V000303 Abstract Psychoanalysis by S. Freud (subject of research, basic methods; image of a person; advantages and limitations of this direction)

How did Freud imagine the structure of the psyche?

The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, did not systematize his teaching about man.
He had his own scheme, but he preferred to demonstrate it in action, describing cases from practice. One of the best systematizations of Freud's theory is presented in the book “Dictionary of Psychoanalysis” by Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis. They showed that Freud used two topics (that is, diagrams), which are understood as the doctrine of the structure of the psyche.

In the first topic it was said that the psyche has two main authorities: the lower one is the unconscious, the upper one is the conscious. Between them there is an instance of censorship, also unconscious. The unconscious has the nature of energy, it is a reservoir of tensions (or drives).

The drives strive to break out and seize power, but censorship - its nature is rather mysterious - puts a barrier to them and forces the drives to come out in a roundabout way.

In the second topic, the psyche already consists of three levels, which are defined by the famous terms “It”, “I” and “Super-ego” (they are also called “Id”, “Ego” and “Superego”). “It” is the unconscious, and its nature is still the same: repressed drives. At the top level, Freud placed the “Super-Ego” - also an unconscious rather than a conscious authority. It is formed under the influence of upbringing and represents internalized images of parents - this is not just upbringing and a system of prohibitions, but also identification of oneself with parents, as well as the formation of one’s own ideal “I”.

Thus, in the second topic there are already two differently directed authorities - “It” and “Super-I”, and between them there is a layer of “I” that has no energy. The function of the “I” is to manage energy flows, respond to pressure from above and below. The “I” cannot do anything, but at the same time it is conscious. In this scheme, the “I” appears even more obviously than before as secondary and derivative relative to the unconscious.

Interestingly, the three-part topic is reminiscent of Plato's picture of the soul: he described it as a chariot with two horses, black and white, and a driver who drives them. In Freud, we also see two engines - conventionally black and conventionally white - and the “I” as the driver (note that Freud did not give the “Id” and “Super-Ego” an ethical assessment).

By the way, Freud’s theory about the instances of the mental apparatus is the first theory developed in philosophy, according to which the psyche consists of parts and is not something whole. Before Freud, the prevailing idea was that the soul is one (for example, Plato and Descartes believed this). But with the advent of the concept of the unconscious, it became easy to talk about parts. This idea has been developed in modern analytical philosophy of consciousness: for example, philosopher Daniel Dennett says that consciousness has no organizing center and its parts are in a state of self-organization (Freud did not make such far-reaching conclusions).

Theoretical foundations of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis by S. Freud - brief and clear

The founder of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis was Sigmund Freud. His works made it possible to find answers to many questions not only within the framework of psychiatry and psychology, but also cultural studies, sociology and anthropology.

Reference! Due to the fact that Freud often associated human problems with unsatisfied sexual desires, his teaching, in addition to enthusiastic followers, had many critics. However, thanks to the Austrian psychiatrist, many new theories have appeared in modern psychoanalysis that differ from each other.

Unsatisfied desires

Freud believed that an individual's dissatisfaction with his own needs can lead to the development of psychosis, depression and phobias.

The influence of unsatisfied desires on a person

Reference! The psychiatrist spoke mainly about instincts and sexual desires.

Freud called for “getting rid” of internal conflict by sublimation – the transfer of energy from unfulfilled desires to useful areas of activity. For example, creativity helps to get rid of sexual dissatisfaction or aggression.

Three levels of the psyche

The theory of psychoanalysis states that a person’s behavior is inextricably linked with his psyche. It consists of 3 levels:

1. "Super-I" or "Super-Ego". Is the highest level of the psyche. Consists of prohibitions, taboos, restrictions and norms. In other words, it is the conscience of the individual.
2. "I" or "Ego". Average mental level. It represents the consciousness of the individual, which guides his behavior. Consists of knowledge, experience and beliefs formed under the influence of society.
3. "It". Lower level of the psyche. In other words, it is the human unconscious, which stores instincts, biological needs and repressed desires. A person is not able to control the processes that occur at this level.

The consciousness of the individual is in a position of constant conflict between the “Super-I” and “It”.

Levels of mental development

To prevent such a “battle” from leading to feelings of guilt, shame and illness, a person needs to learn to transform the energy of unconscious drives into useful channels: science, creativity, raising animals.

The concept of “complex” in psychoanalysis

The term “complex” appeared in psychoanalysis thanks to Freud’s follower A. Adler.

Additional Information! The concept is often used when trying to characterize an indecisive and timid person with low self-esteem.

According to Adler, the complex represents a range of experiences that a person faces due to internal conflicts unfolding between the pressures of society and his own desires.

Complex

Its formation is associated with sensations:

• powerlessness;
• inferiority;
• inability to change the situation.

A person begins to feel that he is worse than others. Such an emotional background can lead to depression, which can result in suicide.

Adler’s works mention a number of other complexes:

1. Jonah complex. It is inherent in a person to doubt his own abilities. The individual is unable to admit the existence of even obvious victories.
2. Polykrit complex. Having achieved success, a person is capable of overly worrying about the fact that he quickly achieved what he wanted.
3. Electra complex. It is characterized by the daughter's unconscious sexual attraction to her father. There is a similar experience in psychology, which is named after the ancient Greek king Oedipus. The Oedipus complex manifests itself in the son's unconscious sexual attraction to his mother.
4. Phaedra complex. Expressed in excessive overprotection of a mother towards her son.

The list of complexes is constantly updated. One way or another, every experience of an individual is associated with an incorrect perception of one’s own social role and the attitude of others towards oneself.

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms in psychoanalysis are aimed at protecting one’s own “I” from negative impulses.

Reference! Sublimation is one of the forms of unconscious overcoming the conflict between the “Super-I” and “It”. This mechanism is not always activated.

Mental protection

Sigmund Freud identified 7 main methods of psychological defense:

1. Repression of desire. If a person is unable to either satisfy his own needs or get rid of them, the defense mechanism represses them to the level of the unconscious. But desires do not disappear anywhere; they continue to influence the personality in a hidden form. The human body reacts painfully to this, wastes energy and emotional resources. Because of this, an individual may develop neurosis and cardiovascular diseases.
2. Rationalization. After committing actions that are condemned by society, a person tries to find justification in his own eyes. In this case, the explanations may look quite logical, but the true motives of behavior will not be realized by the individual.
3. Negation. If a person experiences severe shock, their defense mechanisms may influence their acceptance of the situation. In order to keep the “I” intact, a person is able to begin to deny the obvious: “it seemed to me,” “none of this happened.”
4. Inversion. Psychological defense is aimed at replacing an unsatisfied desire with the opposite. For example, if a woman was unable to interest a man and achieve his love, she begins to look for flaws in him that will help her to hate the young man.
5. Substitution. This defense mechanism is aimed at transferring aggressive behavior to a weak object from a stronger one. An example is a man who is angry with his boss may take it out on his wife.
6. Projection. Often a person transfers his own immoral desires and thoughts onto other people. For example, an indecisive person likes to blame his friends for cowardice; an irresponsible person prefers to blame his colleagues for negligence.
7. Regression. If an individual cannot achieve what he wants using “adult” methods, then he replaces them with primitive “childish” methods. Examples are stress eating, alcoholism, drug addiction.

What is repression and where do dreams come from?

Freud formulated new approaches to the study of the unconscious in his work “The Interpretation of Dreams” in 1900. In it, he came to the conclusion that the unconscious consists of repressed drives, and significantly expanded the idea of ​​​​repression. Freud believed that not only what torments is repressed (as in the case of trauma), but also what a person does not want or cannot recognize in himself: aggression, envy, the desire to compete, a sense of superiority over others.

In the analysis of dreams, Freud proceeded from the fact that it is neither interesting nor necessary for a person to see something neutral in a dream: dreams arise due to the fact that latent desires accumulate in the psyche and require a way out. When they are satisfied in the form of dreams, the person calms down - this phenomenon in psychoanalysis is called fantasy realization.

However, direct satisfaction of desires does not occur in a dream: the primary impulse is transformed into an image that turns out to be acceptable.

The transformation process occurs through displacement, condensation and symbolization.

Freud called displacement the technique of substituting one object or image instead of another based on the principle of similarity: for example, a patient dreams of Uncle Joseph, but what he means is his colleague Joseph. Condensation is the ability of a dream to represent several repressed ones in one image. Symbolization - the appearance in a dream of an image devoid of sexual meaning, instead of a sexual image; this is exactly what has long become a common meme about Freudianism: if you dream of a long object, then it is the male genital organ, and so on.

Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

The main ideological component of Freud's theory and concept of psychoanalysis is characterized by the following provisions: for both men and women, erotic disorders are the main factor leading to the development of the disease. Freud came to this conclusion because other mental experiences do not give rise to repression and replacement. The psychoanalyst noted that other, non-erotic emotional disturbances do not lead to the same results, they do not have such significant significance, and even more - they contribute to the action of sexual moments and can never replace them. Such observations and problems of Freud's psychoanalysis were based on many years of practical experience and were described by the professor in his work “On Psychoanalysis.”

Freud also noted that only childhood experiences explain sensitivity to future trauma. This theory is described in Sigmund Freud's book Introduction to Psychoanalysis. And only by revealing in our consciousness these childhood memories, which are always forgotten in adulthood, can we get rid of the symptoms. Analytical work must extend to the time of puberty and early childhood. Freud substantiated the proposed theory through the concept of the “Oedipus complex” and the sequence of phases in the psychosexual development of each person. There are 4 of these stages in total and they can be associated with basic instincts: oral, anal, phallic, genital.

How are libido, the Oedipus complex and castration fear related?

Beginning with “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” (1905), Freud moves on to interpret the unconscious as repressed libido. In the same work, he introduces the concept of infantile sexuality - the assertion that something like sexuality is characteristic of a person not only after puberty, but from birth (by the way, this idea was met with hostility by the medical community).

Might be interesting:

Anarchism + psychoanalysis = erotic revolution. Who did the representatives of German bohemia love and how?

Infantile sexuality, of course, is not similar to adult sexuality and is associated with the relationship between mother and infant. The first - oral - stage of libido development is experienced during the period when the baby suckles the breast and wants to have undivided possession of the mother. Then the child learns to regulate body functions and control his bowel movements (anal stage) - during this period the foundations of independence and stubbornness are laid. The third stage of sexual development is genital, which occurs during adolescence. Several years pass between the anal and genital stages of sexual development - during this time the child’s interest is transferred from his own body to the world around him.

Freud introduced the concept of the Oedipus complex later, but in fact already in “Three Essays” he completely prepared the ground for this idea, since the relationship between mother and child is also key to it.

The mother is always the first object to which the child feels attraction.

The child’s perception of it changes: at first it is only the mother’s breast, but over time a holistic image is formed.

Freud paints a very convincing diagram of a boy's growing up. As a child, he feels attracted to his mother and wants his mother to be with him all the time, to belong only to him. But at the age of one or two years, the boy begins to feel jealous of his father, who claims his rights to his mother.

Around this age, a boy discovers that women do not have penises. This discovery horrifies him: if someone doesn't have a penis, it means they can lose it too. The fear of castration is combined with jealousy of the father and attraction to the mother - and turns into fear of the father.

According to Freud's theory, in the normal development of a child, the Oedipus complex should move into the identification stage, where the child as a whole continues to want the same thing (to marry his mother), but now expresses it as a desire to grow up and become like his father.

By the way, Freud believed that during psychoanalysis the patient experiences towards the doctor the whole range of feelings that he experienced towards his father in childhood - this could be both love and hostility. Having met a psychoanalyst, a person seems to remember and experience feelings from childhood. Freud called this phenomenon transference. The psychoanalyst, in response to the transference, develops counter-feelings towards the patient - this phenomenon is known as countertransference. As a result, the patient and the psychoanalyst become not indifferent to each other.

Components of the psyche

The human psyche consists of the Conscious and the Unconscious. They are not equivalent: The unconscious tries to suppress consciousness and force the individual to follow his primary drives: Eros and Thanatos. Eros causes sexual desire, Thanatos – the need for death, one’s own and others’. If primary drives merge, a person becomes a maniac. He is unable to be guided by the principles of reality and sees the world as distorted, created to satisfy his desires. The need to achieve harmony between the components of the psyche forces him to commit murders and crimes of a sexual nature.

What did Freud think about the desire for knowledge and what does sublimation have to do with it?

Freud never wrote about epistemology and the theory of knowledge, since he had no interest in philosophy. Moreover, according to the theory of psychoanalysis, a person does not have any special desire for knowledge - he has a libido that has found a certain object. Freud introduces the concept of sublimation. This is what he calls the transfer of libido energy to non-sexual areas - primarily to the area of ​​creativity and cognition.

Nevertheless, Freud's teachings contributed to the development of ideas that determined the face of epistemology in the twentieth century, for example, to the theory of object relations, which was formulated by Freud's student Karl Abraham. This theory is based on the thesis that the drive is primary and the object is secondary.

In psychoanalysis, the processes of cognition in a child are understood as follows: in the subject himself (that is, in the child), a certain drive operates, and around there are various, initially neutral objects. They receive a “load” as a result of the transfusion of energy from a source in the subject. Having received energy from the outside, the object becomes charged, “loaded,” interesting, not indifferent, and necessary. It is curious that from the point of view of psychoanalysis, these qualities are still not properties of the object, since they remain associated with the action of the subject. So we can say that the psychoanalytic theory of interaction between the subject and the world is subjectivist.

Freud begins with the fact that the infant is not aware of the difference between the “I” and the world. He has no definite sense of his own body, no body schema.

A newborn baby cannot yet move independently, so he does not have the feedback between movements and body sensations that is characteristic of an adult. All he has are sensations of pleasure and displeasure. His natural tendency is to place everything that is pleasurable inside himself, and everything that causes discomfort to be external (later this will become important for adults in our typical cognitive distortions).

The baby is busy constructing his surrounding world. He needs to separate the world from himself, and at first he does this very inaccurately. Naturally, the whole world is created and relied upon by him around his own drives. The main attraction of the baby is the satisfaction of hunger, the main object is the breast. The breast is perceived as a good sorceress that appears when the baby wants it. It seems to him that he can control her through the “omnipotence of thoughts” - which Freud attributed to infants (and primitive people). All other objects of the world are also created by the infant subject only through some relation to his own drives.

Apparently, Freud somewhat exaggerated the subjectivity of the world created in this way. For example, from his theory it follows that the baby will not pay attention to the rattles above the crib and to the mother's face, since they do not satisfy his drives. But observations of babies show that this is not so: children willingly focus their gaze on rattles, smile at their mother, and in general, any person - especially one who is slightly older than a newborn - has a selfless interest in the world that is not related to needs. Even animals have a semblance of such interest; ethologists call it search behavior.

Classic Freudian psychoanalysis

A brief overview of Sigmund Freud's classical psychoanalysis: methods, techniques, scope and criticism from the scientific community.

Prerequisites for the emergence of the theory

The theory of psychoanalysis was developed in the late 19th century. There are two important points that precede this, according to Sigmund Freud himself, which he “took into service” when creating his theory. We are talking about the method of the Viennese physician Joseph Breuer and the method of the psychiatrist Hippolyte Bernheim. Freud had the opportunity to work together with the first for some time, and Sigmund Freud observed Dr. Bernheim’s method at one of the demonstrative training sessions.

Dr. Breuer's method . Joseph Breuer, an Austrian psychiatrist, developed a method in 1880–1882 called the catharsis method. His patient, a 21-year-old girl, had paralysis of both right limbs with lack of sensitivity, aversion to eating and a number of other physical and mental disorders. Symptoms of the disease appeared after the death of her beloved father, whom she stopped caring for due to her own illness. Breuer put her into a state of hypnosis, brought her to a situation where her traumatic experiences appeared for the first time, achieved the emotional state that owned her at that moment, and eliminated these “stuck” symptoms of the disease (1, pp. 165–170). The story of her illness was subsequently published jointly by Breuer and Freud in Studies on Hysteria (1895). Affective experiences, as a result of which symptoms of the disease appeared, began to be called mental trauma. The direction of movement was determined: from the last trauma to the original one, and the need to express affect in the process of remembering to free oneself from “stuck” traumatic experiences (1, pp. 170–177).

Dr. Bernheim's method . Hippolyte Bernheim, a psychiatrist, used hypnotic suggestion to treat neurotics. In 1889, Freud was present during one of Bernheim's teaching sessions. During this session, the patient's memories from the sambulic state under hypnosis, overcoming conscious resistance, were successfully restored in the waking state.

Treating hysteria with hypnosis. Artist Pierre-Andre Brouillet. Lecture by Dr. Charcot at the Salpêtrière, 1887. Source: Wikimedia Commons media repository.

Subsequently, Freud introduced the concepts of resistance and repression as a defense mechanism of the psyche. To be able to work with the patient’s resistance and repression, the method of free association was chosen instead of hypnosis. The concept of a conscious substitute for the repressed unconscious was introduced (1, pp. 180–185).

Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis

The main idea of ​​the theory can be briefly characterized by the following quote: “Erotic disorders should be attributed the greatest importance among the factors leading to illness, and this is true for both sexes... Why cannot other mental disturbances give rise to the described phenomena of repression and replacement. I can answer this: I don’t know why other, non-sexual, emotional disturbances should not lead to the same results, and I would have nothing against it; but experience shows that they do not have such a meaning, and at most they help the action of sexual moments, but can never replace the latter,” wrote Freud (1, chapter “On Psychoanalysis,” p. 199).

The necessary analytical work must extend to the time of puberty and early childhood. “Only childhood experiences provide an explanation for sensitivity to future trauma, and only by uncovering and bringing to consciousness these traces of memories, usually almost always forgotten, do we acquire the power to eliminate symptoms” (1, p. 201). To substantiate the theory, Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of the Oedipus complex and successive phases in human psychosexual development (oral, anal, phallic and genital).

Methods of classical psychoanalysis

The means of recognizing the hidden in psychoanalysis are: the method of free association, the interpretation of dreams and the use of random slips and erroneous actions of the patient. The basic rule is that the patient must say everything. “He must say everything, completely abandoning any critical choice, everything that comes to his mind, even if he considers it incorrect, irrelevant, meaningless... By following this rule, we provide ourselves with material that will lead us to the trail of the repressed complexes" (1, p. 190).

The method of free association underlies psychoanalysis and is one of the main ones. The law of association states that if any objects are perceived simultaneously or in close proximity, then the subsequent appearance of one of them may entail awareness of the other. “The patient sometimes becomes silent, stammers and begins to assert that he does not know what to say, that nothing comes to his mind at all... However, more subtle observation shows that such a refusal on the part of thoughts never actually happens” (1, p. .190). Accidental slips of the tongue and erroneous actions reveal hidden, repressed intentions, desires or fears that, for various reasons, a person cannot show.

Unconscious motives. Artist Salvador Dali. A dream inspired by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate, a moment before awakening (1943). Source: WikiArt encyclopedia of visual art.

Interpretation of dreams . Dreams are encrypted messages of the unconscious, and not a meaningless set of images. “Let's imagine that we want to replace a newspaper article with a series of illustrations. This will not be easy to do... it will be even more difficult to do this with abstract words and all parts of speech that express logical relationships." “In the preface to the third English edition in 1931, seventy-five-year-old Sigmund Freud wrote: “This book (*The Interpretation of Dreams), in full accordance with my current ideas, contains the most valuable of the discoveries that favorable fate has allowed me to make. Insights of this kind fall to a person’s lot, but only once in a lifetime” (5).

The peculiar psychosexual direction of the theory of classical psychoanalysis involves the passage of certain mental processes by the analyst and the analysand. Transfer process . “Anyone whose need for love does not receive full satisfaction in reality is forced to turn his libidinal hopes to any new person... Therefore, it is quite natural that the active force of the libido also turns to the personality of the doctor,” wrote Sigmund Freud (1, p. 293 ). “The doctor must admit that the patient’s falling in love is forced by the analytical situation and cannot be attributed to the superiority of his person and that he has no reason to be proud of such a “conquest,” as it would be called outside of analysis” (1, p. 303). The process of countertransference . Countertransference is the analyst's unconscious feelings toward the patient. “This phenomenon represents one of the main dangers for the psychoanalyst; it can lead to mental infection of both.”

Resistance processing process . “Overcoming resistance begins with the fact that the doctor reveals a resistance that has never been recognized by the analysand and points to it... indicating resistance is not immediately followed by its cessation. It is necessary to give the patient time to delve into resistance unknown to him, to process it, to overcome it...” (1, chapter “Methods and techniques of psychoanalysis,” p. 284). The patient's resistance is an unconscious defense mechanism; it prevents him from realizing his unacceptable repressed thoughts and desires. “This processing of resistances becomes in practice a painful task for the analysand and a test of the doctor’s patience. But it is precisely this part of the work that has the greatest transformative effect on the patient, and it distinguishes analytical treatment from any influence through suggestion” (1, p. 285). The process of catharsis . Catharsis is an emotional release, as a result of which a person is freed from repressed, traumatic experiences. This is the resolution of a neurotic conflict due to the memory and experience of negative emotions that were once “stuck” in the psyche.

Sigmund Freud, 1922. Photo by Max Halberstadt. Source:

Technique of classical psychoanalysis

A general idea of ​​technical techniques can be obtained from the following explanations of Sigmund Freud: 1. “I insist on the advice of placing the patient on the sofa, while the doctor should take a place behind him so that the patient does not see him... Because during listening I myself surrender the flow of my unconscious thoughts, I do not want my facial expression to give the patient material for interpretation or to influence what he says” (1, chapter “Psychoanalysis and Character”, p. 259). 2. The patient should not be told what to talk about. “In general, it makes no difference what material to start treatment with, whether from life history, medical history or childhood memories... the patient is told: “Before I can tell you anything, I need to know a lot about you, please tell me everything about yourself.” what do you know about yourself? (1, p. 259). 3. You must say everything. There are no secrets or immodesty towards third parties. You can't hide names, dates, anything. “You must submit to this demand” (1, p. 260). 4. “It is necessary to eliminate all conscious influence on one’s ability to remember and surrender entirely to the “unconscious memory” or, technically speaking, one must listen and not care whether one remembers anything... The analysand often claims that he has already made some kind of message before , meanwhile, calmly, aware of his superiority, one can assure him that this message has now been made for the first time” (1, p. 317). 5. Working with dreams is one of the main methods of the theory. “After he was told the content of a dream, Freud began to ask the same question about individual elements of this dream: what comes to the narrator’s mind about this element when he thinks about it?” (5, “Interpretation of Dreams”). In understanding the unconscious needs expressed in dreams, according to Sigmund Freud, lies the key to understanding the problem itself. 6. When can you begin to give the patient the necessary information, when does the time come to reveal to him the secret meaning of the thoughts that appear in him? Not earlier than when the process of transference begins to develop. “The first goal of treatment remains to bind the patient to the treatment and to the personality of the doctor. And for this you need to do only one thing - give the patient enough time” (1, p. 265).

Scope of the theory . Classical psychoanalysis is not designed for people over 50 years of age: “Persons over 50 years of age have lost the plasticity of mental processes that therapy relies on.” The technique is also inapplicable to persons “who do not have a known education and a relatively trustworthy character,” wrote Freud (1, chapter “Method and technique of psychoanalysis,” p. 224). “I have developed a rule to only accept patients whom I know little for a period of one or two weeks” (1, p. 248). Analysis should not be used for close and dear people: “As for the treatment of “relatives,” in this regard I confess to my complete confusion and generally have little confidence in the individual influence on them” (1, p. 325). With neuroses, it is dangerous to push a person to be stronger than he is capable of. “A fair number of those who are now fleeing illness will not survive under the expected conditions of the conflict, but will quickly die or cause worse misfortunes than their own neurotic illness” (1, p. 238).

Guarantees . Some patients ask to be freed from one specific symptom, “but they overestimate the selective power of the analysis. Of course, a medical analyst can achieve a lot, but he is not able to determine exactly what he can do” (1, p. 255). Classical psychoanalysis is long-term, we are talking about years. When asked how long the treatment could last, Freud answered in the words of Aesop: “To answer the length of the road, you need to know the traveler’s step and the speed of his movement” (1, p. 252). “I allow everyone to terminate treatment whenever he pleases, but I do not hide from him that stopping treatment after a short period of work will not give any success and, like an unfinished operation, will easily lead him to an unsatisfactory state” (1, p. 254).

The road leading to nowhere. Photo shoot with Canadian model Rick Genest. Source: portal about cinema in RuNet KinoPoisk.

Criticism of the theory of psychoanalysis

For many provisions of psychoanalysis, there is no way to refute them in principle, and therefore they cannot be considered scientific. “Yale University psychology professor Paul Bloom noted that Freud’s statements are so vague that they cannot be verified by any reliable method and therefore cannot be applied from a scientific point of view” (Bloom P. Introduction to Psychology) (5). Philosopher Leslie Stevenson, analyzing the concept of Sigmund Freud in the book “Ten Theories of Human Nature” (Eng. Ten Theories of Human Nature, 1974), drew attention to a number of points that are more characteristic of a sect, whose representatives “can easily analyze in a derogatory way motivation of critics - that is, to attribute to unconscious resistance any attempts to doubt the truth of the concept they share. In essence, Freudianism is a closed system that neutralizes any evidence of falsification, and can be perceived as an ideology, the acceptance of which is mandatory for every psychoanalyst” (3, 5). “Biologist and Nobel laureate Peter Medawar described psychoanalysis as “the greatest intellectual fraud of the twentieth century” (5). If we talk about the most famous students and associates of Sigmund Freud, such as Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung, then they all subsequently moved away from the key postulate of the theory (the sexual factor as the main motive for the occurrence of mental disorders). The study of a person’s mental and mental state was shifted towards the socio-cultural elements of society and the environment.

Literature: 1. Freud, Z. Beyond pleasure / Transl. with him. – Mn.: Harvest, 2004. – 432 p. 2. Bern, E. People who play games. 3. Jose, Brunner. Freud and politics of psychoalanysis. – NJ: Transaction Publishing, 2001. 4. Stevenson, Leslie. Critical discussion / Ten theories about human nature. – SLOVO/SLOVO, 2004. 5. Wikipedia. [Electronic resource] / Freud, Sigmund. 6. Freud, Z. Interpretation of dreams / Ed. ed. E. S. Kalmykova, M. B. Agracheva, A. M. Bokovikov. – M.: Firma STD, 2005.

What are projection and rationalization?

The concepts of projection and rationalization are also associated with epistemology and the theory of knowledge. Both projection and rationalization indicate that we often see reasons for our feelings and actions that have nothing to do with the real reasons.

In near-psychoanalytic speech, projection refers to the tendency of people to attribute to others qualities that they themselves have. But Freud understood projection more broadly and deeply. From his point of view, projection is close to the concept of load - this is a person’s tendency to see the causes of his feelings in external objects, while we ourselves load the objects with our own relationships.

For example, a person woke up for some reason in a bad mood, and it seems to him that his wife, child, or dog are to blame. And the next day he wakes up and everything is fine with him - and now he has a beloved wife, a smart child, and a wonderful dog.

Another example: we feel hostility towards a person for unconscious reasons unknown to us, but since we feel the need to somehow explain to ourselves the feeling that has arisen, it begins to seem to us that this person himself is hostile to us, and we are only responding to him. This is how we unconsciously place the reasons for our feelings in the world around us. (By the way, projection is an effective tool for understanding delusions in paranoid schizophrenia. This is a case where the primary disturbance appears to be pathological affect, an acute experience of fear or wariness, probably due to biochemical disturbances in the brain. However a person must somehow explain to himself his condition: if there is fear, then something dangerous is happening. This is how the delusion of persecution is born.)

Rationalization is a person's tendency to explain his actions by internal motivation rather than by external reasons.

Suppose a person under hypnosis was given a delayed suggestion, saying: “Five minutes after you wake up, you will jump and clap your hands.” The man wakes up and five minutes later jumps up, claps his hands and exclaims something like: “I remembered where I put the keys!” The person jumped because of a suggestion, but does not know about it and therefore feels the need to explain his action to himself (the person comes up with the reason, of course, unconsciously).

Methods of psychoanalysis

Behaviorism is in psychology, briefly and clearly

The basic rule of psychoanalysis is that the client should say out loud everything that comes to his mind. Thanks to this information, a person will be able to displace from himself all the complexes and barriers that interfere with life.

In the practice of recognizing the unconscious, 3 methods of psychoanalysis are most widely used:

• dream interpretation;
• free association method;
• use of erroneous actions and reservations of the client.

Free association method

Psychoanalysis is based on the method of free association. It is used to correct and treat mental disorders. The study of unconscious processes in the psyche allows the patient to realize the source of his own problems and how to eliminate it.

Method example

Additional Information! The psychoanalytic method of free association was first created in 1879 by Francis Galton.

An English psychologist wrote 75 words on separate cards. Then he pulled one out of the deck and carefully examined the contents. Galton wrote down all the thoughts that arose while reading the card in his diary. At the end of the experiment, the psychologist realized that his associations clearly reflected the essence of thoughts.

Reference! After Galton, Freud began to actively use a similar method.

It was thanks to the famous Austrian psychiatrist that this psychotherapeutic tool gained wide popularity.

Dream interpretation method

Dreams are encrypted messages received by a person from the unconscious. Psychoanalysis of dreams allows us to study repressed desires that the individual tries to “drown out” while awake.

Dreams

Reference! Sigmund Freud believed that the more confusing a dream, the more hidden meaning it contains.

The psychiatrist treated night images as symptoms of diseases. Freud was convinced that it is impossible to analyze a dream as a whole, it is necessary to painstakingly study each of its elements. Only in this case will analysis make it possible to reveal the essence of the emerging “pictures”.

Interpretation method

Interpretation is an important tool that allows the psychoanalyst to correctly decipher the client's dreams and free associations. Paying attention to the client's mistakes and reservations during the session, the psychologist notes the person's hidden fears, desires and intentions, which for some reason he cannot manifest in life.

Important! Using this method, significant information from the unconscious level is analyzed and realized by the client.

The work of a psychoanalyst

Together with a psychoanalyst, a person represses thoughts that cause him anxiety and restlessness. This method is actively used to alleviate the symptoms of neurosis and other mental problems.

What is the pleasure principle and the reality principle, and what does fantasy have to do with it?

According to the pleasure principle, every desire should be satisfied immediately. Fantasy serves to comply with this principle. From Freud's point of view, fantasy is an unconscious mechanism that is triggered by drive. Under no circumstances should one assume that a person decides what to fantasize about. Fantasy, like drives, is a physiologically conditioned and compulsory thing.

The principle of reality is associated with the fact that over time the child realizes the opportunity to satisfy desires not only fantasy, but also in reality. However, to do this, he needs to overcome certain difficulties, which means sacrificing the immediate satisfaction of desire. This is how the child gradually learns to act in reality.

In adults, the reality principle replaces the pleasure principle. As a consequence, the pleasure principle withdraws into fantasies, the drives stimulate fantasy ways of satisfying them, and the conscious “I,” fully imbued with the reality principle, uses fantasies as material for choosing goals.

Example: let's say a person is hungry. This need arises at the physiological level, but then the imagination begins to sort out possible ways to satisfy hunger: go to an expensive restaurant, to a simple cafe, to a buffet, to home, to cook soup, to make a sandwich.

From the point of view of fantasy, Freud emphasizes, all options are equivalent, because it has no idea of ​​​​obstacles. Taking into account obstacles is a matter of the reality principle. The reality principle should weed out those options that seem unacceptable (for example, going to an expensive restaurant or making a unhealthy sandwich). Already at the conscious level, the “I” may hesitate for some time between several acceptable options, but then it makes a decision and transfers it to the level of an action program.

Applied aspect of psychoanalysis

The teachings of Sigmund Freud formed the basis of psychoanalysis. This direction conventionally contains not only a theoretical, but also a practical component. In modern times, psychoanalysis refers to the effective determination of techniques that are necessary for conducting psychodiagnostic and psychoanalytic sessions.

Psychoanalysis as a diagnosis of mental state

Negative emotions, neuroses, phobias, frustration - this is just a small list of conditions that a person faces throughout his life. All these experiences lead to the development of internal conflicts.

Reference! Psychoanalysis comes to the rescue in the fight against unpleasant conditions, the subject of which is the hidden unconscious of a person.

Diagnostics

To help the client understand himself, the correct formulation of the problem is of great importance. To make a “diagnosis,” the psychoanalyst needs to find the “historical” reasons for the individual’s suffering. This can be done using four vectors of attention:

1. It is necessary to examine the client's childhood memories.
2. Analyze the events that led the person to the psychoanalyst’s office. These may include thoughts, unbearable feelings, and various situations that caused discomfort.
3. The person’s memories of adolescence, data about adult life and plans for the future should be analyzed.
4. Client feedback on data analytics must not be ignored.

Thanks to dynamically formulated material, the psychoanalyst will not only be able to understand what kind of personality he is dealing with, but will also help awaken in the client a simple desire to understand his own psyche.

The therapeutic component of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is often confused with psychotherapy, but these two directions use different approaches to influence the human psyche. The psychotherapist does not put pressure on the client, does not try to form a “pattern” of correct behavior, and does not give recommendations or advice. Its main goal is to reveal the individual’s internal reserves, which will allow him to independently cope with existing problems.

Reference! According to the psychoanalytic direction, this is enough to improve the client’s life.

Therapy session

Psychoanalysis does not end there. During the session, a person faces a number of psychological blocks and internal conflicts. This is due to the fact that it is difficult for the client to accept the truth about himself, which was revealed during the therapeutic session.

Important! The task facing the psychoanalyst is to encourage the individual to independently destroy the “barriers” that have arisen.

Thanks to this short approach, a person learns not only to see the reasons for his own problems, but also to overcome them. In the USA and Western Europe, the active use of individual psychoanalysis has proven that this is an excellent way to increase self-confidence and emotional tone of the individual.

Despite the fact that many of the postulates of the founder Sigmund Freud are today considered untenable, the psychiatrist did fundamental work that served as a springboard for the development of various types of psychoanalysis. No matter what mistakes are made, thanks to them, psychology does not stand still, but improves day by day.

Why did Freud need Thanatos and how does it explain the death drive?

In his next important theoretical work, the book Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Freud had to revise some of the provisions of his theory.

The need to reform the theory arose in connection with the consequences of the First World War. The war neuroses that arose in combat veterans could not be explained through disturbances in the organization of libido, which were used to explain ordinary neuroses.

Freud's thoughts received a new stimulus when he saw a one-and-a-half-year-old child playing: he was throwing a reel tied to his hand by a thread. When the coil disappeared from the child’s field of vision, he shouted: “There!”, and pulling the coil towards himself, he stated: “Here.” Freud saw in this game a training in the general ability to be deprived and get used to the absence of an object, and in the reel - a symbol of treasure, from the mother to one’s own life.

Using this analogy, Freud explained the origin of war neuroses in people returning from the First World War: in his opinion, their ability to experience pain was not sufficiently trained. These people were not mentally prepared for the horrors they endured and for death in war.

In the same theory, Freud adds one more to the list of drives - the drive for peace. Freud associated it with the death drive, or Thanatos. Like libido (or Eros), Thanatos can be directed inward or outward—it is nirvana and aggression, respectively. Self-directed Thanatos is inextricably linked with self-directed Eros (or self-love), and outward-directed Thanatos is associated with outward-directed Eros (love of an external object). In fact, the doctrine of Thanatos became a continuation of the idea of ​​narcissism, by which Freud understood self-love (the work of the libido directed towards the Self-object).

The idea of ​​narcissism generally comes into contact with the most important philosophical teachings; it is not for nothing that Freud also uses the expression “principle of nirvana” with a reference to Buddhism for it. A very important skill for a person throughout his adult life is to have a positive attitude towards existence, to appreciate it in itself. Unfortunately, very often a person acquires this skill only in adulthood, when there is little existence left, and sometimes he does not acquire it at all.

The origins of smoking addiction

Freud divided mental development into stages depending on the method of obtaining pleasure. He called the first oral - the stage of receiving pleasure using the mouth area. Babies, feeding on milk from the mother's breast, stimulate the oral cavity. In the process of satiation, they develop a feeling of satisfaction, and it is automatically associated with swallowing, chewing, and licking.

Freud believed that smoking addiction occurs in people who need to satisfy their needs, but have the ability to realize them. These people mentally return to the first stage of development and unconsciously strive to influence the oral cavity.

Freud once stated that women's addiction to smoking is a subconscious desire for oral sex. The scientist himself suffered from nicotine addiction, and his students immediately reminded him of this, hoping to confuse him. In response to this, Freud said his famous phrase, which later became a catchphrase: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

How did Freud explain the prohibition on incest and what kind of relationship did he have with his mother?

In his later works, Freud turned to the analysis of society and culture - he wrote about them in the books “Totem and Taboo” (1913), “Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human Self” (1921), “Discontent with Culture” (1930).

The book “Totem and Taboo” can be classified as “psychoanalytic fiction,” for which Freud was rightly criticized. The work contains some very outlandish ideas that are easy to question, such as the suggestion that the common human feeling of parental guilt in many cultures stems from the fact that in primitive times a group of brothers allegedly ritually murdered their father. Freud also connects the persistence of certain taboos in culture with this.

However, the main theme of this book is avoiding incest. Freud interprets the traditions of exogamy from this position, adding to his usual theme of incest of children and parents also the theme of avoiding incest between a man and his mother-in-law.

The libido-based relationship between parents and children is not such an extravagant Freudian fantasy as it may seem to people far from psychoanalysis.

Unfortunately, the transfer of mother's libido to the child is a fairly common occurrence. Let's give an example. When a person is in love, it seems to him that the object of his love is better than everyone else, and the object is described in superlatives. When a young man falls in love with a girl, it seems to him that she is the most beautiful of all, the most wonderful of all - this is natural, since the object of libido is the girl. As for the girl, she often treats her chosen one calmly and can see his shortcomings. But when a girl looks at her child, it seems to her that he is the best, most beautiful and smartest - she overestimates not her partner, but her child. The girl relates objectively to her partner, but subjectively to the child, so that the object of her libido is the child.

Later, Lacan discussed this feature of the relationship between mother and child, talking about how important it is for the father to intervene in this relationship. Modern psychotherapy also adheres to the idea that a too close relationship with the mother is undesirable. And since the classical two-parent family form is in crisis, psychotherapists will sooner or later have to develop teachings on how best to raise fatherless children while preventing libidinal transferences from the mothers.

By the way, it is known that Freud’s mother treated him with delight, which played a big role in the early development of his character. His character developed strong. But if Freud had been weaker by nature, his mother could have subjugated him.

Three-component structural model of the psyche

In his early works, S. Freud singled out only the conscious and unconscious aspects of personality. The conscious part is small, as if it is only the tip of the iceberg, and in its essence is not significant. But the unconscious part is vast, occupying most of the iceberg. The subconscious mind contains the instincts and driving forces of human behavior.

Over time, Freud revised this simple division into conscious and unconscious and began to talk about the relationship between the three components of personality - Id (It), Ego (I) and Super-Ego (Super-I) .

1. Id (It) is a source of primitive biological drives and instincts, entirely related to the sphere of the unconscious. This is the most primitive and least accessible part of the personality; it is the original, primitive structure of the psyche. The id is closely related to biological drives (sleep, food, water, sexual desire, etc.) that energize human behavior.

Id stimuli demand immediate gratification without regard to anything else. They operate according to the pleasure principle, which seeks only opportunities to relieve tension by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The id is the main source of our psychic energy, libido, which manifests itself in the form of tension. An increase in libidinal energy leads to an increase in tension, which we then try in various ways to reduce to a normal level. For example, if a person is thirsty, he must satisfy his need for water. This will reduce the tension caused by thirst.

The id is like a small child who does not yet understand the rules of the world around him. He actively tries to get everything to satisfy his desires and needs, without assessing his capabilities and abilities, possible inconveniences for himself and others, as well as the consequences of his actions. For him, only “I want” exists, so the Id is controlled by the Ego.

2. Ego (I) is the rational and most conscious part of the personality, designed to adapt the impulses of the Id to social, economic and other restrictions imposed by the outside world.

This component of the psyche is responsible for decision making; this is the area in which intellectual processes occur. The ego seeks to express and satisfy the desires of the id in accordance with the requirements and restrictions imposed by the external world (in a way that is safe for the individual and adequate for society).

The ego is oriented toward causality and rationality, unlike the id. It follows the principle of reality, restraining the impulses of the id until a suitable object is found with the help of which the need can be satisfied and mental stress relieved.

The ego does not exist separately from the id. Moreover, the Ego derives its strength from the Id. The Ego itself exists, in fact, to help the Id.

3. Super-Ego (Super-I) is an internalized system of norms, rules and restrictions imposed on an individual by family and society, which is partly realized and partly remains in the unconscious.

The superego represents morality. From this it becomes clear why the Super-Ego cannot help but conflict with the Id, i.e. with a structure that does not recognize morality or any norms. Unlike the Ego, which tries to delay the fulfillment of the desires of the Id until a more appropriate opportunity, the Super-Ego intends to completely suppress these desires.

A person is not born with a Super-Ego. It is formed in the process of socialization - starting from the period when the child first learns what is “good” and what is “bad” and begins to distinguish between “right” and “wrong” (3-5 years). Children acquire a superego through their interactions with parents, teachers, and other “formative figures.”

As a result, the Ego appears, according to Freud, as an arena of continuous struggle between powerful and incompatible forces. He constantly has to maneuver between a rock and a hard place, trying to cope with the insistence and impatience of the id, correlate his actions with reality, relieve mental stress, and at the same time also deal with the continuous desire of the superego for perfection. In cases where the Ego is subjected to too much pressure, a situation called anxiety arises.

What did Freud think about the existence of taboos in society?

In subsequent works, Freud continued to develop the social aspects of his theory, moving from the family to the theme of society. In the book “Psychology of the Masses” he raises questions about the mechanisms of mutual infection in the crowd.

From Freud's point of view, the crowd cannot have reason, it does not weigh the pros and cons, and is also capable of colossal achievements and equally colossal destruction. An individual person in a crowd loses the ability for critical thinking and becomes just a dependent cell of an entire organism, which is many times stronger and more unreasonable than each person. In a crowd, a person seems to lose his head and also becomes much stronger and much more unreasonable than his usual self.

In this part, Freud repeated the ideas formulated by Gustave Le Bon in his book The Psychology of Crowds. However, Freud saw his task as going further and describing the state of a person in a crowd from the point of view of psychoanalysis and the theory of the “Super-Ego” - the authority of conscience, formed as a result of the internalization of the image of the father.

In a normal state, a person lives under the burden of conscience and suffers from it. At the same time, it is conscience that gives a person the opportunity to stop and think before acting; It is the ability to weigh the pros and cons that gives a person the opportunity to act freely and autonomously.

In the crowd, a person refuses the internalized “Super-Ego” - he, as it were, returns to the state of a child and delegates his “Super-Ego” to the one who in the crowd takes on the role of “father” (leader, commander, leader).

Freud, being an extreme anti-clerical, tried to bring the church under this theory, but encountered difficulties of a theoretical nature; after all, the church is not an enthusiastic crowd. Nevertheless, Freud saw in the church the beginning of mass development and said that the priest or the figure of God takes on the form of the “Super-Ego” in it.

What is psychoanalysis

To study a person's personality, psychology uses different methods. The most widespread is psychoanalysis, the founder of which is Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud

In the 19th century, a psychiatrist published his work “Introduction to Psychoanalysis,” thereby making a “revolution.”

Reference! According to Freud, psychoanalysis is an important way in psychology for studying the unconscious, as well as self-knowledge and treatment of one’s own personality.

The psychiatrist had many students and followers. Thanks to extensive attention to the human unconscious, many branches of psychoanalysis have emerged in psychology.

Jung's psychoanalysis

Carl Gustav Jung introduced into psychoanalysis the concept of the “collective unconscious.” He believed that society is characterized by certain general forms of mental representations - the so-called archetypes.

Important! Jung was convinced that the human “libido” is endowed with more than just sexual energy. It is also characterized by mental manifestation, which is expressed in creative, intellectual and spiritual development.

K.G. Jung

Freud often criticized Karl for excessive unsubstantiated statements and mysticism. Because of this, Jung's psychoanalysis in psychology increasingly “moved away” from Freudianism.

Freud's psychoanalysis

When talking about who is the real author of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud immediately comes to mind. At the beginning of his career, the outstanding doctor of psychiatry actively collaborated with Jean-Marais Charcot, Joseph Breuer, Ernest Brücke and other scientists.

Reference! According to Freud, it was these people who allowed him to understand what psychoanalysis is and how it can be applied.

Thanks to scientific work, the psychiatrist realized that not every hysteria is caused by physiological reasons. In this regard, he coined terms such as “subconscious” and “unconsciousness” and was able to create the theory of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that the human psyche is consistent and continuous.

What is the subconscious

Reference! Any thought, desire or action is formed according to conscious or unconscious motives.

Thus, every action is reflected in the future. To develop this idea, a special educational institution was created; the founder of the first school of psychoanalysis was S. Freud.

Lacanian psychoanalysis

Jacques Lacan is not only a French psychiatrist, philosopher and psychoanalyst, but also the man who invented Lacanian psychoanalysis.

Reference! Initially, Lacan supported Freud's views, but the further he delved into his teachings, the more he became disillusioned with them and developed his own philosophy.

Jacques Lacan

In the traditional direction of psychoanalysis, each symptom is given a secret meaning that needs to be unraveled and spoken. Lacan's paradigm is based on the idea that illness cannot be prevented by talking alone. Therefore, his psychoanalysis cannot do without the use of topologies and mathematical schemes.

Existential psychoanalysis

The concept of “existential psychoanalysis” appeared in psychological theory thanks to Jean-Paul Sartre. Criticizing the work of Freud, the French writer, playwright and philosopher came up with his own doctrine of human existence in the world.

Important! Sartre's existential psychoanalysis included not only the ideas of Freud, but also the representative of existentialism M. Heidegger.

Jean-Paul Sartre

The philosopher did not support the idea of ​​considering a person’s present through the prism of past events. He believed that attitudes towards the future and prospects are much more important and understandable for the individual than reliving childhood memories. The basic principle of existential psychoanalysis is to consider a person as a single whole, which is endowed with a special meaning.

Kinds

Classic Freudianism

The basic concept in a nutshell: any mental disorder is the result of a conflict between the unconscious (formed under the influence of psychosexual development) and the conscious (dictated by upbringing and social norms).

Jungian psychoanalysis

Another name is analytical (complex) psychology. The goal is to comprehend and integrate the deep forces and motivations of human behavior through the phenomenology of not only dreams (as in Freud), but also folklore and mythology. The key concept is the collective unconscious.

Statistical

Olga Pertseva’s author’s technique, based on the square (psychomatrix) of Pythagoras. Allows you to create a digital portrait of a person, uncomplicated by society’s patterns imposed by patterns of thinking and behavior. One of the directions in numerology.

Existential

The technique of existential psychotherapy developed by J.-P. Sartre. According to her, a person is a complete integrity, and not a complex of behavior patterns that come into conflict with sexual instincts (as with Freud). The main tool is observation.

Humanistic

The founder is Fromm. Denies the leading role of sexual desires in personality development. Focuses attention on other factors of its formation - sociological, political, economic, religious and cultural.

Structural

The founder is J. Lacan. A direction that uses the special meaning of language to characterize the unconscious. It is actively used for the treatment of speech disorders caused by mental disorders and childhood trauma.

Ego psychology

The leading role in the psyche is assigned to the Ego (according to the classical concept, it was played by the Id). Representatives: A. Freud (the youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud), E. Glover, E. Erikson.

Object Relations Theory

The basis of the British school of psychoanalysis. The basic idea is that people’s attitudes towards the world around them in adulthood are formed under the influence of experiences in childhood. The main representatives are M. Klein and D. Sandler.

Modern schools with a psychoanalytic approach to the treatment of disorders are also Kohut's Self psychology, Sullivan's interpersonalism and Stolorow's intersubjectivism.

Theory

An analysand is a patient with whom a psychoanalyst works.

Metapsychology is the entire theory of psychoanalysis.

Topographic model of the psyche:

• conscious - its superficial, understandable, visible part;
• unconscious - hidden, incomprehensible, mysterious, unconscious;
• preconscious - borderline, located in the area of ​​​​the unconscious, but breaking out during certain situations of choice or in dreams.

Structural model of the psyche:

• Id (It) - instinct, obeys the principle of pleasure;
• Ego (I) - contact with the outside world through perception, controls behavior and thinking;
• Superego (Super-I) - moral norms, values ​​based on moral prohibitions and formed in the process of education.

Personality structure according to S. Freud
Stages of psychosexual development - experience that leaves an imprint in the form of moral attitudes, character traits, behavior patterns:

1. Oral phase (from birth to 1.5 years) - dominance of the id.
2. Anal (1.5-3.5) - the formation of the super-ego under the influence of norms, rules, restrictions, prohibitions.
3. Phallic (3.5-6) ​​- increased interest in sex, which most often leads to Oedipus or Electra complexes.
4. Latent (6-12) - absence of manifestations, break.
5. Genital, adult (from 12 years old).

A protective psychological mechanism is an unconscious mental process aimed at eliminating negative experiences:

• substitute;
• compensatory;
• displacing;
• denying;
• projecting;
• sublimating;
• rationalizing;
• retrogressive.

These are the basic defense mechanisms described by Freud. Today the list has been significantly expanded and includes more than 30 mental processes.