Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories(^54) 2. Freud: Psychoanalysis © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
In time, Freud came to realize that his highly suggestive and even coercive tac-
tics may have elicited memories of seduction from his patients and that he lacked
clear evidence that these memories were real. Freud became increasingly convinced
that neurotic symptoms were related to childhood fantasiesrather than to material
reality, and he gradually adopted a more passive psychotherapeutic technique.
Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique
The primary goal of Freud’s later psychoanalytic therapy was to uncover repressed
memories through free association and dream analysis. “Our therapy works by trans-
forming what is unconscious into what is conscious, and it works only in so far as it
is in a position to effect that transformation” (Freud, 1917/1963, p. 280). More
specifically, the purpose of psychoanalysis is “to strengthen the ego, to make it more
independent of the superego, to widen its field of perception and enlarge its organi-
zation, so that it can appropriate fresh portions of the id. Where id was, there ego
shall be” (Freud, 1933/1964, p. 80).
With free association,patients are required to verbalize every thought that
comes to their mind, no matter how irrelevant or repugnant it may appear. The pur-
pose of free association is to arrive at the unconscious by starting with a present con-
scious idea and following it through a train of associations to wherever it leads. The
process is not easy and some patients never master it. For this reason, dream analy-
sisremained a favorite therapeutic technique with Freud. (We discuss dream analy-
sis in the next section.)
In order for analytic treatment to be successful, libido previously expended on
the neurotic symptom must be freed to work in the service of the ego. This takes
48 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
Freud’s consulting room.