# Psychoanalysis

Psychology I · History of Psychology · https://tryals.app/learn/psychology-i/psychoanalysis

## The Hidden Mind

**Psychoanalysis**, founded by **Sigmund Freud**, proposes that human behavior is driven by the **unconscious mind**: hidden urges and memories shaping action.

Freud modeled the psyche as three interacting systems:

| System | Governing Principle | Function |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Id** | Pleasure principle | Innate biological drives, immediate gratification |
| **Ego** | Reality principle | Rational mediator among id, superego, and world |
| **Superego** | Morality principle | Internalized moral standards and ideals |

Conflict among these systems generates anxiety. To manage it, the ego uses **defense mechanisms** like **repression** (pushing threats from awareness), **projection** (attributing bad impulses to others), and **sublimation** (redirecting impulses into valued activities). 

**Common pitfall:** Treating defense mechanisms as signs of weakness. They are normal, universal ego functions; only extreme rigidity becomes clinical.

## Stages and Splits

Freud argued personality develops through **psychosexual stages** (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital). Unresolved conflicts leave a lasting **fixation** shaping adult behavior.

Freud's inner circle later split over his heavy focus on sexuality:

| Theorist | Core Concept | Difference from Freud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Carl Jung** | **Collective unconscious** & **archetypes** | Shared ancestral memory, less focus on sex |
| **Alfred Adler** | **Feelings of inferiority** | Driven by compensation, not sexual urges |

Psychoanalysis shifted clinical focus from pure biology to inner mental conflict, laying the groundwork for modern psychodynamic therapies.

## Practice questions

6 of this lesson's 12 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Order the Freudian sequence by which an unresolved conflict becomes a psychological symptom.

**Answer:**

1. A forbidden sexual or aggressive impulse arises in the id.
2. The ego experiences anxiety over the unacceptable impulse.
3. A defense mechanism such as repression pushes it out of awareness.
4. The conflict remains unresolved rather than being worked through.
5. It resurfaces indirectly as a psychological symptom.

**Why:** A forbidden impulse triggers ego anxiety, a defense pushes it from awareness, and if the conflict stays unresolved it resurfaces as a symptom. In Freud's model, symptoms are indirect expressions of buried, unresolved conflict.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/order-the-freudian-sequence-by-which-an-unresolved-conflict-becomes-a

### 2. Freud's specific mechanisms have largely not survived, yet he is still taught. Which of his claims did survive, and why does that distinction matter?

A. None of it survived, and he is taught only as a historical curiosity
B. All of it survived; the criticism is a misunderstanding of his terminology
C. The clinical technique survived while every theoretical claim was discarded
D. That mental processes can be inaccessible and still shape behaviour

**Answer:** D. That mental processes can be inaccessible and still shape behaviour

**Why:** The general claim held and the machinery did not. Implicit memory, automatic processing and unconscious priming are all well evidenced, and they look nothing like the id. Being right about the existence of a thing and wrong about its nature is the usual fate of an early theory, and worth separating carefully.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/freuds-specific-mechanisms-have-largely-not-survived-yet-he-is

### 3. Select every statement that is TRUE about Freud's model.

A. Repression means attributing your own impulse to someone else.
B. Defense mechanisms are universal, not signs of weakness.
C. The id operates on the reality principle.
D. An impulse the person cannot act on can be re-routed into work the culture rewards.
E. The ego operates on the reality principle.

**Answer:** B. Defense mechanisms are universal, not signs of weakness.; D. An impulse the person cannot act on can be re-routed into work the culture rewards.; E. The ego operates on the reality principle.

**Why:** The ego's reality principle, sublimation, and the universality of defenses are all true. The id runs on the pleasure principle (not reality), and attributing one's impulse to another is projection (not repression) - so those two are false.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/select-every-statement-that-is-true-about-freuds-model

### 4. A patient consistently arrives late to therapy, then explains at length that the traffic is unusually bad on that route. Order the psychoanalytic reading of what is happening, from the impulse to the account the patient gives.

**Answer:**

1. An impulse the patient cannot acknowledge: he does not want to be in the room.
2. Admitting the wish would threaten how he needs to see himself.
3. The wish is kept out of awareness, so he genuinely does not experience himself as reluctant.
4. It surfaces instead as behaviour - a consistent, unexplained lateness.
5. The ego supplies a reason he can accept, and he believes the traffic explanation sincerely.

**Why:** The order matters because the last step is what makes the theory distinctive. Rationalisation is not a lie the patient tells the therapist - it is an explanation he supplies to himself and accepts. He is not aware of the reluctance, so the traffic is, as far as he can tell, the reason.

That structure is the engine of the whole model. A motive that cannot be admitted does not vanish; it is pushed out of awareness and shows up somewhere else, in behaviour the person cannot quite account for, and the mind then generates a plausible account after the fact.

It is also where the framework becomes hard to test, in the way the lesson's earlier question set out. A patient who agrees he is reluctant confirms the reading; a patient who denies it can be said to be defending. Notice that this ordering describes a mechanism rather than proving one - it is what Freud claimed happens, and holding it as a claim rather than a finding is the right way to carry it.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/a-patient-consistently-arrives-late-to-therapy-then-explains-at

### 5. In Freud's model, everyone uses defense mechanisms; only their rigid or extreme use becomes a clinical problem.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** True. Defense mechanisms are a normal, universal way the ego manages anxiety; they become clinically concerning only when rigid or extreme. Treating any use of a defense as pathological is the named pitfall.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/in-freuds-model-everyone-uses-defense-mechanisms-only-their-rigid

### 6. A critic notes that Freudian theory can explain a patient who is aggressive (the id breaking through) and equally explain one who is unusually gentle (reaction formation against aggression). Why is being able to explain both outcomes a weakness rather than a strength?

A. Because a theory that accommodates everything forbids nothing.
B. Because reaction formation is not a genuine defence mechanism, unlike the others Freud described.
C. Because the two explanations contradict each other, so at least one of them must be false.
D. Because a scientific theory must explain only one outcome per situation, and Freud's explains two.

**Answer:** A. Because a theory that accommodates everything forbids nothing.

**Why:** The strength of a scientific claim lies in what it forbids, and a framework with a ready account of aggression *and* gentleness never puts itself at risk, so confirming instances tell you nothing, being guaranteed in advance. It does not show Freud was wrong about the unconscious; it shows the theory was framed so evidence could not reach it.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/psychoanalysis/a-critic-notes-that-freudian-theory-can-explain-a-patient-who-is