HD 3700 1st Edition Lecture 7 Outline of Last Lecture I Reflecting on your dreams II Dream structure and neurotic structure III Two of Freud s case studies IV The modern version of Freud s theory signal anxiety and compromise formation Outline of Current Lecture V Hamlet and his step father VI Signal anxiety and compromise formation VII Compromise formation in the formulation of Fat Lady Current Lecture I Hamlet and his step father Hamlet Claudius Hamlet s mother o Hamlet is wearing black grieving his father has been 3 months since his death o Claudius is very smart also a sociopath o Claudius speaks to the audience we re grieving the late king but we re celebrating the new queen and the wedding o Claudius gives his son leave to return to Paris o Elizabethan England This is pre puritan England did not think sex was dirty will was slang for sexual organs spend meant to have an orgasm tells his son to go back to Paris and enjoy himself o Hamlet says I might look like I m grieving I m wearing black and tearful I could be faking it like Claudius but my inner experience is in grief o Claudius shames and humiliates Hamlet while pretending to be comforting him unmanly grief a heart un fortified a mind impatient Calls Hamlet stupid wimpy unreligious immature and dumb obstinate grief all sons lose their fathers it is impious you must accept what God does Everyone leaves except Hamlet and he speaks to the crowd o Point of view is important this is the first speech from Hamlet to the audience o This speech describes what it is like to have severe depression o Rage at his mother with such haste she took those incestuous sheets she is with her ex s brother considered incestuous o He can t commit suicide it is a sin o Everything is weary there is a staleness to life o He hates himself thinks he is a loser o Cannot stop thinking about how much his mother loved his father Horatio Hamlet and Marcelis o Horatio says he is playing hooky from school o Hamlet We ll teach you to drink ere you depart we re going to get wasted before you leave o Talking about Hamlet s father o Horatio says he thinks he saw the king Hamlet yesterday o Recounts to Hamlet about seeing the ghost o Hamlet says he thinks his father s death was foul play A play about how hard it is to diagnose anybody II Signal anxiety and compromise formation There are things that we keep from our own consciousness these things are taboo or things we do not want to accept Freud thinks that we use defenses we develop them very young to manage anxiety and trauma because some things are too painful to think about We learn to keep from consciousness thoughts feelings wishes fears from our parents that we think will cause our parents to be angry from us withhold their love for us o We develop defenses against expressing these thoughts etc People who are constantly depressed think everything is bad but don t take your suggestions are actually angry Same with people who are angry all the time their anger is hiding their sadness Signal anxiety and the mobilization of defenses o Aggressive Wish Push My Sister Hannah Down the Stairs o Signal Anxiety Fear of Losing Our Parents Love for us o Ego Moves to Suppress the Wish By Mobilizing o A Defense Reaction Formation Don t Fall Hannah Reversed the aggressive drive and replaced it defensively with a wish to save Hannah was in no danger of falling she was in danger of being pushed o Sarah has aggressive wish to push Hannah but gets anxious because she knows her parents will get angry the mind experiences anxiety and mobilizes a defense to forget the very thing she wants to do her mind will take that very wish and switch it o So instead of thinking I m going to kill her her mind mobilizes a defense reaction formation to suppress the wish and saves her III Concepts from Fat Lady Transference o Transference the feelings that the therapist brings up in the patient may start to wonder how the therapist feels about them the feelings the patient attaches to the therapist but these feelings originated in other relationships o Counter transference the feelings that the patient stirs up in the therapist feelings that are idiosyncratic to the therapist o Psychotherapy is one human working with another you don t take what they say personally o In Fat Lady the therapist was always repelled by fat women stirred up intense feelings of countertransference in him o These feelings stem from the obesity endemic of his family he is associating Speaks of his idealization of the woman s body society s hatred for obese people o He decided to see her because he thought it would help him with his counter transference towards obese women o He began to realize how boring she was he asks her to rate how open she is on a scale of 1 10 is astonished when she rates herself a ten Therapist is using his counter transference to help Betty o Tells her that it doesn t feel like she s taking a risk with him she aren t being open with him o She finally opens up and talks about how hard it is to be the jolly fat lady She said she had a lot of friends but no one knew her she was always the listener joker o Betty was acting in bad faith she was all false gaiety even with her therapist tells him about a life full of despair but talks about it in a jolly way o Therapist asks Why is it necessary for you to entertain me Betty agreed that he could interrupt her whenever she was entertaining him Through his counter transference he is finally able to get her to open up o More on this next week