The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Lisa J. Cohen

one, they would often try to reach the bananas simply by jumping or reaching for them. Upon failing to grasp the bananas, they would often show frustration, screaming, or kicking the walls of the room. Eventually, after surveying the entire room, they would eventually derive a solution involving the use of nearby objects as tools. One chimp might drag a box under the bananas and then climb on top of it to reach them. Some chimps stacked multiple boxes to attain their goal. Another might put two sticks together to create a stick long enough to reach the food.

      Was Wolfgang Köhler a German spy?

      There has been controversy regarding Köhler’s stay in the Canary Islands during World War I. A number of people, specifically British intelligence agents, believed he was a German spy. Evidently they were not convinced that his fascination with chimpanzees and bananas was sufficient explanation of his presence. Some contemporary writers still believe the issue is unsettled although no evidence has been produced that proves he was anything more than a Gestalt psychologist.

      What did Köhler’ studies with chimps show?

      These studies showed two things. For one, the animals arrived at their solutions only after surveying the entire environment. They did not just focus on a single object but took the entire field into account. Secondly, the problem was not solved through trial and error via rewards and punishments as the behaviorists would have predicted. Instead the animal arrived at a complete solution all at once. In other words, the chimps did not solve problems in a piecemeal fashion, but rather in a holistic way. Köhler referred to this holistic form of problem solving as insight learning.

      What is the difference between Gestalt psychology and Gestalt psychotherapy?

      Gestalt therapy, a school of psychotherapy founded by Fritz Perls in the 1940s, is completely distinct from Gestalt psychology, the body of research and theory derived from Max Wertheimer’s experiments with perception. Gestalt therapy is commonly considered part of humanistic psychology and incorporates principles from the philosophical schools of phenomenology and existentialism as well as psychoanalysis and Gestalt psychology.

      PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

      What is psychoanalytic theory?

      While behaviorism dominated American academic psychology throughout the first half of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis dominated clinical psychology—the study of abnormal psychology—during the same period both in Europe and the United States. Psychoanalysis was so prominent because it provided a comprehensive theory of psychopathology and a psychological method of treating mental distress. It is fair to say that most, if not all, subsequent theories of psychopathology and psychotherapy owe an enormous debt to psychoanalysis.

      Although many schools of psychotherapy were formed in reaction to psychoanalysis, they were still defined in response to it and therefore must be seen as its descendants. Psychoanalytic theory actually includes a broad range of theoretical writing, starting with Sigmund Freud’s original contributions in the late nineteenth century. Since Freud, psychoanalysis has broken into numerous schools including ego psychology, interpersonal psychoanalysis, and the object relations school, all of which developed in the mid-twentieth century. More recent schools include self-psychology and relational theory.

      What is Freud’s topological model?

      In Freud’s topological model, the mind is divided into three sections, the unconscious, the pre-conscious, and the conscious. In the unconscious, the individual is not aware of the contents of the mind. Here, forbidden and dangerous wishes reside, safely out of awareness. In the pre-conscious, mental content is capable of entering into consciousness but is not currently there. There is no block between conscious and pre-conscious as there is between the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious part of the mind contains all the mental content that is in our awareness. It is very small compared to the unconscious.

      Did Freud change his theory over time?

      Freud changed his theories several times over the course of his long career. He initially proposed seduction theory to explain hysteria, a common disorder of the late nineteenth century involving physical complaints without an actual physical basis. Seduction theory posited that hysteria resulted from early sexual experience, what we would now call childhood sexual abuse. This explanation was abandoned in the late 1890s, however, and Freud focused instead on unconscious sexual fantasy. In other words, the symptoms were caused by the patient’s disguised wishes rather than memories of real events. Freud also moved from a topological theory, focusing on the relationship between conscious and unconscious processes to a structural model, focused on the id, ego, and superego. Finally, in the 1920s Freud added the instinctual force of Thanatos, the death instinct, to his theory of instincts.

      What is the structural model?

      The structural model overshadowed the topological model’s focus on the conscious/unconscious division of the mind. While Freud still believed in unconscious processes, he became more and more interested in the compartmentalization of the mind into the id, ego, and superego. The id, translated literally as “it,” contains the animalistic passions that must be subdued in order for civilization to function. The id works on the pleasure principle, where wish equals reality and desire is not subject to restraint. The ego, Latin for the “I,” mediates between the id and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle and recognizes that the world does not always obey our desires. The superego is the source of our morality. It is formed through internalization of our parents’ rules and discipline. A strict superego results in inhibited, moralistic behavior. A weak superego results in self-indulgent, poorly disciplined, or immoral behavior.

      What is Freud’s theory of libido?

      Throughout his career Freud maintained a theory of libido as the primary motivating force behind all human behavior. In fact, he parted ways with some of his favorite protégées after they proposed competing theories about human motivation. Libido can be loosely translated as the sexual instinct, but really refers to all aspects of sensual pleasure. In Freud’s view, instincts press for release as part of the pleasure principle. Pleasure is only attained when tension is reduced through release of instinctual energy. If the instinct is blocked from release, it will seek another outlet, much like a river running downstream. This mechanistic view of human motivation was called the hydraulic model and reflects the scientific models of the day.

      What did Freud say about Thanatos, the death instinct?

      Following the carnage of World War I, Freud added Thanatos to his theory of instincts. Thanatos, the death instinct, explains human destructiveness. Because pleasure can only be found through the reduction of tension, there must be a drive to reach a state of total quiescence, a state of no tension at all. This is the equivalent of death, hence the death instinct. We now realize that pleasure comes from the build-up of tension as well the release of tension.

      Why was Freud so focused on sex?

      While the focus on sex may seem odd to modern eyes, it is important to consider Freud in the context of his own time. He was an extremely ambitious man who aimed to build an all-encompassing scientific theory to explain human behavior. In keeping with nineteenth-century mechanics, he looked for one single force that could explain all of human behavior. He was also a product of the Victorian period—a prudish, sexually inhibited time when sexual repression in the European upper middle-class was probably rampant. It is possible that many of the psychological symptoms his female clients exhibited truly were related to repressed sexuality. Over time, however, many of Freud’s theories, including the theory of libido and of psychosexual stages, were translated into emotional and interpersonal terms.

      What about Freud’s own Oedipal complex?

      We can question whether the particular configuration of Freud’s