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)
1) Psychoanalytic Terms:
ReplyDeleteAgoraphobia: Panic disorder with agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder in which a person has attacks of intense fear and anxiety. There is also a fear of being in places where it is hard to escape, or where help might not be available.
Displacement: an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.
Libidinal development: the psychic energy derived from instinctive biological drives; in early freudian theory it was restricted to the sexual drive, then expanded to all expressions of love and pleasure, but has evolved to include also the death instinct.
2) Questions:
Question 1: How is it possible for a child to develop envy & jealousy toward the opposite sex parent when the experiences of the outside world aren't as significant to the child like to the parent?
Question 2: Does a child substitute an animal with a human as a means of coping/trying to make assurance with how a specific person is? Domestic dog or cat = sweet, loving and caring. Bear or lion = dangerous, hard to approach or associate with
3)Qoutes:
Qoute 1 for Question 1: "His own body (in particular his penis) was, of course, smaller than that of his father and so the latter was still marked out as a rival of whom he could not hope to get the better."
Qoute 2 for Question 2: "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."
1)
ReplyDeleteDisplacement: taking out frustration on people or objects that are less threatening
Neurosis: obsessive thoughts, anxiety depression, unhappiness, distress, compulsive acts and physical complaints without any evidence of a disease
Regression: when confronted by stressful events people abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used in earlier development
2)
An idea that I was confused on was the interpretation of a lion, which represents the father, between the two boys in their fantasies. In one instance the lion was “disguised [as the boys] friend” and was “harmless.” In another instance the boy was a lion tamer at a circus and was taming the father who was disguised as a lion. Why does one boy see the lion as a friend and the other one have the power to control the lion?
Does having fantasies help a patient recover from the Oedipus complex?
3)
Quotes for question one
“He called this anxiety animal his friend, and its strength, instead of being a source of terror…” (56)
“In both children aggressiveness was transformed into anxiety and the affect was displaced from the father onto an animal.” (56)
Quote for question two
“The fantasies helped him [Little Hans] to reconcile himself to reality just as his neurosis had enabled him to come to terms with his instinctual impulses.” (55)
1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions
ReplyDeletea. Displacement: an unconscious defense mechanism in which the mind replaces a dangerous goal with a new object/aim. (ex: father to anxiety animal).
b. Reversal: The second unconscious defense mechanism which is the theory of personality, motivation, and emotion.
c. Regression: The last uncoscious defense mechanism which leads to a reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development (adolescence) rather than facing reality. (The creation offantasies
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).
a. Why are animals (lions in particular) such a big part of children's fantasies and dreams?
3q. "Thus the 'evil' father becomes in fantasy the protective animal, while the helpless child becomes the master of power father substituetes. 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 measures against its instinual impulses and to the formation of neurosis" (80).
b. What makes fantasies so appealing to children?
3q. "Intellectually they were very well able to distinguish between fantasy and fact. But in the sphere of affect they cancelled the objective painful facts and performed a hypercathexis of the fantasy in which these were reverssed, so that the pleasuyure which they derived from imagination tyiumphed over the objective unpleasure" (81).
Jack Strosser
ReplyDeleteFink
8 February 2015
1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions
Castration Anxiety: "1 [:] the fantasized fear of injury or loss of the genital organs, often as the reaction to a repressed feeling of punishment for forbidden sexual desires. It may also be caused by some apparently threatening everyday occurrence, such as a humiliating experience, loss of a job, or loss of authority.
2 [:] a general threat to the masculinity or femininity of a person or an unrealistic fear of bodily injury or loss of power. Also called anxiety complex." SOURCE: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Castration+Anxiety.
Instinctual Anxiety: " [is the] more primitive and primary anxiety relates to a traumatic experience of total disintegration leading to possible annihilation, consequent on being flooded by overwhelming quantities of instinctual tension. Laplanche and Pontalis describe automatic or primary anxiety as 'the subject's reaction each time he finds himself in a traumatic situation- that is each time he is confronted by an inflow of excitations, whether of external or internal origin, which he is unable to master.' . (Laplanche and Pontalis The Language of Psychoanalysis 1985)." SOURCE: http://www.freud.org.uk/education/topic/10575/subtopic/40014/
Anxiety Animal: Seems to me, from the reading, that an anxiety animal is an animal that children with specific anxieties assign to a specific part of their life and their psyche that actually represent some other figure in their life. They carry these animals with them through their daily lives in a variety of ways.
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).
Q: So, when talking about Little Hans, do they posit that he cannot fully love his mother because of his anxiety and fear of his father?
Attached quote: "these defense mechanisms had to be reversed [what defense mechanisms? Confused.] His instinctual impulses were freed from distortion and his anxiety was dissociated from the idea of horses and traced back to its real object--his father, ... 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)
Q: Is the Anxiety Animal only existent in children?
Attached Quote: "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. In certain acute psychotic confusional states the patient's ego behaves towards reality in precisely this way. 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)
3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place)
1)
ReplyDeleteEgo-ideal- “The Ego-ideal is s the inner image of oneself as one wants to become.” It is what the self wants to become, or the ego nurtured more by the superego.
Reversal- When the subject distorts its reality in a dream to make the Id and anxiety more controllable. In many cases, it involves the oedipal complex.
Cathexis- Is the process of investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea.
2)
a)Is Id-ego always presenting the possibility of doing harm or bad?
b)Can the Id and Superego have the same goal or “idea” instead of always being the opposite?
3)
a) “The dangerous ones symbolize the untamed id, not yet subjected to the ego and superego control, in all its dangerous energy. The helpful animals represent our natural energy- again the id- but now made to serve the best interests if the total personality” (76). Bringing Chaos
b) In all these situations of conflict the person’s ego is seeking to repudiate a part of his own id. this the institution which sets up the defense and the invading force which is warded off are always the same” (70).
1.
ReplyDeleteObsessional Neurosis -An anxiety disorder characterized by the persistent and repetitive intrusion of unwanted thoughts, urges, or actions that the individual is unable to prevent.
Regression- moving backwards to a more comfortable state
Displacement- is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.
(definitions from google)
2.
How come the Id and Superego are never in direct conflicts in the formation of the defense mechanism?
Can a child's constant substitution of animals for humans be linked to exposure of one-dimensional characters found in fairy tales?
3.
"Psychoanalytic investigation of the problems of defense has developed in the following way: beginning with the conflicts between the id and the ego institutions (as exemplified in hysteria, obsessional neurosis, etc), it passed on to the struggle between the ego and the superego (in melancholia) and then proceeded to the study of the conflicts between the ego and the outside world" (69).
"Such a substitution of an animal for a human object is not in itself a neurotic process; it occurs frequently on the normal development of children and, when it does occur, the results vary greatly" (74).
1)
ReplyDelete- Castration Anxiety: the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense. It is the overwhelming fear of damage to or loss of the penis that is an universal human experience.
- Displacement: the unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes an object with something else in order to make the original thing feel less dangerous or unacceptable.
- Libidinal Cathexis: An investment of libido. The process of investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea. It shifts into the service of the growing a autonomous ego and its functions, and the child seems intoxicated with his own faculties and with the greatness of his own world.
2)
- Does confrontation of the source of unpleasure always lead to acceptance and the overcoming of the it?
- If our minds are naturally built to defend against unpleasure, is it better to shield one from reality as long as possible to avoid unpleasure?
3)
- "His instinctual impulses were freed from distortion and his anxiety was dissociated from the idea of horses and traced back to its real object- his father... The child's neurosis was cured" (72)
- "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)
1. Terms and definitions:
ReplyDeletea) Libidial development- theory that human beings, from birth, possess a sexual energy that develops in five stages: the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital and that these are the sources for this drive. Freud proposed that if a child experienced sexual frustration in relation to any of these stages, he or she would experience anxiety that would continue into adulthood as a neurosis.
b) Hypercathexis- an excessive concentration of desire upon a particular object.
c) Castration anxiety- the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense, centered in the overwhelming fear of damage to, or loss of, the penis.
2. Questions:
a) What is the distinctive characteristic that distinguishes normal development from Neurosis? At what point does normal development step into Neurosis?
b) How does a child's ego differ from and adult's ego?
3. Quotes pertaining to questions:
a) Quote for 1st question- "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 measures against its instinctual impulses into the formation of neurosis. This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it reoccurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of mental disease" (80).
b) Quote for 2nd question- " In early childhood this inconsistency as yet no disturbing effect...Intellectually they were very well able to distinguish between fantasy and fact. But in the sphere of a fact they cancelled the objective painful facts and performed a hypercathexis of the fantasy in which they were reversed let the pleasure which they've arrived from imagination triumphed over the objective unpleasure... It seems that the original importance of the day dream as a means of defense against objective anxiety is lost when the earliest period of childhood comes to an end.... We also know that, in later life, the ego's need for synthesis makes it impossible opposites to coexist... As soon as more considerable quantities of cathexis are involved, fantasy and reality become incompatible: it must be one or the other" (80-81)
1) hypercathexis - excessive concentration of desire on libido, a person, an object, or an idea. cathexis is an investment of energy into any of these things, while hypercathexis is overindulgent.
ReplyDeleteneurosis - symptoms of stress, exemplified by anxiety, depression, hypochondria, or obsessive behavior. Typically it is not extreme, and is a curable, mild expression of stress; not a complete and permanent disorder.
castration anxiety - the fear of emasculation (the removal of penis and testicles), both literally and metaphorically. The anxiety is an uncontrollable fear of losing one's penis in the physical world, and also by dominance of another male character. Freud believed that during the Oedipal stage, a child fears the parent of the same sex because they are threatened sexually by their dominating genitalia.
2) How does denial work as a defense mechanism to the ego?
What is the difference between denial as a child and as an adult?
3) "it denies the facts and substitutes for the unbearable reality some agreeable delusion" (80)
"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)
1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions
ReplyDeleteAmbivalence: Not being able to make a decision on a certain idea or person
Objective Anxiety: This is the physiological fear of something that exists outside of your head.
Agoraphobia: This is a panic disorder in which a person will experience extreme anxiety and fear.
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).
How do the different anxieties (objective,instinctual, conscience) interact with each other?
Is there any way that a person can truly understand and control their synthesis between ego and superego?
3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place)
"These aggressive impulses roused his castration anxiety--which he experienced as objective anxiety--so the various mechanisms of defense against the instincts were set in motion" (71)
"However, the ego does not defend itself only against the pleasure arising from within" (70)
1)
ReplyDeletea. Neurosis/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.
b. Castration Anxiety: fear of emasculation.
c. Agoraphobia: an anxiety disorder in which a person has attacks of intense fear and anxiety. There is also a fear of being in places where it is hard to escape, or where help might not be available.
2)
a. How does displacement affect the outcome of anxiety within a child?
b. How can children avoid objective unpleasure and anxiety?
3)
a. "In these tales for children the anxiety relating to the father has been displaced in the same way as in the animal fantasies. It betrays itself in the anxiety of other people, whom the child reassures, but the vicarious anxiety is an additional source of pleasure" (79).
b. "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).
1a) Agoraphobia: An anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear or anxiety about being in open or public places.
ReplyDelete1b) Objective Anxiety: A feeling of impending danger from a real threat in the physical world to one's well-being, as when a ferocious-looking dog appears from around the corner.
1c) Castration Anxiety: the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense.
2a) If the kid (on 72) consciously understands his unpleasure within the Oedipal phase, will he no longer be in the phase?
3a) "...or at any rate accepting this unpleasure, as he finally accepted the facts of his infantile instinctual life when once he had consciously recognized them" (73).
2b) Why are wild beasts a common theme in children's fantasies; how are they typically represented?
3b) "The themes which appear in the daydreams of these two boys by no means peculiar to these particular children: they are universal in fair tales and other children's stories" (77).
Blog Post #1:
ReplyDelete1a) Regression- Purposefully transitioning from a painful and uncomfortable mindset to a position of mental ease.
1b) Reaction Formation- Feeling strong negative emotions towards others yet, in order to either protect them from these or deceive them displaying positive emotions towards them instead
1c) Anxiety- Mental unease as a result of the ego's inability to reach a compromise between the id's urges and the superego's desire for morality which can occur in different forms.
2a) If in every dream the dreamer's self is represented in some way, does the dreamer know what the representation of their self is and its meaning?
2b) Are different parts of self representation dominant at different times?
3a) "It is the ego's capacity for self-observation which allows the dream to be percieved; it is a function of the memory for the dream to be remembered" (72)
3b) "The performer loves his children and responds to their demands when the parent aspect of the self representation is dominant. However, when the performer aspect is dominant, the children can momentarily become undesired intruders." (77)
1) Psychoanalytic terms:
ReplyDelete- Narcissism: Excessive interest in one's self, self-absorbed
- Reaction Formation: The course of trying to express one's feelings at a
conscious level in the opposite form/way
- Self-Representation: The concept of observing one's self clearly as a
derivative
2) Questions:
- How does one’s self-representation affect one’s super ego and ego?
- How do people know how to interpret the dream? Is there a correct way to
interpret it?
3) Quotes:
- “As employed here, the concept of the self representation refers to a basic organization established by the ego; within this basic organization are relatively organized units which
have at their disposal various ego faculties…derivative of all of the factors which are important in the development of the ego and the superego” (75-76).
- All case examples would apply to this question. The one I choose was case example 5 where the analyst concludes that the man’s dream with the spider represents the
relationship with his current girlfriend, and the further delays in the legal divorce proceedings between him and his wife. His wife was trying to get a lot out of him and he never
inclined as long as she expedited the divorce. Later on the patient mentions his mother and the analyst says that the spider represented his continuous wish and fear of the
mother and dangerous vagina. However, I would have never imagined this dream represented something about his mother I would have just ignored this and focused on his
relationship with his wife. I would have thought that this spider represented the relationship between him and his partner.
1a) Neurosis- a 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.
ReplyDelete1b) Synthesis- the ego's desire for a balance between the id and supergo
1c) Hypercathexis- the excessive concentration of desire on a specific object
2a) Why do we rely on our ego, rather than our id, when combating unpleasure as children?
2b) Can inducing specific neurosis, or mild anxiety,help to alleviate a patient's larger mental problems?
3a) "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)
3b) "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)
TERMS:
ReplyDeleteNeurosis - 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.
Agoraphobia - extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places.
Hypercathexis - excessive concentration of desire on libido, a person, an object, or an idea. cathexis is an investment of energy into any of these things, while hypercathexis is overindulgent.
QUESTION AND QUOTES:
1. Little Hans denied reality by means of his reality yet his neurosis was cured, so is Freud making the argument that denial
in fantasy is beneficial or destructive?
a). "Hans denied reality by means of his fantasy; he transformed it to suit his own purposes and to fulfill his own wishes; hen and not until then could he accept it." pg. 73
b). "He simply denied a painful act and in his lion fantasy turned it into its pleasurese opposite." pg. 75
QUESTION AND QUOTES:
Delete1. Can a fantasy worsen the neurosis because the fantasies becomes too relied on as a form of escape and then causing the fear to become enhanced?
a). "In both children aggressiveness was transformed into anxiety and the affect was displaced from the father onto an animal." pg. 74
b). "...in which it becomes acquainted with dangerous internal instinctual stimuli it also experiences unpleasure which has its source in the outside world." pg. 70
3 terms and definitions:
ReplyDeleteOedipal- Sigmund Freud, who coined the term "Oedipus complex" believed that the Oedipus complex is a desire for the parent in both males and females; Freud deprecated the term "Electra complex", which was introduced by Carl Gustav Jung in regard to the Oedipus complex manifested in young girls.
Contradiction- deny the truth of (a statement), especially by asserting the opposite.
Comprehend- grasp mentally; understand.
2 quotes:
"The manner in which the child can bring some order into his world view is be dividing everything into opposites"
"This is also how the fairy tale depicts the world: figures are ferocity incarnate or unselfish benevolence"
2 questions:
-A number of questions arise about this formulation one concerns the conceptualization of sleep as a manifestation of primary narcissism .while this may be true for the very young infant does it always hold for the adult dreamer
-why infect patients with ideas?
1. 3 Important Psychoanalytic Terms w. Definitions
ReplyDeleteLove Object: (n) a person on whom affection is centered or on whom one is dependent for affection or needed help
Displacement: (n) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original one to some more acceptable one
Defensive Process: an underlying series of mental operations occurring primarily outside of a person's awareness
2. 2 Important Questions that the Reading Raises
- Is instinctual life a primal or generated reaction?
- Does transforming an original problem into a different problem help one get over it?
3. 2 Quotes in the Reading that Address Each Question
"...Beginning with the conflicts between the id and the ego... Passed on to the struggle between the ego and the superego... Proceeded to the [study of] conflicts between the ego and outside world."
"The fantasies helped him to reconcile himself to reality, just as his neurosis had enabled him to come to terms with his instinctual impulses."