Classroom Strategy: Digital Icebreakers for Relationships

Digital Learning: Launch Your Classroom! Episode 37

Daily-English-Conservation

 Prof Abdelhamid Fouda 

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*اب کوئی راستہ باقی نہيں ہے*

There is no way left now.

*وہ بے داغ کردار کا مالک ہے*

He has an impeccable character.

*اس نے سارا کھيل بگاڑ ديا-*

He spoiled the whole game.

*وہ بال سنوار رہی ہے*

She is doing her hair.

*سنگترہ چھيل دو*

Peel the orange.

*وہ بہت شکی ہے*

She is so skeptical.

*طعنہ مارنے کی ضروت نہيں*

No need to taunt.

*تم کيا کرنے والے ہو؟*

What are you up to?

*وہ بہت بری موت مرا*

He died a miserable death.

*عقل کی بات کرو*

Talk sense

A piece of advice

 Prof Abdelhamid Fouda 

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To every a shy girl 

Hey girl..get hold of your life..stop medicating..stop hiding out..stop being afraid..stop giving away pieces of your self..stop saying you can’t do it because you can..stop the negative self talk..stop abusing your body..stop putting it off to the next day or day after that..stop crying about what happened and take control of what happens next..get up..right now..rise up from where you’ve been..scrub away the tears and pain of yesterday and start again..get back up there girl..you can do this and start all over again..you got this my girl....

Psychoanalysis

 Prof Abdelhamid Fouda 

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#Psychoanalysis: A Brief History of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

 Courtney E. Ackerman, MSc.  30

Psychoanalysis: What is Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory/Perspective?

You’ve almost certainly heard of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, but if you’re like most people, you’re not really sure what psychoanalysis is.

You might also wonder how psychoanalysis differs from other forms of talk therapy, and how the theories behind psychoanalysis and other forms of talk therapy differ.

In this piece, we’ll give a brief but comprehensive overview of psychoanalytic theory and practice, the impact of psychoanalysis on other disciplines and areas, and its most common critiques.

So, let’s dive in and learn about Freud, his theories on human behavior and personality (some of which may seem kooky), and his role in the creation and popularization of talk therapy.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our 3 Positive Psychology Exercises for free. These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students or employees.

You can download the free PDF here.

This Article Contains:

What is Psychoanalysis? A Definition and History of Psychoanalytic Theory

The Approach: Psychoanalytic Perspective

Transference and Other Forms of Resistance in Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis Test: The Freudian Personality Test

Psychodynamic vs. Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalysis vs. Psychotherapy

Popular Books on Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis in Art and Literature

Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Therapy

A Take-Home Message

References

What is Psychoanalysis? A Definition and History of Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy that aims to release pent-up or repressed emotions and memories in or to lead the client to catharsis, or healing (McLeod, 2014). In other words, the goal of psychoanalysis is to bring what exists at the unconscious or subconscious level up to consciousness.

This goal is accomplished through talking to another person about the big questions in life, the things that matter, and diving into the complexities that lie beneath the simple-seeming surface.

 

The Founder of Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and His Concepts

The Founder of Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and His Concepts

It’s very likely you’ve heard of the influential but controversial founder of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud.

Freud was born in Austria and spent most of his childhood and adult life in Vienna (Sigmund Freud Biography, 2017). He entered medical school and trained to become a neurologist, earning a medical degree in 1881.

Soon after his graduation, he set up a private practice and began treating patients with psychological disorders.

His attention was captured by a colleague’s intriguing experience with a patient; the colleague was Dr. Josef Breuer and his patient was the famous “Anna O.,” who suffered from physical symptoms with no apparent physical cause.

Dr. Breuer found that her symptoms abated when he helped her recover memories of traumatic experiences that she had repressed, or hidden from her conscious mind.

This case sparked Freud’s interest in the unconscious mind and spurred the development of some of his most influential ideas.

 

Models of the MindFreud’s Model of the Mind

Perhaps the most impactful idea put forth by Freud was his model of the human mind. His model divides the mind into three layers, or regions:

Conscious: This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and focus live;

Preconscious (sometimes called the subconscious): This is the home of everything we can recall or retrieve from our memory;

Unconscious: At the deepest level of our minds resides a repository of the processes that drive our behavior, including primitive and instinctual desires (McLeod, 2013).

Later, Freud posited a more structured model of the mind, one that can coexist with his original ideas about consciousness and unconsciousness.The Id, Ego and Superego

In this model, there are three metaphorical parts to the mind:

Id: The id operates at an unconscious level and focuses solely on instinctual drives and desires. Two biological instincts make up the id, according to Freud: eros, or the instinct to survive that drives us to engage in life-sustaining activities, and thanatos, or the death instinct that drives destructive, aggressive, and violent behavior.

Ego: The ego acts as both a conduit for and a check on the id, working to meet the id’s needs in a socially appropriate way. It is the most tied to reality and begins to develop in infancy;

Superego: The superego is the portion of the mind in which morality and higher principles reside, encouraging us to act in socially and morally acceptable ways (McLeod, 2013).

The image above offers a context of this “iceberg” model wherein much of our mind exists in the realm of the unconscious impulses and drives.

If you’ve ever read the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, then you have enjoyed the allegory of Freud’s mind as personified by Jack as the Id, Piggy as the ego, and Ralph as the superego.

 

Defense Mechanisms

Freud believed these three parts of the mind are in constant conflict because each part has a different primary goal. Sometimes, when the conflict is too much for a person to handle, his or her ego may engage in one or many defense mechanisms to protect the individual.

These defense mechanisms include:

Repression: The ego pushes disturbing or threatening thoughts out of one’s consciousness;

Denial: The ego blocks upsetting or overwhelming experiences from awareness, causing the individual to refuse to acknowledge or believe what is happening;

Projection: The ego attempts to solve discomfort by attributing the individual’s unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and motives to another person;

Displacement: The individual satisfies an impulse by acting on a substitute object or person in a socially unacceptable way (e.g., releasing frustration directed toward your boss on your spouse instead);

Regression: As a defense mechanism, the individual moves backward in development in order to cope with stress (e.g., an overwhelmed adult acting like a child);

Sublimation: Similar to displacement, this defense mechanism involves satisfying an impulse by acting on a substitute but in a socially acceptable way (e.g., channeling energy into work or a constructive hobby) (McLeod, 2013).

 

The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development

Finally, one of the most enduring concepts associated with Freud is his psychosexual stages. Freud proposed that children develop in five distinct stages, each focused on a different source of pleasure:

First Stage: Oral—the child seeks pleasure from the mouth (e.g., sucking);

Second Stage: Anal—the child seeks pleasure from the anus (e.g., withholding and expelling feces);

Third Stage: Phallic—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or clitoris (e.g., masturbation);

Fourth Stage: Latent—the child has little or no sexual motivation;

Fifth Stage: Genital—the child seeks pleasure from the penis or vagina (e.g., sexual intercourse; McLeod, 2013).

Freud hypothesized that an individual must successfully complete each stage to become a psychologically healthy adult with a fully formed ego and superego. Otherwise, individuals may become stuck or “fixated” in a particular stage, causing emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood (McLeod, 2013).

 

The Interpretation of Dreams

Another well-known concept from Freud was his belief in the significance of dreams. He believed that analyzing one’s dreams can give valuable insight into the unconscious mind.

In 1900, Freud published the book The Interpretation of Dreams in which he outlined his hypothesis that the primary purpose of dreams was to provide individuals with wish fulfillment, allowing them to work through some of their repressed issues in a situation free from consciousness and the constraints of reality (Sigmund Freud Biography, n.d.).

In this book, he also distinguished between the manifest content (the actual dream) and the latent content (the true or hidden meaning behind the dream).

The purpose of dreams is to translate forbidden wishes and taboo desires into a non-threatening form through condensation (the joining of two or more ideas), displacement (transformation of the person or object we are concerned about into something or someone else), and secondary elaboration (the unconscious process of turning the wish-fulfillment images or events into a logical narrative) (McLeod, 2013).

Freud’s ideas about dreams were game-changing. Before Freud, dreams were considered insignificant and insensible ramblings of the mind at rest. His book provoked a new level of interest in dreams, an interest that continues to this day.

Oscar Wilde

 Prof Abdelhamid Fouda 

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Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900) popularly known as Oscar Wilde was a complicated man that led a difficult life filled with hope, triumph, but visited by peril and beset with despair.

Oscar Wilde was a flamboyant and sparklingly witty Anglo-Irish playwright, poet, novelist short story writer and critic. 

He once said '‘I put all my genius into my life, I put only my talent into my books’'.

He earned fame and fortune with three hugely successful society comedies, Lady of Wonderment's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of being Earnest.

He wrote his only Faustian novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in which he explored the doctrine of aestheticism: devotion to the beautiful. 

Some famous quotes of Wilde are given 

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

“Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.”

“Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.”

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”

  “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

“Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.”

"Men only know the trivial side of love that's why they love often 

In life, you can have one great experience 

We can have in life but one great experience and the secret of life is to duplicate that experience. Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is faithless who know love´s tragedies.”

the Great Pyramid

 Prof Abdelhamid Fouda 

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In the construction of the Great Pyramid, there are approximately 2,300,000 stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons each (they range from 2 to 70) which is said to have been built as a ‘tomb’ (despite no body ever being found in it) in just 20 years. That means installing one block every 5 minutes for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, non-stop for 20 years. This does not include the cutting and shaping, quarrying, or breathtaking multi-angle precision placements of these megaliths. Within this construction, over 160,000 tons of pink granite were transported from over 800km away. Pulled by ropes and logs? We could not overcome these logistics, or build the pyramid in such a timeframe today. 

It’s base is situated precisely along the four cardinal points: North, South, East and West with an average error of only around three minutes of arc which represents an infinitesimal deviation from true of less than 0.015 per cent. The ratio of its circumference to its original height is equal to the value of pi: 3.14, which it is claimed they knew nothing about as it wasn’t ‘discovered’ for another thousand years. The Great Pyramid’s base is at 1:43,200 which is a mathematical representation of the northern hemisphere (which, of course, we are told they knew nothing about). The list of architectural miracles within this construction is extensive, and this isn’t even scratching the surface.

So, we’re expected to believe that a bunch of people using copper, stones, logs and ropes built this with no real understanding of mathematics, architecture, surveying, or any number of sciences which we rely on 100% for the most simple constructions today. They did it at a rate which is far beyond anything we can, even with all our machines, and they did it with a precision which we could not replicate without laser guided, computer controlled industrial equipment. Clearly, we’ve been fed an enormous lie. This was done by a people with knowledge greater than ours, for a purpose beyond our puerile social dictates of materialism and making money. If we understood who did this, when, and why, our entire worldview would change so radically that society itself would transform. And that is exactly why in 2019 we’re still getting taught the same old lies.