.
But, of course, psychoanalysis is not associated only with the name of its founder. Freud's students, for the most part not sharing the pansexualism of their teacher, developed their own teachings about the content and role of the unconscious in mental life, developed their own approaches to psychotherapy.
Among the closest students of Freud, A. Adler and K.-G. Jung.
The direction founded by the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler (1870-1937, who emigrated to the USA with the advent of fascism to power) is called "Individual Psychology". Its central idea is the idea of a person's unconscious striving for perfection; this desire is determined, according to Adler, by the initial and inevitable experience of a sense of one's own inferiority and the need to compensate for it.
The experience of inferiority (besides the experience of actual physical or intellectual defects) is natural because each child sees those around him as stronger, more intelligent, more competent; these experiences can be aggravated by non-democratic relations of the child with parents (the main task of which, Adler believed, is to provide the child with a sense of security; the role of the mother is especially great in this) and siblings, i.e. brothers and sisters (Adler considered the order of birth and proposed various developmental models for an only child, an older child, one of the "middle" children, a younger child). The experience of relationships that a child gets before the age of 5 is decisive for the development of a child's character, and moreover, it is this period that determines the character of a person in general.
So, the initial feeling is the feeling of inferiority. Initially, Adler believed that compensation should go along the line of self-affirmation, the satisfaction of the "will to power"; later, however, he began to speak of self-affirmation through gaining a sense of superiority. At the same time, there are two ways - constructive and destructive (the formation of character, in fact, is associated with the emerging strategy of self-affirmation). The constructive path means self-affirmation in activities for the benefit of others and in cooperation with them;
Destructive - by humiliating others and exploiting. The choice of the path of self-affirmation depends on the development and "preservation" of social interest; under it, Adler understood the feeling of belonging to humanity, readiness for cooperation; it is apparently innate (although Adler does not specifically discuss this), but in itself is too weak and in unfavorable conditions is muffled or perverted - due to rejection experienced in childhood, aggression from loved ones, or, conversely, due to pampered, when there is no need to take care of cooperation. In the first case, a person will, as it were, take revenge on humanity, in the second, he will demand a familiar attitude, and in both cases he finds himself in the position of not giving, but taking. This is precisely the key point of therapy: a person with a “wrong lifestyle” seems to exist in a conventional world, a world in which he does not reveal his own inferiority, disguised by the position of a “taker”, pseudo-strong; this, however, does not lessen the anxiety, for the experience of inferiority persists, although it is not recognized. The task of the therapist is to restore the patient's realistic relationship with the world, to open it towards others.
Agree, this is a completely different psychoanalysis, where the place of sexual problems is by no means in the foreground. Adler's idea of the importance of a sense of security in the development of a child is one of the main ideas of a number of psychotherapeutic trends based on psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology.
A very special system of worldview was proposed by the Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl-Gustav Jung (1875-1961), the author, whose influence on world culture is comparable in scale to the influence of his teacher. Freud himself considered him the most talented of his students and considered him his successor; however, their theoretical differences were very great, primarily because for the extreme atheist Freud, Jung's views, directly related to religion and mystical teachings, were unacceptable.
The basis of Jung's theory is the doctrine of the collective unconscious, which exists in mental life along with the personal unconscious and consciousness (and in interaction with them). If the personal unconscious is formed in the development of a person's individual experience and represents the contents it represses, then the experience of mankind is imprinted in the collective unconscious; each of us is its bearer by virtue of belonging to the human race and culture, and it is this layer of the unconscious that is the deep, intimate, which determines the characteristics of behavior, thinking, feeling. If the content of the personal unconscious is made up of complexes (it was Jung who introduced this concept in the sense of systems of traits, images and experiences that are built around a certain “central” experience and exist in us unconsciously and autonomously, like an independent personality, independent of our consciousness and other complexes), then the content of the collective unconscious is made up of archetypes-prototypes, a kind of patterns of behavior, thinking, vision of the world, existing like instincts. It is impossible to see them directly, but one can see their manifestations in the phenomena of culture, primarily in mythology: Jung drew attention to the fact that in the myths of different peoples, including those who did not communicate with each other, there are the same images - Mother Earth, Child, Warrior , God, birth and death, etc. They, Jung believed, are the embodiment of archetypes, and people in life behave in certain situations in accordance with these “patterns” that interact with the contents of the individual unconscious and consciousness.
The central place in "Analytical Psychology" is occupied by individuation - the process of a person's search for spiritual harmony, integration, integrity, meaningfulness. Mental life appears as an endless journey within oneself, the discovery of hidden, unconscious structures that require, especially in critical moments of life, awareness and inclusion in spiritual integrity. The soul, according to Jung, represents a kind of non-physical reality, full of energy, which moves in connection with internal conflicts. The soul is full of opposites (conscious and unconscious, male and female, extraverted and introverted, etc.); the problem lies in the fact that, for a number of reasons, primarily of a sociocultural nature, a person sees and develops in himself only one side of a single contradictory pair, while the other remains hidden, unaccepted; in the process of individuation, a person must "discover himself" and accept. Our hidden sides demand acceptance, appearing to us in dreams, symbolically "calling" to us; you need to be able to see the meaning of the call, ignoring the same - typical for an unprepared person - leads to disintegration, the impossibility of self-development and crisis experiences, diseases. The most important of the discovered instances, embodying to varying degrees the interacting structures of the collective and personal unconscious - "Shadow" (a kind of antipode of "I", that is, knowledge about oneself), "Animus" and "Anima" (male and female; according to Jung, in every person there are typical masculine traits - strength, logicism, aggressiveness, etc. - and typically feminine traits - tenderness, aestheticism, caring; in addition to the fact that there are genetic differences, the "cultural stereotype" focuses on the development of only one side); the central is the archetype of "selfhood", a kind of image of God in itself; this instance is unattainable, but the path to it in the inner wandering continues forever, because, according to Jung, the soul is immortal.
As you can see, the development of psychoanalysis is largely moving away from the classical Freudian ideas on a number of issues, first of all, this concerns the provisions on the sexual determination of human behavior. Of the major followers of Z. Freud, the central place "was assigned to her, perhaps, only by W. Reich (1897-1957), at the center of whose concept is "orgone energy" (a kind of universal energy of love), which requires free expression in the individual;
If this energy, originally pure and bright, is blocked by prohibitions and restraint, then, according to W. Reich, this leads to its perverted manifestations, in particular, in the form of aggression, hidden under appropriate social masks. The containment of energy at various levels is also manifested bodily in the form of "muscle shells", stiffness, constriction; since Reich affirmed the unity of the soul and body, then by influencing the body (muscle exercises, including facial expressions, work with breathing, massage), it is possible to release energy and alleviate mental suffering. The main reason that makes the natural manifestation of orgone energy impossible, Reich considered a rigid system of norms and prohibitions that exists in a patriarchal society, which is especially evident in the traditions of family education. The famous term "sexual revolution" was introduced precisely by W. Reich, who meant by it, however, not sexual permissiveness (as it is often interpreted now), but the creation of such conditions under which the natural realization of orgone energy is possible - if this is so, then, according to Reich, there will be no sexual perversions, prostitution, etc., which are manifestations of precisely the suppressed, deformed orgone energy.
Other major representatives of neo-Freudianism, without denying the importance of sexuality, did not attach paramount importance to it, discussing to a greater extent the problems of personal growth and the emergence of neurotic tendencies from the point of view of the relationship between a person and the social environment, the formation of the perception of the world and self-perception, the value aspects of personality formation.
So, Karen Horney (1885-1952), the creator of the theory called “Cultural-Philosophical Psychopathology”, considered the starting point in the development of the personality to be the so-called “basic anxiety”, the unconscious experience of the hostility of the world towards a person. From the point of view of the influence of culture, it is determined by the contradictory values it offers, which is especially characteristic of rapidly developing cultures; this leads to internal conflicts and is embodied in the fact that a person cannot choose something specific and, moreover, is unable to desire anything specific. As a result, a person “runs away” from reality into conditional, illusory representations, which guide him in life. In the process of development of a particular person, the main anxiety is initially determined by the relationship between the child and parents, certain types of which Horney designates as “the main evil” (aggression of adults towards the child, rejection of the child, ridicule of the child, obvious preference for his brother or sister, etc.). As a result, the child finds himself in an internally contradictory situation: he loves his parents, is attached to them, but, on the other hand, experiences their hostility and his own unconscious reciprocal aggressiveness;
Unable to recognize the true source of the conflict, the child experiences it as an indefinite danger emanating from the world, which means anxiety. To reduce anxiety, a person unconsciously develops protective forms of behavior in which the likelihood of a threat is subjectively reduced. Neurotic tendencies correlate with the fact that a person begins to behave in a one-dimensional way, realizing only the tendency that is unconsciously chosen as reducing potential danger, while others remain unrealized. Horney discusses three main personality tendencies: striving towards people, striving (orientation) against people, and striving (orientation) away from people. These tendencies are also characteristic of a healthy personality - all people at different moments of life can strive for interaction, are aggressive or strive for loneliness; but if in a healthy personality these tendencies balance each other, then a neurotic personality behaves in accordance with only one of them. In reality, this does not lead to a decrease in anxiety, but, on the contrary, to an increase - due to the fact that the needs corresponding to other tendencies are not satisfied; as a result, the neurotic finds himself in a situation of "neurotic circle", because, trying to reduce the growing anxiety, he uses the same method that led to its increase. (A fragment from The Little Prince by A. Saint-Exupery can serve as a model: when asked why he drinks, the Drunkard answers: “Because I am ashamed”; when asked why he is ashamed, the answer follows:
"It's a shame that I drink.")
In other words, the neurotic renounces himself, his “real self”, in favor of an irrational “ideal self”, which allows him to feel pseudo-safe by virtue of conforming to some unrealistic ideal. If the neurotic could formulate why he behaves the way he does, he would answer: “If I help everyone, no one will hurt me” (tendency “toward people”), or “If I am the strongest, no one will dare offend me” (tendency “against people”), or “If I hide from everyone, no one can offend me” (the desire “from people”). These tendencies, being laid down in childhood, remain with a person in the future, determining his psychological and social difficulties. The focus of therapy offered by Horney is the restoration of lost realistic attitudes to life based on an analysis of the life path (for neurotic tendencies can occur at different stages of life), and Horney, unlike Freud, did not practice penetration into deep emotional problems, believing that often it only leads to aggravation of the experience. She was also more optimistic in that she did not consider childhood fatally determining the mental life of a person.
Erik Erikson (b. 1902), the largest specialist in the field of age development, assigned the main role in the formation of personality to the human "I", which not only serves the "It" (as Freud claimed), but is responsible for the main thing - the mental health of the individual, her "identity" (in Erickson's view, this means a sense of self-identity, one's own truth, fullness, belonging to both the world and other people). Erikso considered the development of the personality from the point of view of strengthening the "I" and moving towards identity (his theory is often called "Ego-psychology" or, what is the same, "psychology of the I") On the path of "integration of the I", the personality passes, according to his ideas , 8 stages of development, covering the path of a person from birth to death; each stage is presented as a crisis that puts a person in front of a conditional choice in the direction of strengthening the "I" or weakening it, the most fundamental for the formation of identity is adolescence. The stages themselves, according to Erickson, are genetically predetermined, but the positive or negative resolution of the crisis is determined by the characteristics of interaction with society.
The problems of human relations with society and their influence on the development of personality are in the center of attention of other psychoanalysts as well. So, G. Sullivan (1892-1949),. the creator of the theory of "interpersonal psychiatry", believed that interpersonal relations are always represented in a person, and already the first entry of a child into the world is his entry into a wider sphere than just relations with his mother - already in the way the mother takes the child in her arms, are manifested those relationships that the mother entered into throughout her life.
For Erich Fromm (1900-1980), the main problem is the problem of a person gaining psychological freedom, true life in a society that tries to suppress this freedom, level the human personality, in connection with which a person most often “runs away from freedom” (Fromm’s main book is called “ Escape from freedom") - after all, being oneself means the possibility of risk, the rejection of the usual stereotypical security - and becomes a conformist or authoritarian, believing, however, that this is freedom. Thus, a person deprives himself of a real, full-fledged life, replacing true values with imaginary ones, of which the main one is the value of owning something (another well-known work by Fromm is called “To have or to be?”). Fromm's concept is called "Humanistic psychoanalysis".
Thus, psychoanalysis is very diverse, and often when comparing one or another psychoanalytic concept with Freud's theory, 3. Freud's theory reveals more differences than similarities. At the same time, those classical provisions that were discussed above - the role of unconscious components in mental life, the role of children's experience of relationships with adults, the problem of internal conflict, the formation of psychological defenses - are present in almost any psychoanalytic concept, which makes it possible to speak of psychoanalysis as holistic direction. With regard to Z. Freud, let us cite the words of V. Frankl (who will be discussed below), who compared his role with the role of the foundation of a building: the foundation is not visible, it is hidden under the ground, but the building would not stand without it; in the same way, the ideas of 3. Freud underlie the vast majority of areas of modern psychotherapy, including those who have gone far from Freud - but managed to develop due to the fact that there was something to build on (however, there are quite a few psychologists working within the framework of orthodox Freudianism).
We paid a lot of attention to psychoanalysis due to the fact that this direction had an influence on psychology in general (especially Western) and psychological facts in particular, incommensurable with the influence of other directions. This applies to our country to a lesser extent. In the 20s. it was very popular, but then declared a reactionary false doctrine (according to some authors, due to the fact that, asserting in a person something uncontrollable, not subject to organized formative influences, it was politically inconvenient); in recent years, however, the attitude towards him has become more objective and respectful, the work of the largest psychoanalysts-3. Freud, K.-G. Jung, E. Fromm are widely published, psychoanalytic communities are organized, etc. So: in psychoanalysis, problems of the unconscious determination of human behavior are developed; the areas of its application are, first of all, psychotherapy (including non-medical) and education, primarily family.
Psychoanalysis, as a theory of the human psyche and a type of therapeutic practice, was founded by Sigmund Freud at the end of the 19th century and continues to be actively developed by psychologists at the present time. Psychoanalysis has four main areas of application:
- as a theory of how the mind works;
- as a treatment for mental problems;
- as a research method;
- as a way of considering cultural and social phenomena: literature, art, cinema, theater, politics.
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is recommended primarily for those who feel overwhelmed by recurring mental problems that impede the development of potential and disrupt the experience of achieving satisfaction in relationships with loved ones, family and friends, as well as achieving success and self-realization in their work, solving everyday problems .
Anxiety, inhibitions, and depression are often signs of internal conflict that lead to relationship difficulties, influencing personal and professional decisions. The roots of these problems often lie deeper than the possibilities of natural awareness and are therefore insoluble without psychotherapy.
With the help of a psychoanalyst, the patient can gain new insights into the unconscious parts of these disorders. Talking with a psychoanalyst in a safe atmosphere leads the patient to become increasingly aware of their previously unknown parts of the inner world (thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams), providing relief from mental pain, promoting personal development, and gaining an experience of awareness and self-correction that helps build confidence. patient in achieving their own goals in life. These positive effects of psychoanalysis continue to develop after the end of the analysis.
Freud's main discoveries and innovations
Working with patients with hysteria, Freud came to understand that the symptoms from which hysterics suffered embody a meaning that is both hidden and obvious. Over time, he discovered that all neurotic symptoms are messengers, carrying repressed, and therefore unconscious mental contents. This prompted him to develop "talk therapy" which revolutionized the relationship between patient and therapist. Freud saw his patients six times a week, listened to and responded to what they said to him as they lay on the couch. By inviting patients to say whatever came to mind, Freud received associations that led to repressed childhood experiences, desires and fantasies that became a source of unconscious conflicts. When these conflicts were realized, they could be analyzed and the symptoms would dissolve. This procedure has become not only a powerful method of treatment, but also an effective tool for studying the human psyche, which has led to the development of increasingly complex psychoanalytic theories about how the mind works, and in recent years, research in a new field - neuropsychoanalysis.
Freud's early discoveries led him to some innovative concepts:
Unconscious. Psychic life goes beyond what we can be directly aware of and beyond what we could potentially become aware of with effort (the preconscious). A large part of our mind is in an unconscious state, and this part is only accessible through psychoanalysis.
Early childhood experiences are a fusion of fantasy and reality; they are characterized by longing desires, unbridled impulses, and infantile anxieties. For example, hunger causes a desire to devour everything, which at the same time coexists with the fear of being devoured by others. The desire for control and independence is fused with fears of being manipulated or abandoned. Separation from a caring environment threatens to remain abandoned, helpless and alone. The love of one parent threatens the risk of losing the love of the other. Early desires and fears lead to conflicts which, when they cannot be resolved, are repressed and become unconscious.
psychosexual development. Freud discovered that the progressive maturation of bodily functions centered in erogenous zones (mouth, anus, genitals) occurs in parallel with the pleasures and fears obtained in relationships with a caring environment, and with the development of the structures of the child's psyche.
Oedipus complex is the basic complex of all neuroses. A child between the ages of four and six becomes aware of the sexual nature of the relationship of the parents from which he is excluded. The feelings of jealousy and rivalry that have arisen must be clarified, along with questions about who is a man and who is a woman, whom to love and whom to marry, how a child is conceived and how a birth occurs, what a child can do compared to adults or cannot do . The solution of these difficult questions will shape the character of the adult mind and superego.
crowding out the force that keeps unconscious dangerous fantasies related with unresolvedchildren's conflicts.
Dream as wish fulfillment. Most often, dreams express the fulfillment of infantile sexual desires or fantasies that lurk in absurd, strange and meaningless scenes that require analysis to reveal their unconscious meaning. Freud called the interpretation of dreams the royal road to the unconscious.
Transfer is the ubiquitous tendency of the human mind to consider and define some new situation in the patterns of previous experience. In psychoanalysis, transference takes place when the patient views the analyst as a parental figure with whom basic infantile conflicts or traumas can be resurrected, as if in the original parent-child relationship.
Free associations describe the emergence of thoughts, feelings, and fantasies when they are free from the restraints of fear, guilt, and shame.
Ego, Id and Superego. The ego is the structure of the psyche, determined by consciousness, repressing, integrating and consolidating various impulses and tendencies before they are put into action. The id is the unconscious part of the mind, a place of repressed and unknowable memory traces of early life. The super-ego is the director of the mind and conscience, the guardian of the prohibitions to be adhered to and the ideals to be aspired to.
The development of psychoanalysis after Freud. Modern psychoanalysis
Classical and modern Freudians. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) created a model of the psyche with several basic theoretical assumptions: psychic life is powered by the energy of two basic drives (in the early theory these are the sexual drive and the drive of the self or self-preservation; in the subsequent revision it is the life drive and the death drive or libido and aggression). These drives reflect certain demands of the body on the psyche, expressed in desires and needs, striving for certain objects that can bring satisfaction. The results of these interactions (including ideas about important objects and relationships) structure the entire psyche, creating more and more complex complexes and formations, which ultimately are divided into three main parts. In his first topographical model, Freud spoke of systems of the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious; in the second structural model, he already spoke about the Ego, the Id and the Super-Ego. The structures of the psyche regulate the energy of drives in accordance with the principle of pleasure (homeostasis). Metapsychology of psychoanalysis expresses mental functions in connection with their dynamic (drives), economic (energy), topical (structures) aspects.
(1873-1933) and the Hungarian school of psychoanalysis emphasized the importance of considering and recognizing the real childhood traumatization, the specific early mother-child relationship, including the "confusion of languages" (confusion between the child's need for affection and the adult's sexual needs), which seriously affect mental development, and later on psychopathology. Ferenczi focused on the reciprocal, intersubjective processes between patient and analyst, and on the important role of the analyst's honesty and inner work (introspection) in analytic interaction.
ego psychology. Anna Freud (1895-1982), Heinz Hartmann (1884-1970) and some other analysts focused their attention on the activities of the conscious and unconscious ego, on the special role of the ego in unconscious defenses, and the influence of defenses on mental processes. Hartmann described the non-conflict zones of the ego, which perform important tasks such as awareness, motor function, logical thinking, speech, sensory perception, and reality testing—all vital functions that can be re-engaged in neurotic conflicts. Through a systematic analysis of defenses, psychoanalysis focuses on strengthening the patient's ego in order to increase control of impulses, enhance the ability to resolve conflicts, the ability to tolerate disappointments and painful affects. Hartmann added to the four Freudian metapsychological models the genetic and adaptive models.
Classical and modern Kleinians. Melanie Klein (1882-1960) conceptualized early infancy, when primitive impulses begin to emerge, as the experience of early object relations. The inwardly directed death drive is perceived as an attacking force and causes persecutory anxiety (fear of annihilation). Destructive impulses are fantasyly placed outside (projection) into a frustrating object (bad chest), accompanied by fear of retribution. On the other hand, the satisfying object (the good breast) is idealized and split off from the bad object. This first phase is called the paranoid-schizoid position, which is characterized by splitting, denial, omnipotence, idealization, and projection and introjection. The growing capacity of the ego to integrate leads to depressive anxieties when destructive impulses damaging a good object (breast) cause a desire for reparation (repair). This second phase is called the depressive position. Modern Kleinians have recognized that these phases are not limited to infancy, but form a continuous dynamic in the psyche between paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions.
Bion's offshoot of the Kleinian school. Wilfred Bion (1897-1979), continuing the research of both Freud and Klein developed a new language for their own theory of thought. He put forward the idea that the infant's psyche first encounters raw sensory impressions and emotions, which he called beta elements. These elements do not make sense and should be recycled. Important is the role of the caring object (container - container), which accepts beta elements (content - accept), processes and converts them into alpha elements, and returns them to the child. The infant introjects them along with the transforming alpha function, thus developing its own alpha function - the ability to symbolize, remember, dream and think. Mental pathologies were considered by him in connection with disturbances in these basic functions of thinking.
Winnicott's object relation theory. Donald Winnicott (1896-1971) described how the holding of a "good enough mother" allows the infant to create ideas about himself and others. In the transitional space between the infant and the mother, the child finds and creates transitional objects (for example, a favorite blanket) that perform the function of the mother, but are not it. This transitional or potential space between subjective internal reality and objectively perceived external reality becomes available as an internal space where it is possible to experience life, create new ideas, images, fantasies, art, culture formation. If the mother empathically responds to the infant's spontaneous gestures, the child develops a true self with the capacity for play and creativity. However, if the mother consistently misinterprets the baby's gestures to suit her own needs, the baby's true self remains hidden under a shield of false selfhood that helps to survive, but causes later development to feel unfulfilled, incapable of being real.
French psychoanalysis developed rapidly in disputes with Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) and his ideas (the meaning of language, phallus, desire and the Other, the concepts of the imaginary, symbolic and [unattainable] real). His call for a return to Freud initiated a serious debate and development of Freud's basic concepts, and ultimately established the paramount role of Freud's metapsychology in understanding the human psyche. This, in turn, fruitfully influenced the development of a new concept of the theory of seduction, an emphasis on the drives of life and death, and the theory of narcissism. Recognition of the importance of the theory of drives marked the emphasis on sexuality, subjectivity, the language of desire, the structuring function of the Oedipus complex, in particular with attention to the role of the third in relationships. This led to the idea of a tertiary process, in which unconscious (primary) and conscious (secondary) processes coexist and creatively combine.
Self psychology was founded in the United States by Heinz Kohut (1913-1981), who explored the individual sense of self, in particular in relation to the development and regulation of narcissism. He emphasized the important role of the care given to the child by the parents (and later by the analyst), empathically reflecting the child's states and allowing oneself to be idealized (idealised, twin transferences), thereby maintaining the child (later the patient) as a self-object until the child learns ( internalizes) its regulatory functions. In parallel with Freud's structural model (Ego, Id and Super-Ego) and the theory of drives, Kohut proposed his own model of the structure of the Self.
Psychoanalytic Method
Psychoanalysis is a conversational treatment based on the method of free association, the fundamental rule that the patient is invited to say whatever comes to mind, without such restrictions as: appropriateness, propriety, feelings of shame or guilt, and other options for disapproval. By adhering to this rule, the patient's thought processes create amazing connections, reveal interconnections of desires and defenses that are inaccessible to consciousness, lead to unconscious roots of hitherto unresolved conflicts that begin to manifest and take shape in the transference. Listening to associations by the analyst occurs through a similar mental process, free-floating attention, when the analyst follows the patient's communications, noticing—sometimes as in a daydream—his own associations in response to the patient's situation (countertransference reactions, that is, reactions to the patient's transference).
The integration of all received information occurs through the internal work of the analyst, taking shape in the picture of a transference-countertransference situation, which reveals a certain gestalt (unconscious fantasy) in the therapeutic relationship, which is ultimately experienced jointly by both the analyst and the patient. Through the analyst's interventions—interpretations of what is happening here and now in the session—a new understanding (insight) of the patient's suffering will arise. Reapplying the new understanding to similar situations in which similar conflicts arise helps the patient to recognize the thought processes that give rise to conflicts. By resolving these conflicts and putting them into perspective, the patient's mind is freed from old inhibitions, making room for new choices.
Setting
The method described above is best applied in the classical setting: the patient lies comfortably on the couch, saying whatever comes to mind without being distracted by the analyst, who usually sits behind the couch. This allows both participants in psychoanalysis to immerse themselves in listening and feeling what is happening in the session. The patient plunges into his inner world, reviving memories, returning to important experiences, talking about dreams and fantasies - enduring everything that will help shed light on the patient's life, his history, his mind.
Analytical sessions usually last 45-50 minutes. All agreements on terms (schedule, frequency of visits, fees per session) are discussed from the very beginning of the analysis and are binding on both the patient and the analyst. The timing for the end of the analysis is difficult to predict - on average, for classical analysis, one can expect from three to five years. However, the patient and the analyst are free to decide at any time whether to interrupt or terminate the analysis.
Classical psychoanalytic therapy is designed to realize the potential of the adult neurotic patient, who is generally adapted to the requirements of modern life and work. In order to deepen the analytic process, psychoanalytic sessions are carried out three, four or five times a week. The high frequency of psychoanalytic treatment is also used to treat psychopathologies such as severe narcissistic and borderline personality disorders.
Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy with adults at a lower frequency (once or twice a week) can be done face to face. The goals of therapy in this case are more focused on solving certain types of problems: difficulties in relationships or work, depression or anxiety disorders. Even if transference and countertransference reactions occur in psychoanalysis, they are not interpreted by considering and solving immediate problems in the patient's life. Sometimes both participants in psychoanalytic psychotherapy may decide at some point in the treatment to deepen their work and move on to psychoanalysis at a higher frequency.
Psychoanalysis in psychology is associated primarily with the name of Sigmund Freud. Carl Gustav Jung continued the teaching, going deep into it and adding a lot of new things, including such a concept as the "collective unconscious".
Psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud
The laws of psychology are deep and multifaceted. It is psychoanalysis that acts as one of the most effective methods in the field of studying the psyche. When at one time Freud founded this direction, the world of psychology literally turned upside down, as it received a completely new understanding of the human psyche.
The scientist identified three main components in the psyche:
Conscious part;
- preconscious;
- the unconscious.
In his opinion, the preconscious is the repository of many desires and fantasies. Parts of it can be redirected into the realm of the conscious by paying attention to one of the desires. Those moments of life that an individual cannot realize, since this clearly contradicts moral principles and attitudes, or acts as too painful, is located in the unconscious.
The unconscious part is separated from the other two parts of consciousness by censorship. In psychology, psychoanalysis studies the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious.
Subsequently, the following means of psychoanalysis were identified in psychological science:
Analysis of random actions related to the symptomatic type that occur in everyday life;
- analysis using free associations;
- analysis through the interpretation of dreams.
Psychoanalysis and practical psychology
With the help of various teachings of psychological science, people can find answers to multiple questions born in the depths of the soul. Psychoanalysis aims to prompt the search for an answer, which is most often narrow and particular. Psychologists around the world mostly work with the client's motivations, emotions, relationship with reality, the world of feelings and images. But analysts are focused on the unconscious of a person.
Regardless of the obvious differences, in practical psychology there are common features. For example, in Raigorodsky's book "Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Character" there is a description of social and individual characters. He does not forget about the typology of psychoanalysis, since the inner world of any individual begins in the unconscious.
Psychoanalysis and social psychology
In this direction, psychoanalysis has a name like "analytical". It is aimed at researching personal actions, taking into account the role of the social environment, as well as motives.