psychology- anna freud

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Helena Yeung

IB Psychology Y1

Anna Freud.

http://www.freud.org.uk/anna3.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/el-profesor-freud.jpg

“…She became at very least her father's symbolic successor.”

- Dr. C. George Boeree

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Anna Freud and the EgoHer father focused more on the unconscious id, but Anna put more emphasis on the Ego.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/thereisnocat/447795262/in/photostream/

-Rose Edgcumbe

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+Signal Anxiety and Types of Anxiety"not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a signal occurring in the ego of an anticipated instinctual tension".

-Anna Freud

+Defense mechanisms-Defense mechanisms-1. Freud mentioned them, but Anna systematically organized

them.

• Repression

• Displacement

• Denial

• Projection

• Reaction Formation

• Intellectualization

• Rationalization

• Sublimation

• Identification with the Aggressor

• Altruism

Introduced by Anna Freud- When you identify with the person that is causing you anxiety

Doing good deeds so you feel good about yourself.

+Level One Defense Mechanisms

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+Level Three Defense Mechanisms

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+Developmental Lines

1. Biological unity between mother and child

2. A dependence on an object relation3. The child finds a constant object to

replace mother4. The child is torn between good and bad

feelings to a person5. The phallic-oedipal stage6. Latency period7. The preadolescent prelude to the

adolescent revolt8. Adolescence

+All structures of personality (The Id, Ego, Superego) are present by the end of the phallic stage.

A typical person establishes balance by the age of 5, so by the latency stage, the person’s ego can defend from anxiety.

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“Anna Freud claimed that all people will have their balance destroyed in adolescence.”

- Richard M. Lerner

Until…AdolescenceWHY?

+Alteration in Drives

• Because of puberty, you grow adult genital drives, and therefore the balance is disrupted.• Called developmental disturbance because it in universal and inevitable.

“The adolescent is necessarily involved ‘in dangers which did not exist before and with what he is not accustomed to deal. Since at

this stage, he lives and functions still as a member of his family unit, he runs the risk

of allowing the new genital urges to connect his old love objects, that is, his parents,

brothers, sisters’”- Richard M. Lerner. Incest is unacceptable in most cultures,

therefore, a defense against this must be formed, causing a personality change.

+Alteration in Ego Organization-

•The newfound drive causes the person much disturbance

•Leads to unpredictable behavior because the person tries all formerly useful defenses against the new urges

•Puts strain on the person because these formerly useful defenses are not as effective

•Develops defense mechanism- INTELLETUALIZATION

Intellectualization = talking back to your parents.Using intellectual reasons to justify one’s behavior

+Alterations in Object Relation

The chance of accidentally acting on the newfound genital drives is so large, that…

“Nothing helps here except a complete discarding of the people who were important love objects of the child, that is, the parents.”

- Anna Freud

+And therefore causes….alteration in ideals and social relations

• Once having broken ties with parents, the adolescent has also changed all former ideals and views.

• Therefore- the adolescent is left without ideals or social ties.

• This causes the adolescent to find substitutes- friends.

• Can be justified, and the newfound genital drive (which is the cause for all the alterations) can possibly be dealt with in a way arguably less severe than incest.

+Research Methods

She based her research on her dad’s work.

She worked as a teacher, therefore, has first hand observational experience with children

Natural Experiments

Long term study of patients- from childhood to adolescence.

She encouraged pooling of information from all analysts

+Limitations of her work-

• Like her father, her work cannot be falsified.

Her view on adolescents is very stereotypical!Not all of them are like that.

“Her work is an extensive theory and doctors regard clinical work over extensive theory therefore Anna Freud’s work isn’t that popular. Doctors prefer a simpler approach, but as we look into her theory, it’s clear that a too simple approach is inadequate.”

-Edgcumbe

Anna Freud Biographical Essay. (1998). Anna Freud. In Encyclopedia of World biography Supplement, Vol. 18. Gale Research [Web]. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved November 21 1008, from http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/history

Anna Freud. In Wikipedia [Web]. Media Wiki. Retrieved November 20 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Freud

Boeree, C. G. (1998). Anna Freud 1895-1982. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Personality Theories Web site: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/annafreud.html

Defense Mechanism. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved November 20 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_defenses

Edgcumbe, R. (2000). Anna Freud: A View of Development, Disturbance and Therapeutic Techniques. Routledge.

Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and Theories of Human Developement. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Life and Work of Anna Freud. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from Freud Museum London Web site: http://www.freud.org.uk/fmanna.htm

Whetham, P (2006). Psychology. Melton, Australia: IBID.

Works Cited