Abnormal Psychology

The History of Abnormal Psychology 17

Psychoanalytic theory

The theory that thoughts, feelings, and

behaviors are a result of conscious and

unconscious forces continually interacting

in the mind.

There is one positive legacy from the prescientifi c era: The mentally ill came to

be regarded as ill, and so were treated humanely, at least in some places and some

eras. If the Beales had lived in the 18th century or earlier, they might have ended up

as exhibits in an English asylum. If they had lived at the end of the 19th century,

they would probably have been treated much better—although their chances of

receiving effective treatment would still have been hit-or-miss. Fortunately, the situ-

ation improved dramatically during the 20th century. If the Beales were diagnosed

today, they would almost certainly receive treatments that would enable them to

function more effectively in the world. Let’s now consider the crucial transition

from prescientifi c times to today, the period when investigators worked to develop

genuinely scientifi c theories about mental illness.

Freud and the Importance of Unconscious Forces

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a Viennese neurologist, played a major role in making

the study of psychological disorders a science. He not only developed new methods,

for both diagnosis and treatment (many of which are still in use today), but also

proposed a rich and intricate theory, which continues to have massive infl uence on

many clinicians. The beginnings of Freud’s contributions to the study of psychopa-

thology can be traced to 4 months he spent studying with the French neurologist

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Charcot, a professor at the Salpêtrière hospital

in Paris, treated women with hysteria, which he believed arose from abnormal neu-

rological functioning. Charcot proposed that people with hysteria have susceptible

nerves, and that their hysterical symptoms could be cured by hypnosis, a trancelike

state of consciousness in which a person is susceptible to suggestions about his or

her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Charcot would induce a hypnotic trance in

hysterical patients and suggest that their symptoms would go away, which they

often did.

Initially, Freud used hypnosis with his patients in Vienna, though he found that

not everyone was equally hypnotizable and that patients’ symptoms often returned.

This led Freud to develop another method to help patients with hysteria: free associ-

ation, a technique in which patients are encouraged to say whatever thoughts occur

to them. Free association was part of Freud’s treatment that involved talking—often

referred to as the “talking cure”—which rested on his idea that hysteria (and mental

disorders in general) arises in part because of unconscious confl icts. His idea was

that talking freely would help a person to reduce his or her unconscious confl icts

and so provide some relief from the psychological disorder.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud developed a far-reaching theory of the origins, nature, and treatment

of psychopathology based on both his work with patients (who were mostly

middle-class and upper-middle-class women with hysteria) and his observations

about himself. His theory, psychoanalytic theory (the Greek word psyche means

“mind”), proposes that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are a result of con-

scious and unconscious forces continually interacting in the mind. Freud often

discussedmotivations, which are thoughts (such as goals), feelings (such as guilt),

or a mixture of thoughts and feelings that impel one to behave in a specifi c way.

Psychoanalytic theory also suggests that the mind is organized so as to function

across three levels of consciousness:

• Theconscious consists of thoughts and feelings that are in awareness; this is

normal awareness.

• Thepreconscious consists of thoughts and feelings that a person does not per-

ceive, but that might enter conscious awareness in the future.

The• unconscious includes thoughts and feelings that cannot be perceived or called

into awareness on command, but which have power to infl uence a person.