Understanding Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Theories and Applications
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis was founded by the German psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.
Basic Principles of Freudian Psychology
- Past childhood experiences shape behaviors.
- Behavioral symptoms are the outward manifestation of deeper psychological processes.
- To change behavior, you have to access the individual’s internal psychological state.
The practical application of psychoanalysis in social work was not initially widespread. In Tanzania, for example, Darwinism was used, then psychoanalysis appeared to Mary Richmond, eventually triumphing in the study of human beings.
The human being is the object of attention and source of social work, and psychoanalysis views the individual as a rational being controlled by their own subject and its limits.
Basics of Psychoanalysis
Determinism
According to Freud, behavior includes what we say, do, and think, and is influenced by experiences, memories, and needs of which we are not aware (dreams, lapses, slips).
Behavior is understood as the pursuit of satisfaction of basic needs that must be controlled and channeled into human society.
Instincts and Impulses
There are two basic drives in our organization:
- Sexual: Not only related to the instinct of reproduction.
- Aggressive: Explorer aggressive attitude to our environment.
Stages of Psychosexual Development
The adult character is a direct result of early childhood experiences up to five years.
Three Phases:
- Oral Phase (Suction Stage): From birth to 18 months (erotic and aggressive instincts).
- Anal Phase: From 18 months to 3 years (retention of the toilet).
- Phallic or Genital Phase: From 3 to 5 years, the figure of the parents is very important (Oedipus complex).
Mental State: Unconscious Mental Activity
- The Id (Id): Pleasure principle and instinct. Unconscious.
- The Ego (Ego): Agency relationship with the environment and social reality.
- Super-Ego (Super-ego): The moral conscience for its role in controlling or condemning actions, thoughts, or impulses.
Functional Theory
Authors Who Created and Spread This Theory
August Comte (1798-1857): Founder of positivism, which believes that we must stick to the facts in any research initiative. He rejected all radical metaphysical thought, requiring factual evidence.
Features of Positive Thinking
- The primacy of all concerning parties.
- Static = Immutable Laws.
- System = Sociology.
- Dynamic = Evolutionary Perspective.
- The process of knowledge: Man’s knowledge of society and nature.
- Human beings are the same everywhere and at all times.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
He is the founder of structural functional analysis.
Principles: The search for explanation to phenomena of a political, economic, and social nature that occurred before.
Specialization and definition of tasks is a necessary transition from old to new.
The thesis on the division of social work 1893. Achievements:
- Increase their efficiency and ability of the worker.
- Enhance the intellectual and material development of societies.
- Becoming a source of moral strength and civilization.
- Overcoming the sphere of economics to understand that the division represents a social and moral order.
An important point as Tamasheff (1994)
Social Function: A process of ideological transformation and oriented economic society towards greater levels of organization and solidarity.
Social Coercion: Prevalence of the group over the individual.
- The company is real, the individual is a junior and gained from it.
Social facts: Ways of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual and are equipped with a power of coercion, so imposing.
- The family helps to maintain the social system.