Read Ana Freud’s Chapter 6, “Denial in Fantasy”, in the big packet, highlighting and annotating for important points. Make sure that you also note parts that are confusing and write down your questions.
Blog Post #1:
1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions
2) Two major questions about psychoanalysis the chapter raises (either something that confuses you or something that you think is crucial in understanding the concepts addressed).
3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place)
Pathogenic- adding illness or leading toward greater disorder.
ReplyDeleteLibidinal- first proposed by Sigmund Freud, libidinal types serve as classifications for an individual’s personality based on their perceived distribution of the sexual energy in their psyche.
Hypercathexis- a patient’s excessive concentration of desire upon an object, person, or idea.
Question One: Does the ego’s efforts to save itself from encountering unpleasant incidents explain unfriendly human behavior? Is the idea of the ego having defensive measures connected to the evolution theory of humans?
Quotes: “Ultimately all such measures are designed to secure the ego and save it from experiencing unpleasure” (70).
“A little child’s ego still lives in accordance with the pleasure principle; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure” (70).
Question Two: What classifies a process or dream as neurotic?
Quotes: “Such a substitution of an animal for a human object is not in itself a neurotic process” (74).
“…the ego saved anxiety and has no need to resort to defensive measure against its instinctual impulses to the formation of neurosis” (80).
Hypercathexis: when excessive desire for a certain object is present.
ReplyDeleteInstinctual anxiety: according to Sigmund Freud, instinctual anxiety is something that one feels the moment they are born, hence the "instinct" part of the word. All subsequent anxieties have a direct correlation to the instinctual anxiety found at birth.
Libidinal: relating to the libido. According to Freud, libidinal desires can conflict with the conventional desires of the superego. A.K.A, frowned upon in society.
Q#1: If a child apparently needs fantasy in order to develop, how is it supposed to go away when one is grown up? You can't just get rid of fantasy, can you? If it is one of the bases of developing, I don't understand how a grown up seems to feel like they need to take it away from themselves.
-"...in later life, the ego's need for synthesis makes it impossible for opposites to coexist; perhaps, too, the attachment of the mature ego to reality is in general stronger than that of the infantile ego..."(59)
-"...fantasy and reality become incompatible: it must be one or the other." (59)
Q#2: Do people try to turn unpleasure into pleasure? Does this have to do with denial? Is a person tricking themselves if they do this?
-"Like Hans in the fantasy about the plumber, he simply denied a painful fact and in his lion fantasy turned it into it's pleasurable opposite." (75)
-"Evidently the daydreamer felt obliged to reassure himself that, in spite of all the aggressive acts, there was no need to fear for his father's life." (77)
Cathexis: a concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea
ReplyDeleteNeurosis: excessive and irrational anxiety or obsession
Libido (libidinal): Primitive biological urges ie: pleasure, sex
Q 1: Daydreams and dreams are used interchangeably in this reading. Do they have different meanings relating to a person's psyche or does Freud simply use them as synonyms for dreams?
- "As is usual in daydreams carried on from day to day, the main fantasy became the basis of a number of agreeable episodes" (74).
-"It seems that the original importance of the daydream as a means of defense against objective anxiety is lost when the earliest period of childhood comes to an end" (80).
Q 2: Freud states that if facts and people are reversed in dreams during adulthood, especially after an event of shock, this indicates a mental illness, but if an adult experiences a sudden loss of a loved one for example, and has trouble accepting reality, does this really mean that they have a mental illness?
-"This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of mental disease" (80).
-"Under the influence of shock, such as the sudden loss of a love object, it denies the facts and substitutes for the unbearable reality some agreeable delusion" (80).
Libidinal cathexis- Investment of energy working to achieve a desire for sex
ReplyDeleteCastration anxiety- The fear of emasculation
Hypercathexis- An obsessive fixation in obtaining an object
Q#1- Do our fantasies always have to be expressed? What happens if they are not?
"When we compare children's fantasies with psychotic delusions, we begin to see why the human ego cannot make more extensive use of the mechanism" (80)
"The ego's capacity for denying reality is wholly inconsistent with another function... it's capacity to recognize and critically to test the reality of objects" (80)
Q#2- How do you "cure" a neurosis? Wouldn't this always be a part of the person's character?
"... even after analytic interpretation had enabled Little Hans' instinctual life to resume a normal course, his psychic processes were still for a time subject to disturbance" (72)
"The fantasies helped him to reconcile himself to reality" (73)
1. all definitions from dictionary.com
ReplyDeletea. Neurosis: (1) Also called psychoneurosis. a functional disorder in which feelings of anxiety, obsessional thoughts, compulsive acts, and physical complaints without objective evidence of disease, in various degrees and patterns, dominate the personality. (2) a relatively mild personality disorder typified by excessive anxiety or indecision and a degree of social or interpersonal maladjustment.
b. Agoraphobia: an abnormal fear of being in crowds, public places, or open areas, sometimes accompanied by anxiety attacks.
c. Hypercathexis: excessive concentration of desire upon a particular object.
2.
a. How can an infants brain try to be dependent of the ego when it isn't fully formed?
Quote: "... as a rule the child is too helpless physically to take to flight and his understanding is as yet too limited for him to see the inevitable in the light of reason and submit to it. In this period of immaturity and dependence on the ego, besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli..." (70)
b. When can the ego become dangerous to the person? (Because it's job is to not let the mind feel horribly or guilty or sad, but it is important to feel all of these things.)
Quote: "We know that, even in adult life, daydreams may still play a part, sometimes enlarging boundaries of a too narrow reality and sometimes completely reversing the real situation. But in adult years a daydream is almost of the nature of the game, a kind of byproduct with but a slight libidinal cathexis; at most is serves to master quite trifling quantities of discomfort or to give the subject an illusory relief from some minor unpleasure. It seems that the original importance of the daydream as a means of defense against anxiety is lost when the earliest period of childhood comes to an end." (81)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete1. Hypercathexis- In phychoanalysis a patient's excessive investment or interest in a person, object, or an idea. Also defined as excessive concentration on a particular object.
ReplyDeleteLibido- The energy associated with instinctual drives. In particular sexual desires. These desires are consciously expressed.
Neurosis- A mild mental disorder that is not caused by an organic disorder. It includes many Symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, and fatigue.) Not a radical loss of touch with reality.
2. What makes it normal for a child to have fantasies where they avoid a frustrating reality, but dangerous if an adult does the same thing?
"In Little Hans's two fantasies and the animal fantasies of my patients the method by which objective unpleasure and objective anxiety are avoided is very simple. The child's ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality" (79).
"This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of a mental disease" (80).
3. In young children, is it a problem if the id controls a child's thoughts and actions?
"A little child's ego still lives in accordance with the pleasure principal; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure" (70).
"The efforts of the infantile ego to avoid unpleasure by directly resisting external impressions belong to the sphere of normal psychology" (70-71).
1.
ReplyDeleteNeurotic Inhibition: Obsessive self-consciousness.
Castration Anxiety: The fear of losing your masculinity.
Agoraphobia: Fear of places where you feel trapped and unable to escape.
2/3.
Q#1 Why did Hans' fear for his father turn itself into a fear of horses?
"His castration anxiety in relation to his father was bound in the symptom of a fear of horses, but, in accordance with the mechanisms of phobia, anxiety attacks were avoided by means of a neurotic inhibition."
"By the same process of reversal the dreaded father of reality is transformed into the protective beats of the fantasy, but the dangerous father object himself reappears in the figure of the thief."
Q#2 Why only once Hans starts to fantasize about something he desires does he accept his reality?
"Hans denied reality by means of his fantasy; he transformed it to suit his own purposes and to fulfill his own wishes; then, and not till then, could he accept it."
"Little Hans had lost his agoraphobia and now, with this new mental achievement, he at last recovered his good spirits."
1. Melancholia- sad or depressed- or a condition of the mind that exhibits constant sadness and or depression. (derived from Melancholy)
ReplyDeleteVicissitude- Sharp change in events, often negative or unwanted. (A person's actions or inclinations can experience a vicissitude and change rapidly and drastically)
Anxiety- Feeling unsure of a situation, and often feeling like something catastrophic is impending very soon. The near future is very unclear and there is a feeling of helplessness.
2. Is there a psychoanalytical difference between a dream and a daydream? Freud often says that the boys have daydreams about animals as replacements for another person or issue (often their father), but in terms of Freud's analysis of these fantasies, would it be different if these boys experienced this during sleep?
"The themes which appear in the daydreams of these two boys are by no means peculiar to these particular children; they are universal in fairy tales and other children's stories" (Freud 77).
3. At what point does a natural thing that occurs in a child's development turn into a serious condition? When does the Oedipal Stage turn into an Oedipal Complex?
"This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of a mental disease" (Freud 80).
"When we compare children's fantasies with psychotic delusions, we being to see why the human ego cannot make more extensive use of the mechanism" (Freud 80).
Libidinal:
ReplyDelete"all of the instinctual energies and desires that are derived from the id."
Agoraphobia:
"Abnormal fear of being helpless in an embarrassing or unescapable situation that is characterized especially by the avoidance of open or public places"
Melancholia:
"Sad or depressed- or a condition of the mind that exhibits constant sadness and or depression"
Question One:
How often are their cases where a child's ego does not develop the means which bears unpleasure, is this dangerous?
Quotation:
"A little child's ego still lives in accordance with the pleasure principle; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure." (70)
"In this period of immaturity and dependence the ego, besides making efforts to master
instinctual stimuli; endeavors in all kinds of ways to defend itself against the objective unpleasure and dangers menace it." (70)
Question Two:
Is the main purpose of changing a human being into an animal in ones fantasy is to make the fantasy less aggressive? (The
aggressive nature that Hans and the other little boy is not clearly portrayed in the animal fantasy)
Quotation:
"Such a substitution of an animal for a human object is not in itself neurotic process, it occurs frequently in the normal development of children and, when it does occur, the results vary greatly" (74)
"In both children aggressiveness was transformed into anxiety and the affect was displaced from the father onto an animal" (74)
"The most savage wild beasts, which in a state of freedom were deadly enemies, were trained to live together amity" (75)
1) Pleasure principal: The mind naturally seeking pleasure and avoiding pain to satisfy the id
ReplyDeleteVicissitudes: An unwelcome change in circumstance or situation
Cathexis: The concentration on one particular idea, person, or object to an unhealthy degree
2) Isn't a child always able to cope with displeasure? If they create a fantasy world or displace their fear isn't this still coping with the real world?
"A little child's ego still lives in accordance with the pleasure principal; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure" (70)
3) The ego instinctively uses fantasies as a coping mechanism. If the ego is the balancer and exists to make the person happy and moral than why are the fantasies seen as a negative outcome?
"If the transformation is successful and through the fantasies which the child constructs her becomes insensible of the reality in question, the ego saved anxiety and has no need to resort to defensive measures against it instinctual impulses and to the formation of neurosis." (80)
Psychoanalytic terms:
ReplyDelete1.obsessive neurosis: diagnostic category (set up by Freud) where people hold obsessions/recurring ideas, impulses to act I an out of the ordinary way, and having "rituals"(compulsive repeated actions)
2. Oedipus complex: desire for a child to have sexual relations with a parent of the opposite sex, while rivaling the parent of the same sex
3. Vicissitudes: changing phases or conditions
4. Agoraphobia: fear of being in large crowds
Questions:
1. Is the following what happens to the ego at all times? Or just in this fantasy context?
quote: "Ultimately all such measures are designed to secure the ego and to save it from experiencing unpleasure" (70).
2. If a child is immature and the ego cannot bear unpleasure, how does it process that it needs to use defense mechanisms?
quote: " A little child's ego still lives in accordance with the pleasure principle; it is a long time for it is trained to bear on pleasure... In this period of immaturity and dependence the ego besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli, endeavors in all kinds of ways to defend itself against the objective unpleasure and dangers which menace it" (70).
1. Instinctual Anxiety- unpleasure derived from unattainable needs of the id
ReplyDeleteCathexis- an unhealthy concentration of mental energy focused on one object
Libidinal- of the libido, or energy of sexual desire and drive
2. Q1: On what evidence can the conclusion be made that the ego is reversing the objective reality of a situation that is causing anxiety and how can it be determined how this is happening?
“the methods employed by his neurosis were displacement--from his own father to the anxiety animal--and reversal of his own threat to his father” - 71
“by the same process of the reversal the dreaded father of reality is transformed into the protective beasts of fantasy” - 76
Q2: What is the role of the Oedipal Complex in the early development of the ego and super-ego?
“we are told that the boy’s neurosis was based on impulses quite normally associated with the oedipus complex.” - 71
“His own body was, of course, smaller than that of his father and so the latter was stil marked out as a rival of whom he could not hope to get better.” - 72
Libido: Sexual desire
ReplyDeleteCathexis: Concentration on an particular person or object to an unhealthy degree.
neurosis: A mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease.
Questions:
1. What separates a child's ego to that of an adults ego?
"A little child's ego still lives in according with the pleasure principle; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure" (70).
"In this period of immaturity and dependance the ego, besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli, endeavors in all kinds of ways to defend intslef against the objective unpleasure and dangers which menace it" (70).
2. Can one traumatic experience create a phobia that is unrelated to the original trauma?
"Little Hans would suggest that the fate of his neurosis was determined from the moment in which he displaced his aggressiveness and anxiety from his father to horses" (74).
"From this little boy's analysis it was easy to see that the lion was a substitute for the father" (74).
Objective Anxiety- An anticipation of suffering which may be inflicted as punishment by outside agents. In other word, fear of the outside world.
ReplyDeleteCastration Anxiety- Fear of losing masculinity or fear of losing one’s genital organs.
Oedipal Complex- A desire for a sexual relationship with the parent of opposite sex.
Q1: What often happens in a childhood fantasy?
“In many books for children-perhaps the most striking instances are the stories of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Colonel- there is a small boy or girl who, contrary to all expectations, succeeds in “taming” a bad-tempered old man, who is powerful or rich and of whom everybody is afraid.”(79)
“These tales, like the animal fantasies, acquire their pleasurable character through the complete reversal of the real situation. The child appears not only as the person who owns and controls the powerful father figure (the lion) and so is superior to everyone around him: he is also the educator, who gradually transforms evil into good.”(79)
Q2: Why do fantasies become detrimental later in life?
“In later life, the ego’s need for synthesis makes it impossible for opposites to coexist, perhaps, too, the attachment of the mature ego to reality is in general stronger than that of the infantile ego, so that, in the nature of the case, fantasy ceases to be so highly prized as in earlier years.”(81)
1)
ReplyDeletea. Neurosis- any of various mental or emotional disorder (psychological discomfort) that is produced from a conflict between ego and id
b. Hypercathexis- a patient's excessive investment of libido or interest in an object, person, or idea, such as a sexual desire
c. agoraphobia: the ego's method of self-limitation for avoiding the anxiety of acting out a sexual desire
2)
a. Question one: Is developing castration anxiety an ideal way to “conquer” or “get through” the stage of the Oedipus complex and how does this help develop the ego of the child?
“…the prohibited libidinal love for his mother and the dangerous aggressiveness toward his father vanishes from consciousness.”(71)
“His tender attachment to his mother was then free to revive and to be given some expression in conscious behavior, for, now that his castration anxiety had disappeared. His feeling for her was no longer dangerous.”(72)
“The fantasies helped him to reconcile himself to reality, just as his neurosis had enabled him to come to terms with his instinctual impulses ” (73)
“…aggressiveness was transformed into anxiety…” (74)
b. How can the delusions of these fantasies affect the child’s mental and emotional development if not “cured”?
“These tales, like the animal fantasies, acquire their pleasurable character through the complete reversal of the real situation.” (79)
“…by which objective unpleasure and objective anxiety are avoided is very simple…ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality. ”(79)
“Under the influence of a shock, such as the sudden loss of a love object, it denies the facts and substitutes for the unbearable reality some agreeable delusion.” (80)
“ the ego’s capacity for denying reality is wholly inconsistent with another function, greatly prized by it- its capacity to recognize and critically to tes the reality of objects.” (80)
Definitions:
ReplyDeleteLibidinal: Relating to the libido (sexual desire). According to Freud, libidinal desires can conflict with the conventional desires of the superego (desires looked down upton by society).
Agoraphobia: Extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places.
Hypercathexis: In psychoanalysis, a patient's excessive investment of libido or interest in an object, person, or idea.
Questions:
What is the psychoanalytical difference between a child's ego and an adult's ego?
"In this period of immaturity and dependance the ego, besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli, endeavors in all kinds of ways to defend intslef against the objective unpleasure and dangers which menace it" (70).
"If this (the ego saving itself by denying reality) happens during the latency period, some abnormal character trait will develop... If it happens in adult life, the ego's relations to reality will be profoundly shaken" (80).
"A little child's ego still lives in according with the pleasure principle; it is a long time before it is trained to bear unpleasure" (70).
Is there a difference between a dream at night and a daydream?
"The themes which appear in the daydreams of these two boys are by no means peculiar to these particular children; they are universal in fairy tales and other children's stories" (Freud 77).
Definitions:
ReplyDelete1. Repudiate - refuse to accept or to be associated with, deny the truth or validity of
2. Neuroses - a relatively mild mental illness that is not causes by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression,anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.
3. Vicissitudes - a change of circumstances or fortunes, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant; alteration between opposite or contrasting things.
Questions:
1. Is it always necessary to reverse the defense mechanisms in a child's dream to better understand what he/she is dreaming about and why?
2. Do all children dream of some sort of "moral" or reassuring ending to their dream?
Answers:
1. " as he finally accepted the facts of his infantile instinctual life when once he had consciously recognized them" (73).
-"Our study of the defensive process revealed in the analysis of Little Hans would suggest that the fate of his neurosis was determined from the moment in which he displaces his aggressiveness and anxiety.."(74).
-"The child appears not only as the person who owns and controls the powerful father figure (the lion) and is superior to everyone around him: he is also the educator, who gradually transforms evil into good"(79)
-"If the transformation is successful and through the fantasies which the child constructs he becomes insensible of the reality in question, the ego is saved anxiety and has no need to resort to defensive measure against it's instinctual impulses and to the formation of neurosis" (80).
2."The themes which appear in the daydreams of these two boys are by no means peculiar to these children: they are universal in fairy tales and other children stories" (75).
-"It betrays itself in the anxiety of other people, whom the child reassures,but the vicarious anxiety is an additional source of pleasure"(79).
testestesat
ReplyDelete1.
ReplyDeletelibidinal cathexis- sexual desire’s charge of energy. Freud believed that if the libido’s energy is not released, it will need to be released in other ways. (www.cla.purdue.edu)
latency period- fourth period of psychosexual development, from about 5 years from puberty. A child represses sexual urge and prefers to spend time with members of the same sex. (www.thefreedictionary.com)
tutelary deities- One who serves as a guardian or protector.(www.thefreedictionary.com)
2.
Question 1: So the more good experiences you have, the greater the chances that you will have bad experiences? How is this possible, and why is it possible?
Question 2: Is it only the control over the lion(the representation of the father) that is delighting the boy? How does calling the lion a “disguised friend” have to do with the boy’s anxiety and trauma?
3. These quotations raise the above questions.
Quotation 1: “The greater the importance of the outside world as a source of pleasure and interest, the more opportunity is there to experience unpleasure from that quarter”(70).
Quotation 2: “He was delighted in imagining how terrified the people would be if they guessed his secret”(74).
Melancholia: sad or depressed- or a condition of the mind that exhibits constant sadness and or depression.
ReplyDeleteOedipus complex: desire for a child to have sexual relations with a parent of the opposite sex, while rivaling the parent of the same sex
Libidinal cathexis: investment of energy working to achieve a desire for sex
Quetion 1: If a child is physically to weak to oppose the outside world, do people revert back to this stage when they are sick or old (physically weak) ?
Question 2: How do day dreams/fantasies that seem to be a normal part of development translate to adulthood?
Quote for question 1: "During this period the individual is still too weak to oppose the outside world actively, to defend himself against it by means of physical force or to modify it in accordance with his own will" (70).
Quote for question 2: "This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs later in life, it indicates an advanced stage of mental disease. In certain acute psychotic confusional states, the patient's ego behaves toward reality in precisely this way" (80).
Agoraphobia- anxiety disorder where a person has attacks of intense fears and anxiety
ReplyDeleteAdroitness- cleverness or skill
Efficacious- successful in producing an intended result
Two questions:
1) how does the conflict between the ID and the ego differ between when we are children and when we are adults? Do they?
2) does the Oedipus complex suggest the displacement of a parent within a child's life, and is that terms for reoccurrence in an adults dreams?
Quotes:
First question: "the defensive method so far discovered... Serve a single purpose- assisting the ego in its struggle with its instinctual life... Motivated by three principle types of anxiety to which the ego is exposed..." (69) - a child's lack of anxiety?
Question two:
1) "he loved his mother and out of jealousy adopted an aggressive attitude towards his father, which secondarily came into conflict with his tender affection for him." (71)
2) "the methods employed by his neurosis were displacement from his father... And his reversal of his own threat to his father..." (71)
neurosis - a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality
ReplyDeleteagoraphobia - extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places
hypercathexis - excessive concentration of desire upon a particular object
Question 1:
How can the same object be represented by opposite substitutions in the same fantasy?
"By the same process of reversal the dreaded father of reality is transformed into the protective beasts of the fantasy, but the dangerous father object himself reappears in the figure of the thief" (76).
Question 2:
Why do children employ so many ego defenses?
"The child's ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality" (79).
"...the original importance of the daydream as a means of defense against objective anxiety is lost when the earliest period of childhood comes to an end" (81).
Agoraphobia - extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places.
ReplyDeleteHypercathexis - excessive concentration of desire upon a particular object.
Oedipal Complex - (in psychoanalytic theory) A sexual desire towards the parent of the opposite sex and a rivalry with the parent of the same sex. .
Question 1: Why is it common for or why do children to turn their aggressiveness and anxieties from their parents to animals?
"Such a substitution of an animal for a human object is not in itself a neurotic process; it occurs frequently in the normal development of children and, when it does occur, the results vary greatly" (74)
"...he simply denied a painful fact and in his lion fantasy turned it into its pleasurable opposite." (75)
Question 2: How do fantasies damage the ego?
"The child's ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality" (79)
1.
ReplyDeleteNeurosis - a mild mental illness, whose symptoms cannot be described physiologically
Libidinal - of or relating to the libido (sexual drive)
Agoraphobia - an anxiety disorder characterized by a fear of being in places that are hard to escape. The person has attacks of intense fear and anxiety
2.
Question 1: How is it possible to determine the point in which it no longer becomes okay for a person to live in a fantasy?
Question 2:How are children who don't create these fantasies to defend themselves from the outside world psychologically affected?
3.
Question 1:
"The ego's capacity for denying reality is wholly inconsistent with another function, greatly prized by it -- its capacity to recognize and critically to test the reality of objects" (80).
"As soon as more considerable quantities of cathexis are involved, fantasy and reality become incompatible: it must be one or the other.
Question 2:
"In this period of immaturity and dependence the ego, besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli, endeavors in all kinds of ways to defend itself against the objective unpleasure and dangers which menace it" (70).
"The child's ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality" (79).
Agoraphobia- extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places.
ReplyDeleteAdroitness- cleverness or skill.
Neuroses- a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.
Q&A 1:
How is a human object substituted in the defensive process?
Page 74: "Such a substitution of an animal for a human object is not in itself a neurotic process; it occurs frequently in the normal development of children and, when it does occur, the results vary greatly."
Page 74: "In both children aggressiveness was transformed into anxiety and the affect was displaced from the father onto an animal."
Q&A 2: How does the ego constantly construct ways to defend?
Page 79: "The child's ego refuses to become aware of some disagreeable reality."
Page 70: "The ego is in close contact with that world, from which it borrows its love objects and derives those impressions which its perception registers and its intelligence assimilates."
1. 3 Important Psychoanalytic Terms w. Definitions
ReplyDeleteNeurosis- A relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress but not a radical loss of touch with reality
Displacement- A defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original one to some more
Objective anxiety- An anticipation of suffering which may be inflicted as punishment by outside agents. Fear of the outside world.
2. 2 Important Questions that the
1) What qualifies as being cured of your neurosis?
"His tender attachment to his mother was then free to revive and to be given some expression in conscious behavior, for now that his castration anxiety had disappeared, his feeling for her was no longer dangerous."
"That anxiety dispelled, there was no need for the regression to which it had driven him and he was able once more to attain to the phallic level of libidinal development. The child's neurosis was cured."
2) Can a problem be helped by transforming it into another problem Does transforming an original problem into a different problem help one get over it?
2) does a problem that is common at that stage in development mean it is easier to cure?
"In this period of immaturity and dependence the ego, besides making efforts to master instinctual stimuli, endeavors in all the kinds of ways to defend itself against the objective unpleasure and dangers which menace it."
"The fantasies helped him to reconcile himself to reality, just as his neurosis had enabled him to come to terms with his instinctual impulses."