DOCSLIB.ORG

3 Classical Psychoanalytic Thought, Contemporary Developments, And

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
3 Classical Psychoanalytic Thought, Contemporary Developments, And See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258629575 Classical Psychoanalytic Thought, Contemporary Developments, and Clinical Social Work Practice Chapter · January 2008 DOI: 10.4324/9781351310369-3 CITATIONS READS 2 3,012 2 authors: Roberta Rubin Greene Michael Uebel University of Texas at Austin University of Texas at Austin 157 PUBLICATIONS 793 CITATIONS 64 PUBLICATIONS 172 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Violence during the outbreak of the pandemic View project IS TECHNOLOGY ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE View project All content following this page was uploaded by Michael Uebel on 20 May 2014. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 3 Classical Psychoanalytic Thought, Contemporary Developments, and Clinical Social Work Practice Roberta R. Greene and Michael Uebel Freud's conceptualization of the development, structure, and functioning of the personality ushered in a new era in understanding behavior and in treating the human mind (Baker, 1985). Many view Freud, whose theory offers an ex­ planation of human development and a method of treatment, as a pioneer who fumished fax-reaching concepts "central to nearly every approach to treating psychological problems via psychotherapy" {ibid., p. 20). The influence of Freud's psychoanalytic theory has been so dramatic that it has left a legacy of ideas that continues to shape the direction of contemporary social science, psychology, and neuroscience. Freud's psychoanalytic theory has influenced almost every arena of modem life—literature, art, and law, as well as political, social, and economic systems—to such an extent that his "concept and terminology have infiltrated the thinking even of those who most repudiate his views" (Wood, 1971, p. 46). Psychoanalytic theory, which is now over a century old, and its contempo­ rary offshoots have been important influences on social work practice. Some beheve that these influences have been so strong that they have "permeated not only the casework method, but also the social reality within which social casework is embedded" {ibid.). This chapter presents selected classical psychoanalytic tenets, outlines the major shifts in emphases that have led to the development of ego psychology, object relations, and self psychology schools of thought, and discusses some of the major contributions of these bodies of thought to clinical social work practice. It closes with a discus­ sion of one future direction psychoanalysis is heading, namely, attachment neurobiology. The case study involves a young adult with problems of ego identity. Chapter 4 continues in the psychoanalytic tradition and discusses Erik Erikson's ego psychology. 57 58 Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice Classical Psychoanalytic Thought 59 In large measure, social workers' interest in Freudian theory came about be­ The wide-scale adoption of the idea that a cUent may not be aware of important cause of the profession's struggle to find a scientific base for practice (Hamilton, unconscious or krational feelings and thoughts affected how many social work­ [1940] 1951;Homs, 1964). Germain (1971) suggested fhat the premise laid out ers saw fheir role. Using a psychoanalytic model meant that the social worker's in Social Diagnosis by Mary Richmond (1917)—"that uncovering the cause techniques would be geared to interpreting the client's behaviors and motivations will reveal the cure"— led to a strong interest in the medical model or "disease as well as helping the client to understand the meanings of symptoms. The use metaphor" (as conceived by Freud) and with it a "study-diagnosis-treatment of self in the helping relationship also was affected by psychoanalytic theory. framework" (pp. 10-13). Because of this historical commitment to the medical "Almost overnight, advanced practitioners who had now been brought imder 'the model, a perspective with an emphasis on diagnosis, treatment, and cure, it is influence' learned to hsten.. .[and] to observe the cHent's verbal and nonverbal sometimes said that Freudian theory "transformed casework from a trial-and- activity in a more productive way" (Hamilton, 1958, p. 25). error art" to a more precise or scientific framework for helpmg people (Wood, 1971, pp. 45-46). Social workers of the 1960s and 1970s were greatly influenced by Members of the diagnostic and psychosocial schools of social casework par­ the idea that human behavior is unconsciously motivated. ticularly have been affected by Freudian tiieory (Hamilton, 1958; HoUis, 1970; Perhnan, 1957a). The assumption that "there must be painstaking social study, Freud's assumption that adult pathology has its roots in early cMldhood followed by a diagnostic formulation leading to a plan of tieatment" (Hollis, experiences also had a pervasive influence on social casework (Lowenstein, 1964, p. 191) is a major principle of these schools, one based on Freud's medi­ 1985). As a result of the influence of psychoanalytic thought, uncovering hid­ cal model. den childhood motivations for behavior became an important aspect of many Among fhe most important assumptions that many clinical social workers social casework assessments. An acceptance of the subjective meanings cHents adopted from psychoanalytic theory is the view that all behavior is determined attribute to events has been a consistent theme in both psychoanalytic treatment in a purposeful and orderly way. That is, everything a person says or does, even and social casework. The role of many social workers increasingly came to be words or actions that are seemingly irrational, is meaningful and can be explained. one of interpreting a client's motivations and present difficulties in light of past Freud was among the first students of human behavior who took all forms of experiences. behavior as meaningful expressions that could ultunately be understood. Put The idea that the clinical social worker has the responsibihty to understand simply, Freud proposed that all mental phenomena made sense. By sense he his or her own psychological seif also can be traced to Freud's ideas about meant "'meaning', 'intention', 'purpose', and 'position' in a continuous psychical what ti-anspires ui the helping relationship. Because Freud believed there was [psychological] context" (Freud, [1916-17] 1963, p. 61). According to Hollis fhe potential for both chent and therapist to relive significant irrational aspects (1964), Freud's conceptualizations, which help caseworkers "to understand of their developmental histories within the helping relationship, he suggested causation in the developmental sense of how the person came to be the way he that self-awareness was of great importance to the helping person. The classical [or she] is...made a major contribution to the social work profession" (p. 168). psychoanalytic principle that a helpiag person must first be self-aware before he I or she is able to assist a cHent has been an important influence on social work Freud's theory of human behavior permeates Westem thought and was ad­ practice. Although most social workers today do not follow ortiiodox psycho­ opted by social workers to guide the diagnostic process. analytic methods and may employ a number of different human behavior theories, lis contemporary styles of direct practice stOl reflect influences of Freudian tradition. Although not without dispute, another major approach to practice that many "From our contemporary point of view, the question is not so much 'What did clinical social workers have borrowed from psychoanalytic theory is the idea Freud say?' but 'What has Freud's work led to?'" (Baker, 1985, p. 19). that there are unconscious mental processes and that these processes are of great significance. For example, Hamilton ([1940] 1951) contended that "caseworkers I must sometimes bring to tiie attention of the cHent ideas and feelings, whether The Person-In-Environment BDLstorical Context: acceptable or not, of which he [or she] was previously unaware" (p. 73). Li- Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory eberman (1982), in a discussion of the place of unconscious determinants of A neurologist by training, Freud was educated to view all symptoms as stem- behavior in social work practice, stated tiiat "for a clinician there should be only "j'TC&ng from some organic disorder or brain malfunction. Although Freud began his one answer. The client needs to be understood in depth, beyond the, immediate i. scientific work with a recognition of the biological aspects of psychiatry, he later presentation" (p. 28). ' came to beUeve fhat the science of his day was insufficiently advanced to study 60 Human BehaTior Theory and Social Work Practice Classical Psychoanalytic Thought 61 organic diseases of the nervous system. He therefore tumed to an investigation Hamilton (1958) noted, psychological energy "was likened to steam in a boiler, of psychological functionmg or what he termed "the workings of the mind." and could only be diverted or discharged' (p. 1552). Today, tiie idea tiiat the mind Through his stody, Freud came to believe tiiat people become psychologically is a closed system govemed by a finite amount of energy is no longer accepted. or physicaUy ill because of conflicts in human relationships. That is, mental However, ego psychologists have extended Freud's ideas about ego functioning, ilhiess could be a functional disturbance—m tiiis case, a product of a distiubed suggesting that tiie ego has its own psychic energy, is relatively autonomous, relationship. He hoped that psychoanalysis would give psychiatry "its missing and plays a critical role in assuming coping stiategies. This point of view was psychological foundation" and fhat tiie "convergence of physical and mental seen by many as more congment and useful in social work practice, where a disorder" would become mteUigible (Freud, [1916-17] 1963, p. 21). central issue is a client's strategies for meeting tiie demands of his or her envi­ ronment (Compton, Galloway, & Coumoyer, 2004; Fromm, 1959; Goldstem, Early in Freud's career, he hoped to demonstirate that human 1986; Lowenstem, 1985).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Freud a to Z Ffirs.Qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page Ii Ffirs.Qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page Iii
    ffirs.qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page i Freud A to Z ffirs.qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page ii ffirs.qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page iii Freud A to Z Sharon Heller, Ph.D. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ffirs.qrk 1/10/05 12:25 PM Page iv Copyright © 2005 by Sharon Heller. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials.
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychoanalysis of Career Choice, Job Performance, and Satisfaction
    The Psychoanalysis of Career Choice, Job Performance, and Satisfaction Freud said that “love and work” are the central therapeutic goals of psychoanalysis: the twin pillars for a sound mind and for living the “good life.” While psychoanalysis has masterfully contributed to understanding the experience of love, it has made only a modest contribution to understanding the psychology of work. This book is the first to explore fully the psychoanalysis of work, analyzing career choice, job performance and job satisfaction, with an eye toward helping people make wiser choices that bring out the best in themselves, their colleagues and their organization. The book addresses the crucial questions concerning work: how does one choose the right career; what qualities contribute to excellence in performance; how best to implement and cope with organizational change; and what capacity and skills does one need to enjoy everyday work? Drawing on psychoanalytic thinking, vocational counseling, organizational psychology and business studies, The Psychoanalysis of Career Choice, Job Performance and Satisfaction will be invaluable in clinical psychoanalytic work, as well as for mental health professionals, scholars, career counselors and psychologists looking for a deeper understanding of work-based issues. Paul Marcus, PhD, is a training and supervisory analyst at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis in New York City and the author/ editor of eighteen books, including Creating Heaven on Earth: The Psychology of Experiencing Immortality in Everyday Life and Sports as Soul-craft: How Playing and Watching Sports Enhances Life. He can be reached at [email protected] It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but neither are you free to abstain from it.
    [Show full text]
  • Life Histories: Ontogeny, Phylogeny and Narrative Structure
    LIFE HISTORIES: ONTOGENY, PHYLOGENY AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IN THE MODERNIST BILDUNGSROMAN by Daniel Aureliano Newman A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Daniel Aureliano Newman 2013 ABSTRACT: LIFE HISTORIES: ONTOGENY, PHYLOGENY AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IN THE MODERNIST BILDUNGSROMAN Daniel Aureliano Newman Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Department of English University of Toronto This thesis offers new perspectives on the modernist bildungsroman, a genre currently enjoying much attention in Modernist Studies. Though modernist deformations of the Bildung plot are typically read symptomatically, I propose that in several cases these deformations are structural innovations reflecting contemporary discoveries in embryology, genetics and evolutionary theory. These discoveries offered models for exposing and subverting the bildungsroman’s historical (aesthetic, political, scientific, ideological) association with recapitulation—the theory that an individual’s development (ontogeny) replays the evolution of its species (phylogeny). Chapter One reads Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a clear example of a Bildung plot in which the traditional parallel between ontogeny and phylogeny is broken: Stephen Dedalus’s artistic maturation is obstructed by repeated returns to the personal, national, mythical and prehistoric past. Chapter Two considers Forster’s Howards End as a bildungsroman stretched beyond the realm
    [Show full text]
  • Psychological Development During Childhood Meg Milligan, Ph.D
    Psychological Development during Childhood Meg Milligan, Ph.D. Kanessa Miller Doss, Ph.D. Sherrionda H. Crawford, Ph.D Troy University Childhood is a time of tremendous psychological development. Our personalities, cognitive capabilities, and emotions expand and transform us from infants to adolescents. In some ways we exhibit continuous development, while others are more accurately described as stages. The following pages present some of these significant changes that occur during early and middle childhood. Early Childhood: Cognitive Development During the preschool years, the worlds of make believe and real life are loosely intertwined as one. Inanimate objects are believed to be alive. Dolls may be considered little people with feelings, thoughts, and needs. Cars and trucks may also be personified with imaginative embellishments. The creativity and imagination at this stage of development prepare preschoolers for cognitive advances that are depicted in the major cognitive theories: Jean Piaget’s Theory of Development, Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, and information processing. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Development: Preoperational Stage According to Piaget, cognitive changes or growth occur through assimilation which is adding new information or experiences into existing or current schemes, and accommodation which alters schemes to input new information and experiences (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). This 1 belief is addressed in Piaget’s first stage of development, the sensorimotor stage, which spans roughly the first two years of life. It continues in Piaget’s second stage, which is the preoperational stage that approximately ranges from 2 to 7 years of age. The basic principles of the preoperational stage are the formation of cognitive world representations through illustrations, language, and pictures, establishment of concepts, and the initiation of mental reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    Index abandonment, fear of, 58 Freud’s father’s response to, 6–7, 19 Freud’s, 11, 106, 108, 136–37 Freud’s response to, 19–20, 161–62 Abraham, Karl, 145, 212, 215–16 Freud’s theories and, 20, 34 abreaction. See catharsis anxiety accidents. See parapraxes causes of, 21, 81, 146 addictions, 54, 93, 200 defenses against, 21–22, 67–70, 101, Freud’s, 39–41, 51–52, 138 146, 150 Adler, Alfred, 1–2, 12, 82, 134, 136, vs. fear, 20–21 211 See also fear as dissenter, 73–74, 215–17 anxiety disorders, 176 Adolescence (Hall), 2–3 appearance, Freud’s, 134–35 aggression, 35–36, 73, 94 applied psychoanalysis, 160 expressed through jokes, 158–59 archetypes, Jung on, 80–82 relation to sexuality, 45, 167 arousal See also death instinct constancy principle in, 41–42 Ainsworth, Mary, 106, 136 Freud’s level of, 41, 138 Alexander, Franz, 145, 178 self-regulation of, 54, 57 Allport, Gordon, 1–2 art, Freud’s collection of, 17–18 ambivalence Artist, The (Rank), 74 in depression, 71–72 Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of Freud’s, toward parents, 6–7, 11, the Seduction Theory, The 105–6, 109–10 (Masson), 167–69 toward parents, 46, 190 attachment, 106–7 anal stage, 44–45, 58, 177. See also Freud’s, 113–14, 119–20, 136 developmental stages Autobiographical Study (Freud), 217 analysis. See psychoanalysis, as therapy autoeroticism, in oral stage, 43–44 analysts, 35 autonomy, toilet training and, 45, 58 characteristics of, 75, 186, 208 Freud as, 131–32, 187–88, 208–9 Bair, Deirdre, 20 listening by, 29, 166, 185–88 Bauer, Ida.
    [Show full text]
  • KCP Learning TUP Factsheet 6: Psychoanalysis
    KCP learning TUP factsheet 6: psychoanalysis No discussion of personality theory can ignore the contribution of Sigmund Freud to our understanding of human psychology. His theory of personality, based on his clinical work with patients, has a number of fundamental concepts: 1. All doing, thinking and feeling has meaning and purpose. 2. There are three levels of consciousness: · conscious (small): this is the part of the mind that holds what you’re aware of. You can verbalise about your conscious experience and you can think about it in a logical fashion. · preconscious (small-medium): this is ordinary memory. So although things stored here aren’t in the conscious, they can be readily brought into conscious. · A newborn baby, according to Freud, is bubbling with energy (libido; psychic energy). However, this energy has no focus or direction. How, then, does the child develop the ability to control and direct his/her energy? 3. The unconscious is where three components work together to produce our complex behaviours. These components are: The ID (“It”) functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind. At birth a baby’s mind is all Id - want want want. The Id is the primitive mind. It contains all the basic needs and feelings. It is the source for libido. And it has only one rule - the “pleasure principle”: “I want it and I want it all now”. · The EGO: (“I”) functions with the rational part of the mind. The Ego develops out of growing awareness that you can’t always get what you want. The Ego relates to the real world and operates via the “reality principle”.
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychoanalytic State of Mind: 100 Years of Freudian Thinking About Technique a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty Of
    THE PSYCHOANALYTIC STATE OF MIND: 100 YEARS OF FREUDIAN THINKING ABOUT TECHNIQUE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF APPLIED AND PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY OF RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY BY MAX SAMUEL MALITZKY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY OCTOBER, 2013 APPROVED: ___________________________ Karen Riggs Skean, Psy.D. ___________________________ Neal Vorus, Ph.D. DEAN: ___________________________ Stanley B. Messer, Ph.D. Copyright 2013 Max Samuel Malitzky ii ABSTRACT This theoretical study explores the evolution of psychoanalytic technique from Freud to the contemporary Freudian school, through the lens of implicit and explicit recommendations about the optimal state of the analyst’s mind at work, in particular the use of the analyst’s subjective experience. Freud’s writing on this topic presented paradoxical ideas about the analyst’s state of mind that were dealt with differently by different thinkers within the classical Freudian tradition in North American psychoanalysis. The author focuses on the differences between Hartmann and Loewald’s thinking about psychoanalytic interaction and technique, particularly their different conceptions of reality and development. The contemporary Freudian school is then discussed in the context of Loewald’s thought. The contemporary Freudian school has integrated Loewaldian, theoretical ideas into explicit, clinical writing about technique, and can be seen as both a continuation of the Freudian tradition and an important intellectual force in contemporary psychoanalysis. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the writing of this dissertation, with its emphasis on internalization, I became increasingly aware of how much I have relied on the intellectual and emotional support provided by my environment.
    [Show full text]