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A Primer of Freudian Psychology

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As would be expected, the Ego, Superego, and Id are prominent players in Professor Hall's summation of Freudian theory. A less well known facet of Freudian principles, the role of psychic energy in the development of personality, is prominently featured; Hall labels this Freud's most brilliant discovery. Thought it is a slim volume, the information is dense. The entire body of Freud's work that Hall is summarizing was originally published in several thousand pages. To attempt to highlight the more important passages would result in the entire text colored in yellow highlighter. In short, the book itself is a well-organized, clearly presented set of notes on Freudian theory.

TITLE

A PRIMER OF FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGY

AUTHOR:

By Calvin S. Hall

Publisher:

Published in the United States by the New American Library, Inc.,

1301 Avenue of the Americas,

New York, New York 10019

COPYRIGHT:

1954, By the World Publishing Company
This is an important book for everyone who wants to understand human behavior in himself, and in others.

Calvin S. Hall outlines Freud's diagnosis of the balances existing between the mind and emotions, and points out his important discoveries about the parts played by instincts, the conscious and unconscious, and anxiety in the functioning of the human psyche.
The Author explains the ideas of Sigmund Freud's psychology on defense mechanisms, the channeling of instinctual drives, and the role of sex in the boy/girl maturing into man and women.

Sigmund Freud's ideas are scattered throughout his writings from the early 1890's to the late 1930's. The stabilized personality is one in which the psychic energy has found more or less permanent and constant ways of expending itself in performing psychological work. The precise nature of this work is determined by the interactions, between them, and by the developmental history of the id, ego and the superego.

The breakdown of the personality follows:

The ID:
Sometimes called the "pleasure principle" is to rid the person of tension, or, reduce the amount of tension to a low level and to keep it as constant as possible. Tension is experienced as pain or discomfort, while relief from tension is experienced as pleasure or satisfaction, avoiding pain, and finding pleasure.

The EGO:
Instead of the "pleasure principle", the ego is governed by the "reality principle". Reality means that which exists. The aim of the "reality principle", is to postpone the discharge of energy until the actural object that will satisfy the need has been discovered or produced. The ego may be thought of as a complex organization of Psychological processes that acts as an intermediary between the id, and the external World. This is called the "secondary process", because it is developed after, and overlays the primary process of the id.

The SUPEREGO:
The superego is made up of two subsystems, the ego-ideal, and the conscience. The ego-ideal corresponds to the child's conception of what his parents consider to be morally good. The conscience corresponds to the child's conceptions of what the parents feel is morally bad, and these are established through experiences with punishment. So, ego-ideal and conscience are opposite sides of the same coin. The ego is formed out of the id, and the superego is formed out of the ego. They continue to interact and blend with each other throughout life.

The Dynamics of Personality:
The following list is used in the book to show how the three systems operate and how they interact with one another, and with the environment.

Psychic Energy: is the form of energy which operates the three systems of personality.

Instinct: is an inborn condition which imparts direction to psychological processes. An instinct has a source, an aim, an object, and an impetus. (strength or force)

The Distribution and Disposal Of Psychic Energy: The aim of both of these processes is to expend the instinctual energy in ways that will elimate the need, and bring repose to the individual.

Cathexis and Anti-cathexis: The urging forces are cathexes, and the checking forces are anti-cathexis. The id has only cathexis while the ego and superego also posses anti-cathexis.
If the anti-cathexis outweigh the cathexis, the action, or the thought will be repressed.

Consciousness and unconsciousness: Conscious and unconscious are retained in psychologanalytic theory after 1920 as qualities of mental phemomena.

The Instincts: Life, death, sex, Instincts

Anxiety: Anxiety is a painful emotional experience which is produced by excitations in the internal organs of the body. Anxiety is one of the most important concepts in psychoanalytic theory. It plays an important role in the development of personality functioning.
Three types of anxiety are reality anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and moral anxiety.
The first time I came accross this book was when I took Applied Psychology with Dr. Harrison, which was along time ago. I really do like this book, and it has alot of understanding of the personality.

Well, I say understanding, but it gives the reader appreication of the breakdown of the id, ego and the superego. As it states in the beginning, it is very useful in understanding yourself, and others you may work with. It will help me in the Substance Abuse Field, when I am not only working with clients, but also in group therapy.

This book covers all of Freud's work in a brief, yet complete manner. It is a short book, but very full of information. The author's approach truly fulfills his mission. He starts the book talking about Freud and his times, and how his background and natural curiosity led him eventually to found psychoanalysis. In discussing the theories of Freud, Hall begins with basics and sequentially builds to a thorough review of the theories. Some writers are bewildering because they begin discussing more advanced theories before laying the groundwork. Not so here; the author provides all you need to know in a clear, stimulating manner before proceeding to the next level of complexity. Whether you are interested in psychology, psychoanalysis in the arts, psychoanalysis as an historical phenomenon or otherwise, this book is a great resource.

This primer has proved to be such an excellent reference, I have lent a copy to people from to time. I haven't always received my book back, ergo I have had to buy more copies.

I believe I have reviewed this primer before; it holds.

A concise,very easy to read book,on the basics on how ones mind works.My only regret is that they do not have this book available in hardback.A complete understanding of this book will lead a person towards understanding themselves,others, and the world at large.

This book is very informative, but the author's style of writing is very, very dry! It was very difficult for everybody, teacher included, in my Lit&Psych class to read through more than one chapter at a time. I would not recommend this book for leisure reading. Despite its downfalls, this book is a great way to get a broad overview of Freud's theories condensed into one small, inexpensive, light-weight package.

Hall does a very good job of describing all of Freuds psychological/ philosophical concepts. He covers everything: id, ego, superego, dreams, psychoanalysis, and of course the infamous developmental stages focused mainly on sexual drive and the pleasure principle. Good book, very understandable.

I ordered this book for my daughter Kristin she has a Psychology class at one of our local junior colleges and the instructor wanted the students to have this book for later in the semester. The book came quicker than expected and in good condition for the price. I was nervous about ordering online again since I previously ordered some books online and 1 of my orders has never arrived and I haven't received a refund. I remember the name of the person I ordered from and will never order from them again.

Basically this book is an outline of Freud's major aspects that make up the dynamics of personality. What it has to say is that there is a constant flow of energy that runs through the body that makes up the personallity. When people are bombarded by their sense experience energy is sent through out the body this energy is picked up by the three things that Freud claimed make up the personnality; these three elements of personnality are the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

Each of these elements serves a different purpose in the development of personnality, and the three of them together make up the personality. From Freud's theory of personality and how energy flows throughout it one can derive all of his theories on personality disorders, dreams, and defense mechanism to name a few of the things he formulated theories on.

I found this book very hard to read. The purpose of this book is to make an outline of freuds theories. It felt as I was reading this that one would have to have some psychology background to fully understand this book.

A concise and informative book on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis theories such as personality,the instincts,anxiety,repression,defense mechanisms,etc. Calvin S. Hall sumed up some of Freud's most important and groundbreaking theories and teaching in this book. Also with brief bio of Freud and all major events. A great introduction to the complex yet enchanting mind of the great doctor. Explore the mysteries of the Mind.