The essence of the study of humanistic psychology. Humanistic approach: main features

Humanistic psychology is a direction in psychology, the subject of study of which is a holistic person in his highest, specific manifestations only for a person, including the development and self-actualization of the personality, its highest values and meanings, love, creativity, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, experiences of the world, mental health, "deep interpersonal communication", etc.

Humanistic psychology was formed as a psychological trend in the early 1960s, opposing itself, on the one hand, to behaviorism, which was criticized for the mechanistic approach to human psychology by analogy with animal psychology, for considering human behavior as completely dependent on external stimuli, and, on the other hand, psychoanalysis, criticized for the idea of a person's mental life as completely determined by unconscious drives and complexes. Representatives of the humanistic direction strive to build a completely new, fundamentally different methodology for understanding a person as a unique object of study.

Main methodological principles and the provisions of the humanistic direction are as follows:

♦ the person is whole and should be studied in his wholeness;

♦ each person is unique, so the analysis of individual cases is no less justified than statistical generalizations;

♦ a person is open to the world, a person's experiences of the world and himself in the world are the main psychological reality;

♦ human life should be considered as a single process of becoming and being of a person;

♦ a person has the potential for continuous development and self-realization, which are part of his nature;

♦ a person has a certain degree of freedom from external determination due to the meanings and values by which he is guided in his choice;

♦ Man is an active, intentional, creative being.

The main representatives of this trend are A. Maslow, V. Frankl, S. Buhler, R. May, F. Barron and others.

A. Maslow known as one of the founders of the humanistic trend in psychology. He is best known for his hierarchical model of motivation. According to this concept, seven classes of needs consistently appear in a person from birth and accompany his growing up:

1) physiological (organic) needs, such as hunger, thirst, sexual desire, etc.;

2) security needs - the need to feel protected, to get rid of fear and failure, from aggressiveness;

3) the need for belonging and love - the need to belong to a community, to be close to people, to be recognized and accepted by them;

4) needs of respect (reverence) - the need to achieve success, approval, recognition, authority;

5) cognitive needs - the need to know, be able, understand, explore;

6) aesthetic needs - the need for harmony, symmetry, order, beauty;

7) the needs of self-actualization - the need to realize one's goals, abilities, development of one's own personality.

According to A. Maslow, this motivational pyramid is based on physiological needs, and higher needs, such as aesthetic and the need for self-actualization, form its top. He also believed that the needs of higher levels can be satisfied only if the needs of lower levels are first met. Therefore, only a small number of people (about 1%) achieve self-actualization. These people have personal characteristics that are qualitatively different from the personality traits of neurotics and people who do not reach such a degree of maturity: independence, creativity, philosophical worldview, democracy in relationships, productivity in all areas of activity, etc. Later, A. Maslow refuses the rigid hierarchy of this model , distinguishing two classes of needs: the needs of the need and the needs of development.

V. Frankl believed that the main driving force behind the development of personality is the desire for meaning, the absence of which creates an "existential vacuum" and can lead to the most sad consequences, up to suicide.

1. general characteristics humanistic direction

2. Abraham Maslow's theory of self-actualization

3. Phenomenological theory of Carl Rogers

4. Personality in Victor Frank's Logotherapy

5. Existences on Psychology Roll in Maya

General characteristics of the humanistic direction

AT humanistic psychology man is regarded as a conscious and rational being, an active creator own personality and lifestyle. A person is defined by the desire for self-improvement. The very essence of a person predetermines his constant movement towards creativity and self-sufficiency, if this process is not hindered by circumstances.

Proponents of humanistic theories of personality are primarily interested in how a person perceives, understands and explains real events in his life. They describe the phenomenology of personality rather than looking for an explanation for it; hence theories of this type are sometimes called phenomenological. Descriptions of a person and events in her life here are mainly focused on the present life experience, and not on the past or future, are presented in terms such as "the meaning of life", "values", " life goals" and others.

The most famous representatives of this approach to personality are A. Maslow, K. Rogers and W. Frankl. Maslow was one of the first to thoroughly criticize psychoanalysis and behaviorism for their pessimistic and humiliating conceptions of personality. He believed that Freud's theory exceeded the negative pathological aspects of human life and significantly underestimated the positive healthy aspects of self-realization of the individual, his creative constructive possibilities, his moral principles. Maslow spoke out quite sharply, in particular, he noted that it is impossible to understand mental illness if there is no understanding of mental health. He stated bluntly that the study of unhealthy, ill-adapted, underdeveloped people could ultimately lead to the creation of only a "distorted psychology." Maslow argued that personality theory should consider not only the depths of personality, but also the heights that it can reach: "Psychoanalysis represents a person as some kind of inferior being, from which sensitive features and shortcomings stick out here and there, without which its description would be incomplete. ... Almost all the activities that a person can be proud of and in which the meaning, richness and value of his life lie - all this Freud either ignores or transfers to the category of pathological ".

K. Rogers, being a humanistic psychologist, nevertheless differed in his views from Maslow in several key positions. He believed that the personality and its behavior is a function of the unique perception of the environment, while Maslow postulated that the personality and its behavior are determined and regulated by a hierarchy of needs and was not considered a phenomenology of personality. Rogers' position was formed on the basis of working with people who had problems and were looking for psychological help. In his work, Rogers focused on finding therapeutic conditions conducive to self-actualization and extrapolated his findings to a general theory of personality. Maslow never did therapy. For fundamental reasons, Maslow focused on studying only healthy people; developmental processes were also ignored by him. Rogers characterized the processes of personality development in revealing its innate potential. Maslow limited himself to recognizing that there are certain "critical stages" of the life cycle, in the context of which the personality is more prone to frustration of needs. In what both titans of humanistic psychology were united, it was in their vision that the personality strives to move forward and under favorable circumstances fully realizes its innate potential, demonstrating real mental health.

Humanistic psychology is a direction of modern psychology that studies a healthy creative personality, revealing its potential in the process of self-actualization (or self-realization).

It arose in the 50s of our century, and took shape as a scientific trend in the early 60s. In 1961, the Association for Humanistic Psychology was formed and the Journal of Humanistic Psychology was founded. In 1964, the first conference of humanistic psychology took place.

The main representatives of humanistic psychology: Charlotte Buhler, K. Goldstein, (1902-1987), Rollo May (born in 1909) and others.

The main philosophical provisions of humanistic psychology are associated with existentialism (or the philosophy of existence), i.e. with the teachings of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), Albert Camus (1913-1960) and others.

From the point of view of M. Heidegger, it is necessary to distinguish between being and being. Being is the subject of science, and being is the subject of philosophy. Being is comprehended not with the help of thinking, i.e. indirectly, but through personal existence, i.e. existence. A person, having realized his existence, becomes free, i.e. responsible for their existence.

According to S. Buhler, from a psychological point of view, humanism involves the study of a person as a whole, and not as a combination of his qualities and actions. From an ethical point of view, humanism is the establishment of such rules of life that are based on the needs of man, and not on the needs of lower animals, God's precepts or laws. inanimate nature. Humanistic psychology opposes itself to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. The object of her study was love, creativity, "I", the development and realization of a person's capabilities, the highest values of being, mental health, experience, etc.

The main provisions of humanistic psychology:
1. Although human existence has a limit, a person always has freedom and independence necessary for the realization of this freedom.
2. The most important source of information is the existential state of a person, his subjectively experienced experience.
3. The nature of man can never be fully determined, because it is always striving for continuous development.
4. Man is one and whole. In his psyche it is impossible to separate organic and mental, conscious and unconscious, feeling and thought.
5. Each person is unique, so the analysis of individual cases is no less justified than statistical generalizations.
6. Self-realization is an integral part of human nature.
7. A person is directed to the future, this is an active creative being.

From these provisions of humanistic psychology follow moral life principles:
man's responsibility for his actions. He is not an instrument of the unconscious, not a slave to formed habits;
relations between people should be based on mutual recognition and respect for each other's experiences;
each person should feel himself in the present, “here and now”.

The humanistic direction in psychology is one of the main currents that study healthy, creative person. It arose in the 50s of the last century, and over the next ten years, this direction has been developed. In 1964, for the first time, a conference was held on the issues of a new psychological trend.

The principle of becoming

One of the most important principles of humanistic psychology is that a person is constantly in the process of becoming. For example, a university graduate student will be different from a giggling fashionable freshman. After a few more years, a young specialist in his field will also be different from a graduate. He can learn new life paths related to his career or, for example, family life.

Those people who consciously renounce their becoming, in fact, renounce personal growth. They deny the fact that they contain the possibilities of a full-fledged being. According to humanistic psychology, it is a big mistake to refuse opportunities to make every moment of your life as rich as possible. For a psychologist of this direction, such a view is nothing more than a perversion of what a person could potentially be. Life is an immutable value, and therefore a person must fill every moment of existence with meaning.

Subjectivity of perception

Another of the fundamental concepts of the humanistic direction of psychology is that the only "reality" that is available to a particular person is subjective. Such a view can also be characterized as a phenomenological one. Theoretical constructs, together with external behavior, occupy a secondary position in relation to the direct experience of the individual, as well as the unique meaning of this experience for her. As Maslow put it, “Nothing replaces experience, absolutely nothing.”

Integrity concept

One of the most important ideas of humanistic psychology is to consider the individual as a unique whole. Already Maslow saw that psychologists for a very long time focused on a detailed analysis of individual events in a person's life, neglecting his integrity. They studied the trees, not the whole forest. In fact, the theory that was first developed by Maslow and developed by his followers was a protest against such views, originating from behaviorism. The principle of the whole, which is always greater than the sum of its parts, is accurately reflected in many theoretical works of researchers in this area.

Creativity in man

Humanistic psychology recognizes the presence of a creative side in every person. Perhaps this position is one of the most significant in all this direction. Creativity is the most universal characteristic that is potentially present in every person from birth. However, people often lose their ability to create as a result of exposure to external environment- in particular, in the process of receiving formal education.

Inner nature of man

Freud hinted quite clearly that man is at the mercy of the unconscious forces that govern him. The founder of psychoanalysis also emphasized that if a person does not control unconscious impulses, this will lead to the destruction of other people or himself. It is difficult to judge how fair this point of view is, but Freud had little faith in the fact that people are driven by a bright beginning.

Personality in humanistic psychology is considered from a point of view that is radically opposite to psychoanalysis. Adherents of this trend argue that if a person is not good internally, then at least his nature is neutral.

Of course, this opinion may well be challenged by the person who, on a dark evening, will be attacked by robbers. But Maslow argued that the destructive forces at work in people are the direct result of frustration, the inability to satisfy one's own needs. By nature, everyone has positive opportunities for achieving self-realization. Maslow maintained this positive view of man throughout his life.

One of the main representatives of humanistic psychology, who is also its founder, is It was he who proposed the concept of a holistic personality. Maslow's theory was opposed to the then dominant teachings of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Maslow assumed that the essence of each person is exclusively positive and strives for continuous development. In this case, the goal of psychology is to help the individual find in himself what is already in him. These features, according to Maslow's humanistic psychology, exist in the form of innate capabilities. They can be updated external factors. Maslow's ideas served as the foundation for further development humanistic direction.

Maslow made a great contribution to the development of psychological science. It was he who switched attention from working on neuroses to studying the characteristics of the psychology of a healthy person.

Carl Ransome Rogers

Rogers is one of the authors of the central concept of humanistic psychology - self-actualization. According to Rogers, the latter refers to the innate tendency to growth and development inherent in man. All that is required for the realization of the potential inherent in a person is the appropriate conditions.

Rogers' concept of "I-concept"

The fundamental element of the structure of personality in Rogers' humanistic psychology is the "I-concept", which is formed during the incessant interaction of a person with the outside world. If there is a discrepancy between the self-image (“I-concept”), real experience and the ideal “I”, the person puts into action a variety of psychological defense mechanisms. They manifest themselves either in the selectivity of perception, or in the distortion of experience. In some cases, this leads to psychological maladjustment.

Another prominent representative of humanistic psychology is Viktor Emil Frankl, a psychologist and psychiatrist from Austria. It was Frankl who created the concept of logotherapy. According to her, driving force personal development is the desire to find life meaning. A person may not ask this question directly, but answer it with his own real deeds, deeds. The role of meaning for each individual person is performed by values. Viktor Frankl in his writings describes three categories of such values:

The value of creativity (work is of primary importance).
Feelings (for example, love).
Life attitude (consciously chosen and developed by the individual position, which he adheres to in critical life circumstances).

In the process of realizing meaning, a person comes to self-realization, self-realization. Conscience is that inner instance that helps the individual to determine which of the potential meanings is true.

In one of his major works, Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl writes about his personal experience of surviving the terrible conditions of a concentration camp. In the same book, he sets out his experience of finding the value of life, its meaning, even in such a terrifying environment. Frankl's method is categorized by researchers as existential therapy. His works became a source of inspiration for many representatives of the humanistic direction. Frankl himself came to the conclusion that the main stressor for a person is the lack of meaning in life. According to the psychologist, existential neurosis is essentially identical to the crisis of meaningless existence.

Techniques in Humanistic Psychology: Client Self-Report

Any methods in this direction do not imply the experience that a person has received during his life. That is why the therapists of this psychological school great attention is paid to self-reports provided by the subjects. This allows you to take into account the individual perception of the client himself. Other methods of research, considered traditional, should only add subjective ones.

Many authors emphasize that for a full and comprehensive study of personality, it is necessary to begin personal research with observation, projective techniques, and after that apply questionnaires, experiment.

Tests and other methods

The method of humanistic psychology, the purpose of which is an integral, holistic diagnosis of personality - the questionnaire “Feelings. Reactions. Beliefs”, developed by D. Cartwright. Another test that analyzes the features of personality self-actualization was developed by E. Shostrom. Shostrom's self-actualization questionnaire is based on the theory of Maslow, Perls and others. Often used is the "Test of empathic tendencies", the authorship of which belongs to E. Mehrabian.

The number of methods used in the humanistic direction is quite large. Back in 1971 in America, S. Peterson developed the so-called "Catalog of Personal Growth Paths", which at that time listed about 40 methods used in humanistic psychology. Let's briefly list some of them:

art therapy (drawing, music, dance);
visualization;
oriental techniques (meditation, yoga);
gestalt therapy;
psychodrama;
transactional analysis;
existential psychotherapy.

Non-directive method of psychological counseling

This method is one of the main ones in humanistic psychology. It was first proposed by K. Rogers, who called it client-centered therapy.

What is the use of this method? As already mentioned, the humanistic direction postulates the original goodness of each person. But positive qualities become visible only under certain conditions, when the individual is in an atmosphere of acceptance, attention. This is exactly what a psychotherapist does in a consultation.

The session thus takes place in the form of a dialogue. The therapist understands his client, does not condemn him, does not subject him to unnecessary criticism. This becomes one of the main conditions that ensure the rehabilitation of a person. The client realizes that he has a chance to freely and openly talk about the accumulated difficulties, to express himself. This allows you to more clearly understand the events of the world around you, increase self-esteem, and find a way out of a personal crisis.

Consider some interesting facts about the humanistic direction.

The ideas proposed by Maslow were criticized by the founder of psychoanalysis Z. Freud.
Frankl invented the concept of "Sunday neurosis", which characterizes the depressed psycho-emotional state that a person may experience at the end of the work week.
Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the humanist movement, planned to become a farmer in his youth.
The school of positive psychology also belongs to the humanistic direction.
As its philosophical base, humanistic psychology relies on existentialism.
This direction in psychology opposes the construction of psychological knowledge on the principle of the natural sciences.

Conclusion

Human nature cannot be defined in an exhaustive way, because one of its main features is not only what a person does, but also how he does it. A person is not only who he is at a certain point in time. It also contains opportunities and chances for transformation, hopes, dreams. People must recognize for themselves and for others to independently create their own lives. Any experience, even negative, is useful, worthy of respect and recognition. After all, it protects us from making mistakes in the future.

neobehaviorism

Back in 1913, W. Hunter, in experiments with delayed reactions, showed that the animal reacts not only directly to the stimulus: behavior involves the processing of a stimulus in the body. This posed a new problem for behaviorists. An attempt to overcome the simplified interpretation of behavior according to the "stimulus-response" scheme by introducing internal processes that unfold in the body under the influence of a stimulus and affect the reaction, amounted to various options neobehaviorism. It also develops new models of conditioning, and the results of research are widely disseminated in various areas of social practice.

Neobehaviorism was founded by Edward Chase Tolman (1886-1959). In the book "Target Behavior of Animals and Man" (1932), he showed that experimental observations on animal behavior do not correspond to Watson's understanding of behavior according to the "stimulus-response" scheme.

He proposed a variant of behaviorism called target behaviorism. According to Tolman, all behavior is aimed at achieving some goal. And despite the fact that attributing the expediency of behavior involves an appeal to consciousness, nevertheless, Tolman believed that in this case, too, references to consciousness could be dispensed with, remaining within the framework of objective behaviorism. Behavior, according to Tolman, is a holistic act, which is characterized by its own properties: focus on the goal, comprehension, plasticity, selectivity, expressed in the willingness to choose means leading to the goal in shorter ways.

Tolman distinguished five main independent causes of behavior: environmental stimuli, psychological urges, heredity, prior learning, age.. Behavior is a function of these variables. Tolman introduced a set of unobservable factors, which he labeled as intermediate variables. It is they who connect the stimulating situation and the observed reaction. Thus, the formula of classical behaviorism had to be transformed from S - R (stimulus - reaction), into the formula S-O-R, where "O" includes everything related to the body. By defining independent and dependent variables, Tolman was able to give operationalized descriptions of the unobservable, internal states. He called his doctrine operant behaviorism.. And another important concept was introduced by Tolman - latent learning, i.e. learning that is not observable at the time it occurs. Since intermediate variables are a way of operationally describing unobservable internal states (for example, hunger), these states could already be studied from scientific positions.

Tolman extended the conclusions drawn from animal observations to humans, thereby sharing Watson's biologizing positions.

A major contribution to the development of neobehaviorism was made by Clark Hull (1884-1952). According to Hull, the motives of behavior are the needs of the organism, resulting from deviations from optimal biological conditions. At the same time, Hull introduces such a variable as motivation, suppression or satisfaction of which is the only basis for reinforcement. In other words, motivation does not determine behavior, but only energizes it. They identified two types of motivation - primary and secondary. Primary urges are associated with the biological needs of the organism and relate to its survival (needs for food, water, air, urination, thermal regulation, sexual intercourse, etc.), while secondary urges are associated with the learning process and correlate with the environment. Eliminating primary urges, they can themselves act as urgent needs.

Using logical and mathematical analysis, Hull tried to identify the relationship between motivation, incentives and behavior. Hull believed that the main reason for any behavior was need. The need causes the activity of the organism, determines its behavior. The reaction force (reaction potential) depends on the strength of the need. The need determines the nature of behavior, different in response to different needs. The most important condition for the formation of a new connection, according to Hull, is the adjacency of the stimulus, reactions and reinforcement, which reduces the need. The strength of the connection (reaction potential) depends on the number of reinforcements.

A variant of operant behaviorism was developed by B.F. Skinner. Like most behaviorists, Skinner believed that recourse to physiology was useless for studying the mechanisms of behavior. Meanwhile, his own concept of "operant conditioning" was formed under the influence of the teachings of IP Pavlov. Recognizing this, Skinner distinguished between two types of conditioned reflexes. He proposed to classify the conditioned reflexes studied by the Pavlovian school as type S. This designation indicated that in the classical Pavlovian scheme, the reaction occurs only in response to the impact of some stimulus (S), i.e. unconditioned or conditioned stimulus. Behavior in the "Skinner box" was classified as type R and called operant. Here the animal first produces a response (R), say a rat presses a lever, and then the response is reinforced. During the experiments, significant differences were established between the dynamics of the type K reaction and the development of the salivary reflex according to the Pavlovian method. Thus, Skinner made an attempt to take into account (from behavioral positions) the activity (arbitrariness) of adaptive reactions. R-S.

Practical application of behaviorism

The practical application of behavioral schemes has demonstrated exceptionally high efficiency - primarily in the field of correcting "undesirable" behavior. Behavioral psychotherapists have chosen to discard the internal anguish and view psychological discomfort as the result of misbehavior. In fact, if a person does not know how to behave adequately to emerging life situations, does not know how to establish and maintain relationships with loved ones, with colleagues, with the opposite sex, cannot defend his interests, solve problems that arise, then this is one step away from all kinds of depressions, complexes and neuroses, which in fact are only consequences, symptoms. It is necessary to treat not a symptom, but a disease, that is, to solve the problem underlying psychological discomfort - a behavioral problem. In other words, a person must be taught to behave correctly. If you think about it - isn't the ideology of the entire training work based on that? Although, of course, a rare modern coach will agree to recognize himself as a behaviorist, on the contrary, he will still say a bunch beautiful words about the existential-humanistic ideals of their activities. But he would try to carry out this activity without relying on behavior!

One of the applied aspects of behavioral psychology we all constantly experience ourselves, being subjected to the relentless and, admittedly, very effective influence of advertising. As you know, the founder of behaviorism, Watson, who lost all academic positions due to a scandalous divorce, found himself in the advertising business and succeeded a lot in it. Today, the heroes of commercials who persuade us to buy this or that product are, in fact, soldiers of Watson's army, stimulating our buying reactions according to his precepts. You can scold stupid annoying advertising as much as you like, but its creators would not invest big money in it if it were useless.

Criticism of behaviorism

So, behaviorism is highly vulnerable to criticism due to the fact that it:

- forced psychology to abandon what is most exciting and attractive in it - inner peace, that is, consciousness, sensory states, emotional experiences;

- interprets behavior as a set of responses to certain stimuli, thereby reducing a person to the level of an automaton, robot, puppet;

- relying on the argument that all behavior is built in the course of lifetime history, neglects innate abilities and inclinations;

- does not pay attention to the study of the motives, intentions and goals of a person;

- unable to explain the bright creative achievements in science and art;

- relies on the experience of studying animals, not humans, so the picture of human behavior it presents is limited to those features that humans share with animals;

- unethical, as it uses cruel methods in experiments, including pain exposure;

- insufficient attention is paid to individual psychological characteristics, trying to reduce them to an individual repertoire of behavior;

- anti-human and anti-democratic, because it aims to manipulate behavior, so that its results are good for a concentration camp, and not for a civilized society.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis emerged in the early 1990s. 19th century from the medical practice of treating patients with functional mental disorders.

Dealing with neurosis, mainly hysteria, Z. Freud studied the experience of the famous French neurologists J. Charcot and I. Bernheim. The latter's use of hypnotic suggestion for therapeutic purposes, the fact of post-hypnotic suggestion made a great impression on Freud and contributed to such an understanding of the etiology of neuroses, their treatment, which formed the core of the future concept. It was set forth in the book An Investigation of Hysteria (1895), written jointly with the famous Viennese physician J. Breuer (1842-1925), with whom Freud was collaborating at that time.

Consciousness and the unconscious.

Freud described consciousness, preconsciousness and the unconscious by analogy with an iceberg.

1. Consciousness. 1/7 part is consciousness in the waking state. It includes everything that remembers, hears, perceives while it is in a state of wakefulness.

2. Preconscious - (border part) - stores memories of dreams, reservations, etc. Thoughts and actions arising from the Preconscious give guesses about the Unconscious. If you remember a dream, it does not mean that you are bringing out unconscious thoughts. This means that you are remembering the coded ideas of the Unconscious. The Preconscious mind protects the Consciousness from the influence of the Unconscious. It works on the principle of a one-way valve: it passes information from the Consciousness to the Unconscious, but not back.

3. Unconscious. 6/7 - contains our fears, secret desires, traumatic memories of the past. These thoughts are completely hidden and inaccessible to the waking Consciousness. This is necessary for protection: we forget past negative experiences in order to free ourselves from them. But it is impossible to DIRECTLY look into the unconscious. Even dreams are coded images, according to Freud.

DRIVERS OF BEHAVIOR

These forces Freud considered instincts, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires. Using the well-known law of nature - the conservation of energy, he formulated that the source of mental energy is the neurophysiological state of excitation. According to Freud's theory, each person has a limited amount of this energy, and the goal of any form of behavior is to relieve tension caused by the accumulation of this energy in one place. Thus, human motivation is entirely based on the energy of excitation produced by bodily needs. And although the number of instincts is unlimited, Freud divided two groups: Life and Death.

The first group, under the general name of Eros, includes all the forces that serve the purpose of maintaining vital processes and ensuring the reproduction of the species. It is well known that Freud considered the sexual instinct to be one of the leading ones; the energy of this instinct is called libido, or libido energy, a term used to designate the energy of the vital instincts in general. The libido can only find release in sexual behavior.

Since there are many sexual instincts, Freud suggested that each of them is associated with a specific area of the body, i.e. erogenous zone, and identified four areas: mouth, anus and genitals.

The second group - the instincts of Death or Tonatos - underlies all manifestations of aggressiveness, cruelty, murder and suicide. True, there is an opinion that Freud created a theory about these instincts under the influence of the death of his daughter and fear for his two sons, who were at the front at that time. This is probably why it is the most and least considered question in modern psychology.

Any instinct has four characteristics: source, target, object and stimulus.

Source - the state of the organism or the need that causes this state.

The goal of instinct is always to eliminate or reduce excitation.

Object - means any person, object in the environment or in the body of the individual himself, providing the goal of the instinct. The paths leading to the goal are not always the same, but neither are the objects. In addition to flexibility in the choice of object, individuals have the ability to delay discharge for long periods of time.

The stimulus is the amount of energy needed to achieve the goal, to satisfy the instinct.

To understand the dynamics of the energy of instincts and its expression in the choice of objects is the concept of displacement activity. According to this concept, the release of energy occurs due to a change in behavioral activity. Manifestations of displaced activity can be observed if the choice of an object according to

for any reason is not possible. This shift is at the heart of creativity, or, more commonly, domestic conflicts over problems at work. Not being able to enjoy directly and immediately, people have learned to shift instinctive energy.

Theory of personality.

Freud introduced three basic structures into the anatomy of the personality: the id (it), the ego and the superego.. This has been called the structural model of personality, although Freud himself tended to regard them as processes rather than structures.

Let's take a closer look at all three structures.

ID. - corresponds to the unconscious. “The division of the psyche into the conscious and the unconscious is the main premise of psychoanalysis, and only it gives him the opportunity to understand and attach to science the often observed and very important pathological processes in mental life” (S. Freud “I and It”).

Freud gave great importance to this division: "here begins psychoanalytic theory."

The word "ID" comes from the Latin "IT", in Freud's theory, it means primitive, instinctive and innate aspects of personality, such as sleep, food and fills our behavior with energy. The id has its central meaning for the individual throughout life, it has no limits, it is chaotic. Being the initial structure of the psyche, the id expresses the primary principle of all human life - the immediate discharge of psychic energy produced by primary biological impulses, the containment of which leads to tension in personal functioning. This release is called the pleasure principle.. Obeying this principle and not knowing fear or anxiety, the id, in its purest manifestation, can be a danger to the individual and

society. IT obeys its desires, in other words. The id strives for pleasure and also avoids unpleasant sensations. It can be designated

It also plays the role of an intermediary between somatic and mental processes. Freud also described two processes by which the id relieves tension in the personality: reflex actions and primary processes. An example of a reflex action is a cough to irritate the airways. But these actions do not always lead to stress relief. Then the primary processes come into action, which form a mental image, directly related to the satisfaction of the main

needs.

Primary processes are an illogical, irrational form of human ideas. It is characterized by an inability to suppress impulses and to distinguish between the real and the unreal. The manifestation of behavior as a primary process can lead to the death of an individual if external sources of satisfaction of needs do not appear. So babies, according to Freud, cannot postpone the satisfaction of their primary needs. And only after they realize the existence of the external world, the ability to delay the satisfaction of these needs appears. Since the advent of this knowledge

the next structure is the ego.

EGO. (Latin "ego" - "I") - preconsciousness. A component of the mental apparatus responsible for decision making. The ego is a separation from the id, draws part of the energy from it, for the transformation and realization of needs in a socially acceptable context, thus ensuring the safety and self-preservation of the organism.

The ego in its manifestations is guided by the reality principle, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism by postponing satisfaction until finding the possibility of its discharge and / or appropriate environmental conditions. Because of this, the ego often opposes the id. The ego was called by Freud a secondary process, the "executive organ" of the personality, the area of intellectual problem-solving processes.

SUPER-EGO. - corresponds to consciousness. Or Super-I.

The superego is the last component of the developing personality, functionally meaning a system of values, norms and ethics reasonably compatible with those accepted in the environment of the individual.

Being the moral and ethical force of the individual, the super-ego is the result of prolonged dependence on parents. “The role that the Superego later assumes is first played by an external force, the parental authority... The Superego, which thus takes over the power, work, and even the methods of the parental authority, is not only its successor, but actually rightful direct heir.

Further, the function of development is taken by the society (school, peers, etc.). One can also consider the super-ego as an individual reflection of the "collective conscience", the "moral watchman" of society, although the values of society can be distorted by the perception of the child.

The super-ego is subdivided into two subsystems: conscience and ego-ideal.

Conscience is acquired through parental discipline. It includes the ability for critical self-assessment, the presence of moral prohibitions and the emergence of feelings of guilt in the child. The rewarding aspect of the superego is the ego-ideal. It is formed from the positive evaluations of parents and leads the individual to set high standards for himself. The superego is considered fully formed when parental control is replaced by self-control. However, the principle of self-control does not serve the principle

reality. The superego directs a person to absolute perfection in thoughts, words and deeds. It tries to convince the ego of the superiority of idealistic ideas over realistic ones.

Due to such differences, the id and the superego conflict with each other, giving rise to neuroses. And the task of the Ego, in this case, is to resolve conflicts.

Freud believed that all three facets of a person's inner world constantly interact with each other: "Id" perceives environment, "Ego" analyzes the situation and chooses the optimal plan of action, "Super-Ego" corrects this decision in terms of the moral convictions of the individual. But these areas do not always operate smoothly. Internal conflicts between “should”, “can” and “want” are inevitable. How does the internal conflict manifest itself? Let's look at the simplest life example: a man finds a wallet with money and a countryman's passport in a foreign country. The first thing that comes to his mind is the realization of the fact of the presence of a large number of banknotes and a personal document of another person (the “Eid” worked here). Next comes the analysis of the information received, because you can keep the money for yourself, throw away the documents and enjoy the unexpectedly received material resources. But! The “Super-Ego” intervenes in the matter, because in the depths of his personality he is a well-mannered and honest person. He understands that someone has suffered from this loss and needs to find his wallet. Here an internal conflict arises: on the one hand, to receive a rather large amount of money, on the other hand, to help a stranger. The example is the simplest, but it successfully demonstrates the interaction of "It", "I" and "Super-I".

Defense mechanisms of the ego.

The main function of anxiety is to help avoid unacceptable manifestations of instinctive impulses in oneself and to encourage their satisfaction in the proper form and at the right time. Defense mechanisms assist in this function. According to Freud, the ego reacts to the threat of a breakthrough of id impulses.

two ways:

1. Blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior

2. Or distorting them to such an extent that the initial intensity has decreased or deviated to the side.

Let's look at some basic defensive strategies.

crowding out. Repression is considered the ego's primary defense because it provides the most direct way to escape from anxiety, as well as being the basis for building more complex mechanisms. Repression or "motivated forgetting" is the process of removing from consciousness thoughts or feelings that cause suffering.. Example. With the same wallet: in order not to solve the problem, a person will lose interest in money: “why do I need them? I'll manage mine."

Projection. Projection is the process by which an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to other people. Projection explains social prejudices and the scapegoat phenomenon, since ethnic and racial stereotypes are a convenient target for its manifestation. Example.

substitution. In this defense mechanism, the manifestation of the instinctive impulse is redirected from a more threatening object to a less threatening one. (boss at work - wife). A less common form of substitution is directing at oneself: hostile impulses directed at others are redirected to oneself, which causes a feeling of depression and condemnation of oneself.

Rationalization. Another way to deal with frustration and anxiety is to distort reality. Rationalization has to do with false reasoning, by which irrational behavior is presented in such a way as to appear perfectly reasonable. The most commonly used type is the rationalization of the "green grapes" type, taking its name from the fable "The Fox and the Grapes"

Jet formation. This mechanism operates in two stages: the unacceptable impulse is suppressed; the opposite is manifested in consciousness. Freud wrote that many men who make fun of homosexuals are actually defending themselves against their own homosexual urges.

Regression. Regression is characterized by a return to childish, childish patterns of behavior. It is a way of alleviating anxiety by returning to an earlier period of life that is safer and more enjoyable.

Sublimation. This defense mechanism enables a person, for the purpose of adaptation, to change his impulses in such a way that they can be expressed through socially acceptable thoughts and actions. Sublimation is seen as the only constructive strategy for curbing unwanted instincts. For example, creativity instead of aggression.

Negation. Denial is activated as a defense mechanism when a person refuses to admit that an unpleasant event has occurred. For example, a child experiencing the death of a beloved cat believes that she is still alive. Denial is most common in young children and older individuals with reduced intelligence.

So, we have considered the mechanisms of protection of the psyche in the face of external and internal threats. From the foregoing, it can be seen that all of them, except for sublimation, distort the picture of our needs in the process of use, as a result, our ego loses energy and flexibility. Freud said that the seeds of serious psychological problems only fall on fertile ground when our defenses lead to a distortion of reality.

Freud's theory of personality provided the basis for the psychoanalytic therapy that is being successfully used today.

Humanistic psychology

In the 60s of the 20th century, a new direction arose in American psychology, called humanistic psychology, or "third force". This direction was not an attempt to revise or adapt any of the already existing schools to new conditions. On the contrary, humanistic psychology intended to go beyond the dilemma of behaviorism-psychoanalysis, to discover A New Look on the nature of the human psyche.

The basic principles of humanistic psychology are as follows:

1) emphasizing the role of conscious experience;

2) belief in the holistic nature of human nature;

3) emphasis on free will, spontaneity and the creative power of the individual;

4) study of all factors and circumstances of human life.

Origins of humanistic psychology

Like any other theoretical direction, humanistic psychology had certain prerequisites in earlier psychological concepts.

Oswald Külpe in his works clearly showed that not all the content of consciousness can be reduced to its elementary forms and explained in terms of "stimulus-response". Other psychologists also insisted on the need to address the realm of consciousness and take into account the holistic nature of the human psyche.

The roots of humanistic psychology can be traced back to psychoanalysis. Adler, Horney, Erickson, and Allport argued against Freud's position that Man is primarily a conscious being and endowed with free will. These "apostates" of orthodox psychoanalysis saw the essence of man in his freedom, spontaneity and ability to be the cause of his own behavior. A person is characterized not only by the events of past years, but also by his goals and hopes for the future. These theorists noted in the personality of a person, first of all, the creative ability of a person to form his own self.

The nature of humanistic psychology

From the point of view of humanistic psychology, behaviorism is a narrow, artificially created and extremely impoverished view of human nature. The emphasis of behaviorism on external behavior, in their opinion, deprives the image of a person of true meaning and depth, putting it on the same level as an animal or a machine. Humanistic psychology rejected the idea of a person as a creature whose behavior is based only on the basis of any reasons and is completely determined by the stimuli of the external environment.. We are not laboratory rats and not robots, a person cannot be completely objectified, calculated and reduced to a set of elementary acts of the "stimulus-response" type.

Behaviorism was not the only opponent of humanistic psychology . She also criticized elements of rigid determinism in Freudian psychoanalysis: an exaggeration of the role of the unconscious and, accordingly, insufficient attention to the conscious sphere, as well as a predominant interest in neurotics and psychotics, and not in people with a normal psyche.

If before psychologists were most interested in the problem of mental disorders, then humanistic psychology is aimed primarily at the task of studying mental health, positive mental qualities. Focusing only on the dark side of the human psyche and leaving aside such feelings as joy, satisfaction, and the like, psychology ignored precisely those aspects of the psyche that in many ways make up the human being. That is why, in response to the apparent limitations of both behaviorism and psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology from the very beginning created itself as a new view of human nature, a third force in psychology. It is precisely designed to study those aspects of the psyche that were not noticed or ignored before. An example of this kind of approach is the work of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

Self-actualization

According to Maslow, every person has an innate desire for self-actualization.. Self-actualization (from Latin actualis - real, real) - a person's desire for the fullest possible identification and development of his personal capabilities. Often used as a motivation for any accomplishments. Moreover, such an active desire to reveal one's abilities and inclinations, the development of personality and the potential hidden in a person is, according to Maslow, the highest human need. True, in order for this need to manifest itself, a person must satisfy the entire hierarchy of underlying needs. Before the need of each higher level begins to "work", the needs of the lower levels must already be satisfied. The whole hierarchy of needs looks like this:

1) physiological needs - the need for food, drink, breath, sleep and sex;

2) the need for security - feelings of stability, order, security, lack of fear and anxiety;

3) the need for love and a sense of community, belonging to a particular group;

4) the need for respect from others and for self-respect;

5) the need for self-actualization.

Most of Maslow's work is devoted to the study of people who have achieved self-actualization in life, those who can be considered psychologically healthy. As he found, such people have the following characteristics: (self-actualized)

objective perception of reality;

full acceptance of one's own nature;

passion and devotion to any business;

simplicity and naturalness of behavior;

the need for independence, independence and the opportunity to retire somewhere, to be alone;

intense mystical and religious experience, the presence of higher experiences**;

benevolent and sympathetic attitude towards people;

non-conformism (resistance to external pressures);

democratic personality type;

creative approach to life;

high level of social interest (this idea was borrowed from Adler).

Maslow included Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley, and Baruch Spinoza among these self-actualized people.

Usually these are middle-aged and older people; as a rule, they are not subject to neuroses. According to Maslow, such people make up no more than one percent of the population.

True, Maslow later abandoned his pyramid, as well as the theory of needs.Due to the fact that not everyone corresponded to the theory, for some individuals, higher needs turned out to be more important than satisfaction of the lower ones “in full”.Maslow moves away from a rigidly set hierarchy of needs and divides all motives into two groups: scarce and existential. The first group is aimed at filling the deficit, such as the need for food or sleep. These are unavoidable needs that ensure human survival. The second group of motives serves development, these are existential motives - activity that does not arise to satisfy needs, but is associated with obtaining pleasure, satisfaction, with the search for a higher goal and its achievement.

Carl Rogers. Rogers' concept, like Maslow's theory, is based on the dominance of one main motivating factor. True, unlike Maslow, who based his conclusions on the study of emotionally balanced, healthy people, Rogers based mainly on experience in a psychological counseling office on a university campus.

Person-centered therapy is an approach to psychotherapy developed by Carl Rogers. It differs primarily in that the responsibility for the changes that take place lies not with the therapist, but with the client himself.

The very name of the method quite clearly reflects his view of the nature and tasks of humanistic psychology. Rogers thus expresses the view that a person, thanks to his mind, is able to independently change the nature of his behavior, replacing undesirable actions and deeds with more desirable ones. In his opinion, we are not at all doomed to be forever dominated by the unconscious or our own childhood experiences. The personality of a person is determined by the present, it is formed under the influence of our conscious assessments of what is happening.

Self-actualization

The main motive of human activity is the desire for self-actualization.. Although this drive is innate, it can be helped (or hindered) by childhood experiences and learning. Rogers emphasized the importance of the mother-child relationship, as it significantly affects the growth of the child's self-awareness. If the mother adequately satisfies the child's needs for love and affection - Rogers called this positive attention - then the child is much more likely to grow up healthy in psychological sense. If the mother makes manifestations of love dependent on the good or bad behavior of the child (conditionally positive attention in Rogers' terminology), then such an approach is likely to be internalized in the child's psyche, and the latter will feel worthy of attention and love only in certain situations. In this case, the child will try to avoid situations and actions that cause disapproval of the mother. As a result, the personality of the child will not receive full development. He will not be able to fully manifest all aspects of his Self, since some of them are rejected by the mother.

Thus, the first and indispensable condition for the healthy development of the personality is unconditional positive attention to the child. The mother should show her love for the child and his full acceptance, regardless of one or another of his behavior, especially in early childhood. Only in this case, the child's personality develops fully, and is not made dependent on certain external conditions. This is the only way that allows a person to eventually achieve self-actualization.

Self-actualization is the highest level of a person's mental health. Rogers' concept is very similar to Maslow's concept of self-actualization. The differences between these two authors relate to a different understanding of the mental health of the individual. For Rogers, mental health, or full disclosure of personality, is characterized by the following traits:

openness to experience of any type;

intention to live full life at any moment of life;

the ability to listen more to one's own instincts and intuition than to the mind and opinions of others;

feeling of freedom in thoughts and actions;

high level of creativity.

Rogers emphasizes that it is impossible to achieve a state of self-actualization. This is a process, it lasts in time. He strongly emphasizes the constant growth of a person, which is already reflected in the very title of his most famous book, “Becoming a Personality.”

cognitive psychology