Introduction

• Psychoanalytic theory is based on the concept that

individuals are unaware of the many factors that cause
their maladaptive behaviors and discomforting emotions.
• Psychoanalytic treatment is highly individualized and
seeks to show how early childhood experiences have
affected the formative aspects of one’s personality
development.
• The techniques and strategies in this approach are used
to illustrate to the client how unconscious thoughts and
defenses formed early in life affect behavior patterns,
relationships, and overall mental health.
Goals of Psychodynamic theory
• The general goals of psychodynamic counseling are
client self-awareness and understanding of the influence
of the past on present behavior, and correction of the
client’s distortion is often the primary focus of therapeutic
treatment
• The goals of this chapter are to help counselors meet the
following objectives:
• To gain a basic understanding of the foundation, history, and
development of psychoanalytic theory.
• To gain a basic understanding of the implications of psychoanalytic
theory across populations and contexts; and
• To gain a basic understanding of how to apply traditional and brief
psychoanalytic techniques in counseling for the most effective
outcome.
Human Nature
• Psychoanalytic theory suggests that behavior is largely
determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations,
and biological, or instinctual, drives (Bush, 1978).
• Humans are conceptualized largely in terms of biology, and
maladaptive behaviors are symptomatic of a subconscious
response to social interactions that the mind interprets as
unsafe, thereby threatening the stability of the human
personality structure.
• The mind interprets social interactions within a framework
shaped largely by early life experiences, and subsequent
functioning is dependent on humans’ capacity to cope
healthfully on a subconscious level (Mitrani, 1993).
ID, EGO and Superego
• Psychoanalytic theory suggests that behavior is largely
determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, and
biological, or instinctual, drives (Bush, 1978).
• Humans are conceptualized largely in terms of biology, and
maladaptive behaviors are symptomatic of a subconscious
response to social interactions that the mind interprets as
unsafe, thereby threatening the stability of the human
personality structure.
• The mind interprets social interactions within a framework
shaped largely by early life experiences, and subsequent
functioning is dependent on humans’ capacity to cope healthfully
on a subconscious level (Mitrani, 1993).
3 components of Personality
One of the most well-known constructs of psychoanalytic theory is
that of an interactive system comprising the human personality.

Id
The instinctual and biological drives of the psyche
are referred to as the id
Super Ego
The critical, moralizing function is the
superego
Ego
The organized, realistic part that mediates and seeks a
balance between the former two is known as the ego.
1.ID
• The id comprises the unorganized part of the personality
structure that contains the basic drives, and it is the only
component of personality that is present from birth.
• This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and
includes the individual’s instinctive drives and primitive
behaviors.
• According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic
energy, making it the primary component of personality.
The id functions on the pleasure principle, which
emphasizes wants and desires and instant self-
gratification, and if not satisfied immediately, the result is
a state of anxiety or tension.
 2.Super Ego
• The superego, which strives to act in a moral, socially appropriate
manner, directly contradicts the id, which demands instant self-
gratification.
• The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and strives for
morality, regardless of contextual circumstances.
• This component of personality consists of one’s internalized ideals,
morals, and ethics acquired from one’s parents and from society.
• This helps a person fit into society by encouraging him or her to act
in socially acceptable ways, and it constantly works to perfect and
civilize the person’s behavior.
• The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious. This is the last component of personality to develop,
emerging around age 5.
2.Super Ego
Parts of Super ego
There are two parts to the superego:
• The first is the ego-ideal, which includes the rules and
standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include
those that are approved of by parental and other
authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings
of pride, value, and accomplishment.
• The second part is the conscience, which includes
information about things that are viewed as bad by
parents and society. These behaviors are often
forbidden and lead to bad consequences,
punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.
3. Ego
• The ego is the largely unconscious part of personality that
mediates the demands of the id and the superego.
• The ego prevents individuals from acting on their basic urges
(created by the id) but also works to achieve a balance with
their moral and idealistic standards (created by the
superego).
• The ego is the component of personality that is responsible
for helping an individual cope with reality.
• According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and
ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a
manner acceptable in the real world. Like the superego, the
ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious mind.
3. Ego
reality principle
• The ego functions on the reality principle, which strives to
satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially appropriate
ways (Weismann, 1969).
• The reality principle weighs the costs and benefit of an
action before deciding to act on or abandon impulses.

delayed gratification
• In many cases, the id’s impulses can be satisfied
through a process of delayed gratification, in which the
ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the
appropriate time and place.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
• Freud believed that personality develops through a
series of childhood stages during which the
pleasure-seeking energies of the id become
focused on certain erogenous areas. Psychosexual
energy, or libido, is suggested to be the driving
force behind behavior.
• At particular points in the developmental process, a
single body part is particularly sensitive to sexual,
erotic stimulation (Dimen, 1999). These erogenous
zones are the mouth, the anus, and the genital
region.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
• A child at a given stage of development has certain
needs and demands, and if these psychosexual
stages are completed successfully, the result is a
healthy personality.
• However, frustration occurs when these needs are
not met, and if certain issues are not resolved at the
appropriate stage, the individual will become fixated
and will focus persistently on an earlier
psychosexual stage, in which the individual will
remain stuck until this conflict is resolved.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
Psychoanalytic theory suggests five psychosexual
stages.
1.ORAL STAGE
• The first stage is the oral stage, experienced during the first
year of life. During the oral stage, the infant’s primary source
of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and
sucking reflexes are especially important (Heimann, 1962).
• The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant derives pleasure
from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as
tasting and sucking.
• Because the infant is entirely dependent on caretakers to
satiate these needs, the infant also develops a sense of trust
and comfort through this oral stimulation.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
Psychoanalytic theory suggests five psychosexual
stages.
1.ORAL STAGE
• The primary conflict at the oral stage is the weaning
process; the infant must become less dependent on
the caretakers and more self-reliant to meet his or
her own needs.
• Freud believed that if fixation occurs at this stage,
the individual would have issues with dependency
or aggression later in life, which may result in
problems with an emphasis on oral stimulation, such
as drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting (Nevid,
2009).
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
2. ANAL STAGE
• The second stage is the anal stage, occurring between
1 and 3 years of age.
• The focus of this stage is on controlling bladder and
bowel movements.
• The major conflict at this stage is toilet training; the
child has to learn to control his or her bodily needs.
Developing this control leads to a sense of
accomplishment and independence (Gabbard, 1979).
• According to Freud, success at this stage depends on
the way in which parents approach toilet training.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
2. ANAL STAGE
• Freud believed that positive experiences during this stage
serves as the basis for adults to become competent,
productive, and creative, whereas inappropriate parental
responses result in two primary negative outcomes.
• If parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud
suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could develop
in which the individual has a messy, wasteful, or destructive
personality.
• And if parents are too strict or begin toilet training
prematurely, an anal-retentive personality develops, in
which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive
(Heimann, 1962).
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
3. PHALLIC STAGE
• The third stage is the phallic stage, in which the libido is
primarily focused on the genitals between ages 3 and 6.
• Children also discover the differences between males and
females.
• Freud believed that at this stage, boys begin to view their
fathers as a rival for the mother’s affections (Howes, 1997).

1.Oedipus Complex
• The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to
possess the mother and the desire to replace the father.
• However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father
for these feelings, a fear Freud termed castration anxiety.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
3. PHALLIC STAGE
1.Electra Complex
• The term Electra complex has been used to describe a
similar set of feelings experienced by young girls but is
derived from what Freud believed was penis envy.
• He theorized that eventually the girl begins to identify
with the same-sex parent as a means of vicariously
possessing the other parent.
• For girls, however, Freud believed that penis envy is
never fully resolved and that all women remain
somewhat fixated on this stage (Fuchsman, 2001).
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
4. LATENCY STAGE
• Between ages 6 and 12, children experience the latency stage,
during which the id, the ego, and the superego develop the
foundation for the adult’s instinctual drives and behavioral
responses.
• This fourth stage is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy
is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual
pursuits and social interactions.

• The stage begins around the time that children enter school and
become more concerned with peer relationships, extracurricular
activities, and personal interests.
• The development of the ego and superego contributes to this
period of calm as the id and libido are suppressed (Schneider,
1988).
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
5. GENITAL STAGE
• The final stage, the genital stage, begins after age 12 and
continues through adulthood.
• During this stage, the individual develops strong sexual interests,
drives, and desires.
• Whereas in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual
needs, an interest in the welfare of others also grows during this
stage.
• If the other stages have been completed successfully, the
individual should now be well balanced, warm, and caring.
• The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the
various life areas.
• In a sense, this is the stage in which the ego fully emerges to
mediate the conflict between the id and superego with regard to
one’s social and sexual interactions with others (Carducci, 2009).
INSTINCTS
Instincts fall into one of two major classes: life instincts or death
instincts. Freud believed that these drives, or instincts, were as
influential on one’s behavior as were the id, ego, and superego.

LIFE INSTINCTS
• Life instincts are those that deal with basic survival, pleasure, and
reproduction.
• These instincts are important for sustaining the life of the
individual as well as the continuation of the species.
• While they are often called sexual instincts, these drives also
include such things as thirst, hunger, and pain avoidance.
• The energy created by the life instincts is known as the libido.
Behaviors commonly associated with the life instinct include love,
cooperation, and other prosocial actions.
INSTINCTS
He noted that after people experience a traumatic event, they
often reenact the experience, and these reenactments
contradict the presentation of the life instincts.

DEATH INSTINCT
• He concluded that people hold an unconscious desire to die
but that this wish is largely tempered by the life instincts.
• In Freud’s view, self-destructive behavior is an expression of
the energy created by the death instincts.
• When this energy is directed inward, it appears as masochism
and self-loathing.
• If directed outward onto others, it is expressed as aggression
and violence (Jaffe, 1982).
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
• The concept of the defense mechanism can be
observed daily across cultures and contexts, even
among those who are not familiar with Freud or
psychoanalytic theory.
• These mechanism are a function of the ego, which
strives to protect the individual from experiencing
anxiety and guilt, provoked by the discord between the
id and the superego.
• This coping strategy safeguards the mind against
feelings and thoughts that are too difficult, such as
inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses, from
entering the conscious mind.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
There are several defense mechanisms that Freud
proposed (Corey, 2008):
Denial
Denial is the refusal to accept reality and to act as if a
painful event, thought, or feeling did not exist. It is
considered one of the most primitive of the defense
mechanisms because it is characteristic of very early
childhood development.
Reaction Formation
Reaction formation is the converting of wishes or
impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their
opposites.
Rationalization
Rationalization is the cognitive reframing of one’s
perceptions to protect the ego in the face of changing
realities.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
There are several defense mechanisms that Freud
proposed (Corey, 2008):
Repression
Subconsciously blocking ideas or impulses that are undesirable.
This defense mechanism may be present in someone who has no
recollection of a traumatic event, even though they were conscious
and aware during the event.

Displacement
Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts, feelings, and
impulses from an object that gives rise to anxiety to a safer,
more acceptable one.
Rationalization
Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced
onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the
external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual,
threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harbouring
hostile thoughts.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
There are several defense mechanisms that Freud
proposed (Corey, 2008):

Sublimation
A sublimation defense mechanism works by redirecting negative
feelings or impulses into positive ones. For example, someone with
anger issues may channel their aggressive urges into sports
instead of lashing out at others physically or verbally.

Regression
Regression is the reversion to an earlier stage of
development in the face of unacceptable impulses.

Compensation
Compensation is a process of psychologically
counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by
emphasizing strength in other areas.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
There are several defense mechanisms that Freud
proposed (Corey, 2008):
Compartmentization
Compartmentalization is a process of separating parts of the
self from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had
separate sets of values.
Intellectualization
Intellectualization is the use of a cognitive approach without the
attendant emotions to suppress and attempt to gain mastery
over the perceived disorderly and potentially overwhelming
impulses.
An individual may use any combination of these coping strategies
during his or her lifetime. It is when these mechanisms fail to protect
the individual at a certain point, however, that the individual will
unconsciously experience an overwhelming sense of emotional
discord, and it will most likely be at this time that he or she seeks
counseling.
Transference and Counter transference
• One of the most important concepts associated with
psychoanalysis is the idea of transference, or the process
of attributing one’s feelings from one person onto another.
• Freud noticed during his practice that some patients
reacted to him as though he were a parent and that female
patients often tended to “fall in love” with him.
• Freud suspected that, during counseling sessions,
patients were unconsciously transferring feelings and
attitudes they had toward early significant figures in their
lives onto him, the analyst.
• He concluded that addressing the transferential
relationship between analyst and patient was an important
curative factor in psychoanalysis, and he made
interpreting the transference the cornerstone of the theory.
 Transference and Counter transference
• Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction toward a counselor, but
it can be seen in many other forms, such as rage, hatred, mistrust,
parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the counselor in a godlike
or guru status (Etchegoyen, 2005).
• And while superficially this appears similar to the definition of a defense
mechanism, such as displacement or projection, the goal of transference is to
expose the unconscious motivation behind the individuals’ defense mechanisms
by repeating or reenacting the attitudes, feelings, impulses, and desires that
were generated in early life in relation to important figures in the individual’s
development.
• This process occurs automatically and unconsciously, and the role of the
counselor is to assume a “blank screen,” during which he or she “becomes a
conduit for exposing the instinctual motivations behind the process, thereby
bringing the process into consciousness where it can be examined and
redirected” (Gill, 2000, p. 38).