Deck 9: The Psychology of the Unconscious

Question 1

Sigmund Freud wrote to his friend Wilhelm Fliess and described himself as a(n):

A) experimenter
B) patient worth of being analyzed
C) conquistador
D) none of these

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Scholars have suggested three blows to human self-esteem with one of them being Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud claimed it was ___________that delivered the blow to human self-esteem.

A) his work on the effective use of hypnosis
B) his demonstrating that humans were sexual creatures
C) the idea that all psychological problems have a root cause in childhood
D) his demonstrating that the human ego is not master in its own house

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Freud shared the goal of the other founders of psychology which was to create a scientific psychology. To do this Freud __________.

A) relied on a large number of laboratory experiments.
B) used an abundance of reliable observations, in other words his clinical cases.
C) used sophisticated statistical analysis to examine large data files and test his hypotheses.
D) all of these.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

For Freud a therapy would be effective if and only if _______________.

A) the scientific theory from which it was derived was true
B) 51 percent of patients got better in double blind studies
C) controlled lab experiments could be conducted before hand to support it
D) none of these

Question 5

Freud argued that his "incontrovertible proof" of the existence of unconscious processes was ________.

A) the existence of neurotic symptoms
B) the fact that brain states are not conscious
C) experiments on motivated forgetting
D) the therapeutic success of psychoanalysis

Question 6

Sigmund Freud shared one goal with the other founders of psychology, namely that he wanted psychoanalysis to be a:

A) means of helping people individually
B) means of solving social problems
C) tool for understanding art and culture
D) science

Question 7

In his "Project for a Scientific Psychology," Freud set out to provide a:

A) system of psychology based entirely on neurophysiology
B) a brief summary of psychoanalysis for parents and teachers
C) behavioral, rather than mentalistic, system of psychology
D) way to do psychotherapy based on conditioning principles

Question 8

Freud's attitude to experimental testing of psychoanalysis was that:

A) in the long run, only experimental proof would make psychoanalysis into a genuine science
B) it was an important adjunct to therapeutic success
C) it was not needed; at best it could do no harm
D) should be pursued by psychoanalysts along with their therapeutic work

Question 9

Freud's theory of psychosexual stages of development is an extension of:

A) Darwin's theory of natural selection
B) Haeckel's Biogenetic Law
C) Spencer's treatment of the reflex theory of the brain, translated into psychology
D) Piaget's stages of cognitive development applied to personality development

Question 10

Freud believed that in general the stages of individual human development:

A) are entirely determined by society
B) parallel the evolution of Homo sapiens
C) are freely chosen by the individual ego
D) can occur in any order based on erotogenic zones

Question 11

Central to Freud's biological conception of human development and behavior was _______ because this provided a truly universal basis for his theory that was not culture specific.

A) eating
B) sleeping
C) sex
D) emotion and affection

Question 12

One reason the sex drive is so important in Freud's theory is that the sex drive is __________.

A) the most sinful
B) the one human societies take the greatest interest in regulating
C) second only to money
D) the drive least understood by biologists.

Question 13

Freud emphasized sex in his theory because:

A) many of his patients suffered from problems handling their sexual desires
B) since he thought humans had no "higher" motives, he needed to explain activities such as art and science as redirected sexual impulses
C) it provided a biological foundation for his theorizing after he gave up the "Project for a Scientific Psychology"
D) all of the above

Question 14

According to Freud, the stages of psychosexual development formed a regular sequence because they:

A) recapitulated the phylogenetic history of the human species
B) are taught by society
C) are logically necessary
D) must occur in order for a child to have normal sexuality

Question 15

Modern historical commentators think that 19^th century "hysteria" was:

A) A set of diseases that then could not be diagnosed, such as focal epilepsy
B) a dumping ground for symptoms not easily classifiable into existing disease categories
C) a socially constructed behavioral role
D) all of the above

Question 16

Freud supposedly discovered the Oedipus complex when:

A) he read great plays such as Hamlet and Oedipus Rex
B) he read about Haeckel's biogenetic law
C) studying in Paris with Charcot, who told him about the idea
D) he performed his own self-psychoanalysis

Question 17

Although he did not say so explicitly, modern historical commentators believe that when Freud came to doubt his early patients' stories of sexual abuse, he feared that:

A) this meant that psychoanalysis could not be a science
B) he was a poor therapist
C) his friend Fliess' ideas about childhood sexuality were mistaken
D) he had hallucinated the stories under the influence of cocaine

Question 18

Freud called dreams:

A) confused mental states of no particular importance
B) a mechanism by which the day's memories are consolidated
C) hysterical symptoms
D) the royal road to the unconscious

Question 19

In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud argued that sexual perversions:

A) are innate in everyone
B) have specific genetic causes (e.g., there is a gene that causes homosexuality)
C) are learned behaviors
D) none of these

Question 20

Around 1900, most psychologists, including William James and Franz Brentano, took which of the following attitudes to the unconscious?

A) The psychological unconscious existed, but Freud's notion of repression was mistaken.
B) There was no psychological unconscious, only unconscious brain processes.
C) The idea of the psychological unconscious was becoming a necessary hypothesis.
D) Mentalistic theories, whether about the conscious or the unconscious, should be replaced with behavioral theories.

Question 21

In his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud viewed aggression as:

A) occurring only when some other, innate, drive is thwarted
B) an innate part of human, but not animal, nature
C) an innate part of animal and human nature
D) a result of Western repression of sexuality

Question 22

Freud's view of the relation between each individual and his or her culture resembles that of philosopher:

A) Rousseau
B) Descartes
C) J. S. Mill
D) Hobbes

Question 23

According to Box 9.1 on "The Party of Suspicion," Marx, Nietzsche and Freud have bequeathed us all something. That something is _____.

A) positivism
B) knowledge, respect and trust in our society and culture.
C) paranoia
D) hysteria

Question 24

According to Karl Popper, psychoanalysis:

A) is not a science because its hypotheses cannot be falsified
B) is a science, but is a failed one, because it has cured nobody
C) was not scientific in Freud's time, but has been improved by his followers
D) should be practiced only as a form of literary criticism

Question 25

Freud argued that neurosis in women served a social function, specifically that by becoming neurotic, women

A) were kept out of the workforce, keeping men's wages high
B) remained sexually faithful to their husbands
C) were able to create a refuge-the home-from the stresses of industrialization
D) deepened their religious faith

Question 26

In a theory later developed by Freud, Charcot suggested that hysteria:

A) was caused by psychological traumas converted into hysterical symptoms
B) did not exist, but was a diagnosis used to conceal physician's ignorance
C) could not be affected by hypnosis
D) was a convenient label used to lock up political deviants in mental hospital

Question 27

Which of the following best matches what Freud believed about hysteria?

A) that it had many different sources, most likely the result of physical head trauma and the symptoms appeared later in adulthood.
B) that it had many difference sources, most like the result of physical head trauma and the symptoms appeared quickly afterward.
C) that there was a one to one match between a set of hysterical symptoms and a single underlying cause.
D) that there was no relationship between the symptoms and the cause of hysteria.

Question 28

According to Frank Sulloway, when Freud gave up the ideas of the Psychology Project, he substituted for them (in part) the:

A) biogenetic law
B) use of hypnosis
C) doctrines of associationism
D) idea that psychoneuroses are physical diseases

Question 29

In the work Studies in Hysteria (1895), Freud and Breuer present the case of Anna O. Anna O. became a centerpiece of a theory and cure for hysteria, however, Anna O. was a actually a patient of _________, while ______ had nothing to do with the case.

A) Freud, Breuer
B) Freud, Charcot
C) Jung, Freud
D) Breuer, Freud

Question 30

Freud's explanation for human behaviors such as art and science was that:

A) human beings possess biologically unique motives for these behaviors
B) without art and science we could not be fully human
C) socialization redirects sexual energy into such approved channels
D) art and science were Darwinian adaptations in humans, who are poor hunters compared to animals

Question 31

In autobiographical statements from the 1930s concerning the seduction episode in the history of psychoanalysis, Freud stated that:

A) he had made his patients tell him of being seduced by their parents
B) the seduction mistake had "never happened," but was made up by his enemies
C) his early patients had told him openly of being seduced by their parents
D) he still suspected the seductions had really happened, but could not prove it

Question 32

Which of the following describes the views of the seduction episode offered by many recent historians of psychoanalysis?

A) he had made his patients tell him of being seduced by their parents
B) the seduction mistake had "never happened," but was made up by his enemies
C) his early patients had told him openly of being seduced by their parents
D) he still suspected the seductions had really happened, but could not prove it

Question 33

The cases of Dora (Ida Bauer) and Emma von Eckstein suggest that as Freud constructed his depth psychology in the wake of his "discovery" of the Oedipus complex, he:

A) came to ignore or depreciate the role played by their environmental circumstances in making his patients unhappy
B) came to trust what his patients told him, ceasing to push for "deeper" revelations
C) gradually gave up his emphasis on sexuality for a greater appreciation of the ego's autonomous power
D) placed less and less emphasis on the hereditary basis of personality

Question 34

According to the "hermeneutic" school of contemporary psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis:

A) has established its status as a genuine science
B) should be practiced as a form of biological psychiatry, prescribing drug treatments
C) should be thought of as being like literary criticism rather than science
D) needs to return to the original insights of Freud's unappreciated mentor, Fliess

Question 35

In Freud's theory of dreams, dreams are "regressive" because they involve:

A) age regression to childhood modes of thinking
B) movement of neural impulses from the unconscious not "progressively" toward motor discharge as behavior, but "regressively" toward the sensory system
C) expression of primitive "regressive" drives rather than civilized "sublimated" drives
D) are pure expressions of the regressive "repetition compulsion

Question 36

Freud's Interpretation of Dreams appeared in:

A) Wundt's worst nightmare
B) 1890
C) 1900
D) 1943

Question 37

According to Freud's Three Essays on Sexuality, sexual perversions are:

A) innate in everyone (i.e., everyone has the capacity to become homosexual)
B) learned through associative (Pavlovian) conditioning (i.e., homosexuality has no biological basis at all, but is learned)
C) caused be specific genes (i.e., there is a gene for homosexuality)
D) socially constructed fictions (i.e., homosexuality exists only in cultures which have the social category "homosexual")

Question 38

Freud argued that religion is:

A) the final stage of adult development, demonstrating reason and logic.
B) a massive attempt at wish fulfillment.
C) humans greatest and most worthy social achievement.
D) none of these

Question 39

The "unconscious" may be defined in several ways. Which of the following definitions would have been most acceptable to Freud's contemporary psychologists?

A) The unconscious just describes the fact that some things are conscious while others are not
B) The unconscious is a mental place where ideas go when they are not in consciousness
C) The unconscious contains dangerous repressed wishes and ideas
D) The unconscious is a mental system with its own aims and logic

Question 40

Viewed from a broad cultural perspective, Freud's ideas are important because they:

A) supported the Enlightenment idea that societies can be rationally planned
B) undermined the Enlightenment belief that human beings are rational
C) helped change outmoded educational practices
D) proved that war was inevitable

Question 41

In Studies in Hysteria, "abreaction" refers to:

A) how traumatically produced affect gets strangulated
B) the therapeutic release of pent-up feelings
C) the resistance of neurotics to being cured
D) the basic mechanism of the pleasure principle

Question 42

According to Freudian Marxists, citizens in a bourgeois state and neurotics are alike in that both:

A) possess false consciousness about the causes of their behavior
B) exhibit neurotic symptoms
C) can be cured with psychoanalysis
D) suffer from nerve poisoning - the former from pollution, the latter from neurosis

Question 43

Which of the following represents Freud's view of civilization?

A) Civilization is a protector and benefactor of humanity
B) Civilization provides us with art, science, philosophy and technology
C) Civilization demands unhappiness and even neurosis.
D) all of these

Question 44

The philosopher Sidney Hook asked numerous psychoanalysts to describe what a person without a Oedipus complex would look like. What he found was:

A) a complicated but very detailed and accurate picture of a person with psychological problems.
B) some disagreement between psychoanalysts but for the most part a valid consensus emerged.
C) universal agreement that the person would be average and normal in all aspects of psychological functioning.
D) he never received an satisfactory reply.

Question 45

Empirical studies of the effectiveness of psychoanalysis indicate that:

A) psychoanalysis is the most successful form of psychotherapy
B) although psychoanalysis is best, its great expense means it's not cost effective
C) most therapies are modestly effective-psychoanalysis is not uniquely effective
D) psychoanalysis always makes its patients worse

Question 46

How is the psychology of the conscious (e.g. Wundt) different from the psychology of the unconscious (e.g. Freud)? Compare and Contrast Wundt and Freud as people.

Question 47

The historical relationship between Freud and Psychology has been summarized by the statement, "Freud is inescapable". Explain why the word inescapable seems to characterize this uneasy relationship?

Question 48

In what ways was the path through physiology uniquely attractive to Freud?

Question 49

Describe three reasons for Freud's emphasis on sex.

Question 50

Make an argument for Freud being a sexual reformer. Why was sex such a problem in Freud's day?

Question 51

The Victorians of Freud's time were caught between conscience and compelling temptation, so what did Freud mean when he suggested that the most common cause of impotence was the inability of men to love where they lusted and lust where they loved?

Question 52

What are three reasons for the disappearance of hysteria as a psychological disorder?

Question 53

Briefly explain "the seduction error" and discuss the historical consensus today about what really happened.

Question 54

Describe the ambiguous relationship between Freud and academic, experimental, psychology.

Question 55

Use an example of one of Freud's patients (e.g. Dora) to show the consequences of the seduction error and how it influenced the way Freud treated his patients.

Question 56

Explain why dreams are so important to Freud.

Question 57

In his book Civilization and Its Discontents Freud discusses Man's relation to society. Explain the idea that as civilization grows, happiness diminishes?

Question 58

Should Freud be considered part of the Party of Suspicion along with Marx and Nietzsche? Defend your answer.

Question 59

Why did William James and other psychologists believe that Freud's theory of the unconscious was scientifically dangerous?

Question 60

Is psychoanalysis a science? If it is a science is it a failed science? How do the "hermeneutic" psychoanalysts handle psychoanalysis' claim to be a science?

Question 61

Discuss Jung's ambiguous status in the history of psychoanalysis. Why was he important to Freud? Why did he break with Freud, and what gave him the ability to do so?